Visiting Teaching Message:

Increasing Our Testimonies of Jesus Christ through Scripture Study

Read the following with the sisters you visit, and discuss the questions, scriptures, and teachings from our Church leaders. Share your experiences and testimony, and invite those you teach to do the same.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

“I promise you that if you will read the words of that writing which we call scripture, there will come into your heart an understanding and a warmth that will be pleasing to experience. ‘Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.’ (John 5:39.) Read … the Gospel of John. … Let the Lord speak for himself to you, and his words will come with a quiet conviction that will make the words of his critics meaningless. Read also the testament of the New World, the Book of Mormon, brought forth as a witness ‘that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.’ (Book of Mormon title page.)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1966, 87).

2 Nephi 33:4

“And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.”

Jacob 4:6

“Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.”

The Prophet Joseph Smith

“You remember the testimony which I bore in the name of the Lord Jesus, concerning the great work which He has brought forth in the last days. You know my manner of communication, how that in weakness and simplicity, I declared to you what the Lord had brought forth by the ministering of His holy angels to me for this generation. I pray that the Lord may enable you to treasure these things in your mind, for I know that His Spirit will bear testimony to all who seek diligently after knowledge from Him. I hope you will search the Scriptures to see whether these things are not also consistent with those things which the ancient Prophets and Apostles have written” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 29).

Helaman 15:7–8

“And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth … and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a change of heart unto them—

“Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

“The igniting in our youth of a love for the holy scriptures is to ignite a fire that will probably never be extinguished. After all, our youth can take their scriptures and their understanding thereof with them long after parents, bishops, and advisers, of necessity, are left behind” (“‘Unto the Rising Generation,’” Ensign, Apr. 1985, 10).

Questions

• How can scripture study strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ?

• In what ways can we promote an increased desire for regular scripture study in ourselves, our families, and the youth or children we may be called to teach?

Illustrated by Kendra Burton