Visiting Teaching

Oh yea! Changing up my blog background and everything. Maybe that will inspire me to blog a bit more this week...Maybe. Well some of you reading this won't know what visiting teaching is, but that's OK because you might be able to get something out of this anyways. On Monday at our Pres. meeting for RS we made plans for our Visiting Teaching conference we are having in Jan. It was very spiritual and inspired, and I wanted to remember some of the principles we discussed, so I thought I'd write them down here and share. Might be pretty random, but...so.

About 4 weeks ago Sister Beck came to our stake and spoke to the RS presidencies. I love that woman, and her strength. She devoted some time to getting us used to the idea of speaking with her-it was a question/answer type thing. Sis. Beck shared a quote by Pres. Packer from one of her recent leadership meetings: "Revelation is scattered among us." I think that's so true whether it's a leadership meeting, Sacrament meeting, a Sunday school class, in our homes...We all come together to make a whole, drawing on each other's experiences and testimonies to create an environment in which the Spirit of the Lord can touch our hearts and minds, thus inspiring Christ-like thinking, attitudes, love, etc;... That principle was made evident in our meeting. Sister Beck also asked, "How do we really feel about the Lord's work?" By asking the sisters to be visiting teachers we are "inviting them to be part of a sacred work." What makes visiting teaching such a sacred work? We discussed how the Lord loves each of His children, and knows them personally, by name. Being a counselor in the Pres., I have come to have a strong testimony of visiting teaching because it is how the Lord makes sure each of His daughters is taken care. As a Bishopric, and a RS presidency we have a deep love and concern for the sisters in the ward, but there is no way we can make sure all the sisters feel this love without visiting teaching. As visiting teachers we truly are tools in the hands of the Lord in making sure His daughters know of His love for them. Sis. Beck mentioned that we are all some one's daughters who have left home; daughters of a Heavenly Father who have left His presence. Imagine, for those of you who may have daughters, who will be the ones to care for your daughters when they leave home? Hopefully, it will be the Relief Society. Sis. Beck said the purpose of Relief Society is to "Prepare His daughters for the blessings of eternal life." As visiting teachers, who have accepted the call, we truly are engaged in a sacred work. A work, I'm sure, the Lord is counting on us to do. She also said, [speaking of RS teachers, but I think it can apply to VT as well] "These sisters [sisters being taught] are fighting evil day by day. That time they have with you is precious." Share the VT message, pray about your sisters and their needs; you don't have to limit contact to once a month. I, personally, came away from the meeting with Sis. Beck with a strong desire to figure out some way to help the sisters in my ward love each other as much as the Lord, our Bishop, and RS president does. This is the theme we have chosen for our VT conference this year and those were some of the things we discussed during our Pres. meeting. on Monday.