As this site was originally designed to help those not of our faith learn more about women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we’re including this interview with Lita with the Center for Latter-day Saint arts. Lita is a convert to the Church, a mother of five, a passionate learner, a performer, a licensed social worker, and, most importantly, an ardent follower of Jesus Christ. Everything she does is with the intent to help bring people to Him.

The post “Someday He Will Come’ appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Did you have a chance to watch the General Women’s Meeting, the first session of the fall 2016 General Conference? If so, please share your thoughts below, or use the hashtag #ldsconf and If not, following are ways you can watch it (these are also online venues you can use for the rest of the General Conference Sessions next week).

Find the entire meeting at LDS.org’s General Conference page.

Watch the videos on the LDS General Conference YouTube channel or at the Mormon Channel YouTube channel.

Find a DVR recording of the General Women’s Meeting at byutv.org

Watch at byutv.org

Watch the embedded video here (includes prelude music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, so scroll to find the beginning of the meeting.)

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Listen to music from the Women’s meeting (and stay tuned for more music coming next weekend).

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Watch individual talks:

Jean B. Bingham

Carole M. Stephens

Bonnie L. Oscarson

Dieter F. Uchtdorf

The post General Women’s Meeting Fall 2016 #ldsconf appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

One of the things I appreciate about being a part of this effort is to read the words of my fellow brothers and sisters. Their perspectives and experience enrich my experience engaging the words of the prophets. Of course, we don’t want our posts to replace the words of the prophets, but we hope perhaps this project will inspire you in some way, as it has us.   

The other posts from this week’s reading, which focused on the Friday Afternoon Session of the April 1971 General Conference, are at the bottom of the post. 

It’s so interesting to see how the “What should I write about?” process works each week with the General Conference Odyssey. This week, rather than feeling drawn to the patterns in the talks, (which were definitely present — commandments was a key theme), I was drawn to the one talk that was completely different in focus and voice, which ended up opening up a pattern I observed in my personal sphere.

S. Dilworth Young began his talk thusly:

It is my desire to be led by the Spirit of the Lord in what I say. The wards and branches of the Church have been organized to give activity to a large number of the members, the great majority actually. Yet there are many with no official position or no specific responsibility that calls them to do formal acts for the organization. They belong to the Church; they belong to the stake; they belong to the ward. They are invited to attend various classes and meetings designed for their instruction, but at the conclusion of a meeting they go home, having no particular appointment to arouse them to organizational activity. Many of them feel that they are being left out, that their talents are not wanted. Others do not want to accept any responsible calling.

I have struggled with health issues for 13 years and for several years, my health has affected my ability to hold Sunday callings. I have been active; I attend Sunday meetings every week. My issues relate to sleep and fatigue and migraines; mornings are a challenge. But I didn’t want to miss church, so I have attended other wards. (I have such a testimony about how much God cares about me getting the sacrament; I can’t tell you how many times He woke me up just in time to get the sacrament. Amazing.)

My calling for I-don’t-know-how-many-years has been ward tech specialist. As passionate as I am about the benefits of technology, the work I can do in this calling is fairly limited. And sometimes, as Elder Young describes, I have felt detached and sometimes discouraged when I’ve heard repeated talks about the importance of filling a calling. I also felt self-doubt about the things I have been able to do in spite of health issues — like running this website and doing other online volunteer work.

Without a formal calling, though, there have been times I have wondered if my offerings were acceptable to the Lord because my work wasn’t necessarily part of a calling for which I was set apart.

(I also read Elder Young’s words and think of women who may equate a differential in leadership callings between men and women as a sign that we are less needed, so I hope some of what I share here will be helpful.)

I love what Elder Young had to say — something that I’ve felt the Spirit tell me, and yet, it was still refreshing to hear it so clearly articulated “over the pulpit.”

Each of us has the same general calling. Each of us has the same responsibility as a result of entering into the waters of baptism and making the covenant. The Lord will not hold us blameless if we allow organizational responsibility, or the lack of it, to interfere with this special calling….

