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

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN LUKE, EXCEPT AS NOTED; FAR LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH
BY WELDEN C. ANDERSEN; PHOTOGRAPHY POSED BY MODELS
felt embarrassed. But I went because I
wanted to be obedient. After about seven
or eight months of this, I got a phone call
from the bishop.
“‘Cathie,’ he said, ‘the young woman you
visit teach just had a baby who lived only a few
days. She and her husband are going to have a
graveside service, and she asked me to see if you would
come and be there with her. She said you are her only friend.’
“I went to the cemetery. The young woman, her husband,
the bishop, and I were at the graveside. That was all.
I had seen her only once a month for a few minutes at a
time. I hadn’t even been able to tell through the screen
door that she was
expecting a baby,
yet even my
inept but
hopeful visiting had blessed us both.”
Scenes of service such as this are repeated
in various forms over and over again
throughout the Church. Relief Society general
president Bonnie D. Parkin recently said:
“I see legions of faithful sisters around the
world going forward on the Lord’s errands, performing
simple yet significant service. Why do we do visiting
teaching? Sisters, it’s because we’ve made covenants.
[Alma] described it this way: ‘To bear one another’s burdens,
. . . to mourn with those that mourn; . . . comfort
those that stand in need of comfort’ (Mosiah 18:8–9). . . .
“One morning . . . I received an e-mail from a college
friend. She wrote, ‘Ray died this morning.’ And then she
said, ‘Visiting teaching works. It really works.’ . . . Here was
my dear friend bearing testimony to me that what we call
visiting teaching is really so much more than a visit or a
thought. It’s how we connect with one another. . . .
“Mourn, comfort, stand as witnesses. All of those promises
came together for my friend. . . . [The Lord] had sent
her two sisters who had entered into a covenant with Him.
. . . They were sisters in the gospel who understood their
charge to do this work with heart and soul. . . . That’s the
essence of visiting teaching.”
And, Sister Parkin continued, “visiting teaching is
the heart and soul of Relief Society.” 1
Lucy Mack Smith, mother of the Prophet Joseph
Smith, said in the second meeting of Relief Society,
“We must cherish one another, watch over one another,
comfort one another and gain instruction, that we may all
sit down in heaven together.” 2
We are reminded: “The purposes of visiting teaching are
to build caring relationships with each sister and to offer support,
comfort, and friendship. In visiting teaching, both the
giver and the receiver are blessed and strengthened in their
Church activity by their caring concern for one another.” 3
Mentor Others
Teaching our new young Relief Society sisters that visiting
teaching is the heart and soul of Relief Society is critical.
ENSIGN DECEMBER 2004 37