Emeritus Women Leaders Honored for Church Service at Annual Luncheon

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By Mary Richards, Church News

Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson had a “wow” moment at the end of filming the 2025 Relief Society Worldwide Devotional at the Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois.

“I actually said the word ‘wow’ out loud,” President Johnson recalled during an annual emeritus luncheon at the Church Office Building in Salt Lake City on Monday, May 12, for current and former members of the Relief Society, Young Women and Primary General Presidencies and General Advisory Councils.

During that moment in the filming, President Johnson had been speaking of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In 1842, women had gone to Joseph Smith and asked if they could sew shirts for the workers at the Nauvoo Temple.

Joseph Smith listened to them and told them that the Lord had something even better. Then the Relief Society was organized as part of the ongoing restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Indeed, the Church had not been fully organized until the women were organized. And that was my wow moment,” President Johnson said. “Prophets care about women. They listen to the sincere pleadings of women.”

In the 2024 Relief Society Worldwide Devotional, today’s Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, said women have a divine endowment that allows them literally to change lives.

Said President Johnson: “I am sure, sisters, that we belong to the Lord’s divinely appointed organization for women. There is so much good for us to do, and you are doing it so well.”

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Strengthening the Rising Generation

President Johnson told the group that as they strengthen the women of the Church, the rising generation will be strengthened as well. Now more than ever women — starting at the age of 18 — need the protection and power that comes from making sacred covenants with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the temple.

Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman spoke to the roomful of women about their influence for good for all who are in their spheres, “knowing of what you have given to the great work of the building up of the kingdom of God, which is such a remarkable thing.”

President Freeman and her presidency and council have done a lot of thinking this year about those who came before them as a new scholarly history was released about the Young Women organization called “Carry On.”

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“To be able to read of all of the faith and the challenges and the triumphs that have come before us for some reason gives us so much strength to continue on or ‘carry on’,” President Freeman said.

She testified of teaching young women to know ”who they are and Whose they are and where they are going … . This is the truth we hope every young woman will obtain that they will recognize their own path and eternal potential. We want them to recognize their divine identity.”

Primary General President Susan H. Porter said it is a joy to pray daily for children — the youngest disciples of Jesus Christ.

“We are so grateful to be associated with the children that the Lord is sending to the earth at this time. We are reminded ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me’” (Matthew 25:40), President Porter said.

More baptized children are speaking and praying in their local meetings and are serving other children in their communities through this year’s invitation to hold a Primary service activity. Children can plan, invite and serve and bring others to the Savior.

“In the day when organized religion in our society is being set aside, we want our children to know they are part of the body of Christ and we need them,” President Porter said. “We need their spirit, their testimony, their direction.”

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‘A Christian at Large’

Shannon Christiansen, who served on what was then called the Young Women general board from 1994-1997, was moved by the displays at the luncheon from the Church History Department, including letters from Joseph Smith that the Church acquired with the acquisition of properties in Kirtland, Ohio, and Nauvoo in 2024.

“All of my life, I have felt deeply about Joseph Smith,” she said. Her birthday, June 27, is the same date he was martyred in 1844. “Here it is again in my heart, something that I’m witnessing again and to see it in his own handwriting.”

Daryl Hoole, who served on the Primary general board from 1988-1989, said callings and assignments come and go, but friendships last forever.

“There’s something about serving together that changes things or deepens friendship,” she said. “You have to equalize the playing ground and rely on the Lord to make it work.”

When she was called, she didn’t know many Primary songs, so she listened in the car on the way to meetings. Ever since then, she has loved Primary music and calls the Primary chorister the gospel doctrine teacher for children.

She is now 91 years old and said, “It’s fun to be an emeritus. It’s better than saying ‘put out to pasture.’ Now we can be a ‘Christian at large.’”

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