Sam gave me the "sunflower" for my birthday.
The front and back petals are separate and turn opposite to each other
even when there is not much of a breeze,
and it changes directions as the wind shifts.
It is pretty cool.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Vernal Temple
Dedicated November 2, 1997, the Vernal Temple was the first LDS temple
built from a previously existing structure. Since then, the
Copenhagen Denmark, Manhattan New York, and Provo City Center temples
have been similarly adapted from existing structures.
Originally, the building served as the
Uintah Stake Tabernacle in eastern Utah.
Sam took the picture of the Vernal Temple when he went with
Kim Berrett to measure for trusses in a building project.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
My small Russian display at our ward's
Relief Society birthday event
which featured international foods.
The display included my Shutterfly album about our serving in the
Europe East Area Mission (November 2007 - May 2009),
a matryoshka "nesting" doll,
a Pushkin's fairy tale book,
and a collection of recipes with Russian words on the cover.
I was also asked to give a 10-minute talk on
Relief Society in My Life
at the Relief Society social.
Before 2019, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
living in central South Dakota were members of a branch.
There were two stakes in South Dakota:
Rapid City Stake (western SD) and
Sioux Falls Stake (eastern SD).
Until recently, Martin was in the Pierre District.
2019:
The branches in the Pierre District became part of the Rapid City Stake,
the Sioux Falls Stake,
the Bismarck Stake, or part of a stake in Nebraska.
This ended an era, with only stakes and no districts in the United States.
Martin is now part of the Rapid City Stake,
which still does cover a large area.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I was born and raised in South Dakota.
My parents moved there about eight years before I was born.
They had moved from Utah; and when they inquired
about the closest place to attend church,
they received word from Salt Lake that
they lived as far from any organized branch of the Church
as they could be in the United States.
So my parents held church in our home first in Cheyenne Agency, then in Mission, and finally in Martin until they retired in 1966. My parents served a two-year mission in the Cumorah Mission before returning to their new home in Orem in 1970.
Thus, I was taught the Gospel in my home growing up,
So my parents held church in our home first in Cheyenne Agency, then in Mission, and finally in Martin until they retired in 1966. My parents served a two-year mission in the Cumorah Mission before returning to their new home in Orem in 1970.
Thus, I was taught the Gospel in my home growing up,
attending church every Sunday in our living room,
where my father as a Melchizedek Priesthood holder presided
and blessed the sacrament.
My mother was an excellent teacher, and I played the piano.
(My brother and sister were enough older than I
and had graduated and left home before I became a teenager.)
My parents also served as home teachers in South Dakota.
My parents also served as home teachers in South Dakota.
One of their home teaching assignments for three years
was four families in four different counties,
requiring driving 186 miles each month to visit them.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
We were originally part of the North Central States Mission with headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. My father served as the first district president in central South Dakota, and my mother was the first district Relief Society president.
My father wrote in his life story that he "was released as District President
of the South Dakota District 3 March 1961."
During my high school years, I went with my parents to branch conferences across the state to the four and then five branches (Gettysburg, Fort Thompson, Huron, Aberdeen, and Pierre).
During my high school years, I went with my parents to branch conferences across the state to the four and then five branches (Gettysburg, Fort Thompson, Huron, Aberdeen, and Pierre).
We enjoyed branch conferences in central South Dakota
near the Missouri River (Gettysburg),
and one especially stands out in my memory when
Elder Bruce R. McConkie was the visiting General Authority.
His talk was Born Again.
We next became part of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission when it was organized.
We next became part of the South Dakota Rapid City Mission when it was organized.
(First Mission President l found listed online was in 1964.)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Raising Our Family in South Dakota
With President Nelson's announcement in 2019
for a two-hour church on Sundays
with accompanying home study,
I thought about my church experience growing up
as well as the years raising our children in South Dakota.
Focus on the Family and home study is not a new concept for us.
(Family photo taken in our home in South Dakota in 2009
at the time of our 50th Anniversary.)
After graduating from BYU, Sam and I were hired as teachers in St. Johns, Arizona.
We lived there for about eleven years with four years in between
living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Sam taught and
got his doctorate in Math Education.
We returned to South Dakota in 1975 where we lived
until moving to Spanish Fork, Utah, in October 2012.
Most of those years in South Dakota we held church in our home.
Home Seminary, Primary, MIA or Mutual were part of the experience
for our seven children, with all taking turns giving talks and bearing testimonies.
Sam was branch president during most of our nearly 40 years in South Dakota,
and he also served as a counselor in the district presidency
and as a district president.
I also had opportunities to serve in the district
and was the district Relief Society president in the
Rosebud District and later
in the Pierre District.
Now we are enjoying being members in the Legacy Farms 1st Ward.
Interestingly, we have lived in Spanish Fork six years now
and have been in five different wards and three stakes
while living in the same house!
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Here are some differences in Relief Society in my lifetime:
* Relief Society used to be held on a week day.
* There was a Relief Society Magazine (1914 - 1970).
* Each auxiliary had responsibility for its own curriculum and
wrote its own lessons prior to the priesthood correlation of the 1960s.
The Relief Society curriculum from 1960 to the present shifted
from lessons of local appeal to more universal application.
This change also went from lessons on
practicalities of womanhood,
motherhood, and Mormon living
to lessons on spiritual living and essential gospel principles.
Earlier lessons, for example,
instructed (at times quite explicitly)
what women needed to do
(and how to do it)
to be "good" LDS women.
For example, lessons included how to mother,
housekeeping practices, dress and grooming,
gardening, sewing, teaching, budgeting,
being a good neighbor, table manners, losing weight, etc.
There were several problems culturally with the materials, however.
Information sometimes would be culturally inappropriate beyond Utah or the U.S.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
In the early 1960s, lessons were:
Theology, Work Meeting, Literature, and Social Science.
Visiting Teaching messages were included in the Relief Society Magazine.
In 1966, lessons were renamed, but had similar content.
Theology lessons - became Spiritual Living.
Literature lessons - became Cultural Refinement.
(I enjoyed reading the stories in
“Out of the Best Books.”)
Social Science - became Social Relations.
Work Meeting - became *Homemaking.
*(a change reflecting the Church’s need
*(a change reflecting the Church’s need
to reassert women’s value as
homemakers in a society that
increasingly diminished housewives.)
Courses in Mother Training were added in 1972
(at the encouragement of Harold B. Lee)
and renamed Mother Education the following year.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Beginning in 1980, the Church changed to a calendar year
and 12-month lesson schedule.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
In 1980, weekday lessons moved to Sunday
with the consolidated Sunday three-hour schedule.
* Spiritual Living lesson, 1st Sunday of the month
* Homemaking, 2nd Sunday
* Choice between Mother Training and Social Relations, 3rd Sunday
* Cultural Refinement lesson, 4th Sunday
In 1984, Homemaking lesson moved from Sunday
to a weekday evening and all attended Mother Education the 2nd Sunday.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
During Barbara Winder’s administration, 1984-90,
there was an increased focus on spirituality
and an increased acknowledgment of women’s different living conditions.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
In 1978, women began giving prayers in sacrament meeting.
In 1989, women spoke for the first time in general conference since 1845.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sister Belle Spafford:
"Experience has taught us that always change
has been the handmaid of progress.
So, as much as we revere the past,
we look forward to the future,
knowing that the new plan for forwarding the work
of the women of the Church will prosper.”
(Address given at Relief Society conference in Salt Lake City, October 1975.)
I am grateful for my testimony and the experiences I have had in the Church.
