Women and Gospel Learning in the Home
President Henry B. Eyring
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📖 general conference
The speaker's mother created a colored map of the Apostle Paul's travels, which left a lasting impression on him and exemplified nurturing through gospel teaching.
The same outpouring can come in any family gathering if you pray and plan for it. It may take effort and time, but it will bring miracles. I remember a lesson my mother taught when I was little. I can still see in my mind the colored map she had made of the travels of the Apostle Paul. I wonder how she found the time and energy to do that. And to this day I am blessed by her love for that faithful Apostle.
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Women and Gospel Learning in the Home
President Henry B. Eyring
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📖 general conference
The sons of Helaman were strengthened by the teachings and faith of their mothers, who assured them that God would deliver them if they did not doubt.
Another example of the Lord"™s using the nurturing gifts of women is the way He strengthened the sons of Helaman. I get a lump in my throat when I read the account and remember my own mother"™s quiet words of assurance as I left home for military service.
Helaman recorded:
"They had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.
"And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it."4Alma 56:47"“48
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Women and the Priesthood
Elder William J. Critchlow, Jr.
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
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📖 general conference
A sister in the Church questions the nature of priesthood and why women can't have it, prompting the speaker to draft a series of increasingly detailed responses.
A good sister in the Church sent me a lengthy letter—a sort of diatribe, I would call it—on the subject of priesthood. 'Why is it,' she asked, 'that so many preachers cannot tell us what it [priesthood] is? . . . Please tell me something of its substance—its contents, etc. Describe it [meaning, I take it, What does it look like?]. Why can't I have it?' And then, by inference, Why am I a woman?
Answering her, I wrote:
Dear Sister . . . . :I don't know.
Sincerely your brother, ... (continued)
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Women and the Priesthood
Elder William J. Critchlow, Jr.
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
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📖 general conference
The speaker contemplates the mysteries of faith and priesthood, acknowledging his lack of understanding of their substance and the forces that produce their power.
I do not know; the 'substance' of priesthood and the forces that operate to produce its power are presently incomprehensible to me. I've never seen them, nor heard them, nor smelled them, nor tasted them, nor touched them, but at times, officiating in the ordinances thereof, they have touched me. Neither do I comprehend the substance of faith, 'the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen'—Heb. 11:1—nor can I explain the forces that operated when the Brother o ... (continued)
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Women and the Priesthood
Elder William J. Critchlow, Jr.
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
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📖 general conference
The speaker reflects on the unknowns of the afterlife and the resurrection process, emphasizing the intentional veil of secrecy God has placed on certain knowledge.
No mortal man, regardless of his place and state of birth, is born with a memory of his heavenly home. God planned it that way purposely. And 'Eye hath not seen [purposely], nor ear heard [purposely], neither [has] entered into the heart of man' [purposely] a knowledge of his future home, 'which God hath prepared for them that love him'—1 Cor. 2:9—Jesus said, 'In my Father's house are many mansions'—John 14:2—The Prophet Joseph Smith called them 'kingdoms.' In which o ... (continued)
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Women and the Priesthood
Elder William J. Critchlow, Jr.
- Assistant to the Council of the Twelve Apostles
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📖 general conference
The speaker ponders the reasons behind gender roles and the choices that might have been made in the pre-mortal life, suggesting that women might have chosen partnership with God in creation over priesthood.
Did women by their own first choice choose to be partners with God in his creative processes? Faced with an alternative—partnership or priesthood—did you, Sister, pass up priesthood?
Did women by their own free choice choose to be the family heart rather than the family head? Scripturally 'the husband is the head of the wife'—Eph. 5:23—and he is the family priest and spokesman. Did God, however, in his infinite wisdom purposely make mother the family heart, blessing h ... (continued)
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Women for the Latter Day
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
Queen Esther faced a critical decision when asked to plead with the king to spare her people, despite the risk of approaching him uninvited.
The scriptures reveal one woman"™s response to the very same question. The woman: Queen Esther. Her questioning moment was a hard and very lonely one when her uncle, Mordecai, sent her word that she should go into the king and plead for him to spare her people from the planned destruction. Esther, though queen, had no right to go to the king unless he called for her. The king had absolute power. She had no right of appeal. But she really was the only one with possible entrance to the throne of ... (continued)
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Women for the Latter Day
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
A friend of the speaker is striving to be a holy woman by managing her large family and daily responsibilities with a positive attitude and spiritual practices.
Such a victory is being won by my friend with a large family of twelve children who, although having days of discouragement, generally speaking is (1) out of bed early to exercise. She hates to exercise so she hurries to get it out of the way. (2) She reads the scriptures. She enjoys that so much she has to make herself stop at her determined one-half hour. (3) She prays, sharing her gratitude and her concerns, and in this way she feels the Lord"™s guidance and direction even when things don"� ... (continued)
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Women for the Latter Day
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker admires her friend's approach to homemaking, recognizing its importance and the challenges it entails, including financial constraints and the pursuit of happiness within the family.
I wish all of us could attend to our homemaking responsibilities with the vision of my friend. She certainly hasn"™t obtained perfection in her home, but she does realize that even though her children don"™t practice the piano every day, if they continue to practice they will at least develop the recognition necessary to love music and enrich their lives through it. She knows the challenge of living within her husband"™s paycheck, but she also knows the importance of loving him and their c ... (continued)
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Women for the Latter Day
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker was moved by the dedication and bravery of women she met in a country at war, who continued to fulfill their church duties despite the dangers they faced daily.
