This one in a series of posts in which I will share some of the things I have experienced because I am a Mormon. In each of these posts, I will give you a basic background and share a small experience. I hope that through the sharing of these small things you can have a glimpse into my experience as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will also try to explain principles and doctrines of my faith that bring me so much happiness.

Background: During my junior year of college I lived in an apartment with wonderful friends. I attended church with them in a congregation (ward) made entirely from college-age young men and women within a four block radius. My responsibility was to serve as first counselor in the Relief Society presidency. You can read about what a Relief Society President does here. We visited many young women and organized many activities. One of my responsibilities was to see that Sunday meetings always had a teacher, music, and that an uplifting message from the manual was being taught.

The Body hath Need of Every Member

I have always been wary of big social situations. Add to my shyness the highly charged dating environment of a “singles ward” at Brigham Young University and that I had just broken up with someone in the room and you can visualize me sneaking out the back door of the party to go home and hide in my apartment.

So what I tell you about this experience is not boasting. I was simply escaping a really stressful social situation when I decided to visit this young woman.

As a member of a Relief Society presidency, I was aware of an apartment with 4 girls who were not coming to church on my pathway home. As I scurried down the street, I decided to knock on the door of this apartment and say hello.

The only young woman who was home that evening answered the door wearing her usual hat with her long blond hair streaming down her back. I knew her name, but nothing about her. I told her that I needed a place to escape and she invited me in. We talked for a long time. She showed me her collections. I learned she had served a mission for the Church. I learned that she was a cancer survivor. She removed her hat to show me that one of the consequences of her brain tumor was that her hair wouldn’t grow back on the crown of her head. “Male pattern baldness” was the reason she always wore hats.

I’m not fooling when I tell you that I admired her. So often as I have visited women over the years for Relief Society, I have found unique and beautiful stories. Mormon women are incredibly diverse. Some may dress alike or act in similar ways, but visit a Mormon woman in her home and you will see that she is no copy.

Our friendship grew. It was natural that we would share things that were important to us. She shared her books. I just liked talking with her. I invited her to come back to church.

Within a few months she and her roommates did come back to church. It was a happy time to see them feel welcome there. I got married at the end of the school year and we said goodbye and I moved away.

My friend’s cancer returned while I was living in New Mexico and she passed away about a year after we had met.

My desire to see my friend come to church was a little bit like the desire I have to see her again in heaven. Truly, the Church has need of every member, quiet and outgoing, healthy and unhealthy, rich and poor, wounded and strong.

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:4

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12

Also the body hath need of every member, that all may be edified together, that the system may be kept perfect. Doctrine and Covenants 84:110

This one in a series of posts in which I will share some of the things I have experienced because I am a Mormon. In each of these posts, I will give you a basic background and share a small experience. I hope that through the sharing of these small things you can have a glimpse into my experience as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will also try to explain principles and doctrines of my faith that bring me so much happiness.

Background: Richard and I were married while we were still in college. Mormons attend church according to a map; we do not choose our congregation. It is assigned to us based on the location of our home. Our first congregation (ward) in Provo had a wonderful mixture of ages, talents, and backgrounds. We were asked to serve in the Primary organization, teaching the 9-11 year olds on Sunday. Richard taught the boys and I taught the girls. I also served as a leader for the girls for their weekday activities on Wednesday afternoons. The Primary organization is for children under the age of 12 to be taught the gospel through Sunday school lessons and group lessons that are rich in interactive activities and songs. Primary is a fun place to serve.

Pressed down, shaken together, and running over

It was 1997 and Richard and I had graduated from college and were preparing to move to Texas. For nearly two years I had taught my small group of girls each Sunday. We had traveled through the Book of Mormon and perhaps the New Testament together in our lessons. They had held newborn Paige and watched her grow old enough to crawl and try to walk. We had spent many Wednesday afternoons together, learning the names of trees and plants, baking pies, learning to sew, collecting photos for their scrapbooks, and doing many things I can no longer remember.

These girls were in my thoughts during the week as I read the scriptures to prepare lessons. My Saturday nights were devoted to these girls, making fun activities for them to experience the scriptures the next day.

