Visiting Teaching & Home Teaching Matter!

Today we had a lesson together with the Priesthood, since it was a 5th Sunday. The focus was on home teaching and visiting teaching.

Dave Fuehrer
Home teaching and visiting teaching are callings we receive for life. Other callings come and go, but all adult members of the Church have the opportunity to serve as home and visiting teachers.

D&C 20 reminds Priesthood brethren that they are to watch over and strengthen and visit with family members. Home teaching is the program whereby the Priesthood brethren do so.

In the early days of the restored Church, a 17-year-old convert, who had been baptized only 6 months earlier, named William Cahoon was assigned to home teach the prophet Joseph Smith. He dutifully did his home teaching, asking the prophet questions such as whether he prayed with his family. The prophet Joseph responded that he was doing all the things asked of him. Then he promised William Cahoon that if he remained true and faithful as a home teacher, he would have great power to bless people's lives. This same promise is with each of us as we attend to our duties as home (and visiting) teachers.

Our church leaders can't visit every member of the ward. They need home and visiting teachers to visit and care for those over whom they are assigned stewardship. As a home or visiting teacher, you represent not only the bishop or Relief Society president but the Savior.

Teresa Muse
Teresa commented that she worried a little about bringing up visiting teaching again, since we've focused so much on it in the past months. However, she realized it is important to talk about it again, so we will realize how important it is for us to do our visiting teaching.

In last night's General Relief Society meeting, President Eyring quoted the prophet Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, who spoke of sisters in Relief Society cherishing each other so that they might one day sit down together in heaven. President Eyring also spoke of his daughter, who went into labor with her third child 15 weeks early. Her visiting teaching companion showed up at her front door just as she was about to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Then the Relief Society in her ward took care of her family as she was busy driving to and from the hospital all the time to care for her premature infant. These are the types of things that happen in wards where visiting teachers are in tune with the needs of the sisters they visit.

Sister Carole Stevens, the 1st counselor in the General RS Presidency, spoke of participating in a trek with her ward youth. She learned on the trek that she wasn't physically prepared for some of the challenges of pushing her handcart. A young woman from the ward helped her get her handcart to the top of the hill. She wanted to help those who were still below, struggling. She committed then that she would never be in a position where she would not be able to help someone who needed her spiritually.

Teresa said there are sisters in our ward who are pulling spiritual handcarts. Many of them feel alone. You wouldn't guess who they are by just looking around. We can reach and help these sisters through visiting teaching.

Teresa said she knows of several sisters who recently had visits from their visiting teachers after somewhat long absences. Thank you, sisters, for caring about those you visit.

"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." - Matthew 25:40

Rick Lybbert
Rick related a story about home teaching. He got a random text from a lady he works with, saying that he'd be a better manager at his job if he focused more on his home teaching. As strange and out-of-the-blue as it was, it was a message he needed to hear. He immediately called one of the sisters he home teaches, and he was able to help her with some troubles that had really been weighing heavily on her.

Daniel Miller
Daniel showed a short video with a couple clips of President Monson, one of Julie Beck, one of someone I couldn't immediately place (though he looked familiar), and one of President Benson. They all spoke of the importance of home and visiting teaching. [Please note the video is clips that Daniel put together himself. It's not an official Church production.]

There are three levels of home (and visiting) teaching:

• Good: See them on the street or at church or the grocery store and chit-chat. Call it a visit.
• Better; Call, make an appointment and go visit; show concern, share a message, close with a prayer. This is great home teaching!
• Best: All of the above, plus pray for the people you visit, be open to promptings of how you can help them, follow through on promptings. This level is a step above because it involves inspiration.

If we all do our home and visiting teaching, it's a huge help to our ward leaders. They are spread too thin to visit everyone in the ward personally. Instead of wondering who needs help and how to help, they will already know because the home teachers and visiting teachers will tell them. In many cases, the home and visiting teachers will be able to do all that is needed.

Remember: It is a blessing to be able to serve as a visiting teacher!

October Relief Society Night

Come Feed your Body & Soul at Relief Society
Thursday, October 4
6:30 p.m. in the Relief Society room

Child care provided

Emotional & Spiritual Health
Come learn how feeding your spirit can help you live a more joyful & abundant life.
Speaker: Gwen Whiting

Health & Nutrition
Learn the latest and greatest about food nutrition!
Speaker: Amara Doxey

Skin Health
Come learn what a plastic surgeon has to say about that part of your body you present to the world every day--your face.
Speaker: Dayne Petersen

Correction - Fast Sunday

Fast Sunday will be on September 30 as originally planned, not on October 14 as announced in last week's Relief Society Report. The Special Needs Mutual program will be presented on a Sunday during October.

