I was born in Magrath, Alberta, Canada but consider my home to be Calgary, Alberta. I am a junior high French teacher by trade but my career now is full-time mom. My current calling in the Church is 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency.

I love photography (photographing my kids especially), making jewelry, traveling, eating out, watching movies with my husband, keeping active and being in the great outdoors.

Being challenged to read the Book of Mormon as a teenager during seminary changed my life and was the foundation of a rock solid testimony of the Savior and His teachings.

I love knowing that there is a plan for us on the earth – that families are forever. I love knowing that we aren’t perfect and that when we make mistakes we can go to a loving Savior who has made it possible for us to return to live with Him.

I know God loves me because I see it in the eyes of my children every day. I feel it in my heart as I kneel to pray, as we sit together for family home evening and I listen to my 5 year-old give the lesson, and as I sing “I Am a Child of God” every night to my son. I just know.
___
For more Portraits of Mormon Women, click here.

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

Seeking refuge from religious persecution in the 1880’s, ten LDS families moved north to settle southern Alberta, Canada. More followed. The settlements thrived despite the initial trepidation felt by their new Canadian neighbors. Through hard work and great farming skills the members were eventually accepted into the Canadian community. Many of the little towns just over the the US/Canadian border in Alberta were patterned after cities in Utah and have the grid system. There is even an LDS Temple in Cardston, Alberta. Some of the rural towns that are in Southern Alberta still have a 85% or more Mormon population. My maternal great-grandparents immigrated from Utah with their families to Alberta and my paternal great-grandparents were converts who were impressed by some Mormons who were working alongside them in building a canal in a small town in Southern Alberta. Pretty fun 🙂

Question #2 What are squares? The last time I visited Alberta, people kept asking their friends to bring “punch and squares” to pot luck events. Can you tell us what squares are and give us some good punch and squares recipes?

“Squares” are pretty much anything that you can bake in a 9×13 pan and cut up into squares to serve. Rice Krispie treats (or squares as a Canadian would call them), lemon bars(squares), puffed wheat squares, brownies, etc. are all squares. I think it makes sense 🙂 Mint brownies are probably my favorite “square”. My mom has an entire section in her cook book labeled Squares. They are the perfect to serve at any kind of church function or shower or pot luck. You just tell everyone to bring some kind of square and you end up with a variety of perfect bite sized treats.

Raspberry Squares

Bottom layer:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
1 cup raspberry jam

Top layer:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Bottom Layer: Combine all bottom layer ingredients in bowl. Mix together well until crumbly. Press into greased 9×9 pan.

Filling: Spread jam over bottom layer

Top Layer: Beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar, coconut, vanilla and baking powder. Stir to combine well. Spread over jam layer.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Cool and cut into squares to serve.

The punch to go along with the squares is always made from some kind of frozen slush that is usually frozen in an empty gallon ice cream bucket that’s made of sherbet and some kind of juice that you add gingerale too in a large punch bowl. Here’s a recipe for that too 🙂

Lime Punch

2 litres lime sherbet
2 litres gingerale
2 litres pineapple juice

Mix all together in a punch bowl. For garnish float some lime or lemon slices if desired.

*This recipe also works well with orange sherbet

The post Ask a Mormon Woman: Why Are There So Many Mormons in Southern Alberta, Canada? (And p.s. What are squares?) appeared first on Women in The Church of Jesus Christ.

Now, I’m a self-confessed writer and a long time lover of fairy tales, so I can’t help thinking that the best stories start with “Once upon a time…” So what better way to start the story of my life?

Once upon a time…there was a girl named Kimberly. I was a good girl for the most part, except when it came to eating vast quantities of cookies and perhaps not being too quick to do my chores when I had a good book on the go.

I was raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Though I was given opportunities to learn many things through church activities, I focused pretty much exclusively on my love of music and literature. Alas, anything I do with my hands tends to go amiss. Plants die. Thread knots. Baking burns. I find my greatest joy in writing, playing piano, and singing. At the age of thirty (that’d be now) it hit me that my talents fit well with motherhood. I’m finding ways to incorporate music and storytelling into the raising of my children.

I met my husband Neil at the age of twenty-two while sorting apples at a church welfare orchard. Talk about being blessed for giving service, eh? We were married the following year and awhile later moved to Forest Grove, Oregon where my husband attended Optometry school. We felt strongly, and had it confirmed through much prayer, that is was not yet time for us to have children. Now that was a tough prayer to accept the answer to! But as time passed the reasons for waiting became clear. Even so it was difficult to wait, but it was all the sweeter when Emma Ann arrived in June 2004 and Rebecca Lynn in January 2006.

When Neil graduated in May 2006 we moved to a small town in Northern British Columbia, where the church congregation [branch] ranges from 20-40 people attending each Sunday. Having grown up in a congregation of approximately 200, the change was a bit of a shock. Slowly we began to adjust, though it was difficult at first. There’s something about a small group that really hits home just how individual we all are. Dramas tend to escalate more quickly, rumours spread with a disturbing amount of speed, and if you want to avoid someone it’s awfully difficult to pull off.

