r.s. birthday program script

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Moderator In March 1842, work was progressing on the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, but the men providing the labor were in need of shirts. A group of women seeking to provide relief for their needs presented a petition to the prophet, Joseph Smith, to formally organize a ladies’ society for this purpose. So, on March 17 th , Joseph Smith, along with Elders John Taylor and Willard Richards met with twenty women in the local Masonic Hall to formally organize the Relief Society of Nauvoo. The object of the society, according to Joseph, would be: To have the sisters provoke the brethren to good works To look to the wants of the poor To search after objects of charity To administer to their wants To assist in correcting and strengthening the morals and virtues of the community. Essentially, Joseph was telling them to be good wives, good friends, good neighbors and good examples; to pay attention to those in their community who were in need and to help them. These purposes still apply to us today. During the past 159 years, the Relief Society has grown and evolved from its humble beginnings with 20 faithful sisters in a borrowed hall in a small, Illinois town to a worldwide organization consisting of millions of members. The evolution of the Relief Society, and the legacy of the women who fueled it, is the topic of our program this evening. We hope to provide you with a greater knowledge of the kind of women who founded and nurtured this Society and to leave you feeling a stronger sense of the sisterhood we share with them. Since its beginning, 13 women have served as the General President of the Relief Society. Were they ordinary women? Yes. Were they great women? Yes. But they 1

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Page 1: R.S. Birthday Program Script

Moderator

In March 1842, work was progressing on the construction of the Nauvoo Temple, but the men providing the labor were in need of shirts. A group of women seeking to provide relief for their needs presented a petition to the prophet, Joseph Smith, to formally organize a ladies’ society for this purpose. So, on March 17th, Joseph Smith, along with Elders John Taylor and Willard Richards met with twenty women in the local Masonic Hall to formally organize the Relief Society of Nauvoo. The object of the society, according to Joseph, would be:

To have the sisters provoke the brethren to good works To look to the wants of the poor To search after objects of charity To administer to their wants To assist in correcting and strengthening the morals and virtues of

the community.

Essentially, Joseph was telling them to be good wives, good friends, good neighbors and good examples; to pay attention to those in their community who were in need and to help them. These purposes still apply to us today.

During the past 159 years, the Relief Society has grown and evolved from its humble beginnings with 20 faithful sisters in a borrowed hall in a small, Illinois town to a worldwide organization consisting of millions of members.

The evolution of the Relief Society, and the legacy of the women who fueled it, is the topic of our program this evening. We hope to provide you with a greater knowledge of the kind of women who founded and nurtured this Society and to leave you feeling a stronger sense of the sisterhood we share with them. Since its beginning, 13 women have served as the General President of the Relief Society. Were they ordinary women? Yes. Were they great women? Yes. But they were extraordinarily great in the service they performed in their Heavenly Father’s kingdom here on earth.

How do you want to be remembered by those who will attend this birthday celebration a hundred years from now? If you don’t already know the answer to that question, I hope you will by the end of this program.

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We’ll begin in July 1830. The prophet, Joseph Smith, had just received a revelation in which the Lord called Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, “an elect lady.” Twelve years later, Joseph read this revelation, which is now the 25th section of the D&C, to the men and women gathered to organize the Relief Society. Joseph explained that Emma had been called an “elect lady” because she would be elected to preside as the first president of the Relief Society. After the women elected Emma, at the age of 37, to serve as their president, Elder John Taylor ordained and set her apart along with her counselors. In her blessing, Emma was counseled to be a “pattern of virtue and possess all the qualifications necessary for her to stand and preside and dignify her office”. Elder Taylor then suggested that they name their new organization The Nauvoo Female Benevolent Society.

Emma Hale Smith (1842-1844)

Emma: I objected to the word “benevolent”. To me, it was too closely associated with some of the corrupt organizations in our town. I did not want our society to follow the popular institutions of our day. We were going to set our own course! We were going to do something extraordinary. We expected extraordinary occasions and pressing calls! Our duty was to seek out the distressed and to relieve them. We were to be women ambitious to do good. I thought that our organization should be called simply The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. And so it was.