My heart was deeply touched by the obedience of sisters I recently met in a country at war. I heard the branch Relief Society president commend them for their commitment to the work of the Lord and to each other during the perilous times they faced each day. She said, "You never know when you step outside your door whether you will be attacked by terrorists, yet you do your visiting teaching and attend all of your church meetings. You are courageous women who do a mighty work quietly in such a t ... (continued)
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Women of the Church
President Gordon B. Hinckley
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📖 general conference
The speaker recounts the general Relief Society meeting, highlighting the participation and messages of the women there, and wishes that reporters questioning the place of women in the Church could witness it.
I wish all of these reporters could have been in the Tabernacle a week ago Saturday when the general Relief Society meeting was held. It was an inspiration to look into the faces of that vast gathering of the daughters of God, women of faith and ability, women who know what life is about and have something of a sense of the divinity of their creation. I wish they could have heard that great chorus of young women from Brigham Young University, who touched our hearts with the beauty of their singi ... (continued)
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Women of the Church
President Gordon B. Hinckley
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📖 general conference
The speaker addresses the issue of abusive husbands, rebuking their behavior and calling them to repentance.
Unfortunately a few of you may be married to men who are abusive. Some of them put on a fine face before the world during the day and come home in the evening, set aside their self-discipline, and on the slightest provocation fly into outbursts of anger. No man who engages in such evil and unbecoming behavior is worthy of the priesthood of God. No man who so conducts himself is worthy of the privileges of the house of the Lord. I regret that there are some men undeserving of the love of their wi ... (continued)
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Women of the Church
President Gordon B. Hinckley
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📖 general conference
The speaker offers encouragement to single women in the Church, advising them to engage in service and work rather than being obsessed with marriage.
There are many women among us who are single. Generally, this is not of their own choice. Some have never had the opportunity to marry one with whom they would wish to spend eternity. To you single women who wish to be married, I repeat what I recently said in a meeting for singles in this Tabernacle: "Do not give up hope. And do not give up trying. But do give up being obsessed with it. The chances are that if you forget about it and become anxiously engaged in other activities, the prospects w ... (continued)
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Women of the Church
President Gordon B. Hinckley
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📖 general conference
A letter from a single mother expresses gratitude for the support she and her sons have received from their ward family.
I received a letter from one who counts herself fortunate, and indeed fortunate she is. She writes: "Although I have been raising our four boys as a single parent, "¦ I am not alone. I have a wonderful "˜ward family"™ that has rallied around us. "¦ "My Relief Society president has been there for me through my greatest hardships, encouraging my spiritual growth, personal prayer, and temple attendance. "Our bishop has been generous in providing needed food and clothing and has helped send two ... (continued)
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Women of the Church
President Gordon B. Hinckley
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📖 general conference
The speaker reflects on his own marriage, expressing gratitude for his wife and the journey they have shared together.
I salute my own beloved companion. It will soon be 60 years that we walked from the Salt Lake Temple as husband and wife, with love for one another. That love has strengthened through all of these years. We have faced many problems during our years of marriage. Somehow, with the blessing of the Lord, we have survived them all. It is becoming physically harder to stand tall and straight as we did in our younger years. No matter"”we still have one another and we still stand together, even though ... (continued)
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Women"™s Greatest Challenge
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker references the biblical story of Jonah and Nineveh to illustrate the power of heeding a prophet's warning, which can lead to repentance and the sparing of consequences.
Sometimes the people do heed the prophet"™s warning. When Jonah was sent to Nineveh to prophesy the destruction of that great, wicked city, "the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them"Jonah 3:5They turned from their evil ways in repentance, and God spared their city.
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Women"™s Greatest Challenge
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker recounts inquiries from women seeking guidance on their roles in the Church and society, highlighting the diverse challenges faced by new converts, mothers, single women, and women heading their own families.
I have had the blessing of meeting with many of you during these three years, and I know that you are prayerfully seeking to understand what the Lord requires of you in this swiftly changing world. The new convert who came up to me after a meeting put it this way: "What is a Mormon woman?" From Japan came the inquiry: "Now that we have forsaken the pattern of our parents and have increased the number of children in our family, how do we raise them?" From women who head their own families com ... (continued)
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Women"™s Greatest Challenge
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker describes the early efforts of the Relief Society and Church leaders in Utah to establish women's suffrage, emphasizing the importance of responsible citizenship and participation in solving society's problems.
In the early days of the Church here in this valley, the leaders of the Relief Society, other stalwart women of the community, and the presiding Brethren of the Church worked together to establish suffrage for women among the Saints. It was not expedient. It was not even judicious, in the light of the desperate struggle for statehood, and yet the right of women to vote was unanimously agreed upon and written into their constitution by the first legislators of Utah territory because it was a righ ... (continued)
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Women"™s Greatest Challenge
Sister Barbara B. Smith
- Relief Society General President
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📖 general conference
The speaker tells the story of Elizabeth from the production 'Because of Elizabeth,' highlighting her realization that while she cannot solve all problems, her influence and the gospel work of her descendants have a significant impact.
In the productionBecause of Elizabethpresented in Nauvoo this summer at the dedication of the Monument to Women, Elizabeth concludes that she will not be able to solve all the problems she sees nor to meet every challenge. But she recognizes that what she does not get done, others will try to do. And as the play ends, one is struck with the great influence one woman has had in the lives of the thousands who are her direct descendants. And beyond those thousands are thousands more who have heard ... (continued)
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Work and Welfare: A Historical Perspective
President Marion G. Romney
- Second Counselor in the First Presidency
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📖 general conference
The speaker recalls a conversation with his brother who sought to understand the welfare program better after being called as a stake president, highlighting the importance of context in grasping gospel principles.
I remember that when my brother was called to be a stake president, he came to me and said, "Now, tell me all about this welfare program." He asked many questions. After answering them, I said, "You have been in dozens of meetings where I have addressed all of these questions, haven"™t you?" He answered, "Yes, I"™m sure that"™s true, but I wasn"™t a stake president then."
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