VISITING TEACHING
MESSAGE for September
Special Needs and Service Rendered
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.
“The needs of others are ever present,” said President
Thomas S. Monson, “and each of us can do something to help someone. …
Unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our
own lives.”1
As visiting teachers we can sincerely come to know and love each
sister we visit. Service to those we visit will flow naturally out of our love
for them (see John 13:34–35).
How can we know the spiritual and temporal needs of our sisters so
we can render service when it is needed? As visiting teachers, we are entitled
to receive inspiration when we pray about those we visit.
Maintaining regular contact with our sisters is also important.
Personal visits, telephone calls, a note of encouragement, e-mails, sitting
with her, a sincere compliment, reaching out to her at church, helping her in
time of illness or need, and other acts of service all help us watch over and
strengthen each other.2
Visiting teachers are asked to report the well-being of sisters,
any special needs they have, and the service rendered to them. These kinds of
reports and our service to our sisters help us demonstrate our discipleship.3
From the Scriptures
From Our History
Serving one another has always been at the heart of visiting
teaching. Through ongoing service we bring kindness and friendship that go
beyond monthly visits. It is our caring that counts.
“My desire is to plead with our sisters to stop worrying about a
phone call or a quarterly or monthly visit,” said Mary Ellen Smoot, the 13th
Relief Society general president. She asked us to “concentrate instead on
nurturing tender souls.”4
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) taught, “It is vital
that we serve each other in the kingdom.” Yet he recognized that not all
service need be heroic. “So often, our acts of service consist of simple
encouragement or of giving … help with mundane tasks,” he said, “but what glorious
consequences can flow … from small but deliberate deeds!”5
For more information, go to reliefsociety.lds.org.
What Can I Do?
1. Am I seeking personal inspiration to know how to
respond to the spiritual and temporal needs of each sister I’m assigned to
watch over?
2. How do the sisters I watch over know that I care
about them and their families?
Notes
1. Thomas S. Monson, “What Have I
Done for Someone Today?” Ensign, Nov. 2009, 85.
2. See Handbook 2:
Administering the Church (2010), 9.5.1.
3. See Handbook 2, 9.5.4.
4. Mary Ellen Smoot, in Daughters
in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 117.
5. Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Spencer W.
Kimball (2006), 82.
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