Leave Behind Love

Visiting Teachers Are God’s Emissaries

By Alice C. Smith

Ensign March 2018

A few weeks ago, I met a wonderful friend of mine. She has been active in Relief Society for many years. … I asked her what she was doing in the Church now. There was a noticeable pause. Then, she answered, “Oh, I’m just a visiting teacher.” Just a visiting teacher! After we parted, I thought, how would she feel if the Savior … said to her, “I want you to be my emissary. I want you to tell the women [you visit teach] that I love them, that I am concerned about what happens to them and their families. I want you to be my helper, to watch over these sisters, to care for them so that all will be well in my kingdom.” If we met after such a meeting, wouldn’t her reply be different? Hasn’t He already called her through His priesthood as surely as if He stood in her presence?

How many of our visiting teachers think of themselves as “just visiting teachers”?

To the visiting teacher is given the great responsibility of searching out those in need. More, she tells all sisters by her visit that someone cares and that God cares.

… She should not be someone who rushes in the last day of the month and says, “I’ve just a few minutes—I know you’ve read the message and know it better than I do, and you don’t need it anyway. How are you, and I’ll see you at Relief Society next week.” The visiting teacher should leave behind her a love that blesses both the visited sister and her home. …

The Blessings of Visiting Teaching

The Blessings of Visiting Teaching

Photograph of Sister Thompson © Busath.com

“Many women have reported that the reason they came back into Church activity was because a faithful visiting teacher came month after month and ministered to them, rescuing them, loving them, blessing them. …

“At times the most important blessing about your visit will be to just listen. Listening brings comfort, understanding, and healing. Still another time you may need to roll up your sleeves and go to work in the home or help to calm a crying child.”

Barbara Thompson, second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency, “And of Some Have Compassion, Making a Difference,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2010, 120.

Small Acts of Service

 “Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call,” taught President Thomas S. Monson. “If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good. … Countless are the acts of service provided by the vast army of Relief Society visiting teachers.”

Thomas S. Monson, “Three Goals to Guide You,” Liahona andEnsign, Nov. 2007, 120–21.

People Rather than Percentages

“Visiting teaching becomes the Lord’s work when our focus is on people rather than percentages,” explains Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president. “In reality, visiting teaching is never finished. It is more a way of life than a task. Faithfully serving as a visiting teacher is evidence of our discipleship.”

Julie B. Beck, “Relief Society: A Sacred Work,” Liahona andEnsign, Nov. 2009, 114.

Visiting Teaching as a Disciple

Our Relief Society history, Daughters in My Kingdom, and Handbook 2: Administering the Church teach us how we can follow a higher path and demonstrate our discipleship:

• Pray daily for those you visit teach and their families.
• Seek inspiration to know the needs of your sisters.
• Visit your sisters regularly to comfort and strengthen them.
• Contact your sisters frequently through visits, phone calls, letters, e-mail, text messages, and simple acts of kindness.
• Greet your sisters at church.
• Help your sisters when they have an illness or other urgent need.
• Teach your sisters the gospel from the scriptures and the Visiting Teaching Message.
• Inspire your sisters by setting a good example.
• Report your sisters’ spiritual and temporal well-being to a Relief Society leader.
• See Daughters in My Kingdom, 123.

Becoming What He Would Have Us Become

“Through Relief Society [and visiting teaching], we practice being disciples of Christ,” said Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president. “We learn what He would have us learn, we do what He would have us do, and we become what He would have us become” 

(“What Latter-day Saint Women Do Best: Stand Strong and Immovable,” Ensign, Nov. 2007, 109; quoted in “Visiting Teaching—Understanding the Power of Ministering,” Ensign, Mar. 2012, 29).

Questions for Visiting Teaching

"Questions can lead to opportunities to give comfort, share relevant gospel principles, and provide meaningful service. You might ask: "What worries or concerns you?" Or you could be specific: "Could we help you with a household task?" "Would you like a ride to the store or a doctor's appointment?" Questions will often bring better results than simply saying, "Call us if you need anything." "

"Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching: A Work of Ministering," Ensign, Mar 2011, 20.

During Home Teaching

It might be appropriate to ask at the end of your visit, "Can we pray with you?" The head of the household should choose someone to say the prayer."

"Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching: A Work of Ministering," Ensign, Mar 2011, 18.

Increasing Desire to Serve

“One of the assurances that you are being purified is an increasing desire to serve others for the Savior. Home teaching and visiting teaching become more of a joy and less of a chore. You find yourself volunteering more often in a local school or helping care for the poor in your community. Even though you may have little money to give to those who have less, you wish you had more so that you could give more (see Mosiah 4:24). You find yourself eager to serve your children and to show them how to serve others.”

President Henry B. Eyring, “Service and Eternal Life, Ensign Mar 2014, 4. 

Home and Visiting Teaching

“We need to be given a chance to serve. For those members who have slipped from activity or who hold back and remain noncommittal, we can prayerfully seek for some way to reach them. Asking them to serve in some capacity may just be the incentive they need to return to full activity. But those leaders who could help in this regard are sometimes reluctant to do so. We need to bear in mind that people can change. They can put behind them bad habits. They can repent from transgressions. They can bear the priesthood worthily. And they can serve the Lord diligently.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “See Others as They May Become,” Ensign, Nov. 2012, 68.

Visiting Teaching...

“One of the bishop’s duties was to send to every serviceman a subscription to the Church News and to the Improvement Era and to write a personal letter to him each month. Since President Monson had served in the navy in World War II, he appreciated the importance of a letter from home. He had 23 ward members serving in the military, so he called a sister in the ward to handle the details of mailing these letters. One evening he handed her the monthly stack of 23 letters.

“Bishop, don’t you ever get discouraged?” she asked. “Here is another letter to Brother Bryson. This is the 17th letter you have sent to him without a reply.”

“Well, maybe this will be the month,” he said. It was. The reply from Brother Bryson read: “Dear Bishop, I ain’t much at writin’ letters. Thank you for the Church News and magazines, but most of all thank you for the personal letters. I have turned over a new leaf. I have been ordained a priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. My heart is full. I am a happy man.”

President Monson saw in that letter the practical application of the adage “Do you duty, that is best. Leave unto the Lord the rest.”

Thomas S. Monson, “The Call of Duty,” Ensign, May 1986, 39.

Nurture Tender Souls

 “My desire is to plead with our sisters to stop worrying about a phone call or a quarterly or monthly visit,” said Ellen Smoot, the 13th Relief Society general president. She asked us to “concentrate instead on nurturing tender souls.”

Mary Ellen Smoot, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 117. 

Before You Visit Homes

Eliza R. Snow counseled visiting teachers, “to be filled with the Spirit of God, of wisdom, of humility, of love” before they visited homes so they would be able to ascertain and meet spiritual needs as well as temporal ones. She said, “You may feel to talk words of peace and comfort, and if you find a sister feeling cold, take her to your heart as you would a child to your bosom and warm [her] up.”

Eliza R. Snow, in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2011), 108.

Focus On People

“Visiting teaching becomes the Lord’s work when our focus is on people rather than percentages. In reality, visiting teaching is never finished. It is more a way of life than a task.”

Julie B. Beck, Ensign, Nov. 2009, 114. 

Love, Watch Over, and Strengthen

How can we as visiting teachers love, watch over, and strengthen a sister? Following are nine suggestions found in chapter 7 of Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society to help visiting teachers minister to their sisters:

                -Pray daily for her and her family.

                -Seek inspiration to know her and her family.

                -Visit her regularly to learn how she is doing and to comfort and strengthen her.

-Stay in frequent contact through visits, phone calls, letters, e-mail, text messages, and simple acts of kindness.

                -Greet her at Church meetings.

                -Help her when she has an emergency, illness, or other urgent need.

                -Teach her the gospel from the scriptures and the Visiting Teaching Messages.

                -Inspire her by setting a good example.

-Report to a Relief Society leader about their service and the sister’s spiritual and temporal well-being. 

A Great Visiting Teacher

“We know we are successful in our ministering as visiting teachers when our sisters can say: (1) my visiting teacher helps me grow spiritually; (2) I know my visiting teacher cares deeply about me and my family; and (3) if I have problems, I know my visiting teacher will take action without waiting to be asked.”

Julie B. Beck, “What I Hope My Granddaughters (and Grandsons) Will Understand about Relief Society, Ensign, Nov. 2011, 113.