December 2004 Ensign - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

36
Strong Hands and
Loving Hearts
Visiting teaching gives us an opportunity
to reach out in love and to care for one
another as sisters in the gospel.
Iremember more than 30 years ago when I was first
called to be a visiting teacher, I was assigned a young
woman who never came to church,” recalls Catherine
Carr Humphrey of the Hillside Ward, Rancho Cucamonga
California Stake. “She impressed me in those early 1970s as
a hippie type. I faithfully went every month and knocked
on her door. She would open the inside door but leave
the screen door shut. I was never really sure what she
looked like. She would not say anything. She would
just stand there. I would look cheerful and say,
‘Hi, I’m Cathie, your visiting teacher.’ And as
she would say nothing, I would say, ‘Well,
our lesson today is on . . .’ and try briefly
to say something uplifting and friendly.
When I was through, she would say,
‘Thank you,’ and shut the door.
“I did not like going there. I