Church History

When Chieko Okazaki served as a counselor in the Relief Society general presidency in the 1990s, she traveled to Germany on a speaking assignment. There she discovered that she was representing the Frauenhilsvereinigung, which a friend translated as “women’s help belonging thing.”[1]

Now whether you know it as Relief Society or Frauenhilsvereinigung or the “women’s help belonging thing,” most readers know something about this Church auxiliary, which is for women 18 years and older. Children of readers probably know that their mothers go to Relief Society while they’re in Primary. The youth likely know that over at the Church once a month their mothers have a “girls’ night out,” or what used to be known as Enrichment, and that they often bring home good food or new decor they have made. (This generation, however, will not identify glass grapes with Relief Society).

Many young people have helped their mothers load up the car with boxes, baskets, and all kinds of paraphernalia for a midweek meeting, a March Relief Society birthday party, or a fall social. What young man or husband has not helped set up and take down tables and chairs in the cultural hall for one of these events?

“Two Nice Women”

Families also know that “two nice women,” as one nonmember husband put it, visit homes every month. Besides this monthly visit, visiting teachers serve their sisters in numerous ways, especially in times of sickness and crisis, by caring for children, bringing in wonderful home-cooked meals, and offering emotional support. The Relief Society is so well known for loaves of homemade bread and funeral potatoes that there were Olympic pins depicting such.

My first memory of Relief Society was going to work meetings with my grandmother, who tended me. Work meetings, which preceded Homemaking meetings, were held on Tuesday mornings. As a preschooler, I would play under the quilting frames while the women quilted. One sister even gave me a dime for being good.

From the time I was 18 and attended a student ward, I have been blessed by Relief Society — by the principles I have learned, by the sisterhood I have felt, and by the service that I have both given and received.

Relief Society is more than a “women’s help belonging thing.” It is the Lord’s organization for women. With 20 women in attendance, the Relief Society was organized on March 17, 1842, in Nauvoo, Illinois, by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said, “I will organize the sisters under the priesthood after a pattern of the priesthood.”[2] He also said, “The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.”[3]

Joseph’s wife, Emma Hale Smith, was chosen by her peers as the first president of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo. Designated as an “elect lady” some twelve years earlier in D&C 25, Emma declared, “We are going to do something extraordinary. When a boat is struck on the rapids with a multitude of ‘Mormons’ on board, we shall consider that a loud call for relief; we expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls.”[4]

A History of Service

Since the organization of Relief Society 169 years ago, Latter-day Saint women have indeed being doing “something extraordinary.” With its motto of “Charity Never Faileth,” the Relief Society, as a collective group and as individuals, has served in countless and remarkable ways.

For example, in the late 19^th Century, sisters gleaned wheat from roadsides, stored thousands of bushels of grain, and provided much-needed food after the San Francisco earthquake and during World War I. During the 1920s, general president Clarissa S. Williams was so concerned about the high mortality rate of mothers and babies that the Relief Society established a maternity hospital.

Emma Smith charged that first Relief Society to “seek out and relieve the distressed — that each member should be ambitious to do good.”[5] An example of a Relief Society sister who clearly understood that charge is that of Hedwig Biereichel, who lived in East Germany during World War II. Knowing that she was risking the safety of her family and herself, Hedwig, nevertheless, gave food to Russian prisoners of war because they were starving.[6]

In 1921, a group of Armenian Saints living in Turkey had to evacuate their homes and relocate in Syria. A small branch of thirty Relief Society sisters was then organized. Even though these women were very poor themselves, they felt it was their “privilege and duty to serve those who were less fortunate than they.” So they sewed clothing from 100 yards of cloth that the mission president had purchased. They also prepared food for hungry fellow refugees.[7]

For the Relief Society’s Sesquicentennial in 1992, President Elaine L. Jack invited each local unit to initiate a service project to benefit the communities in which they lived. Our ward washed the windows at Butler Middle School. “In Samoa, sisters painted the clock tower and planted flowers. In Africa, they swept a path to the waterhole. Homeless shelters were painted, and books were collected. In one area of California when a Relief Society president asked community leaders what kinds of projects would benefit the community, one leader said, “You mean to tell me that 18,000 units are each going to give service in their local communities?” She said, “Yes.” “Then you’ll change the world.”[8]

Indeed, Relief Society sisters have changed the world in so many ways. And yet the world of Relief Society has also changed. From its small beginning of twenty women, Relief Society now has six million members and they comprise a strong “worldwide circle of sisterhood.” In small branches and large wards around the globe, Relief Society sisters endeavor to increase personal righteousness and testimony, strengthen families, give service, provide watchcare over each other and those around them, and build the kingdom of God on earth.

Better Days

When the Relief Society was organized, Joseph Smith declared that “this was the beginning of better days” to this Society.”[9] Those “better days” would affect women in many spheres, not just Mormon women. For instance, early Relief Society sisters were strong advocates for women’s suffrage, or the right to vote. Utah women campaigned vigorously and worked with national suffrage leaders Susan B. Anthony. Emmeline B. Wells, the fifth Relief Society president and editor of the Woman’s Exponent, declared on the masthead of every issue: “The Rights of the Women of Zion, and the Rights of the Women of All Nations.”

