Emma Smith Presentation

"Hello and welcome, my dear sisters, to my home. I am Emma Smith. I know you will be filled this evening. I pray that the Spirit may attend, so that the message I have to share will be God’s will for you to hear.
My heart goes out to each of you as I see the struggles of your day and all you have yet before you. I am overwhelmed with a feeling of shared sisterhood that truly spans the ages. We, all of us, have a common bond, a common source of strength that lies within the Relief Society.
I would like to take a minute to share a little bit about me, so we can get to know each other more. I was born in 1804 to very loving parents, who raised me to be a very independent and determined young lady. I loved to sing in our local religious services and enjoyed teaching school. When I was 22, I met Joseph Smith, as he boarded with my parents. Although many doubted him, I found him sincere and gained a testimony for myself of what he shared with me. We fell in love, and were married, despite the strong objections of my father. In fact, my father was never able to come to terms with my decision to stay true to Joseph and it hurt me throughout my life.
My life with Joseph, although filled with hardships and trials, was also one of sweet moments of peace and dizzying joy. I love him, and know without any doubt that what he was doing on the earth was God’s will.
Part of God’s will for him on the earth was the organization of the women, without which, Joseph said, the Church was never fully organized. We had gathered together, some sisters and I, seeing a great need to help those building the temple at that time. We had proposed a set of bylaws to the Prophet by which we would be governed. He told us, however, that what the Lord had in store for the women of the this last dispensation was bigger than what we had seen for ourselves...it always seems to be that way, doesn’t it? God’s vision for us ever exceeds our own expectations!
And this is God’s vision for us: Joseph said that the Lord wants us to not only look after the poor, but to save souls. Save souls. What an awesome and daunting vision!
However, we are not left on our own to fulfill God’s instructions for us. On that blessed occasion when the Relief Society was organized, the Lord gave us four specific directions to aid us.
Act according to the Sympathies already in our Hearts
First, He said:
"This society, a society of sisters, is organized "according to your natures. … You are now placed in a situation in which you can act according to those sympathies which God has planted in your bosoms." (HC, 4:605.)"
We already have the sympathies in place to direct us to do exactly what He wants us to do! Let me share an example with you from your own time of a single sister named Cynthia:
"One evening Cynthia felt prompted to go and see a sister she visit taught. The sister wasn’t home. As Cynthia walked home, she noticed a nurse outside a hospital with two children, both serious burn-victims. When Cynthia heard the nurse call the little girl’s name, a flash of recognition crossed her mind; she had known these two children as a missionary in Bolivia four years before. Becoming reacquainted on the lawn of the hospital, it was obvious the children were healing physically, but without any family support, they were suffering emotionally. Cynthia began visiting the children and nurturing them. Single or married, we may act according to the sympathies God has planted in our bosoms and be a tool in His hand in reaching out to save souls. Cynthia didn’t need someone standing over her, telling her what to do. She reached out from her own soul, and this single sister, having no children of her own, instinctively knew what to do.
Angels among us
*The Lord also promised that "If you live up to your privileges, the angels cannot be restrained from being your associates." (HC, 4:605.) He also promised in the Doctrine and Covenants 84:88: "...I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
There is a song from your time that goes "I believe there are angels among us, sent down to earth from Heaven up above, They come to you and me, in our darkest hour." There are angels among us, not only in spiritual support and inspiration from the other side, but in the forms of dear sisters and brothers around us. Many of you have had the experience of a card, a note, a visit that has been a form of an angel in your life. Many of you are also called upon to be angels, as visiting teachers. Dear, dear sisters! God will use you in your capacity as a visiting teacher to know how best you can share His love and His message with those you visit. You are called upon to be the angels among us!
You sisters are called to reach out beyond the sanctuaries of your homes, sometimes with what you feel is little to offer. You are called to reach out to each other, the poor in spirit, the emotionally needy, the spiritually lost. Sometimes the way may feel hard, like you are crossing a raging river of doubt and inadequacy, but I testify to you that if you do your best, your humble offering will be enough
I can see Julia and Emily stranded on the snow on the windy summit of Rocky Ridge with the rest of the Willie handcart company. They had no heavy clothing to keep them warm. Julia was sitting in the snow, shaking. She could not carry on. Emily, who was freezing a well, knew that if she did not help Julia stand up, Julia would die. As Emily wrapped her arms around her sister to help her up, Julia began to cry, but no tears came, only soft whimpering sounds. Together they walked slowly to their handcart. Thirteen died that terrible night. Julia and Emily survived.
