Visiting Teaching

This past Sunday I had the privilege of speaking at our ward visiting teaching conference, and at first I will admit I was a bit overwhelmed and didn't know how I was going to find time to write a talk.. basically I had to talk about positive experiences I have had with visiting Teaching well as I started thinking and praying about what I wanted to say, so many things just popped into my head, and before I knew it I had finished... and it was so nice to think about fond memories of visiting teaching, I wanted to share what I wrote because it is so important to me, and I absolutely love visiting teaching.

Every month I look forward to both giving and receiving the monthly Visiting teaching message.
I feel like I learn something different from when I am being given the message and when I read it and prepare to give the lesson. I try to do my best to really take in the message and follow what it says. Back in July I had been contemplating going back to school, and thinking about if it was important to do so. Then came the Visiting teaching message in Aug of last year it was “Seek education and lifelong learning”. And in that message President Monson stated “ beyond our study of spiritual matters, secular learning is also essential... I urge you to pursue your education- if are not already doing so or have not done so- that you might be prepared to provide if circumstances necessitate such.” and because of my visiting teachers taking the time to come over and share this message with me I am a full time college student. I have learned the importance of visiting teachers is in not only to visit with the sisters, but to gain valuable information from the message that you might not hear in relief society. I love to visit the sisters, give them the message, and share with them my thoughts on the message and to also here there thoughts.. I also look forward each month to my visiting teachers coming over not only teach me the message, but to just sit and visit as sisters. I enjoy being given the opportunity to get to know new sisters and building a friendship with them. Over the past 3 years in the laurelglen ward I have met some sisters that I have became pretty close to due to visiting teaching. One in particular is Shannon Royer, when I first moved to this ward I became her visiting teacher and she became mine , and because of that we became close friends. The example she set as a visiting teacher will stay with me forever. I remember one particular time when I had questions about going to the temple as my husband and I prepared to do so I called my visiting teacher to ask questions, And Not even 24 hours later I had a knock and my door at it was Shannon delivering a book The Holy Temple by Boyd K. Packer” she said “ read this and it will help you prepare for the temple” and that is exactly what it did, it is things like that I find so valuable in visiting teaching. Sisters I urge you to visit with your sisters monthly be there for them and share the messages with them. As you don’t know what is going on in there life or struggles they may have that they may need you and that message to help them. Like Shannon helped me prepare for the Temple and for my current visiting teachers sharing the message about seeking education which helped me to ultimately make my decision about going back to school.