Sheri Dew - Oh, How We Need Each Other

Text for this booklet was adapted from The Beginning of Better Days: Divine Instruction to Women from the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012).

Book design: Deseret Book

Art direction: Richard Erickson

Design: Sheryl Dickert Smith

Design motifs from Shutterstock krishnasomya and biddy.

2018 Sheri L. Dew

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Deseret Book Company, at permissions@deseretbook.com or PO Box 30178, Salt Lake City, Utah 84130. This work is not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of the Church or of Deseret Book Company.

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ISBN 978-1-62972-426-3

Printed in the United States of America

Sun Print Solutions, Salt Lake City, UT

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cover image First Blossom by Annie Henrie Nader

Book design: Deseret Book

Art direction: Richard Erickson

Design: Sheryl Dickert Smith

Design motifs from Shutterstock krishnasomya and biddy.

Relief Society and the Prophet Joseph Smith

If I were identifying major themes in my life, one of them would have to be Relief Society, though when I was called in my early twenties to serve as the Relief Society president of a young adult ward, I was flabbergasted. Nothing about me matched my image of a Relief Society leader. I dont bake bread, I cant quilt, I love sports, I stammered, listing everything that would surely disqualify me. But the bishop said the Lord had spoken, and that was that.

Attending to the varied and often emotionally charged needs of more than two hundred young-adult-age women trying to find themselves was eye-opening, around-the-clock workand particularly for someone who was having her first serious leadership experience. But it gave me a front-row seat from which to watch the Lord work miracle after miracle in the lives of His daughters. It was at that young age that I began to experience the power of a womans faith. And it was when I began to see that there was a lot more to Relief Society than met the eye.

Fast-forward a decade. My thirties were filled with lots of Church service but also escalating frustration. I had kept a stiff upper lip about not yet marrying, but by thirty-five, Id lost my sense of humor about everyone (all of my siblings, most of my friends) getting married except me and had become deeply discouraged about it all. In addition to my longing for a companion, the window on my bearing children was narrowing, and the fear that I might never have children was closing its icy grip around me. I spent a lot of time on my knees and in the temple pleading for a family of my own. I couldnt understand why I was being denied such a righteous desire, nor could I sustain a feeling of peace.

Ironically, it was then that I was called to serve as the Relief Society president in a stake comprised almost entirely of young familiesin other words, a stake filled with women living the life I wanted. Because my life was different from theirs, I quickly realized that I would have to be the one to build a bridge between my singleness and their lives filled with family. I prayed a lot, combed the scriptures, and practically took up residence in the temple seeking guidance on how to serve, relate to, and provide leadership for the sisters in my stake.

One day when I felt stymied about a message I was to deliver at a stake womens conference, I started looking through materials Id collected while serving a few years earlier as a member of the Relief Society general board under President Barbara Winder. There, buried in a file, was my copy of the Minutes of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo (hereafter Minutes ). I had studied them while serving on the general board, quoted from them, and then filed them away when Id been released.

But on that day, the Minutes that Eliza R. Snow had recorded of the first Relief Society meetings and later packed across the plains reached through a century and a half and spoke to me. I began to read, underline, and scrawl notes in the margins. In particular, I was captivated by the centerpieces of those Minutes six sermons the Prophet Joseph Smith delivered to the sisters between March and August of 1842.

I had read these documents beforeI had even quoted from thembut somehow it had never lodged in my mind that we had a record of sermons Joseph Smith had delivered specifically to women.

At this point, let me ask the obvious: Does what the Prophet Joseph taught a relatively small group of Latter-day Saint women more than 175 years ago matter now?

I believe his teachings and counsel to women have never mattered more.

Joseph Smith is the Prophet entrusted with ushering in this final dispensationthe man John Taylor said did more save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man.

Do you and I want to know what the Prophet of the Restorationthe Prophet tutored constantly by heavenly messengerstaught the women of Nauvoo and thus all women of this dispensation? Surely the answer is a resounding yes!

May I suggest that there is a second reason the Prophets sermons have meaning for us today. President Joseph F. Smith declared that the Relief Society holds a unique place in the Lords Church: This is... the oldest auxiliary organization of the Church and it is of the first importance. It has not only to deal with the necessities of the poor, the sick and the needy, but a part of its dutyand the larger part, toois to look after the spiritual welfare and salvation of the mothers and daughters of Zion; to see that none is neglected, but that all are guarded against misfortune, calamity, the powers of darkness, and the evils that threaten them in the world. It is the duty of the Relief Societies to look after the spiritual welfare of themselves and of all the female members of the Church.

President Joseph F. Smith returned to this theme again, stating: [The Relief Society] is divinely made, divinely authorized, divine instituted, divinely ordained of God to minister for the salvation of souls of women and of men. Therefore there is not any organization that can compare with it,... that can ever occupy the same stand and platform that this can.... Make [Relief Society] first, make it foremost, make it the highest, the best and the deepest of any organization in existence in the world. You are called by the voice of the Prophet of God to do it, to be uppermost, to be the greatest and the best, the purest and the most devoted to the right.

From the outset, the Prophet Joseph clearly signaled the Relief Societys vital commission in building faith and testimony among latter-day women and their families and in providing a way for sisters to let their light shine. The subjects he covered in his sermons to the sisters of Nauvoo reflect a breathtaking breadth, depth, and doctrinal density. Several of his recurring themes in particular have commanded my interest since that memorable day twenty-plus years ago. In addition to enhancing my understanding of priesthood and the temple, these sermons have helped me recognize the vital place of women in the Lords kingdom and increased my appreciation for womens charity and divine nature.