A young American sailor stationed in Japan was given the assignment to be the home teacher of a part-member couple.  The non-member husband was also in the U.S. Navy.  His wife was a faithful member of the Church who did her best to be active in the servicemen’s branch though living a long bus ride away in a strange and unfamiliar land.

The young home teacher, who himself had been baptized less than two years earlier, struggled and prayed to know how to help the young couple.  He learned how to ride the buses to the couple’s area, and how to find their apartment in the densely-populated city where they lived.  He faithfully visited them, and became their friend.

Following district conference in a distant city, the young sailor was aflame with excitement about the moving things he’d felt and heard in the meeting.  He felt a great desire to share those thoughts and feelings with the young couple he home taught.  Asking another young man to accompany him, they found their way through the maze of streets to the couple’s apartment.  The two glowing young men shared their thoughts, feelings, and testimonies with the couple.

Who would not be touched by such love, spontaneity, desire, effort, and testimony?  This is an example of home teaching at its best.  The home teacher had the couple in his heart, mind, and prayers.  When the time was right, the Holy Ghost could inspire him with a simple act that would have profound results.

Within just a few days of the visit, the home teacher completed his assignment in Japan, and was rotated to another country.  That late-night visit was the last time he ever saw the couple.  But a few weeks thereafter he received a letter from the wife informing him that her husband had just been baptized.  His interest had been kindled by the visit from the two excited young men.

In the 1970s I was assigned to be the home teacher of Art and Louise Maness.  I didn’t know them.  They lived in the unincorporated community of Wingville, Oregon.  In my first visit to their home I learned that Art hadn’t been to church in 12 years.  He had once been an elders quorum president, but because of circumstances surrounding a divorce, he had become inactive.  Louise was also an inactive member, and smoked cigarettes.

I liked Art and Louise.  I visited them every month, and they welcomed my visits.

One day the stake president visited our ward, and asked me to come into the bishop’s office.  He called me to be elders quorum president.  In that instant I knew that I wanted Art Maness as my counselor.  I made that request, but was told it wouldn’t be possible as it might cause jealous feelings among active members if they were passed over in favor of an inactive man.

Other men were called as my counselors, but I went to Art and told him what had happened.  I told him that the Lord wanted him to serve, and that it was time for him to come back.

The next Sunday Art and Louise were at church with their two small boys.  They never missed church again.  Art later did, indeed, become my counselor in the elders quorum.  I was no longer his home teacher, but we became great friends as we served together.

One can be released as a home teacher or a president or a bishop, but one is never released as a friend.  I stayed interested and connected with Art and Louise.

Art received other callings, but not Louise.  She continued to come to church, but also continued smoking.  “Why don’t you quit?” I asked her.

“I’m not ready to,” she would always reply.

Time went by.  In the 1980s I became a bishop’s counselor.  Then I became bishop.  One day I received word that Louise had thrown Art out of the house, and had put all of his things in the front yard.

I got in touch with both of them, and asked them to come see me in the bishop’s office.  I put Louise in my office, and Art in the room across the hall.  I talked with Louise, and learned what had caused the rift.  I then went across the hall and got the other side of the story.  I went back and forth between rooms several times before finally inviting Art to join Louise and I in the office.  We talked and counseled together, and each expressed a willingness to forgive and to try again.  I told Art to take Louise out to dinner while I would go to their home to babysit their boys until they got things worked out.

Art and Louise happily stayed together for decades.  I always felt that my years as a bishop were worthwhile if for no other reason than that I had been in a position to help them.

In the 1990s the boys had grown up and left home.  Louise continued to smoke.  “When are you going to quit so that you can go to the temple?” I asked.

“I’m not ready yet,” she replied.  I suspected that there was an underlying reason why she didn’t quit smoking, and that she was using her cigarettes as an excuse to keep from dealing with another problem that was keeping her from progressing.

Time passed.  Louise gave up her cigarettes.  We were in different wards, and I didn’t see her much; but whenever I did, I always made it a point to visit with her.  She received the calling to be her ward’s librarian.  I was in the stake presidency.  One weekday evening as I went past the meetinghouse library I found Louise working there alone.

“Louise, you’ve given up your cigarettes.  When can we go to the temple with you?”

Louise took a deep breath as she steeled herself to say something she never thought she’d be able to say.

“Jim,” she said, “I can’t go.  I’ve done something, and I can never be worthy to go to the temple.”

“I don’t believe that, Louise.  Unless you’ve committed murder, everything else is repentable.  I know you’re worthy.  Tell me what you’ve done.”

“I had an abortion!” she blurted out as the tears began to flow.

“You’ve repented of that long ago,” I told her.  “All you need to do is to talk to your bishop.  I happen to know that he’s in his office now.”

“Well, you’d better take me there right now then, because I’ll never have the strength to do this again.”

I put Louise in the office with her bishop, and then went back to the library where I found an old conference issue of the Ensign magazine.  I located a talk by Vaughn J. Featherstone (Ensign, Nov. 1980, 30-31) where he told of an experience where a faithful woman just like Louise had confessed a long-past abortion.  He had written Spencer W. Kimball to ask what to do about the case.  The answer that he received told him the woman had suffered enough, that she was forgiven, and that she was to be issued a temple recommend if she was worthy in every other way.  I took the article to the bishop, and told him to read it with Louise.

I felt terrible when the bishop told me what he’d learned in the interview.  Louise and her husband had been expecting a baby when the doctor told her the baby had died, and that she would have to have a procedure called a “DNC” to remove the fetus.  She had submitted to the procedure, and had spent the years thereafter thinking she had had an abortion.  Through all those years she had heard that abortions are terrible sins, and tormented herself with the thought that if she’d just had more faith, maybe she’d have had a live baby.

Louise hadn’t committed a sin at all!  She hadn’t understood, and had smoked cigarettes for many years as a subterfuge to keep from having to confess what she thought was a grosser crime.

One can only imagine the weight that was lifted from this gentle soul.  Shortly thereafter it was my wife’s privilege to be Louise’s escort as she went through the temple to receive her endowment.  I was Art’s companion as he returned to the temple after being away for many years.  They were then sealed as husband and wife for eternity.

Art and Louise held many callings after that.  Louise even served faithfully as Relief Society president.

In 2015, shortly after we returned from our mission, Art died.  We were surprised.  We weren’t in their ward, so we didn’t even know of his passing.  Several times we told one another that we needed to go see Louise.  However, it was never convenient.  We hoped that we’d run into her at church as the wards crossed paths between meetings.

Two months after Art’s passing we got a phone call informing us that Louise had just passed away.  I was heartsick to think that I’d ignored the prompting to see her and to offer my condolences.  I was consoled, though, to learn that it had been Louise’s desire to outlive Art so that she could care for him.  They both died happy.

Art and Louise were a blessing in my life many times over.  We shared many sacred, spiritual experiences.  How grateful I am for the calling I was given to be their home teacher.  Though officially released from that calling we were able to remain connected and to share many very sweet experiences together.

I’ve always looked upon my experiences with Art and Louise as another example of home teaching at its best.