Women at LDS General Conference excited about request for service
Hannah Morrison of Ashaiman, Guana, at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, April 2, 2015 during the 186th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Britney Thorne of Syracuse (right) is pictured with her boyfriend, Trevor Rasmussen, at General Conference in Salt Lake City, Saturday, April 2, 2016.
Whitney Berrett, 17, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, (right) is pictured with her sister, Katie Berrett, 14. Whitney said she was excited about a new service effort in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Saturday, April 3, 2016.
Victoria Jones of Rexburg, Idaho, is pictured.
SALT LAKE CITY — LDS women say they are prepared to help others more thanks to an initiative for service in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Many women who attended the church’s 186th General Conference Saturday, April 2, and Sunday, April 3, said they were thrilled with an announcement of the new women’s “I Was a Stranger” refugee relief effort, which also encourages other types of service when possible.
At General Conference on Sunday, Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy urged men and families to help the effort as well.
“It’s exactly what our world needs,” said Britney Thorne of Syracuse. “It’s more than just the right thing to do. It will help the world become a better place.”
Thorne, a recently returned missionary, said she’s learned there are many people who have much and many who have very little.
“If the ones that have so much can give to those who have so little — if they can share — it will even things out,” Thorne said.
She also noted how people who give frequently discover they’ve actually received something in return when they share.
Hannah Morrison of Ashaiman, Guana, said she was excited to see more emphasis on service.
Morrison said that when she returns home from conference, she’s going to the baptism of a woman whose family started going to church after Morrison gave them a ride in her car.
“I had a feeling to tell them to come to church,” she said of her conversation with the family on that August day.
Soon after the family took Morrison up on her invitation to come to church, the son of the woman being baptized next week was baptized himself.
In addition to generally serving others, Morrison hopes people today will help refugees. She talked about a group of refugees who came to her city 15 years ago and received help.
“Some have settled, and they are happy,” she said. She hopes people today will help refugees in the same way.
“When we give something, we receive more,” said Mitzi Lopez of Mexico City, Mexico. “We receive peace in our heart and to see life with different eyes.”
She said those who help others in need receive blessings in their hearts.
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SONJA CARLSON/Standard-Examiner
From left: Angela Silva, of Arequipa, Peru; Mitzi Lopez of Mexico City, Mexico; and Carol Bejar, also of Arequipa, Peru outside the LDS General Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, April 2, 2015, during the 186th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“When we help other people, they are able to feel love and to feel comfortable,” Lopez said. “In the same way, we receive.”
North Salt Lake resident Lina Tuifalasai said she was encouraged to hear of the emphasis on service to refugees. Tuifalasai moved to Utah three years ago from American Samoa.
She said her husband, Pale Tuifalasai, was called to be a bishop in 2000, even though they had only been baptized into the church eight years earlier. During that time, she said she had a chance to help immigrants.
“I did the sewing,” she said. “I took them places. That’s where I gained my testimony of service.”
Tuifalasai said she knows she has been blessed for doing her work for those who needed help. “Heavenly Father will open doors for you when you do something,” she said.
“Service-oriented is really what we need in our world at this time,” said Whitney Berrett of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The 17-year-old said messages of service at the women’s session and at conference were “applicable, touching and something we need to hear.”
Victoria Jones of Rexburg, Idaho said she was at first overwhelmed when she learned of the refugee effort, thinking that as a student at BYU-Idaho, she would not have time to complete so great of a service task.
But she said the announcement last weekend was followed up by assurance that smaller acts of service would make a difference too.
“You don’t have to do something grand,” she said, noting her own resolve to do something that fit her ability and time schedule.
“To realize that you can do something just where you are is encouraging,” she said.
You may reach reporter JaNae Francis at 801-625-4228. Follow her on Twitter at @JaNaeFrancisSE or like her on Facebook.
