Relief Society President and Creative Ideas
"Rhonda and I had been good friends. I would go over – She had three kids – actually at this point she only had the two – her second little girl – she had Bracken and her second one was about six weeks older than Amy was. We would get together and we would quilt quilts and we would just hang out and let the kids play. Ronda and I were just good friends, it was just really great.
"Well she was going to be moving and I had been an assistant secretary for the Relief Society for about two months that they had given me that calling, the other lady that had been serving as secretary was having some health issues so Rhonda just needed me to be in there to help. So here I was with a two and a half year old and a four month old and I was called as the Relief Society president!
"The Bishop at that time was Bruce Rossberg and he had – Ralph was serving as the Elder’s Quorum president - Bishop Rossberg had called the stake president and said, “ I have a problem, our Elder’s Quorum president is married to our future Relief Society president. What do I do?” And he said, “Well we need to release him as Elder’s Quorum president.”
"They called Ralph in to talk to him about it. Ralph was not anxious to be released as the Elder’s Quorum president, he was enjoying it, he was getting to work with his counselors, he’d only done it for about a year, year and a half, not very long. But he knew also that it would be better for the family if we were not both presidents of the organizations. So he was released and I was called as the Relief Society president.
"I remember that we were just leaving for Utah and first I was overwhelmed, I had two little kids, I was only 31 years old, and I was a little worried about this. But I also knew that whomever the Lord calls, he qualifies and he will help.
"As we headed off on our trip I took the ward list with us. As we journeyed across Nevada I was going through the list and I was going through the list and the names jumped out at me. Ann Cliff whom I did not know very well, she used to be a councilor, and Trina Brisbane, and Debbie Baird was to be my secretary. I didn’t know these ladies very well, but that’s who I was inspired to call. And Diedra at this point was serving as the Homemaking Leader. Come to find out I was the oldest of all these ladies 31 years old and oh my goodness, we had a great time there in Relief Society! A great time.
"About a year later Tina was, Tina was in the military and her husband was moving, she had been my homemaking councilor, so I called Debbie Baird as my homemaking councilor and Ann Cope was my Education counselor and I called Liz Lance to be my secretary and then Diedra Rader was the Homemaking Leader. We had a blast! Liz was working at the time, she was just newly married didn’t have any kids yet and the rest of us were moms with new kids.
"Ann had Nathaniel, he was a year older than Amy, and Marie who was the same age as Amy, and Eloise was born about the same time a month before Kristy was. Debbie had Alex who was Amy’s age and Chase who was Kristy’s age. Diedra had Kenny and Jordon who were the same age as my two. So we would just load up the kids and we would head for the church and we would work on all kinds of projects together.
"That was back in the day when you would do Relief Society and there would be all of these crafts and things that we would do and the crafts were very popular. It was from Debbie – Debbie just had a knack for coming up with great projects and great ideas and things to do. We would find these things to do these crafts to do. We would get together and cut them all out.
"About this time at Christmas time that Ralph gave me a 10 inch bandsaw. Boy did I cut a lot of stuff out on that bandsaw – for the Relief Society and for myself and I enjoyed doing that it was great! It was just a wonderful experience to serve together in Relief Society.
"We didn’t have any kids in school yet so we didn’t have the constraints of the times and the kids were all in pre-school down at Baldwin Park. They all went to pre-school together and we also did – we tried doing Joy school with them and the mom’s didn’t like it because it was way too much work and structure and the kids just wanted to play.
"The children would go to pre-school a couple of times a week and then we would do play group a couple of mornings a week and it was fabulous. What a great time! We did lots of activities, like I said we had homemaking meetings once a month.
"Debbie came up with this idea – I think Debbie and Diedra together came up with this idea that we were going to go on a cruise. So what we did is decide we were going to go on a Mediterranean Cruise. And every sister when she came into the Chapel that night – she was given a passport. She got her passport stamped. The first place was Italy. We went into the Relief Society room that was like the cruise ship, it was set up with port windows and we had a cultural lesson on Italy and then we went into half of the Gym and it was set up to look kind of like a Italian café place.
"We had Harry Burger who was one of the brethren in the ward and he had a Gondola that he would invite sisters to come and sit in the Gondola and he would give them a Gondola ride around the gym floor. A lot of it was just imagination but it was really fun. We were eating pasta, so when we were done eating our pasta – oh wait sorry – the first place that we went to was Greece.
"We had a little lesson on Greece then went into half of the Gym which was decorated with these Grecian pillars and had our Greek salads, then back into the Relief Society room where we learned about Italy. So then we went to Italy and then we went back into the Relief Society Room and we learned about France and then we went out into the courtyard area – all –there were trees in the courtyard area and they had brought in a bunch of pastries and they had twinkling lights and they had all these little round tables that we’d gathered up from around the building and they had these red and white checked tablecloths and they were a little sidewalk café there in France and we ate cream puffs and other French pastries for dessert.
