Visiting Teaching Messages 6/26/05

Sister Virginia U. Jensen stated, “Each of us can act in ways that can ripple through a
life…Each of us is just one person, but I remember the circles that one tiny pebble made
across the vastness of Jackson Lake. Let us take to heart this scriptural encouragement:
‘Be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of
small things proceedeth that which is great.’ D&C 64:33” Visiting our sisters once a
month is a small thing, but the ripple effect can and will be eternal.

“Virtue and power are found in everyday, ordinary work, in all the daily tasks of caring
for our families, and in our regular service to others. Prominence does not equal priority,
nor can the world’s paycheck equal that of our Heavenly Father’s who knows the
importance of a woman’s (visiting teacher’s) devotion to the salvation of souls (assigned
sisters).” Virginia U. Jensen

“The cause of Christ – to redeem all souls – needs your strength, time, and talents in our
homes and in your communities. Your faithful works and words contribute significantly
to the building of this, the kingdom of God on the earth.” (Virginia U. Jensen) Your
calling as a visiting teacher is important in fulfilling the cause of Christ. We need your
faithful works sisters in reaching out each month to the sisters you visit teach.

Virginia U. Jensen tells us, “ Like the noble and great women who came before us, we
cannot be ordinary women. We cannot be women who seem too much like women of the
world. We must speak up for righteousness without apology. We are unique. We have
ripples to make and water to share. We must remember how powerfully our simple,
righteous actions can ripple through the hearts and homes of those we visit teach.”

Tammy Clayton ( from Utah) shares this insight, “ I’m grateful to this day for my
visiting teachers because they loved me and they didn’t judge me. They really made me
feel as though I really was important and that I did have a place in the Church. They’d
come over to my home and we would sit and we’d visit. After a while, they’d ask me if I
wanted a lesson, and they would leave me a message each month. And when they came
every month, it made me feel as if I really did matter and as though they really did care
about me and as though they really loved me and appreciated me. Through their visiting
and coming to see us, I decided that it was time for me to go back to church. I guess I
just really didn’t know how to come back, and by their coming and reaching out to me,
they provided a way that I could return.”
“Thank heaven for faithful visiting teachers. Yes, sisters, the actions of righteous women
do ripple on and on through space and time and generations. Certainly there could be no
more enduring ripple than to have a family sealed in the temple for eternity. Let us be
like the faithful sisters who have come before us. Let us drink deeply of the ‘water out of
the wells of salvation.’” Virginia U. Jensen

“There is no greater Church calling than that of a home teacher (visiting teacher),” taught
President Ezra Taft Benson. “There is no greater church service rendered to our Father in
Heaven’s children than the service rendered by a humble, dedicated home teacher
(visiting teacher)”

Elder Helvecio Martins of the Seventy in a talk in the 1995 Ensign tell us, “In spite of the
relative knowledge acquitted throughout the six years of membership in the true Church,
my first calling as a priesthood holder was not to serve as a General Authority, or a
mission president, or a bishop, or as a member of two stake presidencies. It was not to
serve as an executive secretary in the stake and in the ward. My first assignment and
calling was that of serving as a home teacher. This calling preceded all the others. Since
then, I have considered this to be a most important and wonderful calling. In previous
callings I have always been released, but this first stewardship has been kept untouched.”
Sisters let us take our callings as visiting teachers, our stewardship, as one of importance
in our Heavenly Father’s kingdom.

“This is the work or the stewardship of the home teacher (visiting teacher): to feed, to
nourish and quench the thirst of the sheep who are assigned to him as a shepherd.
Nothing has been represented to have higher priority or more urgency in my
ecclesiastical life, followed by the lives of my children, than the dedicated, loyal, and
devoted fulfillment of this stewardship. It is worth noting the way the Lord prepares our
spirit and mind, without our realizing it, to obtain this high level of understanding.”
Elder Helvecio Martins of the Seventy

President Marion G. Romney taught that the home teachers (visiting teachers) “carry the
heavy and glorious responsibility of representing the Lord Jesus Christ in looking after
the welfare of each member (sister).”

Elder Helvecio Martins states, “The Lord desires to gather ‘his people even as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings’ (D&C 29:2), and the home teachers, and by
extension the visiting teachers, have a role of high relevance for the fulfilling of the
desire of the Lord. As President Ezra Taft Benson taught, ‘Home teaching (visiting
teaching) is a program so vital that, if faithfully followed, it will help to spiritually renew
the Church and exalt its individual members and families.’ I pray that we may develop a
more perfect understanding of this scared stewardship.”