He then quotes numerous scriptures — too numerous to list here — that underscore the calling we all have to help the children of God who are in need. It seems obvious, but again, who doesn’t need to hear that our personal service to the one really does matter. In a world where accolades and position and resumes often measure the worth of work, it’s refreshing to be reminded that the Lord doesn’t work that way.

All about us are those in need of encouragement, assistance, and help—help of a kind we can all give, not money, but time and attention and personal encouragement, especially to those who must bear great responsibility for loved ones and who cannot pass it to others for the simple reason there are no others to whom to pass it.

I think of the women from years ago who I called my “stay-at-home sisters.” They were women who had older children but still chose to stay home. That was where they felt they should be. They filled their time serving others. These women helped me at a time when my health issues first started and I had three very young children. Some of my dearest friendships came out of that period in my life when I was in such want and women stepped into that role to help me over and over again.

I think of my friend who came over and read to my children when they had a two-week stomach bug and my husband was out of town. I think of friends who have spent hours with me walking and talking, helping me face the inevitable cycle of discouragement that swings around with chronic pain.

These are the kinds of examples of “helping the poor and needy” that Elder Young invites us to embrace as our covenant responsibility and opportunity. When we don’t have a formal [or “big”] calling, it’s all the more a chance to reach people who can’t be reached otherwise.

I know that home teachers are responsible for these needs, but often those at home conceal the needs from them. I know there are visiting teachers, but still there are many who hide their needs from them. I know the priesthood is expected to be alert, but this responsibility goes beyond the organized priesthood. This is a personal obligation that no living soul who loves the Lord can dismiss. It is one to which we must ever be alert.

Those with no [or “smaller’] ward assignments have more time to pursue this great work of the salvation of souls. Let us not sit back jealous of those giving attention to the stake, the ward, the auxiliaries [or sit back and wonder if our informal service matters to God], but seek our salvation where the Lord appointed us, among those who, weak in spirit, weak in body, or weak in desire, need to be encouraged, need to be raised up in the kingdom of God on this earth….

This echoes what James said: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27.)

One last word from the Lord to us in this day: “And remember in all things the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted, for he that doeth not these things, the same is not my disciple.” (D&C 52:40.)

I think of the conversation I just had on Sunday with the wife of a bishop of a young adult ward. Oh, how I wish every Mormon woman could have heard her and her husband talk about how they work together! She has not been set apart in her role as “just the bishop’s wife.” But there is no “just” in her service, and because she doesn’t limit her view by her lack of formal calling, she is channeling heavenly power in the lives of these young adults. That power was palpable.

Another conversation with a friend allowed me to bring up this talk by Elder Young, and reminded me also of President Russell M. Nelson’s recent Plea to [the] Sisters. How much the Lord needs us as women to understand how power through covenant living can and must be unleashed in these latter days as we prepare for the Savior’s Second Coming!

If ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work. – Doctrine and Covenants 4:5-6

It is easy to think that being called means being formally called. I am grateful for this talk by Elder Young and all that happened in my world this week to remind me that God’s work is everywhere and the needs of His children are all around us. Our calling to serve is never-ending, not bound by formal callings alone. I desire to serve. I pray to be open to where He calls me to help, every day.

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Other posts from this week’s General Conference Odyssey can be found below:

The post Permacallings (#ldsconf Odyssey) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

The General Women’s Meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was a powerful, inspirational meeting, bringing women, young women, and girls ages eight and above together throughout the world. This meeting begins the worldwide General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ that is held every six months.

I watched the worldwide sisters’ meeting with several young women. I asked them what they enjoyed about the meeting and they all replied that they loved President Uchtdorf’s talk about God’s love (one mentioned loving his comments about how it doesn’t matter how many followers you have on Instagram or Pinterest). They felt that similar message about God’s love in Sister Marriott’s talk. One mentioned Sister Stevens’ story about her parents. A couple of them just said, “We loved the whole meeting!” They also said it felt very short…time did go by quickly.

