Charity Never Faileth--Confessions of a Reluctant Relief Society Servant

Yesterday was the Riverton South Stake Relief Society Social. The social commemorated the 175th anniversary of Relief Society. Sister Sharlene Harsh took our theme "Anchor Your Faith in Christ" from a President Monson quote that reads, "We must develop the faith necessary to survive spiritually and to project a light for others. We must nurture our testimony until it becomes an anchor to our lives." We started planning this event six months ago and as March drew near I started to worry "what if no one comes?" We had a few last minute challenges when Katherine had to work and Becky came down with a whopping case of the flu; But, yesterday was a resounding success and because I'm celebrating the completion of a huge RS task I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with Relief Society.

Mom used to say that she was a "Mutual Mormon." She meant that most of her life she served with the youth in Mutual or now it would be called Young Women's. I guess that would make me a "Primary Mormon" because my favorite place to serve is in the Primary. I love teaching and learning about the Gospel on a Primary level where we study the simple truths of the Gospel. Until recently I only ever had two callings in the Relief Society. In 1995 I was called to serve as president of the Riverton 18th Ward Relief Society. I was shocked! I really hadn't spent much time attending RS and the Lord wanted me to be the president. When He said that the gospel would be preached by the weak and the simple, he certainly meant me!

I attended RS a bit when I attended BYU before I got married but because it was a student ward it just felt like an extension of Young Women's. When John and I married the Fall of 1972 I had no intention of going to RS. Relief Society was for old ladies and moms and I was neither. We moved into our apartment on 2nd South and 8th East in Salt Lake at the end of November. The first week in December I heard a knock at my door one Tuesday night and my beautiful upstairs neighbor asked me if I was a Mormon. I told her "yes," and she continued to tell me that she was investigating the Church and she wanted to go to the RS activity scheduled for that night but she didn't want to go alone. She asked me if I would walk over with her. What could I do? At the activity, a sister taught us how to make beautiful beaded Christmas Tree ornaments. At the conclusion of the activity, she gave the two beautiful samples he had made to the oldest and the youngest sisters there. I wish I knew what happened to that beautiful ornament; I treasured it for many years.

When my kids were young I spent most Relief Society meetings serving in the nursery. Relief Society was held on Wednesday mornings (this was before the consolidated block plan when the Church moved all meetings to Sunday). The fourth Wednesday of every month was "work day." At work day there were classes and crafts and a luncheon; many days work meeting went from 9:00 am to 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Attendance was highest on work day and that meant lots of kids in the nursery. There were usually upwards of 40 kids in the work day nursery and many days I was the only adult--a disaster just waiting to happen. There was a young man Chelli's age named Matt Newbery who had downs syndrome. Matt was the sweetest kid but he was also an accomplished escape artist. I knew that if Matt got out and if I had to go after him I was in trouble so I usually camped out in front of the door. I served as nursery leader in the Highland Ward for 3 years.

These were my only RS callings until two years ago when I was released from my darling, 5 year old's class in Primary. Bishop Perscheon asked me to teach the "Teachings for Our Time" lesson in Relief Society. He wanted to help the Laurels with the transition to RS by having them attend the TFOT lesson and he asked me to focus my lesson these young sisters. I loved my RS class. After a year I received a call from Bro. Eccles of the High Council asking if he could meet with John and me in our home. I was sure he was calling for John so I graciously accepted his visit. You could have knocked me over with a feather when he asked me to serve in the new Stake Relief Society presidency. Our presidency is made up of Sharlene Harsh, president; Jill Larsen, 1st counselor; Kathrine Bradshaw, 2nd counselor; and Becky Scomoski, Secretary. Over the last year I have really come to love these women!--and even Relief Society (although I haven't quit campaigning to get back to Primary, where I belong).

Becky, me, Sharlene, Katherine

There is a funny story that goes along with Sister Harsh calling me to be her counselor. She always tells people that she met me when we served together in the Riverton Elementary PTA--which is true; But, she never tells the whole story. Most of the Riverton Elementary PTA Board had served together for several years and we all just kept our same jobs year to year. One year no one wanted to be the PTA president so the PTA council looked for a president outside of our ranks. When Sharlene Harsh agreed to be the new PTA president no one told her that she already had a fully staffed PTA board, so she got busy and found new PTA board members. We (I mean me) were devastated when we found out we had been fired and Sharlene was horrified when she found she had done all that recruiting for nothing and that there were willing volunteers out of jobs. She asked us to stay on and fill the one time positions doing teacher appreciation and book fairs. . .and we all served happily together. But, I joke that Sharlene fired me from PTA only to re-recruit me for RS 20 years later.