"It was so fun! We just had a blast! Another time we did a train ride – the next year. You know just trying to have creative ways to bring the sisters together and to work on things together, to feel of the spirit, and to raise our families in the Lord. Relief Society was a huge blessing to me. It was a huge blessing."
"Well she was going to be moving and I had been an assistant secretary for the Relief Society for about two months that they had given me that calling, the other lady that had been serving as secretary was having some health issues so Rhonda just needed me to be in there to help. So here I was with a two and a half year old and a four month old and I was called as the Relief Society president!
"The Bishop at that time was Bruce Rossberg and he had – Ralph was serving as the Elder’s Quorum president - Bishop Rossberg had called the stake president and said, “ I have a problem, our Elder’s Quorum president is married to our future Relief Society president. What do I do?” And he said, “Well we need to release him as Elder’s Quorum president.”
"They called Ralph in to talk to him about it. Ralph was not anxious to be released as the Elder’s Quorum president, he was enjoying it, he was getting to work with his counselors, he’d only done it for about a year, year and a half, not very long. But he knew also that it would be better for the family if we were not both presidents of the organizations. So he was released and I was called as the Relief Society president.
"I remember that we were just leaving for Utah and first I was overwhelmed, I had two little kids, I was only 31 years old, and I was a little worried about this. But I also knew that whomever the Lord calls, he qualifies and he will help.
"As we headed off on our trip I took the ward list with us. As we journeyed across Nevada I was going through the list and I was going through the list and the names jumped out at me. Ann Cliff whom I did not know very well, she used to be a councilor, and Trina Brisbane, and Debbie Baird was to be my secretary. I didn’t know these ladies very well, but that’s who I was inspired to call. And Diedra at this point was serving as the Homemaking Leader. Come to find out I was the oldest of all these ladies 31 years old and oh my goodness, we had a great time there in Relief Society! A great time.
"About a year later Tina was, Tina was in the military and her husband was moving, she had been my homemaking councilor, so I called Debbie Baird as my homemaking councilor and Ann Cope was my Education counselor and I called Liz Lance to be my secretary and then Diedra Rader was the Homemaking Leader. We had a blast! Liz was working at the time, she was just newly married didn’t have any kids yet and the rest of us were moms with new kids.
"Ann had Nathaniel, he was a year older than Amy, and Marie who was the same age as Amy, and Eloise was born about the same time a month before Kristy was. Debbie had Alex who was Amy’s age and Chase who was Kristy’s age. Diedra had Kenny and Jordon who were the same age as my two. So we would just load up the kids and we would head for the church and we would work on all kinds of projects together.
"That was back in the day when you would do Relief Society and there would be all of these crafts and things that we would do and the crafts were very popular. It was from Debbie – Debbie just had a knack for coming up with great projects and great ideas and things to do. We would find these things to do these crafts to do. We would get together and cut them all out.
"About this time at Christmas time that Ralph gave me a 10 inch bandsaw. Boy did I cut a lot of stuff out on that bandsaw – for the Relief Society and for myself and I enjoyed doing that it was great! It was just a wonderful experience to serve together in Relief Society.
"We didn’t have any kids in school yet so we didn’t have the constraints of the times and the kids were all in pre-school down at Baldwin Park. They all went to pre-school together and we also did – we tried doing Joy school with them and the mom’s didn’t like it because it was way too much work and structure and the kids just wanted to play.
"The children would go to pre-school a couple of times a week and then we would do play group a couple of mornings a week and it was fabulous. What a great time! We did lots of activities, like I said we had homemaking meetings once a month.
"Debbie came up with this idea – I think Debbie and Diedra together came up with this idea that we were going to go on a cruise. So what we did is decide we were going to go on a Mediterranean Cruise. And every sister when she came into the Chapel that night – she was given a passport. She got her passport stamped. The first place was Italy. We went into the Relief Society room that was like the cruise ship, it was set up with port windows and we had a cultural lesson on Italy and then we went into half of the Gym and it was set up to look kind of like a Italian café place.
"We had Harry Burger who was one of the brethren in the ward and he had a Gondola that he would invite sisters to come and sit in the Gondola and he would give them a Gondola ride around the gym floor. A lot of it was just imagination but it was really fun. We were eating pasta, so when we were done eating our pasta – oh wait sorry – the first place that we went to was Greece.
"We had a little lesson on Greece then went into half of the Gym which was decorated with these Grecian pillars and had our Greek salads, then back into the Relief Society room where we learned about Italy. So then we went to Italy and then we went back into the Relief Society Room and we learned about France and then we went out into the courtyard area – all –there were trees in the courtyard area and they had brought in a bunch of pastries and they had twinkling lights and they had all these little round tables that we’d gathered up from around the building and they had these red and white checked tablecloths and they were a little sidewalk café there in France and we ate cream puffs and other French pastries for dessert.
"It was so fun! We just had a blast! Another time we did a train ride – the next year. You know just trying to have creative ways to bring the sisters together and to work on things together, to feel of the spirit, and to raise our families in the Lord. Relief Society was a huge blessing to me. It was a huge blessing."
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