I thought the video capturing thoughts from women, young women and girls from around the world was about the best video I’ve ever seen in one of these meetings. I really loved the music from the choir, and to see the radiant girls with their mothers worshiping and sharing their faith in this way.

I felt the Spirit of God strongly throughout the meeting.

Other things that I’m seeing on social media that stood out to people:

– The opening prayer by a member of the Young Women board who lives in South Africa.

– The Korean children’s choir!

– We are an international church, and this meeting felt to many to represent that reality well.

– The idea to memorize The Living Christ, as 900 young women in Alaska did. (One of the young women in our little group shared that her family had done this as a family challenge — even her six- and four-year-old siblings participated and can recite much if not most of the inspired prophetic document.)

– The power of covenants and the temple and family history. [If you haven’t had a chance to read the October New Era, it is focused on family history and the temple and is very powerful.]

– The Lord knows us individually. Covenants are given one by one.

– The theme of light, and that temples (both the buildings and we as followers of Christ, temples of God in our own right) can push back darkness

– Making visiting teaching more than a checklist item

– Sister Marriott’s openness about personal revelation in the temple about her weaknesses

– Hearing women and children share in their native languages what the temple means to them

– That worth is not tied to appearance or popularity

– Children can have influence in their homes

– Rain and umbrellas will never mean quite the same thing again after President Uchtdorf’s talk

– Sister Marriott’s awesome Southern accent. 🙂

You can read highlight quotes on the hashtag #womensmeeting on Twitter (#ldsconf also captures many of the quotes).

What from the meeting stood out to you?

The post Thoughts from the General Women’s Meeting appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Tonight is the worldwide broadcast of the general Relief Society meeting of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of Mormon women worldwide will gather together to hear from the Relief Society presidency for the worldwide Church: Linda K. Burton, Sister Carole M. Stephens and Sister Linda S. Reeves. A member of the First Presidency – a prophet, seer, and apostle — always addresses us as well. (Mormons believe in living prophets!)

You can watch the broadcast live. See more information about watching the Relief Society broadcast.

The post General Relief Society Meeting tonight! appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

The women on the service committee of BYU Women’s Conference interviewed 90 different organizations and had the painstaking task of trying to decide which projects to include in this year’s conference. The needs even within a relatively small radius around the university were overwhelming to consider. Click on any of the service projects in this list to learn a little more about how they will fill needs of children, youth, adults, and families.

Once projects are decided upon, local Church members are invited to be project leaders, and those leaders then recruit volunteers to help get everything ready for their project. It’s breathtaking to consider the number of hours that have gone into getting these projects ready over the past few months, even before Mormon women gather at Women’s Conference to finish the projects.

In a truly extraordinary way, in two short two days, tens of thousands of projects are completed via take-and-make opportunities, work in service learning rooms (women listen to conference addresses while working on projects), and the three-hour Evening of Service on Thursday night, which includes assembly-line-like cooperative efforts, quilt tying, and more.

The following infographic captures some of the miracle that happens every year at Women’s Conference.

And we echo the invitation from BYU Women’s Conference (which is co-sponsored by the Relief Society). “Bring miracles to your own communities and do something to help someone else.” The hope is that women will leave Women’s Conference more aware of the breadth of needs that exist in every community, and more motivated to work with local Church and community leaders to help and lift others. “As BYU’s motto goes, “Enter to learn, go forth to serve!”

For service project instructions and ideas, you can visit the BYU Women’s Conference blog or Pinterest page.

The post Something Extraordinary: Women’s Conference Service Projects appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

I think it can best be summed up by the purpose statement of Relief Society — it helps build faith and testimony, help women think and talk about ways to strengthen home and family, and provide opportunities to help serve and give relief.

If you are a prior attendee of Women’s Conference, you’ll get a kick out of this silly MEE (Mary Ellen Edmunds) video.

