The blessings and burdens of being a Relief Society president
Along with my commitment to write regularly on my blog, I’ve also made another goal this year and that’s to visit with at least 52 of the sisters in my ward by the year’s end. Like the blog, it may not be exactly one a week – I hope it’s actually more on most weeks, but that way, with vacations and illnesses, I still want to say at the end of the year, that I’ve visited 52 sisters in their homes this year.
I’ve keep a list of the sisters either I’ve visited either alone, with the entire presidency or at least one other member of the presidency. So far this year, among those that we’ve visited are a woman with 3 young special needs children whose husband has been unemployed for at least a year. Another sister, a convert, just recently started coming back to church after several moves and life found her in inactivity. She’s raising a grandchild as her own, has cervical cancer, and works nights as a janitor. Another sister was attacked and raped last month; another mother of 5 children was abandoned by her husband. She isn’t in the country legally and has to work jobs at which she’s basically abused because they know she can’t complain. Another sister is a single mother of five all of whom live in very small mobile home -- along wtih her sister. Another one of these sisters is losing her house and is desperately looking for any kind of work – cleaning houses, offices, anything, as she is housing several of her teenage and young adult grandsons. Another sister has never joined the church but is one of the wards most regular attendees and volunteers her time for many of our events. And, I'm pretty sure that one very skinny and frenetic lady I helped one time had to be on meth.
And on top of that, we have the usual blessings of new babies and the occasional funeral (we fed over 250 at a huge funeral last month) and general illnesses, injuries and hospitalizations. The list goes on and on and now that I’m writing it and thinking about all of the need and heartache, it can seem overwhelming. One of our sweetest sisters lost her husband this week; another sister no longer comes to church because of a doctrinal issue, another one subsides on intravenous nutrition, and yet others are bed-ridden by illnesses or pain. We have two residential mental health facilities within our ward, and we almost always have at least one sister living in one of them.
Even as I’m writing this, my heart aches and I wonder if all wards have such issues and pain. I want to help and yet feel frustrated that I can’t “fix” it all. What we can do, I guess, is just provide love, support, education and even resources. Last month our ward Relief Society prepared survivor kits and donated them to the Rape Crisis Center in Riverside. Next month, we’re having them come and teach all of our sisters self-defense and safety. I’ve prepared a resource sheet of church and social services available in our area to try to help in any way possible -- see below.
We listen and counsel with them and pray for these sisters, and always pray with them at every visit as well. We plan lessons on the importance of education, setting goals, of faith and of overcoming trials. We count on the love and service of good teachers and counselors, visiting teachers, friends, neighbors and a very loving, caring, and busy bishop.
On top of all of this, it’s our common love of the Savior that unites us all and as he taught us: “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33.) We’ll keep visiting, listening, praying, teaching and organizing ways to help and ask for Heavenly Father’s guidance and love as we do so.