I was sad to leave them, and I was surprised to learn that they had organized a goodbye party for me. One morning, Richard discovered them carrying two large cakes down the street that they had purchased for me from the Provo Bakery. They had also prepared water balloon activities on the church lawn. Never having been the popular type, I had not expected a party.

I regret that I lost touch with these girls. They would be around 25 or 26 years old now. They may not remember me and I would probably not recognize them as grown women. However, my memories of them carry extra emotion because they were the first of many Primary children I would teach and love over the years.

There were practical and spiritual blessings from teaching Primary. The notes that I took in the margins of my scriptures for lessons are still a treasure to me. I sat at the feet of an amazing chorister who modeled the way to effectively lead the music for children. My next Primary responsibility (calling) in Texas was to lead the music. I was so thankful for what Sister Uharriet taught me.

There were blessings of the heart from teaching Primary. The children didn’t know my inexperience and they accepted me. I accepted them, their little feet balancing on the fence around my yard and their silly giggles at church. Teaching in Primary gave me confidence and a serving of love that I needed.

Their sweet ways and their memorable final act of gratitude filled my heart in good measure.

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:38

This is the first of a series of posts in which I will share some of the things I have experienced because I am a Mormon. In each of these posts, I will give you a basic background and share a small experience. I hope that through the sharing of these small things you can have a glimpse into my experience as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will also try to explain principles and doctrines of my faith that bring me so much happiness.

Background: From the age of 27 to 30, I served as the Relief Society President in my congregation (ward) in Austin, TX. The Relief Society is the women’s organization of my church. Every adult woman at church is a member of the Relief Society. A Relief Society President sits in council with the priesthood leaders of the congregation and works closely with the Bishop (similar to a pastor) of the congregation in seeing to the temporal and spiritual needs of women and families. A Relief Society President presides in Relief Society Meetings, overseeing the teachers and doctrines taught. She assists the Bishop in the welfare program of the church to provide opportunities for work, food, and other necessities for those in need. A Relief Society President spends time visiting the homes of members. She provides special service to families after the death of a family member, providing comfort and assistance. Under the direction of the Bishop, a Relief Society President oversees the women in the congregation in service and sending them to visit and teach other women. She seeks out those in need and those who are not attending church. The ultimate purpose of the Relief Society is to help save souls.

Six Muffins and a Few Wishes

It was 2003 or 2004 in Austin, Texas and I was serving as the Relief Society President of my congregation (ward). My purse was empty and my baby Timothy was always on my hip. Our budgeting over the past few years had led to a cash-in-specified-envelopes system which gave me tangible proof that our income was limited and that my natural impulse to buy gifts had to be curtailed.

A woman in our congregation had just brought home her new baby from the hospital. She was new to the area and had not had an opportunity to make friends. Although I didn’t visit every new mother as one of my Relief Society duties, I knew that it was important that I visit this one.

“How could I visit a new mother without a baby gift?” I sighed. I had a blueberry muffin mix in the pantry, so I baked her some muffins, loaded my children into the wagon, and began the walk to her apartment.

As I pulled my little wagon with two little boys inside through the wooded apartment complex, a woman opened the door of her apartment and called out to me, “Could you use some baby shoes?”

She had in her hands two new pairs of baby girl shoes that she wished to give to me. She told me that she had seen me and knew that she should give them to me. I didn’t have baby girls, but I told her that I was on my way to visit a mother of a new baby girl and that the shoes would go to her. I thanked her for following the impulse to be generous to a stranger.

The woman with the shoes was not a member of my church. I had not prayed for a miracle. I was just acting in my calling, following an impression that I needed to visit someone in need.

I call this my loaves and fishes experience because my gift was miraculously multiplied. The Lord knew the woman I was going to visit and He loved her. The feelings that I had were strong that I should visit her. He knew my financial situation and my heart and he placed someone in our path who could help. Through this experience and many others, I saw that the Lord’s hand is in the work of the Relief Society. He trusts women to do important and difficult things in His church, but sometimes it is the simple acts that make the biggest impact. I saw His love for the individual and a concern for details. He provided a beautiful baby gift for this new mother when all I had to offer was 6 muffins and a few unspoken wishes that I could give more.