RELIEF SOCIETY HISTORY
She was the first General Relief Society President.
As members of Relief Society, "we'll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak." That line comes from this Hymn.
What is "As Sister's in Zion"?
The Relief Society was organized under this president.
Who is Joseph Smith?
The Relief Society Emblem is made up of this.
What is the Sego Lily/Wheat Sheaf? (The sego lily was selected because of its usefulness in sustaining life along pioneer settlements. It is an appropriate symbol of purity, beauty, patience through winter and darkness, and storing of strength for the time of blossoming. The wheat sheaf has been used as an emblem along with the sego lily, symbolizing storing of grain against time of need.)
This sister, who was a member of the original organization of the Relief Society wrote 10 songs that are currently in our hymn book. Including "How Great the Wisdom and the Love", "O My Father", and "In our Lovely Deseret."
Who is Eliza R. Snow?
Who is Emma Smith? **A bar was set up in Joseph’s hotel, the Mansion house. Joseph Smith tells of Emma’s return from a journey to find the bar in place. As her biographers tell the story: …Emma entered the main room of the Mansion House on April 24 [, 1843]. A bar, complete with counter, shelves, and glasses for serving liquor stood in the room. [Orrin] Porter Rockwell reigned supreme over it. Emma sent her eleven-year-old son into a meeting to tell Joseph she wished to speak with him; she waited in the hall. “Joseph, what is the meaning of that bar in this house?” Emma asked with restraint obvious to her young son, who later recorded the confrontation. Joseph explained that a new building across the street was planned for Porter Rockwell’s bar and barbershop, but until it could be completed Rockwell had set up the bar in the Mansion. “How does it look for the spiritual head of a religious body to be keeping a hotel in which a room is fitted out as a liquor-selling establishment?” she asked earnestly. Joseph countered that all hotels had their bars, the arrangement was only temporary, and he wanted to make up for Rockwell’s months in prison. Rockwell had been jailed for months, and reached Nauvoo in financially desperate straits. Joseph hoped to find a trade for his old friend and bodyguard. Emma was not persuaded by this argument: Unconvinced, Emma told Joseph he could hire someone to run the Mansion for him. “As for me,” she continued, “I will take my children and go across to the old house and stay there, for I will not have them raised up under such conditions as this arrangement imposes upon us, nor have them mingle with the kind of men who frequent such a place. You are at liberty to make your choice; either that bar goes out of the house, or we will!”… Joseph answered, “Very well, Emma; I will have it removed at once.” Soon a frame structure, designed to house the bar and barbershop, began to rise across the street.