We had so much work to do assisting the poor, welcoming new members into the area, and taking care of the sick, not to mention contending with all of the anti-Mormon persecution. By the summer of 1842, we had so many members that no building in Nauvoo could accommodate us. We began to meet outside in the grove near the temple site. Because we were meeting outdoors, we were unable to meet together during the winter, but we continued to help and serve each other as best we could. In fact, we organized a “necessity committee” which was the forerunner to your modern day “visiting teaching” program.

By June 1843, the Church had so many members that we had to divide into 4 wards. I suggested that we also divide the Relief Society into separate ward groups while maintaining just the one set of officers. We appointed 4 women in each ward to constitute the “necessity committees”, their job being to search out and assist those in their wards who were poor and suffering. We held our meetings, most of the time, in member’s homes, but soon, even these could not accommodate our growing numbers. I wanted to be able to have all

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the sisters gathered together again under one roof. We started trying to find a building large enough, but little did we know, that soon enough we would no longer have a need for one.

Narrator: Emma was the first compassionate service coordinator because, by nature, she was a very compassionate woman and she labored tirelessly to serve those in need.

At the time of their last recorded meeting on March 16, 1844, the membership in the R.S. had grown to over 1,300. But throughout the following months, the escalating turmoil and persecution of the Saints led not only to the martyrdom of the Prophet, but to their eventual expulsion from Illinois. For nearly twenty years, the Relief Society ceased to function as a formal organization.

After the Saints arrived in the Salt Lake valley, several informal relief societies operated with the function of providing friendship and aid to the local Indian populations and to supporting the members of the newly arriving handcart companies.

Finally, in 1866, President Brigham Young initiated the Churchwide reorganization of the Relief Society. He appointed Eliza R. Snow to help the bishops establish the R. S. in every ward. When the R.S. was still in its infancy, Emma’s role as president consisted mainly of compassionate service work among the Saints. But when Eliza took the position, she began to develop and diversify its duties to encompass all of what is now associated with a Relief Society President.

Eliza Roxey Snow (1866-1887)

Eliza: Although I became the acting R.S. president in 1866, I was not formally called and set apart until fourteen years later. For most of my life I had been known primarily for my work as a poet. I wrote many poems and prose that became some of our Hymns. I even wrote and published a poem for two of our former U.S. presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, when they died on July 4, 1826. Although I received quite a bit of recognition for this piece, I didn’t write it to become famous. I wrote it because I was born a patriot. I love my country and the flag that represents it. I am grateful that my ancestors fought valiantly for our freedom.

When I became the R.S. president at the age of 76, I began the arduous task of visiting all of the sisters in over 300 wards across both Utah and Idaho. My board members and I told the sisters about the original Relief Society in Nauvoo, and bore our testimonies of Joseph Smith as a prophet of God. But this constant traveling became so

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inefficient as a means of training the sisters that in 1877, we began to appoint Stake Relief Society presidents and boards.

When the Church began to urge our members to move towards becoming more economically self-sufficient, a number of bold and exciting enterprises began to emerge.

During the U.S. Centennial Celebration of 1876, I was responsible for collecting handmade items from the sisters and displaying them at an exposition to be held in both in Philadelphia and Salt Lake. This fair opened July 4th and ran for 2 months. When it closed, I realized that this was an opportunity for us to sell these items for a profit. We started the Women’s Commission Store, which became a very prosperous business.

We also established a grain storage program and even helped finance the medical training of midwives and female medical doctors. With the support of the local wards, our R.S. board was even able to establish our own hospital, which we named The Deseret.

We continued to be politically active as well. We encouraged women to vote and actively campaigned for women’s suffrage.

We also felt that our teenage daughters and younger children should be organized and supported in their respective endeavors so we began the Young Women’s organization and the Primary.

My mother once said to me, “Let your first business be to perform your duties at home. Inasmuch as you are wise steward, you will find time for social duties, because these are incumbent upon us as daughters and mothers in Zion. By seeking to perform every duty, you will find that your capacity will increase, and you will be astonished at what you can accomplish.”

I know there are many sisters here whose labors are not known beyond your own homes and are, perhaps, not even appreciated there. But what difference does it make? If your labors are acceptable to God, however simple they are, if they are faithfully performed, you should never be discouraged.

