February Visiting Teaching Idea

The Visiting Teaching message for February is about "The Restoration of all Things". It talks about the restoration of the Church, and the essential place of Relief Society therein. For my lesson I altered a drawing of a church from last year's Primary Outline for Sharing Time. It is a lesson aid to help talk about Christ's primitive Church, the Apostasy, and the Restoration of the Gospel. The only detail I changed from the original drawing is the heart in the center. It represents the faithful women in the ancient Church like Mary, Martha and Tabitha (all mentioned in this month's VT message).

After you cut the church apart and discuss the Apostasy (when Christ's Church, priesthood and revelation were taken away from the earth), put the pieces back together to signify the restoration of the Gospel.

Flip the center heart over to reveal the words, "Relief Society", then read the following quote:

Sister Julie B. Beck has taught that “we know through the Prophet Joseph Smith that Relief Society was a formal part of the Restoration.” The process of restoration began with the First Vision in 1820 and continued “line upon line, precept upon precept” (D&C 98:12). When the Relief Society was formally organized on March 17, 1842, the Prophet taught the women about their essential place in the restored Church. He said, “The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.

There are other great quotes in this lesson that you could also discuss, so be sure to prayerfully review the entire message and underline the things you'd specifically like to discuss with your sisters.

You can get your free download for February's Visiting Teaching lesson aid here. It is a 2-page document, so you can print the church on the front of your paper, and "Relief Society" on the back. Be careful to print only page 1, then re-feed the paper into your printer upside down to print page 2. If this is a hassle, you could always just print page 1, then hand-write "Relief Society" on the back center of the paper. (Hold up to a window to align properly.)