Visiting teaching is something I have learned only because I have tried to obey. Certainly it didn’t come for me because I wanted it to, or because I was looking for it.
For many years I did my visits only because I was supposed to. I liked my sisters. I liked the visits. I even liked the satisfaction of the 100%! But at the completion of the month’s visits I always thought to myself, “Phew! I’m finished until next month!” Then, I waited for the next month to talk myself into going again.
I remember the day when that all changed. My husband was serving as the Bishop of our ward. He had inadvertently left out a piece of paper. But perhaps it was something intentional the Lord wanted me to see! You see, that piece of paper contained the names of all the sisters in the ward who had not been visited in the past month, the past two months, the past three.
As I began to look over this list, my heart - somewhat immediately - began to take on a visiting teaching transformation. I know that sounds corny, but as I looked over these names of sisters, some whom I knew very well to those I knew not at all, it was almost as I felt, as the scripture describes a “cry from the dust.” A cry to be remembered. To be visited. To be loved.
And then I saw my name on that list! And all of a sudden visiting teaching was about me.
Not about me being visited, but about me doing the visiting. Not about me being remembered, but about me remembering. Not about me being loved, but about me giving the love.
And I have never been the same since.
My heart, literally, fell in love with visiting teaching. For all the months I had talked myself into going, I now felt a reason to go. For all the months I said, “Phew! I’m finished until next month!” I now found reasons to follow up with my sisters, even connect with them in a regular, more-than-once-a-month kind of way. Instead of waiting until the next month to report a number, I began to remember my sisters daily, in prayer.
And when that happened - when my heart began to understand what visiting teaching was all about. Because I am getting closer to Christ. And I realized that's why I am a member of the Relief Society!
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