Be charitable, LDS women are urged
By Sarah Jane Weaver
LDS Church News staff writer
Speaking of the great legacy left by early Latter-day Saint women, President Henry B. Eyring asked modern LDS women last Saturday evening to be charitable.
“Charity is born of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and is an effect of his Atonement working in the hearts of members,” said President Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “There are many benevolent groups of women who do great good. There are many who have overpowering feelings of sympathy for the unfortunate, the sick and the needy.
President Eyring offered closing remarks at the LDS Church’s General Relief Society Meeting, held in the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City and broadcast to LDS meetinghouses across the globe.
Also addressing the worldwide congregation of women were Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president, and her counselors, Sister Silvia H. Allred and Sister Barbara Thompson.
Each of the four leaders spoke on different aspects of the history and administration of Relief Society, the LDS Church’s organization for women, which was founded in 1842. They encouraged Latter-day Saint women to take advantage of the blessings that Relief Society affords them. They also announced changes to the name of weekly Relief Society meetings. Now “home, family and personal enrichment meetings” will be simply called “Relief Society meetings.”
The change came in response to concerns about the complexity of that title and the different interpretation about the purpose of those meetings, said Sister Beck. Relief Society presidents, working with their bishops, can now determine how to use the meetings to “address spiritual and temporal needs of individuals and families in the ward and to strengthen sisterhood and unity,” she said.
179th Semiannual General Conference
Event Description
The 179th Semiannual General Conference of the Church will convene in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday and Sunday, October 3-4, 2009. The Saturday general sessions will be held at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.; Sunday sessions will be held at 9:30 a.m. (which includes Music and the Spoken Word) and 2:00 p.m. The general priesthood meeting will be held in the Conference Center on Saturday, October 3, 2009, at 6:00 p.m.
Dates and Location
Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 3-4, 2009
Conference Center Auditorium
Tickets
Tickets are required for admission to sessions in the Conference Center. To obtain tickets, please contact your local priesthood leader.
Sunday dress is encouraged.
For general conference sessions, the Conference Center doors will open 90 minutes before the session start time. The length of each session is 2 hours.
Local Broadcasts are posted on the LDS Church Website
lds.org