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Narrator: When Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were martyred in 1844, Eliza was so overwhelmed with grief that she was unable to eat or sleep and even pled with the Lord to let her die also. One night, as she lay in bed, Joseph appeared to her and told her that although his mission on earth was complete, hers was not—the Lord desired her to live and to help build up His kingdom. She was to be of good cheer and help lighten the burdens of others.

Eliza possessed special gifts of the spirit, and many individuals recorded blessings she had given them that resulted in healings and prophecies concerning their future potential. One historian wrote that Eliza’s image took on a special holiness and the kind of mysterious aura that surrounds the sacred ordinances of the temple.

One of the highlights of Eliza’s life was accompanying President George A. Smith to the Holy Land in 1872, when he rededicated the land for the return of the Jews. There she basked in the spirit of the Savior as they visited many of the places where he had lived and ministered. Eliza was once quoted as saying, “To be able to do Father’s will is what I wish to live for.”

Eliza R. Snow indeed lived to become a legend in her own time. Women, now as then, honor her as a great woman, but to the practical Eliza, “greatness” was simply “usefulness”.

An organizer of rare ability, Eliza even tended to the details of her own funeral with the same energy and strength of purpose as she had tended to countless R.S. projects during her 21 years as president. At her funeral, she asked that the choir sing her masterpiece “O My Father” which speaks of returning to live with our heavenly parents. She also requested that the Assembly Hall be draped in white and filled with white flowers. She wanted no black, only white, …the symbol of hope.

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Zina D.H. Young (1888-1901)

Narrator: After Eliza’s death in Dec. 1887, her 1st Counselor, Zina D.H. Young became the 3rd R.S. President, at the age of 66. Zina had been a valiant leader and had served as the consummate educational counselor.

Zina had been baptized, at the age of 14, by Hyrum Smith, and soon after began to realize her own potential in the gospel.

Zina: Not long after I was baptized, the gift of tongues rested upon me with overwhelming force. I was somewhat alarmed at this strange manifestation, and so I tried to not use it. However, I soon discovered that because of this, the gift left me entirely, and I felt that I had offended the Holy Spirit by which I had been so richly blessed.

I suffered a great deal in my feelings over this matter. One day, as I was taking a walk in a nearby meadow, I thought about my blessing and how I had turned away the Spirit. I knelt down and offered up a prayer to God and told Him if He could forgive my transgression, and give me back my gift, I would promise never to hold it back again, no matter where or when I felt its prompting.

I have kept this promise, but it has been a heavy cross to bear at times, for I know that this gift is the least of all of the spiritual gifts, and it is often misunderstood and even treated lightly by those who don’t understand it. Yet it is a gift of God, and I have been blessed to have the opportunity to use it often, especially in the company of Sister Eliza Snow, who had the gift of speaking in tongues. I have taken great pleasure in using the Spirit to interpret many of her hymns and sacred songs.

In my patriarchal blessing, I was also promised that I would be blessed with other gifts as well. I was promised that I would witness the ministering of angels which did occur later in the Kirtland Temple. My sister and I were on our knees praying, along with the whole congregation, when suddenly we heard, from one corner of the room above our heads, a choir of angels singing. They were invisible to us, but a myriad of angelic voices seemed to be united in singing some song of Zion, and their sweet harmony filled the temple of God.

Narrator: Sister Zina was known for the love and sympathy she expressed so freely to those around her. People were drawn to her tender manner, and she became known affectionately as “Aunt Zina”.

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Her tenderness, though, never undermined her strength and resolve to carry forth her duties as a mother in Zion.

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In March 1846, just a few weeks after leaving Nauvoo with the first company of Saints, Zina had been traveling one morning for about 5 miles when she suddenly called for a halt in their march. There on the banks of the Chariton River, she gave birth to her son, Henry. When the wagons began to move on, she again joined in the march although she had to stop occasionally to catch her breath.

Her husband was in England at the time, on a mission for the Church. Unfortunately, after serving this mission, he settled in California and they were never reunited again as husband and wife. When the Saints began their westward trek, Zina was sealed to Brigham Young and came under his wing of security.

