Church Service Volunteer...

As some of you may or may not know, two times a month I have the opportunity of serving in the Relief Society Resource Room. The resource room is located on the ground level of the Relief Society building in downtown Salt Lake, which is the offices for all of the general women's auxillaries of the church. Every other Wednesday afternoon I get to spend time serving and enjoying the opportunity as a volunteer to welcome visitors and guests as they visit the resource room. The displays share the history of relief society, the mission and objectives. It includes information and ideas on visiting teaching, welfare, and enrichment. I am there to answer questions and give tours. The Primary and Young Women also have a resource area and two other ladies serve in their respective organizations as volunteers. It is so much fun to get to know and visit with these ladies as we serve. There is also plenty of quiet time when there are no quests, which gives me time to read my scriptures or other books, to prepare for leadership meetings or lesson or talks that I have been asked to give in the ward relief societies. There is such a peaceful feeling in this building. Last fall I was looking up info on lds.org under relief society, I noticed a request for volunteers. The requirements were: to be a stake RS president and to be able to commit to two years of service. I felt this prodding that this is something I should do. So after several days of seriously thinking about it and sharing my thoughts with Andrew, he strongly encouraged me to pursue this opportunity. I went ahead and emailed my application of interest. Several weeks later I received an email back asking me if I would be available to come in to visit with Sister Allred - first counselor in the General RS presidency. To make a long story brief, I had an interview with Sister Allred which was so delightful, and was asked to begin my service in January. It has been a wonderful experience. I've met people from all over the country. I've even met several sisters from Canada and one of them knew Janet and Don. So we had a great conversation sharing this common ground. Quite often we have sister missionaries who are being released from the Salt Lake mission come with family to tour the resource room as they end their mission. I get phone calls needing guidance and answers to some of their questions. I have had the opportunity to be asked questions by general RS board members as they wanted input from stake RS leaders as they prepared to update their website, I have been privileged to beta test a soon to be released RS training on their website, my presidency and I have had the experience of having the general RS board do some practice training with us as their audience. Below are just a few of the pictures I took a few weeks ago....