This month’s Visiting Teaching Message includes quotes from women in a message for women! Three out of four months in 2017 with the representation of female voices is a vast improvement. The lesson on the oath and covenant of the priesthood asserts that temple ordinances are priesthood ordinances and clarifies that these ordinances DO NOT confer ecclesiastical office on men or women, but do confer power from on high. If your sister has been endowed, ask how she experiences this power from on high in her life.
Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is quoted in this lesson, stating,
All who have made sacred covenants with the Lord and who honor those covenants are eligible to receive personal revelation, to be blessed by the ministering of angels, to commune with God, to receive the fullness of the gospel, and, ultimately, to become heirs alongside Jesus Christ of all our Father has.
Ask your sister if she is enjoying priesthood blessings. Sometimes we forget that our adherence to sacred covenants qualifies us to receive personal revelation, ministering of angels and communion with God. What might increase our confidence in our capacity to receive and act upon personal revelation or enhance an awareness that we are being ministered to by angels?
If your sister has not yet had the opportunity to make covenants in the temple, is this something she would like to do one day? Why or why not?
In this Easter month, perhaps consider sharing the story of the first special witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; Mary, Joanna, and Mary Magdalene. They and the other unnamed women who witness the empty tomb, speak with angels, speak with the resurrected Christ and are charged with evangelizing the message of the resurrection are the very embodiment of the oath and covenant of the priesthood in action and are widely accepted in a larger Christian community as holding the office of disciple to Jesus Christ. What good news gospel messages are revealed to you? In what ways can you be a witness of Jesus Christ and manifest the power of the oath and covenant of the priesthood, with or without an ecclesiastical office?