I won’t deny it, I felt uncomfortable and out of place for quite some time. As the months went by though, I slowly came to know every individual in our congregation. Personality quirks began to make more sense, and as I learned the history of certain of our brothers and sisters, any frustrations I had had with them melted away and instead I was overcome by feelings of compassion and love. There are things I have learned here that I simply couldn’t have learned elsewhere. I’ve learned more about being Christ-like in the past three years than I learned in the rest of my life put together. Sometimes it takes extreme situations to help us learn what our Heavenly Father would have us learn. It’s been an amazing and awe-inspiring experience.

Last year was a year of intense changes for us. We bought our first house. We bought the Vision Clinic where Neil had been working. I had my first miscarriage. And then Neil was called to be the leader [branch president] of our small unit of quirky, but loveable saints. It hasn’t been easy for him. Neil is a kind, man with a generous heart, but he has little patience for unkindness in others. I’ve been able to share some of what I have come to feel and know about the people in our branch, to help him understand them better. This has strengthened our marriage exponentially, as I’ve felt the joy of helping him through a challenging experience, and he’s found new respect for me and the blessing my different perspective can be.

We are closer now than we ever have been, and as we look forward to the arrival of our third little girl this December, we know more than ever that the struggles we’ve experienced as individuals and as a couple have helped strengthen us for whatever might lie ahead. And as we teach our children a love of their Savior we experience afresh our own love for Him.

And I can’t help thinking…not bad for a chore-shirking, cookie-binging bookworm.

—

For more Portraits of Mormon Women, please click here.

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

This is Gladys. She is a Mormon Woman, lives in Canada, and today is her 87th birthday! (This picture was taken nearly 5 years ago with one of her great-grandsons.)

Gladys was born the youngest of 11 children –today, she is the only living sibling in her immediate family. Her parents came from Utah and settled in Canada before she was born. She has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her entire life, and she loves the gospel.

Gladys worked as a phone operator for 10 years, in a bank for 1 1/2 years in Salt Lake City (Utah), taught in schools as an aid in Idaho and Canada, and managed an LDS (Mormon) bookstore for 12 1/2 years. She retired at the age of 70! But her longest career so far has been that of a mother. She has 6 children, 21 grandchildren, 30 great-grandchildren (with 2 more on the way), and 1 great-great-grandchild.

For 43 years and 8 months, Gladys was married to the love of her life. He died nearly 11 years ago, but she says she still feels close to him in the Temple. One time, a grandchild asked her why she didn’t visit her husband’s grave at the cemetery. Gladys responded: “I know he is not there in the cemetery. His spirit is elsewhere; that’s just his body. When I want to feel close to my husband, I go to the Temple. That is where I can feel him and feel his love for me. Going there reminds me that I will see him again, soon.”

Gladys has many hobbies and talents. Some of them include: playing the organ and piano, singing, dancing, making angel food cakes and chocolates from scratch, and traveling. Dancing was always a part of her life. For decades, she would attend dances nearly 3 times a week. She even met her husband at a dance. “That was a different time,” she says of the dances. “We danced real dances back then; it was exercise!” Another hobby Gladys enjoys is visiting as many Temples as she can. To date, she has been to 19 different Mormon Temples. She loves to travel and has been to Lima, Peru; Jerusalem; Hawaii; and all over the United States and parts of Canada.

When Gladys was in her late 20’s, she had the opportunity to serve a mission for the Mormon Church. She was called to labor for 20 months in the Eastern United States Mission from 1948 to 1950. Of this experience, Gladys says, “Serving a mission strengthened my testimony greatly. We would track every day and usually I was the only one who could play the piano in the branches and wards (congregations). I served a month in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and then did the Hill Cumorah Pageant (A Witness for Christ) in Palmyra, New York, and practiced every day. Being around the Sacred Grove and places where the Church was restored really strengthened my testimony. Afterwards, I went to Norwich, New York for a year to serve…”

Recently, Gladys was a Visiting Teaching supervisor in her ward [congregation], and she served as a Temple Patron for 2 years (Temple Patrons are asked to attend the Temple twice a week during their call). When asked what she loves the most about being a Mormon Woman, she said: “Families can be together forever because we have Temples. I know I’ll see my family again. Also, we are taught from a young age the law of health (Word of Wisdom) which has given me health for life. I truly believe I am healthy because of it!

I’m 87 years old and doing great. I’m still active. I still love to be in my kitchen dipping 50 pounds of chocolates a year. I also make 150-200 cakes a year. Also, because we were taught to stay physically active, I was able to dance for many years. I know the gospel is a gift, and I’m grateful to have it in my life.”

——-
For more Portraits of Mormon Women, please click here.

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