This week we had our Visiting Teaching Conference. There is so many varying situations when it comes to Visiting Teaching that it is hard to pin point what area to talk about or show emphasis in.
The most important message I think that was shared was that there is no wrong way to do your Visiting Teaching as long as you do it for the RIGHT reasons and with all the love that was intended. The great news about Visiting Teaching is WE ARE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM!! We are all working toward the same goal, to return back t our Father in Heaven, NONE OF US can do it alone. That is why he has given us each other. Visiting Teaching gives us an added opportunity to link arms with our Sister and strengthen our team.
When I get a new route of Sisters, before I get the chance to get to know them well, in my head I think of the opportunity of serving my family. I think,
“I want to be the best Visiting Teacher for them, knowing that other Visiting Teachers are doing the same for my family members that are far away from me.”
We are a ward family. Being so we have these Sister’s trusted to us, they are our stewardship. We have the unique opportunity to work as the Lords hands and bless their lives and in return their spirits bless ours. It is such an awesome thing that takes place.
When I think of this principle, I think of the sweet lesson taught in the Disney Movie Lilo and Stitch,
“Ohana Means Family and family means,
no one is left behind or forgotten.”
If we had the spirit of Ohana in our ward Visiting Teaching efforts, we would see miracles take place. If every Sister whether they were active or not were treated with the spirit of Ohana we’d have no one left behind or forgotten. This kind of miracle takes Action. It takes work. It takes all of us on the same team, united in heart and spirit.
The following story reminds us that it is the PEOPLE that count not the number that you report. It was retold by President Monson in November 1997 Conference:
Long years ago, Joseph Lyon of Salt Lake City shared with me the lesson of a lecture which a minister from another faith observed as he spoke to the Associated Credit Men of Salt Lake. The minister boldly proclaimed, “Mormonism is the greatest philosophy in the world today. The biggest test for the Church will come with the advent of television and radio, which tend to keep people away from the Church.” He then proceeded to relate what I’ve called the “hot coals” story. He described a warm fireplace where the pieces of wood had burned brightly, with the embers still glowing and giving off heat. He then observed that by taking in hand brass tongs, he could remove one of the hot embers. That ember would then slowly pale in light and turn black. No longer would it glow. No longer would it warm. He then pointed out that by returning the black, cold ember to the bed of living coals, the dark ember would begin to glow and brighten and warm. He concluded, “People are somewhat like the coals of a fire. Should they absent themselves from the warmth and spirit of the active church membership, they will not contribute to the whole, but in their isolation will be changed. As with the embers removed from the heat of the fire, as they distance themselves from the intensity of the spirit generated by the active membership, they will lose that warmth and spirit.”
The reverend closed his comments by observing, “People are more important than the embers of a fire.”
As years come and then go and life’s challenges become more difficult, the visits of home and visiting teachers to those who have absented themselves from Church activity can be the key which will eventually open the doors to their return.
Upon return from my mission I was in my home ward for a few years. I was placed in a companionship with my Mom for Visiting Teaching. We were asked to leave a note each month with people that didn’t want to have any contact with church members. We had this same route for over a year. Each month we would make a treat and write a personalized note or give a handout from Relief Society and walk it to the doors of these Sister’s, whose faces we didn’t know, and drop it on their door step.
Every so often we would try to call them and leave a message on their phone. We’d explain who we were and ask if they would let us come to get to know them. When we had no reply, again the notes and treats started coming.
It was interesting to me how much I began to care about these Sisters whom I had only met their door. Then it happened.
One call it happened. Jody ANSWERED her phone! She was so thankful to us for not giving up on her. She talked to us about the notes and treats that had been left many times and welcomed us into her home.
Our visits with her were not the typical Visiting Teaching visits, they were friendship visits. We talked about her love for her job, her remodeling projects, her hard days parenting. She came over and said hello to our family at the City Parade. She offered to help my Mom refinish her hardwood floors.
We became friends and for the season that was all that mattered!
No Jody didn’t come back into to activity, but she had new friends and knew that she was loved by members of the Relief Society.
“Visiting Teaching is a very serious responsibility; it really is. But it is not a heavy burden, it just takes a little more faith. It is worthy of our very best effort.” President Gordon B Hinckley
Sisters, I know that the Lord desires to bless us in all things. One way he blesses us is by serving his daughters through Visiting Teaching. Every Sister in the Meadows ward area deserves to be watched over. To know that she has an “Ohana” and will not be left behind regardless of what her standing with the church may be she HIS is Daughter.
May each of us take this responsibility a little more serious and show a little more faith and watch miracles happen in our lives and the Sister’s around us.
HAPPY VISITING TEACHING!