New Tabs

Our Relief Society blog now has a tab that shows Relief Society birthdays and a tab with information about how you can help the victims of the recent flood. Check it out.

Stay on the Lord's Side of the Line

Lisa Schoonover taught today's lesson, #18 from the George Albert Smith lesson manual, "Stay on the Lord's Side of the Line."

George Albert Smith often repeated the counsel his grandfather used to give to his family: “There is a line of demarcation well defined between the Lord’s territory and the devil’s territory. If you will stay on the Lord’s side of the line you will be under his influence and will have no desire to do wrong; but if you cross to the devil’s side of that line one inch you are in the tempter’s power and if he is successful, you will not be able to think or even reason properly because you will have lost the Spirit of the Lord.”

Lisa said if you're wondering if something is right, you can ask yourself what you would do if the Lord were beside you.

Moroni 7:15-17 also gives us good insight about making righteous judgment.

How do you know if you're on the right side of the line?

We feel it. ~Lacey (Lisa shared a story about feeling really bad when she moved a neighbor's papers from the porch to their window wells.)
If you're always out on the ledge, pushing the limits, sooner or later you're going to fall off. ~Shelly
If you're influencing people to do good things, you're on the right side of the line. ~Amara

How can you influence people to stay on the Lord's side of the line?

Have courage to stand up for what's right. ~Julie
Teach children to stay off "ledges." ~Trena
When Adam & Eve were in the Garden of Eden, they were commanded to not even touch the forbidden fruit. We shouldn't get near or touch things that aren't right. ~Teresa
Teach children that there are consequences for their actions & that those consequences affect other people. ~Sue

Lisa commented that she has a friend from high school who frequently challenged her parents. Now she's an adult, and she's happy that she's finally free of all her parents' restrictive rules. However, she has lost her family's support, and she doesn't see how her choices affect her two boys. It's not really an enviable life that she has, after all.

Melinda commented that, for example, tank tops and bikinis aren't a real problem. It's more that avoiding wearing them is a form of protection from making more serious mistakes. In California, there was a winding road above the beach. So many teenagers died there because they were too close to the edge, going too fast. We need to stay away from the edges of whatever could get us into trouble.

Real happiness results from strict obedience to the commandments.

All safety, all righteousness, all happiness are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you are keeping the commandments of God by observing the Sabbath day, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you attend to your secret prayers and your family prayers, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you are grateful for food and express that to God, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you are honest in your dealing with your fellow men, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. If you observe the Word of Wisdom, you are on the Lord’s side of the line. And so I might go on through the Ten Commandments and the other commandments that God has given for our guidance and say again, all that enriches our lives and makes us happy and prepares us for eternal joy is on the Lord’s side of the line. Finding fault with the things that God has given to us for our guidance is not on the Lord’s side of the line. [p. 192]

Lacey commented that we need to consider the higher law, the spirit of the law.

A person with the spirit of the Lord won't say that small sins are no big deal.

President Smith said regarding commandments "that which at one time seemed to bear the harsh name of law to me is now the loving and tender advice of an all-wise Heavenly Father." He said obeying the commandments doesn't mean we'll always "lead lives of ease and comfort," but the pay-off is happiness in this life and eternal life with our Heavenly Father.

How can you create a place where you feel and follow good influences?

Betsy commented that she used to get together with the other teachers and say a prayer for guidance on the first day of school. They felt doing so really helped them teach and create a good environment at the school.

Pat N. learned respect and good manners by following her father's example. He wasn't a member of our faith--or even a religious person--but he set a good example, and Pat turned out to be a wonderful person by following what he taught and demonstrated.

Stay on the right side of the line.

President Smith said, "I pray that we examine ourselves and find out which side of the line we are on; and if we are on the Lord’s side, stay there, because that means eternal happiness in the companionship of the best men and women that have lived upon the earth.

"If we have slipped in any way, if we have been careless; if we have listened to the tempter and gone across the line to partake of those things that the world thinks are so desirable and the Lord has said are not good for us, let us as quickly as possible get back on the other side, ask the Lord to forgive us our foolishness, and then with his help go on living the life that means eternal happiness." [p. 199]

Sisterhood of Love Video - September 6 RS Night

The Strengthening Power of Faith

Julie Wilkinson (our newest Relief Society teacher) taught today's lesson. It was #17 in the George Albert Smith manual, "The Strengthening Power of Faith."

