VISITING TEACHING MESSAGE for august 2012
Taking Action in Time of Need
Prayerfully study this
material and, as appropriate, discuss it with the sisters you visit. Use the
questions to help you strengthen your sisters and to make Relief Society an
active part of your own life.
As visiting teachers, one of our purposes is to help strengthen
families and homes. The sisters we visit should be able to say, “If I have
problems, I know my visiting teachers will help without waiting to be asked.”
In order to serve, we have a responsibility to be conscious of the needs of the
sisters we visit. When we seek inspiration, we will know how to respond to the
spiritual and temporal needs of each sister we are assigned to visit. Then,
using our time, skills, talents, prayers of faith, and spiritual and emotional
support, we can help give compassionate service during times of illness, death,
and other special circumstances.1
Through the help of reports from visiting teachers, the Relief
Society presidency identifies those who have special needs because of physical
or emotional illness, emergencies, births, deaths, disability, loneliness, or
other challenges. The Relief Society president then reports her findings to the
bishop. Under his direction, she coordinates assistance.2
As visiting teachers we can have “great reason … to rejoice”
because of “the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been
made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work” (Alma 26:1, 3).
From
the Scriptures
From
Our History
In the early years of the Church, membership was small and
centralized. Members could respond quickly when someone was in need. Today our
membership is over 14 million and is spread throughout the world. Visiting
teaching is part of the Lord’s plan to provide help for all His children.
“The only system which could provide succor and comfort across a
church so large in a world so varied would be through individual servants near
the people in need,” said President Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in
the First Presidency.
“… Every bishop and every branch president has a Relief
Society president to depend upon,” he continued. “She has visiting teachers,
who know the trials and the needs of every sister. She can, through them, know
the hearts of individuals and families. She can meet needs and help the bishop
in his call to nurture individuals and families.”3
For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.
What Can I Do?
1. Am I using my gifts and talents to bless others?
2. Do the sisters I watch over know that I am
willing to help them when they have a need?
Notes
2. See Handbook 2, 9.6.2.
3. Henry B. Eyring, in Daughters in My Kingdom:
The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 110.
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