Zina: Shortly after we arrived in Salt Lake, Brigham suggested that I should take a 2 week course in obstetrics from a doctor who was visiting our area. I did so, and soon after I commenced in delivering the babies of Brigham’s wives and other women. I even made my own medicinal home remedies, my favorite of which was an ointment I used for treating lower back strains and rheumatism. You take 4 good-sized live toads and put them in boiling water and cook them until they are very soft. Take them out; boil the water down to ½ pint and add 1 pound of fresh butter. Simmer and then add 2 oz. tincture arnica.

Narrator: Zina went on to establish the Deseret Hospital, started a nursing school and a school of obstetrics.

During her administration, the Relief Society’s economic and political activities continued. They affiliated themselves with the National Woman Suffrage Association and the International Council of Women. They became a charter member of the National Council of Women and, became incorporated in October 1892 as the National Woman's Relief Society.

And as if acting as a political activist and delivering most of the babies in Salt Lake didn’t keep her busy enough, Zina also became a successful captain of industry. Because it would take over 10 years to establish an adequate cotton supply to produce the cloth they needed for clothing, Zina became adept in teaching the women the art of raising silkworms from eggs in order to harvest the silk for cloth. She started the Deseret Silk Assoc. in 1876 and served as its president for over 20 years.

Zina: I abhorred silkworms. They were a “terror”. I became plagued with nightmares about feeding the worms, but somehow I endured. I fed millions of them myself, and watched our silk industry enjoy 25 years of success.

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Narrator: As politically and economically involved as the R.S. was in the western United States, these activities never displaced its primary concern for spiritually nurturing the members and caring for the poor. While Zina was serving as first counselor under Eliza Snow, they traveled thousands of miles by wagon and carriage to visit wards throughout the territory. Frequently on these trips, these two women would have to make unscheduled stops to repair wagon wheels or to fix a broken buggy tongue, and often found themselves camping out under the stars at night. Remember that by this time, Zina, was around 60 years old and Eliza was in her mid 70’s.

When the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893, the first presidency called Zina to serve as the temple matron, in addition to her duties as the general Relief Society president. She served faithfully in both callings for the last 8 years of her life.

Fittingly, her gravestone is now inscribed with the Relief Society motto, “Charity never faileth”.

Zina: I know this is the Church and Kingdom of God, and I have rejoiced in putting my testimony before you daughters of Zion, that your faith may be strengthened, and that the good work of the gospel might roll on. Seek for your testimony, as you would, my dear sisters, for a diamond concealed. If someone told you that by digging long enough in a certain spot you would find a diamond of unmeasured wealth, do you think you would begrudge one moment of your time or one ounce of your strength, or one cent of your means spent to obtain that treasure? If you will dig in the depths of your own hearts, you will find, with the aid of the Spirit of the Lord, the pearl of great price, the testimony of the truth of this work.

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Bathsheba W. Smith (1901-1910)

Narrator: After Zina’s death, her 2 nd Counselor, Bathsheba W. Smith, became the 4th R.S. president at the age of 79. As much as Zina had been the consummate 1st counselor for Eliza – contributing to the education of the sisters, Bathsheba was her equal in the 2nd counselor’s role as a Homemaking Leader.

Her strongest skills lay in spinning, weaving, sewing, and homemaking, which sustained her in the various moves she made and the homes she established. Her strongest character traits lay in her devotion to her husband and family and in her diligence to make any place she lived a home.

Bathsheba: At the age of 18, I was the youngest woman present at the organization of the Relief Society, and later in my life I became the last living survivor to have witnessed it. I joined the church when I was 15 years old after hearing some Latter-day Saint Elders preach in our neighborhood. I believed what they taught. I believed the Book of Mormon to be a divine record, and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God. I knew by the spirit of the Lord, which I received in answer to prayer, that these things were indeed true. One of the missionaries was George A. Smith, the Prophet’s cousin. Three years later, we were married, 14 days after he returned from serving a mission in England.

I was always a meticulous housekeeper, taking great pride in the appearance of my home and myself. I grew up in a well-to-do family in a beautiful home in West Virginia. When George and I moved into our first house, on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, the roof leaked and the chimney smoked and was otherwise uncomfortable. I moved 5 times that year, into homes that were shabby, at best.

