A Vision of Visiting Teaching

President Kimball gave this address 16 September 1958, when he was a member of the Council of the Twelve. His message, to a visiting teacher convention in the Salt Lake Monument Park Stake, is still fresh and vital.

My beloved sisters, I think my first awareness or consciousness of the existence and the importance of the Relief Society came very early in my life.

My family left Salt Lake City for Arizona when I was three years old. My mother then had six children, and during the time that she went through five more pregnancies and five more births, she was president of the ward Relief Society.

We went to a new land, where water was drawn out of open wells; where flies were so thick you could hardly see out of the screen door in the evening; where typhoid fever was prevalent, and many other diseases, too; where medical help was extremely limited—there were no hospitals, no nurses, and no trained people except the country doctor who had more than he could ever do.

I read in my mother’s journal not long ago such expressions as these: “I left the children with Ruth or Delbert or with Gordon and went to Sister Smith’s home where the second twin had just died and where there were other children desperately ill with typhoid fever.” Again: “Today I spent the day with other sisters making burial clothes for the two children of Sister Jones.” and on and on and on. That was my introduction to Relief Society, and I am sure that to some degree that kind of work is still going forward, for as I understand your work, it includes not only the spiritual and the moral, but also the physical well-being of the people of the ward.

Whenever I think of visiting teachers, I think your duties in many ways must be like those of the home teachers, which briefly are “to watch over the church always”—not twenty minutes a month but always—“and be with and strengthen them”—not a knock at the door, but to be with them, and lift them and strengthen them, and empower them, and fortify them—“and see that there is no iniquity … neither hardness … backbiting, nor evil speaking.” (D&C 20:53–54.)

What an opportunity! But so many would like to talk about other things—the weather, politics, or to talk about something that was just done in the ward, the division of a ward, the reorganization of a bishopric, the reorganization of the Relief Society presidency, or any of the numerous things that could be done in the ward that people might find reason for questioning or criticizing. How glorious is the privilege of two sisters going into a home, de-emphasizing anything that could be detrimental, and instead, building up all the authorities of the Church, the Church itself, its doctrines, its policies, its practices.

There can be no force used in this program as I understand it. It is a work of encouragement and love. It is amazing how many people we can convert with love and inspire with love. We are “to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite … to come unto Christ.” (D&C 20:59.) This could be nonmembers as well as members.

To be successful, a visiting teacher should have a high purpose and remember it all the time, should have great awareness, a terrific enthusiasm that cannot be overcome, a positive attitude, and a great love.