President to President

On Saturday I had the opportunity to listen to and be trained by Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for four hours.  The first meeting was from 10:00 to 12:00 and was open to women from 45 stakes around the area (Let's pause for a second and think about this.  45 stakes were invited.  The farthest anyone had to travel was 90 minutes.  We're definitely not in the midwest anymore....).

The meeting was conducted as a question and answer session so it was interesting to hear her responses to questions she had no time to prepare for.  I don't think I learned any new, huge, spiritual thing, but I did come away knowing I need to work on being patient with people.  She handled some of the questions so gracefully when they weren't exactly the types of questions she probably wanted to be answering.  And if a person asked a question that was fairly personal, she was able to reword it so that she could answer for an entire group of people.

The second meeting was a much smaller group (still a few hundred).  Those invited were limited to ward and stake RS presidencies, bishops, and stake presidents.  It too was question and answer.  She talked mostly about the new handbook and questions we had regarding it.  It was really open for discussion and I even made a comment!  I mean, how many times are you in a Q and A with a member of the general board and have the opportunity to answer a question!?  At the risk of sounding completely crazy, I went for it.

It's a strange feeling to realize how much of an influence this woman has on the entire world.  Here at BYUI, I am the Relief Society President for about 40 girls ages 18-25ish.  Sister Beck is the president for MILLIONS of women from numerous cultures, lifestyles, and age brackets.  It would be a responsibility far greater than I can imagine.  And yet, she can take the time to visit the women of southeast Idaho and stand for hours to teach, and then another 30 minutes afterward meeting and hugging young presidents like myself.  

Alexis's mom was actually in charge of the whole event so after the second meeting we got to meet Sister Beck and get a hug and a picture!  I just pretended like I was part of the Peterson family for a few hours.  No big deal.

The Peterson girls plus one...and proof that cardigans look good no matter your age!