A Great Day in Salt Lake

For the last five months I have had the privilege of serving in the stake Relief Society presidency with Kaye Womack, Bethene Birch, and Bonnie Olaveson. They are not only my sisters in the gospel, but have become my dear friends.

Historically, with each general conference there have been workshops/open houses for the auxiliaries in the church. However, this practice was discontinued last year...and now the open houses are held only in conjunction with April conference. Although there are not any "official" open houses for this upcoming conference, we decided we wanted to make a trip to Salt Lake to visit the Relief Society building, have lunch at the Lion House, and then go tour the Humanitarian Center. So off we went on Wednesday morning.

Upon arriving in SLC our first stop was the Relief Society building. (Sad to admit this, but in all my time living and working in Salt Lake, I had never stepped foot inside the Relief Society building before this day. And I used to work right almost right across the street!) There is such an amazing spirit and feeling as you walk in the doors. We had the short tour of the main floor, and one of the highlights was looking at the books that listed all the Relief Society sisters who donated to build this structure. We each found at least one of our parents/grandparents listed in these books. What a great connection to our heritage!

Then it was on to the Resource Center, located on the lower level of the Relief Society building. There are displays for each of the auxiliaries in the church for women - Primary (girls under the age of 12), Young Women (girls ages 12-17), and Relief Society (for all women over the age of 18). Each auxiliary has a rug with a theme unique to their organization.

The Primary "CTR" rug - showing the CTR emblem in several languages.

The Young Women rug - with all the Value colors and subtle profiles of a young women.

The Relief Society rug - with a pattern of sheaves of wheat and the Relief Socity emblem

The Resource Center is amazing. There are numerous displays from various stakes throughout the church. Very inspiring and motivating.

Bonnie, Bethene, Kaye, and me

The Reception Room in the Relief Society Building is a very beautiful, peaceful place. It embodies the Spirit felt in this place. It was great to just sit here and enjoy the feeling.

After visiting the Relief Society Building, we headed over to the Lion House for lunch. Mmmmm. Good food, superb company, and a beautiful day! Then we left downtown SLC and we out for a tour of the Humanitarian Center.

Because of the many recent natural disasters, many volunteers were serving to replenish the supplies.

All in all, it was a day well spent. The ride to and from Salt Lake was fun... in visiting with Kaye, Bethene, and Bonnie...and to feel the Spirit throughout the day - no matter where we were.

The overall feeling I had was that I am so blessed to be a part of this great work - building up the Kingdom of God. What a privilege this is. But I also felt (especially as we visited the Humanitarian Center) that there is so much more I need to do.