"'Now and then' isn't enough"

I haven't always loved visiting teaching, but I really have a testimony of it. I don't love it 10 minutes before I leave, but when I'm there I do, and coming home I really do feel a bit lighter -I wish that translated to my physical, and not just spiritual self though:)

It has always been a good way for me to put others first, to remind me of what is important and I really have gained some great friends I otherwise would not have had. My secret to visiting / home teaching - MAKE AN APPOINTMENT. If you don't it is so easy for the month to creep away with things which, lets be honest, you would rather do - but once you make an appointment it's hard to back out.

The following quote is from a talk by Elder Eyring, about home teaching, and also applies well to visiting teaching.

Elder Eyring said:

“It shouldn’t surprise us….. that the Lord has said to you and me, “Watch over the church always, and be with and strengthen them” (D&C 20:53). God loves us, and he intends for us to become like him. He doesn’t ask us now to worry about all his children in all the world, as he does. Instead, he begins with a call to watch over just a few families, just a few people. But he knows that to visit thirty minutes every month with the same lesson for every family would never produce the progress he wants for us.

And so he commands, “Watch over [them] always, and be with and strengthen them. “ You can’t be with them twenty-four hours a day. That would be “always”, wouldn’t it? But they can be in your hearts always. If you’ll think about the families you visit, those of you who are blessed to be called [visiting] teachers, you know the help they need is beyond your casual effort.

“I knew in my heart that effort “now and then” wasn’t enough, that “going out home teaching” or even “giving a good lesson wouldn’t do it. God called us to watch over and help people in all their struggles for physical and spiritual well-being. He called us to help by the Spirit. He called us to teach by the Spirit. He called us to live what we teach. He called us to bear testimony. He called us to love them.

“Now, he didn’t make it hard just to test you. He gave you a high calling because he loves you. He wants you home again, and to get there you have to become like him. So he gives you a calling that can only be done with persistence and endurance”.