Another Relief Society effort that benefited women was that of medical education. The third president, Zina D. H. Young, along with others, including Romania Pratt Penrose, Martha Hughes Cannon, and Ellis Shipp Reynolds, attended various medical schools. They then taught classes upon their return to improve midwifery and other medical treatment on the frontier.

From its beginnings, Relief Society has strongly promoted education, both formally and within the structure of Relief Society classes. In 1921, a social service lesson stated that “every girl should have ambition to qualify in two vocations — that of home making and that of earning a living by other means whenever occasion requires.”[10]

That counsel has often been reiterated by recent prophets. Over the years, Relief Society lessons have centered on spiritual living, mother education, compassionate service and social relations, cultural refinement, home management, and teachings of the Presidents of the Church, to name a few.

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The intent of Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society is likely: “What do you know about Relief Society? Now you can learn more.” Daughters in My Kingdom, however, is not the first history of Relief Society. In 1966, the Relief Society general board published a history. In 1990, Elect Ladies: Presidents of the Relief Society was published and in 1992, Women of Covenant marked the 150^th anniversary of the Relief Society. In 2008, Faith, Hope, and Charity: Inspiration from the Lives of General Relief Society Presidents, an update of the presidents’ biographies, came out.

But Daughters in My Kingdom is the first history that will be in the hands of every Relief Society sister throughout the world — and at no charge. This new book is neither a comprehensive nor a chronological history but is a “taste of history” and is organized to examine the “foundational principles” of Relief Society as well as to share many sisters’ experiences with those principles.

Knowing Where We’re Going

It has been said that we must know our history to know where we are going. According to lds.org, “The heritage of Relief Society is not just about women who lived in the past; it is also about women all over the world today who make and keep covenants.”[11]

The world in which Relief Society functions has vastly changed since 1842. Belle S. Spafford, who served as Relief Society president for almost 30 years, from 1945 to 1974, said: “Tremendous changes … have taken place in the social, economic, industrial, and educational life of most countries in the world since Relief Society was founded. And I don’t think any change in the world has been more significant than the change in the status of women. At the time the Relief Society was founded, a woman’s world was her home, her family, and perhaps a little community service. Today a woman’s world is as broad as the universe. There’s scarcely an area of human endeavor that a woman cannot enter if she has the will and preparation to do so.

“Yet, in the midst of all this change, the organizational structure of the Relief Society, the basic purposes for which it was established have remained constant, and the Church programs that have implemented these purposes have been adaptable to the needs of women in each succeeding era. Through the years, Relief Society has been just as constant in its purpose as truth is constant. The purposes that were important for a handful of women in Nauvoo are still important to women world-wide. That is the miracle of Relief Society.”[12] It’s still true today, even though Belle testified of this 37 years ago.

In 1979, President Spencer W. Kimball said: “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different — in happy ways — from the women of the world.”[13]

Like Eliza R. Snow, the second Relief Society president, who articulated her beliefs through her poetry and hymn texts, Mormon women today are articulating their beliefs in a variety of ways. In 1979, none of us could have imagined the Internet. But being a prophet, President Kimball may have foreseen the day of “I’m A Mormon.org” or the Mormon Mommy blogs. 

Last winter a New York feminist/atheist wrote an article, “Why I Can’t Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs.” She said:  “These blogs are weirdly uplifting…. The basic messages expressed in these blogs — family is wonderful, life is meant to be enjoyed, celebrate the small things — are still lovely.”[14]

Then ABC’s Nightline interviewed a couple of Mormon Mommy bloggers about why so many non-Mormons are reading their blogs. These 2,000 blogs developed in response to Elder M. Russell Ballard’s invitation to “join the conversation” on the Internet to share the gospel.[15]

One blogger said: “Not only do we embrace Christ, but we embrace His teachings, and our readers feel that in their hearts. When they read our blogs, they feel good. The good emanates because we embrace the teachings and principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ…. We choose the good part. They see the truthfulness of the lives that we are leading. They feel the Holy Spirit, entering their homes and entering their hearts. Mormon Mommy Blogs are a powerful force for good in this world.”[16]

Relief Society sisters are no longer gleaning wheat from roadsides to alleviate hunger, but they are helping to alleviate spiritual hunger through their good works, their examples, and their testimonies both collectively and individually.

The Relief Society is the largest women’s organization in the world, and because it is an auxiliary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is an immeasurable force for good. Throughout the history of Relief Society, faithful sisters have striven to fulfill Joseph Smith’s instruction, to “not only relieve the poor, but to save souls.”[17]

Faith, Hope, and Charity: Inspiration from the Lives of General Relief Society Presidents by Janet Peterson and LaRene Gaunt (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications) can be purchased at www.deseretbook.com

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