Estimated read time: 8-9 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — In front of the European Union Parliament last week, President Camille N. Johnson, Relief Society general president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, invited leaders to consider what could happen "if every woman felt empowered within her sphere of influence to live out the full measure of her special gifts and propensities for nurture, care, healing, teaching and leading."
President Johnson delivered a keynote address titled, "Empowering Women's Freedom of Religion and Belief."
Speaking from her capacity as the leader of one of the world's largest and oldest women's organizations, President Johnson said she's seen firsthand what can happen when nearly 8 million women are united in faith and are able to live out their religious beliefs. "I have seen women elevate one another in the midst of poverty. I have seen women care for, feed and nurture children who are not their own. I have seen women stand to protect others from the ravages of war."
Just a few days prior to her Brussels visit, President Johnson spoke with the Deseret News and expressed her hope to convey to the EU Parliament that "the grassroots efforts of the Relief Society, where we bless not just our members but others in our community, are because we have the freedom of belief."
The conversation took place in President Johnson's office across from the Salt Lake Temple. On her desk is a statue of the Prophet Joseph Smith and Emma Smith, and her bookshelves alternate between a variety of gospel-related titles and various historical tokens of past Relief Society figures. She sat at a nearby table with Minerva Teichert's "Christ in a Red Robe" behind her. The original, when not on display, hangs downstairs welcoming visitors to the Relief Society Building.
President Johnson spoke in anticipation of the 182nd anniversary of the Relief Society. The Church of Jesus Christ will have a worldwide devotional on March 17 with messages from the faith's prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, and the Relief Society general presidency, including President Johnson and Sisters J. Anette Dennis and Kristin M. Yee.
The church also announced this week the purchase of the Red Brick Store, the Nauvoo, Illinois building where the Relief Society was first organized on March 17, 1842. At that first meeting Emma Smith, the first general president of the Relief Society, said "We are going to do something extraordinary ... we expect extraordinary occasions and pressing calls."
'Extraordinary occasions'
The quote is a favorite of President Johnson's. One of those pressing calls, she said, is "to bless the lives of women and children around the world."
"One hundred eighty-two years of the Relief Society and our objective hasn't changed," President Johnson said. "We're still looking for extraordinary occasions and pressing calls and we're still providing the Savior's relief."
The Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ is helping do that through specific initiatives and programs, she said, including "maternal and neonatal care, child nutrition, immunizations and education for children worldwide."
In her office, President Johnson picked up a bright, colorful bowl from her desk. She has it from her nine-day trip with UNICEF to northern Uganda — "the distinct privilege of a lifetime." The Church of Jesus Christ and UNICEF have a longstanding humanitarian partnership. Together the organizations have collaborated on efforts to provide more than 115,000 refugee children with better educational opportunities. And in recent years the church has donated tens of millions of dollars to UNICEF and other organizations to alleviate food insecurity and decrease maternal and neonatal mortality.
'A one-by-one effort'
President Johnson went to Uganda to see the distribution of a ready-to-use therapeutic food made out of peanuts, milk powder, vitamins, oil and minerals. All across the world, UNICEF distributes this food to malnourished children. From her vantage point, President Johnson said she can see those extraordinary occasions and pressing calls close at home and around the world.
"But I know that what's happening is a one-by-one effort."
Women the world over respond in their own grassroots actions, "just as the way the Savior served and loved and took care of people one at a time."
"Our sisters, from my perspective, are finding hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ and knowing that when they're engaged in service to others, when they're providing that relief that has been critical to the formation and foundation of the Relief Society from the very beginning, that they will find their own relief in Jesus Christ," President Johnson said.
President Johnson emphasized that every sister in the Relief Society is needed no matter what point of life they are at.
"There'll be seasons and times in our lives when we have to exercise our executive ability. We have responsibilities in that regard," President Johnson said. "Sometimes there's seasons in our lives where nurturing is the most important skill, the most important natural attribute that we need to employ. And it doesn't have to be all those things at once."
President Johnson practiced law for nearly 30 years at the law firm of Snow, Christensen & Martineau eventually serving as the firm's president. She's the mother of three children and served alongside her husband Douglas Johnson who was called as a mission president in the Peru Arequipa Mission.
Referencing President Nelson's 2015 general conference talk "A Plea to My Sisters," she invited women to pick a gift whether it be teaching their children or defending the family or cultivating leadership abilities and "then decide how you're going to employ that attribute to prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Savior."
If women feel discouraged during this process, President Johnson said, "We keep moving the ball forward by doing the things that we know bring us peace, that bring us happiness, that bring us hope and that keep us in touch with the Spirit."
While walking the halls of the Relief Society Building, which also houses offices for the Primary and Young Women general presidencies, President Johnson stopped by a display of ornate porcelain dishes. She then spoke energetically about how women from around the world donated these, and many other keepsakes, to aid in the construction of the building.
The donations symbolized one message President Johnson shares as she is traveling: Every sister is necessary.
When she asked President Nelson what message he would like her to share with the sisters around the world, she said, he responded: "Please tell them that they're loved, please tell them that they're precious and please tell them that they are necessary."
Part of the beauty of the Relief Society, she continued, is that women from all walks of life — single, widows, married with children — come together bound by covenants to help each other draw closer to Jesus Christ and take care of each other.
"There's this unity of purpose, this sisterhood that happens when we come together," President Johnson said. "Respecting one another's differences, celebrating those differences in life status and saying how we can help and love and serve one another" is what helps the Relief Society bloom.
'Part of the global cause'
Standing before the EU Parliament she told those political leaders that when women feel empowered to live their religion and express their conscience in private and public life, the whole world benefits from their inspired actions.
"It may be that they're caring for an elderly parent. You're part of a global cause because you're helping someone in need. You're caring for those in need. It may be that you're teaching a refugee child how to read, or maybe the refugee child's mother who doesn't know how to get to the grocery store. You're part of the global cause," President Johnson said.
Sometimes the relief women will bring to the world will be temporal and other times it'll be spiritual. But at all times, "We're acting as the Savior's hands and his feet, his lips, his ears," President Johnson said. "We are all family." When President Johnson speaks to people who aren't familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ, she always makes an effort to explain that Latter-day Saints refer to each other as brother and sister.
President Johnson recalled an instance when Emmeline B. Wells, the fifth general president of the Relief Society was asked to start a grain program growing and storing wheat. "It proved to be a huge blessing to those sisters — sisters uniting around a common cause, an extraordinary occasion and pressing call."
Not only did the wheat bless the Relief Society sisters, President Johnson said they were able to give it to the survivors of an earthquake in San Francisco and later sell some of it to the U.S. government when wheat was scarce. The wheat program later became part of the Church of Jesus Christ's welfare program. The exterior of the Relief Society building has golden wheat adornments as a reminder of this.
"Now just think about this for a minute," President Johnson said, "We started humbly gleaning wheat, storing wheat, raising wheat. The sisters rolled up their sleeves as part of a global effort to bless lives."
"And now look where we've come."
In the words of President Johnson before the EU Parliament in Brussels, the Relief Society has helped sparked a "global sisterhood."
