Visiting Teaching: Walk With Me

WALK WITH ME

A Journey to Enoch’s Zion

Visiting Teacher 1	About 3,000 years before Christ there was a shy young man named Enoch, who was so pure and had such great faith, that he walked with God. Enoch had some sort of speech impediment that the scriptures describe only as being “slow of speech.” In spite of that, as a humble missionary, Enoch preached the gospel through the Spirit so powerfully that his entire city, who had been wicked, hard-hearted, even murderous people, were eventually converted to the Lord and became Zion! They were of one heart and one mind… and there was no poor among them. By Enoch’s faith he turned back his people’s enemies with earthquakes, landslides, and rivers changing their course. All nature obeyed his word. And in the course of time, the entire city of Enoch was taken off the earth to dwell with God in heaven, and…
Sister	(Interrupting wistfully) … and they lived happily ever after, right? I wish it could be like a fairy tale and all we had to do was wave a magic wand that would change everybody into perfect men and women who never argue or fight, the perfect family…” Did Enoch really build such a place?
Visiting Teacher 2	What do you think Sister (visiting teacher one)? Did the people of Enoch really create a Zion society?
Visiting Teacher 1	Yes… (positively). Yes, I believe they did! As I studied and prayed about this message I was convinced that it happened just as the scriptures say it did.
Sister	(Sadly) …but that kind of stuff doesn’t happen anymore – not today!
Visiting Teacher 2	Well… it hasn’t happened in almost eighteen hundred years – not since the Nephites right after Christ’s visit to the Americas. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen; just that it hasn’t in a long time.
Visiting Teacher 1	That’s one of the purposes of the scriptures... to show us what CAN happen if we’ll live for it! And to help us WANT it so much that we’re willing to change our lives to get it. THAT’S what can change it from a fairy tale into reality!
SONG	I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus
Sister	So, if it’s possible for men to create a perfect society, then why hasn’t it been done?
Visiting Teacher 2	It has been done – twice! The City of Enoch and the Nephites after Christ’s visit.
Sister	TWICE? In the whole history of the earth? It must be very difficult to do if it has only happened twice.
Visiting Teacher 1	Well maybe other attempts have failed because their heart just wasn’t in it.
Visiting Teacher 2	That’s very true. There have been and are today MANY attempts to create a perfect society by various methods. What methods did the only two that succeeded use?
DISCUSSION	(Open to all who are present. Ensure that the discussion includes repentance, becoming Christlike, accepting and using the Atonement etc.)
Sister	So to create a perfect Zion society we must Walk in His Ways.
READING	Walk in His Ways
Sister	(Thoughtfully) Why, when we have the fullness of the gospel, haven’t we created a Zion society today?
Visiting Teacher 1	(Pause before answering) Probably for the same reason that all the people before Enoch’s time hadn’t created one either. In Moses 6:28 we read “And for these many generations, ever since the day that I created them, have they gone astray, and have denied me, and have sought their own counsels in the dark …and have not kept the commandments, which I gave unto their father, Adam.”
Sister	So, by listening to their own counsel, and not God’s they lose their chance for a Zion society?
Visiting Teacher 1	Yes, and when the people of Enoch began listening to the Lord’s counsel, when they repented and obeyed God’s commandments, their hearts were changed and they became Zion.
Sister	I’d sure like to believe it is possible to build a Zion society today, but with only two examples of Zion documented in the scriptures, I just don’t know… there is so much that is going on in the world around us today.
Visiting Teacher 2	Sister _____, by choosing to believe, we feel the fruits of believing will be better than the fruits of not believing. Galations 5:22-23 teaches us that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…” If that sounds like the kind of environment you’d like to live in, then you can CHOOSE to move your environment closer to Zion by CHOOSONG to have faith in God’s plan and by CHOOSING to obey.
SONG	Keep the Commandments
Sister	(Thoughtfully) Something is still missing. I mean, the prophets have always obeyed, but they didn’t all create Zion.
Visiting Teacher 1	I don’t think we can assume that all the prophets obeyed perfectly, nor that they didn’t create Zion. Look at Jonah, who tried to run from his responsibilities. And even Joseph Smith, the great prophet of the restoration, was chastised more than once by the Lord. In Genesis 6:9 it says “Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” Do you see the similarity between Noah and Enoch?
Sister	They were both so good that they ended up walking with God.
Visiting Teacher 1	Yes. In Moses 8:27 it tells us “… for Noah was a just man, and perfect in his generations; and he walked with God, as did also his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”
Sister	(Excitedly) It sounds like they had a ‘mini-Zion’ in their own family! Do you think that could have happened with other prophets too? I mean, little mini-Zions?
Visiting Teacher 2	I don’t know why it couldn’t. If one family obeyed the same laws the city of Enoch obeyed, wouldn’t they get the same blessing?
Visiting Teacher1	There is a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 97:21 that says “for this is Zion – THE PURE IN HEART,…” So when we become pure in heart, we are Zion, regardless of where we are or how few or how many of us there are.
Sister	So to become a Zion people we have to be PURE IN HEART! That means that when Enoch built his city, it was built by changing one heart at a time!
SONG	As Sisters in Zion
Visiting Teacher 1	Becoming pure in heart isn’t easy, but it is simple. Matthew 18:2-3 says… “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
Visiting Teacher 2	Children are so trusting. They trust perfectly, just like we need to trust the Lord. They forgive us perfectly just like we need to forgive each other and they love us unconditionally, just like God loves us.
Sister	So as I grow and trust in the Lord, forgive freely and seek the gift of charity I will become more pure in heart. I will be on my way to creating a mini-Zion! What a wonderful message!
Visiting Teacher 1	Yes Sister ____, it is a wonderful message. When you think about how much the Lord loves you, and me, and everyone around us, you can get a sense of what it must be like to be a Zion people. As you seek to become pure in heart, you will seek to be more like the Savior. With the Christmas season upon us, we remember that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Sister _____, believe in Him, obey Him, and you, too, can be blessed to know Jesus Christ, your Savior and Redeemer, and rejoice with Him and walk with Him this Christmas season.
SONG

WALK IN HIS WAYS

I think of Him and wish I could have followed at His feet

To witness how His perfect love could answer every need,

Planting hope where despair was, bringing light to darkened eyes,

Giving water to the thirsty, giving purpose to our lives.

His compassion mends our broken hearts, His mercy changes lives

His meekness is the perfect way for all who would be wise

His whole life was a gift to us, a pattern we’ve been given

O Father, every hour I pray that I may be like Him

Help me walk in His ways, and see with His sight,

Feel with His heart, touch souls with His light.

Let me be like a child, quick to obey

Help me follow His lead, and walk in His ways.

Follow His lead.

Walk in His ways.