I could not lead that work with passion and credibility unless I could speak in present-tense verbs and first-person pronouns about finding people for the missionaries to teach. I have learned to use terms that associate me with Mormonism in my conversations—comments about my mission to Korea, my children’s missions, my assignments in the Church, my having attended Brigham Young University, and so on. These comments open the door for a conversation about the Church. Most who notice that I have opened this door choose not to walk through it. A few do, however, usually saying, “So you’re a Mormon?” I then ask if they’d like to learn more about us.

Have you ever felt a particular scripture speak directly to your heart and help answer a current problem or question? Have you ever felt the Spirit as you learned a precious truth from the scriptures or a Church leader? Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has said that “the scriptures not only witness the truth about Christ and his relevance for mankind, but are, in a sense, like a songbook. There are many melodies that need to be sung and heard. … Only through personal involvement with the scriptures can we find the particular scriptural songs to meet our needs. … We must—ourselves—open the songbook and hear the music” (A Time to Choose [1972], 52).

As we share our feelings and insights about the counsel found in the Visiting Teaching Messages, we will find ways to apply in our lives the words of latter-day prophets and Church leaders and prophets of old. The scriptures are constant and eternal. The same is true of teachings from our modern prophets, for as the Lord declared, “Whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (D&C 1:38).

Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give.