The post BYU Women’s Conference videos #byuwc appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Most people know that every year the Relief Society holds a worldwide broadcast for the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And Mormon women gather in local conferences in different parts of the world for ward and stake Relief Society meetings. But as the Women’s Conference website states:

BYU Women’s Conference is the largest two-day gathering of LDS women anywhere in the world. Over 200 presenters share their perspectives and insights on a variety of topics including womanhood and sisterhood, gospel principles, marriage, family, and practical and timely topics of interest and concern to women of all ages.

Every year, there is also a large-scale evening of service as part of the conference.

Service to others is part of the legacy of Relief Society and BYU Women’s Conference celebrates that legacy. More than 90 local agencies were contacted to select service project opportunities that could best utilize the time and work of Women’s Conference participants. The list of service projects can be found here.

We’ll be sharing some thoughts from the Conference and linking to blog posts of women who are attending.

Watch our Facebook page and Twitter account for some updates as well. Be sure to follow BYU Women’s Conference on Twitter as well (@BYUWC, with hashtag #byuwc) for their tweets and updates. You can also follow BYU Women’s Conference on Facebook.

If you will be at Women’s Conference and would like to be a part of an informal “blog hop,” please leave a comment with a link to a blog post on your blog that gives your readers a heads-up about what we’ll be doing. Or you can share a link directly on our Facebook page. We would like to get as many Mormon Women talking about BYU Women’s Conference and get your insights and experiences out there for people to hear.

Find more ways to share about Women’s Conference at the conference’s website.

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Walk-in registration is available all week in the Harmon Building on the BYU Campus.

Harman Continuing Education Building
770 E. University Pkwy
Provo, UT 84602  See Map

On the days of the Conference, there will also be ticket booths outside the Marriott Center beginning at 7:30 a.m.

The post BYU Women’s Conference is This Week! #byuwc appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

This post originally appeared in April of last year. Since today is the birthday of the Relief Society (the organization for women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), we wanted to post it again.

LINK TO VIDEO HERE  You may need to create a DropBox account if you want to watch the MP4. If you want to stream the video, use the .flv file.

If you want to use it in a Relief Society meeting, the creator of the video gives permission to stream it for such use, but please do not upload it anywhere else, including to an email or a website.

~by Natalie

Editor’s note: Natalie kindly consented to share the Relief Society History video she put together for the women in her congregation. But first, we’d like you to get to know her a little better, and hear more about what went into making this video.

I am the “Additional Weekday Meeting Coordinator” (previously Enrichment Leader) in the Relief Society [organization for women] in my ward congregation. Ironically, all but two of my three sisters and two sisters-in-law have the same calling. In my opinion, this is the best calling in the Church. I am the party planner and the person that helps coordinate the activities that allow the women to do both the work of Relief Society and strengthen our bonds as sisters.

I am married with four children. We have lived in Nashville, TN, Northern Utah, and a year ago moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which we have loved! I enjoy cooking, baking, sewing, reading, traveling, and learning new things, which always ends up adding to my list of things I enjoy doing. My oldest daughter has Celiac Disease and so I also cook gluten free, which has made me a better cook in every possible way. When she was diagnosed our bishop [congregation leader] told us this would stregthen her and us as a family and it has.

When we were planning the Relief Society birthday party in March we decided to focus on Relief Society history. Since history is one of my loves (I have a degree in it), I was in charge of putting the program together. Lucky for me, one of my sisters also had the same theme for their ward’s Relief Society birthday celebration so she was a lot of help and we bounced a lot of ideas off each other. As I started looking for ideas and at information I found this power point presentation on the History of Relief Society that I found interesting. Then I found this Tribute to Relief Society Skit, where there was a narrator and different sisters would read parts of the past Relief Society General Presidents. I loved a lot about both of these resources, and they formed a foundation the video I made.

