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Editor’s note: We are thrilled to hear today from Phylicia. I first “met” Phylicia via her mormon.org profile (we have a mutual friend), and asked her to share a little more about herself here at Mormon Women: Who We Are.

Hello to ALL!!! My name is Phylicia. I’m a proud Texan, a jokester, a daughter to wonderful parents and I love to laugh. I enjoy watching NBA games/highlights (especially ones featuring the Dallas Mavericks) and being with friends and family. I believe time spent with those you love is completely irreplaceable and absolutely beautiful. I LOVE meeting new people and learning about them. I deeply appreciate God’s infinite wisdom in making all of His children so different. I LOVE playing volleyball. Ask me if I’m any good and I’ll be honest and say “not so much” and that’s not me being humble. I love trying new things even if I look really silly doing them. Although, I love many things the Lord has placed here for our own pleasure, there is nothing that I love more than God & His amazing plan for each and every one of His children. I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints for 3 years and my journey has been tremendous! I have learned much and grown much. I have definitely, since then, tried my best dedicate every waking moment to the Lord and His church. I believe my membership in the Church has allowed me to live stronger, laugh harder and love deeper. It has changed the way I see things. I try to be an optimist. Life is as fun as you make it. I believe laughing is a way of life!

Phylicia is a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A Mormon young man talked with her on a plane ride about God and the purpose of life. His faith and the “glow” she describes in his countenance left an impression on her and a week later, she began meeting with Mormon missionaries. 

On her mormon.org profile, Phylicia writes:

“I knew that [the message the missionaries shared] was true. They taught me many things all of which have blessed my life and helped me grow. My life has been changed since that day on the plane. Two months after that plane ride, the young man I met, Daniel, baptized me into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints….”

Phylicia continues: “After I was baptized I served a mission and was able to do service everyday and also help others learn about Jesus Christ and His true Gospel, or in other words His teachings. It was phenomenal. When you live what you believe others see it. I know because I saw it with my friend Daniel on the plane and hope to be the same example for others that he was and has been to me.”

You can read more about Phylicia and her faith on her mormon.org profile.

The post Portraits of Mormon Women: Phylicia appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Read part 1here

Emily is center back, in white. She is seen here with her dance instructor, who performed her baptism, and his family.

Now that Emily is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she sees herself differently.

“I have found a role and purpose as a woman, as a daughter of Heavenly Father – it has changed everything about me as a woman.”

In a world where Emily once felt very alone, she now has a church full of sisters. That is how the women in the LDS church refer to each other, as sisters. In addition to those loving and friendly ties at church Emily does have family connections.

Although Emily has little connection to those family members who caused her great harm as a child, she has a place in her extended family. When the traumatic events of her childhood forced her into foster care, Emily went to live with her grandmother, where they developed a loving relationship.

The LDS church believes that family connections can be continued after death through sacred ordinances that take place in temples. Emily knew that she wanted to have this eternal connection with her grandmother she loves dearly. So after being a member of the Mormon Church for only one week she was given permission to have eternal ordinances performed for her extended family. This included Emily’s opportunity to be baptized, by proxy, for her grandmother.

Now Emily continues the pattern she learned during her conversion process – taking life step by step. Because of the neglect Emily suffered as a child she has ongoing health concerns. The most serious of these is a heart condition called Cardiomyopathy, scarring of the muscles in her heart. She must go in every 6 months for procedures to remove and monitor the scarring in her heart. Each time this happens there is a chance that Emily will not live through the procedure. She is a young woman, with much of life ahead of her.

Despite all of Emily’s adversity she remains hopeful. She has relied on a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf [a member of the Church’s First Presidency] as she prepared for her medical procedures and fights the fear that is so natural in this situation. These are a few exerpts that Emily highlighted (notice the references to the heart, as she battles real heart-related health issues):

Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness. Its absence – when this desire of our heart is delayed – can make ‘the heart sick.’

Despair drains from us all that is vibrant and joyful and leaves behind the empty remnants of what life was meant to be. Despair kills ambition, advances sickness, pollutes the soul, and deadens the heart. Despair can seem like a staircase that leads only and forever downward.

Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Spirit will fulfill his promise to us… It is confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance.

Fear not… Never give in… Never surrender… Never allow despair to overcome your spirit… Embrace and rely upon the Holy One of Israel, for the love of the Son of God pierces all darkness, softens sorrow, and gladdens every heart.

When I asked Emily how she knows that God loves her she said that just being alive is enough to let her know God’s love. Then she said that she feels God’s love in knowing His plan, including the atonement of Jesus Christ. The fact that he taught that plan to her, step by step in a very personal way, communicates his love. Lastly, she knows God’s love for her because,

“When there was every reason in the world for me to believe the opposite, he sent this Deaf girl to dance, of all things, so that I would have a language to understand him and his love.”

Let’s all pray for Emily this week, as she is undergoing the medical procedures necessary to keep her heart going, so that our hearts will be knit together with hers in unity and strength. Pray that God will mercifully give her strength to continue on in this miraculous journey of healing that is such an inspiration to us all.

**Update: Emily’s procedures have gone well. The scarring in her heart has not recurred and the doctors reduced her medications. The hospital has even given her a scholarship, reducing Emily’s financial burdens. Many prayers are being answered!

The post Conversion Stories: Emily (part 2) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

This is Jennifer, and she is a Mormon woman — a woman who has had a significant impact on my life.

I first met Jennifer when I was a mousy 12-year-old, beginning the adventure called junior high school. Jennifer was my P.E. [physical education] teacher.

To help you understand one reason why she had such an influence on me, it might help to know a little about me. I wasn’t a typical teenager, especially not at first. I was socially backward, a bit of a tomboy, and more interested in studying and sports than in boys or clothes. If you were to read my “All About Me” journal from that stage in my life, my answer to the question “I like to spend most of my time thinking about….” was:

“Basketball.”