When we moved to Nauvoo, we rented an unfurnished log home from Bishop Knight. The windows did not have glass, so I had to hang blankets in them to keep out the cold. George built a brick chimney but soon we discovered that it smoked as well.

Recognizing our dilemma, the prophet gave us a small log home to live in. My husband fixed up the house the best he could, but after all, it was the worst looking house we had lived in yet. I was ashamed to have any of my acquaintances see me in such a place. It did, however, have the desirable qualities of neither smoking nor leaking.

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In 1849 when we began our move from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake, I employed all of the homemaking skills I possessed in an attempt to make our wagon as accommodating as any home. We laid a frame across the back part of our wagon on which we made our bed. We had a door in one side of the wagon cover and a window on the opposite side. A step-ladder was used to ascend to our door, which was between the wheels, and on the inside, I hung a looking-glass and candlesticks. In the center of our wagon, we had room for four chairs, where we, and our two children, sat and rode when we chose. The floor of our traveling house was carpeted, and we made ourselves as comfortable as we could under the circumstances.

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Narrator: Among her many abilities, Bathsheba made cotton cloth for diapers, dresses, bedspreads, and mattresses. She made candles; spun and wove tablecloths and towels; knit stockings, socks, hats, scarves, mittens and encouraged the other sisters to become every bit as self-sufficient as she was.

Building on her interest in home industry, the R.S. started holding classes which taught lessons on marriage, prenatal care, child rearing, industry, obedience, honesty and reverence. Thus their Home Enrichment Meetings were born.

Under her direction, the general presidency and board published the first R.S. handbook and established their official headquarters in Salt Lake. Since they were housed in the same building as the YW, the Primary, the presiding bishopric, and the church magazines, the interdependence between priesthood and Relief Society leaders became apparent. They began meeting together more regularly to discuss their common concerns such as charity and community work.

Bathsheba believed that one of the most important things she could do as president of the Relief Society was to serve in the temple. She worked in the temples in Nauvoo, the Endowment House in Salt Lake, the Manti and Logan temples and coordinated the women’s work at the Salt Lake Temple until her death in 1910.

In her unfailing devotion to husband, family, and home, and her dedication in teaching the sisters how to become more self-sufficient, Bathsheba set a great example of the kind of wife, homemaker and devoted daughter of Heavenly Father that we need to become.

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Emmaline B. Wells (1910-1921)

After Bathsheba’s death, Emmaline B. Wells was called to serve as the 5th president of the Relief Society. At the age of 82, she became the oldest woman to be chosen for that position. She was also the last president to serve solely in the 20th century who had personally known all 4 of the previous presidents.

Barely 5 feet tall and weighing only 100 pounds, her dynamic personality provided a distinct contrast to her small size. A friend related that “the dominant characteristic of Sister Well’s life was her supreme will”. She was a great woman in a small package, but by using her forceful will to perform her gospel duties, she made a righteous impact on the building up of Zion.

The sisterhood of the women and their causes filled her 93 years. Her life revolved around the women she loved and served. She knew there was no excellence without labor. She taught her 5 daughters that a woman’s mission upon the earth was not just to bear children, although motherhood brought a zest and richness to life like nothing else. But a woman’s usefulness didn’t end there, and other individual interests needed to be nourished and developed.

Emmaline: In September 1876, Brigham Young asked me to direct a project for the women involving the gathering and storing of wheat. I accepted this responsibility and began asking women throughout the territory to gather the wheat that was scattered along the fences and ditch banks after the harvest. We donated this wheat to the poor and loaned, or sold, several thousand bushels to farmers for spring planting.

This wheat storage program became one of our most successful long-term projects. As a result of our efforts, the grain storage program eased the effects of the drought of 1898, helped survivors of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, and fed thousands of people during WWI. At the end of the war in 1918, we sold over 100,000 bushels to the U.S. government for $412,000. President Woodrow Wilson even thanked me personally for our assistance.

I had always been a fervent political activist, especially in pursuit of women’s rights, so, as a writer, I began to publish my beliefs that “a good Mormon is not silent; silence means consent.” I didn’t want just the crumbs for women. I wanted the whole loaf of bread.