I did more research and found other quotes from past presidents and information about them. I, of course, couldn’t fit it all into this video so I talked a little about the added info before starting the video. For example Zina Young was asked by President Brigham Young [second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] to be in charge of the silk production and she HATED it and had nightmares about feeding the worms, yet she still did it. Or that Amy Lyman worked in Hull House with Jane Adams (one the the principal people associated with the US Progressive Movement in the early 20th century) which made her perfect for both General Relief Society President and her later role with the church’s Social Services department.

To round out the video, I remembered President Henry B. Eyring’s talk a couple years ago about the history of Relief Society. I found this so uplifting and strengthened my testimony of the power the Relief Society has had and can have for good. The other talk is Sister Julie B. Beck’s from Oct. 2010 General Relief Society Meeting which I also loved. For both I read the talks and found the quotes I liked and then cut the talks accordingly.

I hope you like it. The process of making this has been such a testimony builder of the love of our Heavenly Father towards his daughters and the power of Relief Society to do good in the world. I think sometimes women in the Church can get too caught up with what we can’t do that we miss all the good we can do. There is a quote by Belle Spafford in the video where she talks about power vs. influence, about which is greater. To her it was influence, and I felt the same. While some of these women lived over a hundred years ago, so much of their influence is felt today in the welfare program of the church, in the Primary, in the Young Women program and in the emphasis’s we choose to place on the family. So many of them could have spoken the same words today and they would have been just as relevant. There are not a lot of people, men or women, that we can say that about.

I was also impressed with how they managed families and in many circumstances started what became grand programs just from seeing a simple need. They were women of great faith who did what their Heavenly Father asked of them and knew when to speak out when something was wrong. They were radical women in getting the vote, and radical women in fighting the Equal Rights Amendment. They were quiet women who grew wheat and quiet women that helped others to read. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making it and your heart is as touched as mine was by the women of Relief Society and feel pride to be a part of such a wonderful organization.

The post Mormon Video: History of the Relief Society appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

It’s the 171th anniversary of the organization of the Relief Society, the women’s organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’ve had a lot of posts at Mormon Women about the Relief Society over the years. Today we repost a list that features many of them.

Information on the Mormon History of Relief Society

History of the Relief Society (video)

Daughters in My Kingdom 

Lessons from a leftover pizza: A visiting teaching miracle

“Daughters in My Kingdom” – New Relief Society book for LDS Women

Why I Love Relief Society

First Person: Love in a Cookie

The History and Purpose of the Mormon Relief Society

Mormon Men’s Thoughts on Relief Society

Small and Simple Things — Visiting Teaching Service in Day-to-Day Life

Mormon Women: At the crossroads of life through visiting teaching

Mormon Women in a Nutshell: The Relief Society Declaration

We also know that many people have questions about Mormon women and how they are viewed in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some are also curious about what life is like as a Mormon woman. Following are some posts that explore some of these questions.

Why would a woman choose Mormonism?

How does the Mormon Church view women?

Mormon Women and Education

Ask a Mormon Woman: Do Mormons…? (part 1)

If Mormons love children so much, why don’t they adopt?

What can you tell me about Mormon underwear? ( We get versions of this question asking if Mormon women wear special underwear.)

Ask a Mormon Woman: Why Do Mormons Wear Special Mormon Underwear?

Women in the LDS Church

Questions and Answers about Mormon Women

Mormon Women Muse about the “Mormon Moment”

What do Mormons think about polygamy?  + you may also like “Sister Wives” Polygamy is not Mormon Reality

Ask A Mormon Woman: What Do LDS Church Members Do For Fun?

Ask a Mormon Woman: Why Do Mormons Have So Many Kids?

Ask a Mormon Woman: Why Are There So Many Mormon Women Bloggers?

“The Mormon Network” – Mormons and Emergency Response

Do All Mormon Women Stay Home After Having Children?

Mormon Women and Service (Video)

Mormon Women Bloggers

Mormon Women on Pinterest

The post Relief Society Birthday Post: FAQs about Mormon Women appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.