So, naturally, my P.E. teacher would be high on the list of people who might be able to impact my life. And Jennifer did. She was a young, dynamic, energetic teacher. I liked her enough as a teacher to sign up for her Spanish class as an eighth grader. She was as much fun there as she was in the gym. I got involved as a line caller for the volleyball team and I tried out and made the basketball team in the eighth and ninth grades. (Yes, you guessed it, she was the coach.)

I grew up in an area where there were many Mormons around, so it was not unusual for her to talk in Spanish class about her mission in Chile. I knew from the get-go that she was passionate about the Church, about her mission, about life, about people. She joined the Church when she was 17, and is the only Mormon in her family. [We’ll be featuring her conversion story on a later date.]

Junior high was a very difficult time for me, and being involved with sports was one of my saving graces. Having a teacher and coach like Jennifer made a difference. She believed in me. She encouraged me. It sounds cliché, but she was someone I could look up to. And she has lived up to that admiration.

We have kept in touch over the years. After I moved onto high school, Jennifer chose to change careers; she opened an office as an insurance agent and has built an incredibly successful business. She has fun maintaining contact with past students by helping them with their insurance needs. (We get birthday cards from her every year!)

Jennifer loves to golf. She loves to travel with friends and family. One of her favorite pastimes combines her love of travel and her love of sports: she set the goal to attend baseball games in all the stadiums in the United States!

Jennifer is 51 and has never married. This is what she says about being single in a church that highly values marriage and family:

“People have often said of me, ‘you have such a great attitude about being single.’ I usually reply, ‘What other options do I have?’ Life is too short and too full of opportunities to cry in your cup. The happiest single women I know are the ones who live their lives to the fullest, and THEN if the opportunity to marry comes along, they have already a rich life to share.

“When I was 18, and had been in the Church for just one year, I received my “Patriarchal Blessing,” which is a little like a “road map” to life, setting out our challenges, blessings in life. I was at the time “waiting” for “my missionary” whom I planned to marry, who would be home in 10 months. I listened as the Patriarch [the person who gives the blessing, or better said, gives voice to the blessing] said, ‘You will be sealed to a worthy young man in the temple, and share the glorious blessings of the priesthood’ (so far so good). Then he said, ‘be prepared to face disappointment and discouragement before you make your choice.’ Well, you could have knocked me right off that folding chair!  That certainly didn’t meet the requirements of the path that I had planned for my life! But now, 33 years later, that blessing has been one of the greatest sources of comfort I’ve ever had. When a romance doesn’t work out, I always think, ‘that’s okay, this too must all be part of the plan.’ I guess that’s why I’ve always had ‘such a good attitude’ about being single. (But He’d better be saving a really good one for me!!)  🙂 ”

It’s easy to see that one of the characteristics that I most admire in Jennifer is her trust in the Lord.

I have also, over the years, watched with admiration how she has devoted much time to her callings [church responsibilities] serving in the Young Women’s organization [for young women ages 12-18] in various capacities, including as a president. She has also served as a Primary president. She has taught Sunday School for the adults (called Gospel Doctrine). In her many callings, she has had numerous opportunity to work closely with — and even to teach! — priesthood leaders. We had an interaction about the fact that some people think that Mormon women are somehow second-class citizens, or less valued because they are not ordained to the priesthood. She had this to say in response:

“I am in awe of all that the Mormon men in my life do to help me. Some would say I am naïve, but I have served as a Primary president and a Young Women president, under two different bishops [congregation leaders], who continually asked “what can we do to help you?” Not to mention being a Gospel Doctrine teacher twice and having to teach in front of seminary teachers, institute teachers, stake presidents and a mission president, who have never made me feel any less than a brilliant gospel scholar.”

She also talks about some of the blessings that came through the years as she gave her heart to service. In particular, she reflects on the years she spent serving in the Young Women’s organization:

“I made dozens of friends with the women I served with, with the mothers of the young women I taught, and even with those young women themselves who are now in their 30s. I was so busy serving that I didn’t realize the Lord, without my noticing, had sent so many women into my life, whom I now consider my eternal friends. In giving, I got so much more back. I feel like it all comes down to: ‘You get what you give.'”

We talk sometimes in the Church about how all women can be mothers — nurturers — even if they are not raising children of their own. Jennifer exemplifies that kind of nurturing influence — with former students, with friends’ children, with the young women and children she has served, with missionaries who are serving (she’s an avid missionary writer).

A personal example comes from when I was serving a mission. When I arrived in South America, I was both excited and scared. I realized quickly that I had a long way to go before being able to fully understand and communicate. I could tell it was going to be a hard adjustment.

To my surprise and delight, Jennifer had planned ahead enough to get an aerogram mailed before I had even left the United States. Hers was the first letter I received. (If I recall correctly, it was waiting for me when I arrived in the country.) I still have that letter. Her words of encouragement and testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel still echo in my mind, still mean so much. I shared those words with my mom a few years ago when she was embarking on a three-year mission with my dad to a foreign language mission (speaking a language she didn’t know).

There are many other things I could share about Jennifer, but time and space won’t allow it for now. I look forward to letting her share more of herself at a later time. But suffice it to say that to me, Jennifer exemplifies so much of what Mormon womanhood is all about. She lives a life of confidence. She loves life, even as she acknowledges its challenges. She knows who she is. She knows that God loves her and that He is aware of her and involved in her life. She faces trials (including decades of chronic health struggles) and disappointments with faith and perseverance — and with a balanced blend of realism and humor. She has dedicated much of her time to serving others. I count it a blessing to call her my friend and a dear sister in the gospel.

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