Visiting Teaching Message- Set. 2006

[StrawberryFields]

Visiting Teaching Message


Serving and Supporting Each Sister
Ensign, September 2006




Prayerfully select and read from this message the scriptures and teachings that meet the needs of the sisters you visit. Share your experiences and testimony. Invite those you teach to do the same


Blessings of Belonging to Relief Society: Relief Society helps sisters feel needed, included, valued, and loved regardless of their personal circumstances. Sisters in Relief Society support each other as they share their faith, friendship, and love.


How Can Relief Society Help Us Feel Valued and Loved?

Mosiah 18:21: "He commanded them that . . . they should look forward with one eye, . . . having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another."

Bonnie D. Parkin, Relief Society general president: "Every time we watch over one another, godlike qualities of love, patience, kindness, generosity, and spiritual commitment fill the souls of those we visit and enlarge our souls as well. In the process, we honor our covenants. I see legions of faithful sisters around the world going forward on the Lord's errands, performing simple yet significant service" ("Visiting Teaching: The Heart and Soul of Relief Society" [address given at the fall 2003 open house]).

Kathleen H. Hughes, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency: "We sometimes hear women say that they don't feel the love of the Lord. But perhaps they would feel more of His love if they looked for His hand in the actions of those who care for them. It may be a member of their branch or ward, a neighbor, or even a stranger who blesses them and manifests Christ's love" ("What Greater Goodness Can We Know: Christlike Friends," Liahona and Ensign, May 2005, 75).


How Do We Serve and Support One Another through Relief Society?

1 Thessalonians 5:11: "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another."

President Gordon B. Hinckley: "Who can measure the joy that has come into the lives of . . . women as they have mingled together? . . .

"Who . . . can fathom the uncountable acts of charity that have been performed, the food that has been put on barren tables, the faith that has been nurtured in desperate hours of illness, the wounds that have been bound up, the pains that have been ameliorated by loving hands and quiet and reassuring words, the comfort that has been extended in times of death and consequent loneliness?

"Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the Prophet, in speaking to the sisters in Nauvoo, said, 'We must cherish one another, watch over one another, comfort one another and gain instruction that we may all sit down in heaven together.' . . . Women of the Church have not had to wait to sit together in heaven to taste the sweet fruit of the kind of activities she described. They have experienced much of heaven on earth as in life they have cherished one another, comforted one another, and instructed one another" ("Ambitious to Do Good," Ensign, Mar. 1992, 4–5).

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "The Church is not a place where perfect people gather to say perfect things, or have perfect thoughts, or have perfect feelings. The Church is a place where imperfect people gather to provide encouragement, support, and service to each other. . . . We are here with the same purpose: to learn to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves" ("The Virtue of Kindness," Liahona and Ensign, May 2005, 28).








http://www.lds.org/library/display/0,4945,...-3496-1,00.html