Sisters, without each other, these women probably would not have lived. It was Emily Hill Woodmansee who later wrote the beautiful words to the song, "As Sisters in Zion." The verse "We’ll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak" takes on new meaning when you imagine her experience on the snow-packed plains.
As with the Hill sisters, many of us will not survive our tests in mortality without help from others, our personal angels. And just as true: in helping others we keep our own spirits alive.
Knowledge and Intelligence shall flow
*As the Relief Society was formed, God also promised: "Knowledge and intelligence shall flow down from this time henceforth." (HC, 4:607.) Your days are full of uncertainty, full of challenge. My dear sisters, we must have faith that God has seen our day and prepared this marvelous sisterhood to meet the needs of that day. My dear Sister Beck, my successor who stands at the head of the Relief Society in your day has had an experience that helps us see this. She shared the following:
"I met with a group of women cabinet ministers and parliament members from West Africa who asked me how we help African women. I explained that in their countries we have many organized groups of women, called Relief Societies. We send the Church Handbook of Instructions to the president of each group. The women gather together often to study the gospel and to learn how to care for their families.
"The president divides the Relief Society women into pairs that visit the women in their homes, where they assess needs. Is anyone sick? Do they have enough food and clothing? Do they have the education they need? After the visits the women report what they found. Someone needs shoes, someone is having a baby, and one of them needs work. They ask if within their group they have the needed resources. Most of the time they do. That is what we do for our women in Africa.
"As I talked, these women nodded their heads and smiled. One said to me, "That model would work for our women."
Our model works. It works in its simplicity, and it works in its sincerity. God has indeed given us the knowledge that we need, each of us complimenting the other with our individual abilities, until as a whole, we can meet the needs of our sisterhood with the knowledge we are each individually inspired to learn and know what God needs us to know to build and defend His kingdom. Together, we will be enough.
What special opportunities do you as women have in your area? As a school teacher, I know that we learn best by teaching others. I believe that we as Relief Society sisters see the fulfillment of that promise every day as we teach children at home, in Sunday School, and in Primary, in Relief Societies, in sacrament meetings, and in daily conversation.
The Lord gave me some personal counsel when He was calling me to my own unique area of service in gathering a selection of hymns for the church. It is found in the 25th section of the Doctrine and Covenants: "And thou shalt be ordained under his hand to expound scriptures, and to exhort the church according, as it shall be given thee by my Spirit." We simply need to open our mouths, sisters, and the Lord will fill them with His words.
Rejoice
The final promise I would like to share with you today that God gave us is that "This Society shall rejoice." (HC, 4:607.) Sisters, we need to rejoice, we need to find joy, we need to cling to hope. Again, in the Doctrine and Covenants 123:17 the Lord says: "Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." We need to not just be anxiously engaged, we need to be joyously engaged. We must show our children and friends how to find joy in perilous times, how to find peace amidst affliction. Where else can they learn this?
Sisters. I know what it means to be afflicted, to endure hardship. I watched my husband heal other’s children even as our own crossed death’s door. I spent countless days in fear and worry as my husband was jailed wrongfully. I was rejected from my dear family because of my beliefs.
You face trials and hardships in your days that would affect even the most faithful. Find strength in your sisterhood, find courage in the examples of those around you, connect with the sisters in your community in a way you never have before as you genuinely serve and love them and the angels themselves will not be restrained from being in your midst.
Elder Henry Eyring, also from your day, assures us: "You can have the utmost assurance that your power will be multiplied many times by the Lord. All he asks is that you give your best effort and your whole heart. Do it cheerfully and with the prayer of faith. You will feel at some time, perhaps at many times, that you cannot do all you feel you must..The forces arrayed against you will try not only to frustrate your work but to bring you down...Your obedience to the commandments, your desire to do His will, and your asking in faith will determine how clearly the Master can guide you by answers to your prayers...He chose you...The Lord knows you...He has prepared a way so that He could issue your call. (Elder Henry B. Eyring, Oct. 2002)
I testify to you, my dear, dear sisters, that God is with us, that He established the organization of relief society that we might have angels by our sides to weather these storms together, that we might have the knowledge and wisdom between us all to do what He needs to do, that we might have opportunities to act on our generous natures in a do-able, powerfully simplistic way. I know, dear sisters, that we are meant to rejoice."