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At 49, I became the editor of the Women’s Exponent, which was the Church magazine for women, where I wrote hundreds of articles on women’s issues. I became President of the Utah Women's Suffrage Association and fought diligently for women’s rights and for obtaining statehood for Utah. Many people thought it seemed peculiar that two groups of women as different as Mormon plural wives from Utah and feminist leaders from the East should become part of the same women’s movement. But the fact is that each of us had something the other group wanted, and we realized we could help each other. We had the right to vote, which they wanted for all women, and we believed, like they did, that legislation should not limit women’s rights. So although they did not understand or condone plural marriage, they did believe that we, as women, should have the right to live it if we chose to do so.

Through my work with the women’s suffrage association, I became good friends with Susan B. Anthony. She gave me a gold ring as a symbol of the “sympathy of two great women for one great cause”. In return, I gave her a dress, made of the finest Utah silk, for her 80th birthday. It was our friendship, in large part, which helped to encourage the relationship we enjoyed with the women involved in the suffrage movement.

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Narrator: Emmeline’s work as a writer and political activist established her as an intellectual leader among the women in Utah. On her 84th birthday, she was honored to become only the 2nd person and 1st woman ever to receive an honorary doctorate degree of Literature from BYU. Only 100 women nationally had ever received an honorary degree from any university.

But it was Emmeline’s efforts in the R.S. that established her as a spiritual leader.

Although she suffered from depression throughout most of her life, the prose of her personal journals revealed her private suffering, while the poetry of her life revealed her public strength. In 1917, when she moved into the Hotel Utah in downtown Salt Lake, so that she could work into the night in her R.S. office nearby, her life had come full circle. 69 years before, on the site where the hotel now stood, she had given birth in back of a covered wagon to her first daughter, Isabel.

Amusingly, Emmeline attributed her vigor to the fact that she was born on a leap-year day and only had a birthday every fourth year. When President Heber J. Grant went to her home on April 2, 1921, and released her as R.S. president after 11 years of service, she was surprised.

Though she was ill at the time, she had assumed that hers was a lifetime calling. After all, she had fallen down an elevator shaft once and had also been hit by a streetcar, both of which happened while she was president, and on neither occasion had there been talk of a release. However, after President Grant left that day, she suffered a stroke on her way back upstairs.

She lay comatose for nearly 3 weeks before dying on April 25, 1921. Her funeral was one of the largest ever held in the Tabernacle. On April 29, flags flew at half-mast in Utah to commemorate her death – the first time this had ever been done in honor of a woman.

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Wrap-up

The legacies left (point to the hall tree) by these women continue to inspire those of us who follow in their paths.

Emma Smith was just an ordinary woman who expected extraordinary occasions and pressing calls. Her greatness was revealed in her compassionate service to the poor and the sick, and in visiting new Church members and making them feel welcome.

Eliza R. Snow reminded us that usefulness is greatness. She became a useful servant of God by developing her talents in industry and in becoming self-sufficient. She used her literary talents and her spiritual gifts to leave us her legacy in the beautiful poems and hymns that she wrote. Zina D.H.Young’s left us her legacy of greatness in her willingness to serve where she was called, even when her duties were less than desirable. She read and claimed the promises of her patriarchal blessing, and used her own spiritual gifts to bless the lives of others.

Bathsheba Smith was an ordinary woman who worked at continually developing her great homemaking skills and in teaching them to others. She served faithfully in the temple doing the work for those who could no longer work for themselves.

Emmeline Wells realized that each of us, as women, have a mission to develop our own talents and spiritual gifts in becoming great women in our own right. Tonight, we celebrate with her, our international sisterhood as great women working together for great causes.

All of these women, like us, were just ordinary. But what made them great was the faithful use of their God-given talents and spiritual gifts to serve those around them to their fullest potential.

In whatever century we have lived, the underlying thread that unites all of us is that we are all ordinary women with the capacity for greatness. We are the Relief Society of the Lord’s church, and though it has changed and grown through the years, we have always exemplified our motto, that "Charity Never Faileth" for as Moroni wrote, "charity is the pure love of Christ, which endureth forever".

May our legacies endure, like those of our sisters who have gone before, and may we exemplify the pure love of Christ in the service we provide to each other is my prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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