Julie started out by telling us this lesson wasn't about "just" faith--it was on the strengthening power of faith. There are so many stories about faith in the scriptures and during modern times that many, many lessons could be taught on the subject. In fact, she said she could do four lessons on what's included in the manual. Today she decided to make the focus of the lesson what we can do and the difference we can make in the lives of others by exercising faith.

How can your improve your faith? Pray for it. Follow Alma 32: 21, 27-29 and experiment with faith, exercise just a particle of faith if that's all you have, or even just desire to have faith. Melanie commented that you have to be willing to do something with your faith, like Nephi did when he was commanded to build a ship to travel to the promised land.

What gets in the way of having faith?

• Fear (the opposite of faith) - Nancy
• Discouragement or disappointment - Annette
• Having your faith contingent on how you see things - Anissa
• Our own weaknesses, lack of believing in ourselves; doubt - Amara
• Trusting someone more than God - Pat told a story about her husband who had had surgery, and the surgeon told Pat he might not make it; Pat's daughter told her to drop the burden at Christ's feet and have faith to endure.

In his April 2012 General Conference address, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, "The formula of faith is to hold on, work on, see it through, and let the distress of earlier hours—real or imagined—fall away in the abundance of the final reward."

 President George Albert Smith was questioned whether current members of the Church would be willing to make the sacrifices of early pioneers. He answered that those with deep faith would make any sacrifice necessary. [See p. 186 of the manual.]

How do we arm our children and grandchildren with faith?

• Encourage and support them on missions. - Joanie
• Set a good example. -someone I couldn't see
• Help children and teenagers build faith. - Melinda
• Talk about faith. -Marilyn
• Encourage children to develop their own relationships with Heavenly Father. Let them find their own solutions to problems instead of jumping in to do everything for them. - Jessica
• Have family prayer and scripture study. Bring children into family concerns and show them how you deal with those concerns with faith. - Teresa (Julie provided an example of her 5-year-old granddaughter announcing that they were all praying for her dad to "do well on his histology test because it's harder than other classes.")
• Point out examples of faith you see in your own family, so they become part of children's consciousness. - Leslie
• Fast together for specific causes. - Betsy
• Encourage temple worthiness and attendance - Pat Nel shared an example of her 19-year-old granddaughter who is eager to go to the temple whenever she has challenges that she's dealing with because she knows she will find answers and guidance there. Sarah referred to a quote by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone who promised unseen angels to watch over their loved ones when they do temple work.
• Teach children in nurture and admonition of the Lord (Enos 1:1). Because Jacob taught Enos that God was nurturing, loving, and patient and taught him the commandments and what Heavenly Father expected of him, Enos had the faith to pray for forgiveness and guidance. - Julie

The lesson shared a story about missionaries who "gave the Lord a chance" and were able to have London opened to the preaching of the gospel after World War I. [See pages 186-187 of the manual.] 

Sue commented that we can give the Lord a chance by being quiet and submissive to the Lord's will. Kathy said we need to remember to wait for the Lord's timetable. Nancy said there's a cycle of growth that comes from enduring trials with faith, then having the faith to face additional difficulties that come our way. 

Tavah bore her testimony that she knows Heavenly Father will not leave us, no matter how hard life gets. There are trials you can't endure on your own, but you can do it with faith. This went right along with a comment in the manual, "When we become confused, and find ourselves confronted by obstacles we, seemingly, cannot overcome, having faith in the Redeemer of the world, we can go to Him and know that our prayers will be answered for our good. [p. 186]

Leslie commented that sometimes the answer to prayer is that you have to carry a burden a little longer. Build trust in the Lord.

The Lord has a way of accomplishing things that we are unable to do, and never asks us to do anything that he does not make the way possible. ... If you have something that the Lord asks or expects you to do and you don't know just how to proceed, do your best. Move in the direction that you ought to go; trust the Lord, give him a chance, and he will never fail you. [p. 187]

Faith is a gift to the righteous. It is linked with our obeying the commandments.

Exercising faith is an excellent way to bless people's lives. Mosiah 8:18 says, "Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings."

Julie concluded her lesson with her testimony and by urging each of us to "Let go of things that are holding you back, and go forward with faith, hope & confidence!"