A New Calling.....

This past Sunday I got a new calling at church! I am now the ward Primary Secretary!!!! I am SO EXCITED for this new calling. I was the ward Relief Society President going on 5 years and I am grateful to have a new assignment.


Growing up in literally the middle of nowhere on the Navajo Reservation- I definitely got to experience the "Blossoming of the Lamanites" in our corner of the vineyard. The Navajo Nation is the largest reservation in the United States covering 27,425 square miles! That is a stark contrast to the island of Oahu, Hawaii where I now live (607 square miles).

While there are many members of the church on the 'Rez -the church is still growing, I remember our family attending the dedication of the Chinle, Arizona Stake Center which established the very first and only Stake encompassing the whole reservation.

Needless to say growing up as member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on the Navajo Reservation was a very "unique" experience. Church programs were small and tailored to meet the needs of the individuals who came to church, usually investigators or inactive members that the missionaries were teaching at the time.

Primary classes were combined to include all the children and we would enjoy chasing down lizards in the sage brush and trees behind the church in between classes. As I turned 12 and entered the Young Women Program my dad was called serve as one of the 12 High counselors. Our family would travel across the reservation to the various wards and branches for my dad to fulfill his speaking and other assignments. We would get up early in the morning, usually way before the sun rose to make it to 10:00 am services. Then we would wait in the car (sometimes for hours) after the meetings for my dad to meet with the local church leaders only to drive the long hours to get home again. I honestly don’t know how my mom kept us 4 kids occupied without ipods, and portable DVD players. I grew up not watching TV on Sundays, not because it was a rule but because our Sundays were spent traveling such far distances.

The Stake was eventually split into 2 stakes and my father was called as the Stake President for the new Stake at which point our Lukachukai “Ward” was created including the Bishop’s family (The Bishop, his wife, 2 daughters and 3 sons) and our family (My dad, mom, 2 brothers, me, and my little sister)…oh yeah AND the 2 full time missionaries. YES….that was our WARD.

We got to attend church in 2 trailers with no running water or electricity a 15 to 20 minute drive away Eventually our congregation grew to include a few exchange students from Japan and several families who moved in and out of the area. On average I would say there were about 20 to 30 people in attendance to church each Sunday. We each took turns giving lessons and talks. I had a calling to be the ward chorister and would spend Sunday mornings fast forwarding and rewinding to queue church music tapes for the songs we would sing. I would only select those with a ¾ or 4/4 time that everyone knew since I taught myself to lead music from the back of the hymnal…lol! Yeah, we had a lot of repeat songs sung….

Winter time was especially memorable as we would all bundle up in our winter coats, hats, gloves and boots and snuggle under blankets as we attended sacrament meeting together. There was a long running joke in our ward that you couldn’t just feel and hear our testimonies but that you could also see them as our warm breath condensed with the cold air as we spoke. There was also a running joke that we would leave the one to go and find the ninety and nine as we did Visiting and Home Teaching.



I’ve always loved the gospel. I was so excited to become part of the Young Woman program that I went home the same day I received my Personal Progress manual and memorized the Young Women Theme. I’m a little embarrassed that I would get caught at night reading my scriptures with a flashlight under the covers when I was supposed to be sleeping. I was so excited when I got accepted to attend Brigham Young University. The experience of going to college with thousands of others who believed like I did was an AMAZING experience. There were tough times and definite struggles but I absolutely loved it.

So I really went from one extreme to another….living in a place where the church was still growing and then moving to a place where just about everyone was a member of the church. The BYU Student wards are definitely in a category of their own. I came to realize that for some reason I didn’t quite like Relief Society. I’m not sure what it was….I had a hard time adjusting to the lessons. My view of Relief Society seemed to be “arts and crafts”, babies and old women issues. I didn’t want to be part of an old lady club. Yeah, I know this sounds crazy coming from a Home Ec teaching major who wanted to have 15 kids and drive them around in a big bus!

At the time I really felt that Relief Society was NOT for me. I wanted there to be a program for those ladies who were “in-between”….. a place for those girls who were transitioning from young women to adult hood.

As I got married and we attended a Married Student Ward my attendance to Relief Society diminished to almost nonexistent. I didn’t know the ladies at church. I felt very alone with no friends and felt that no one cared about me. One day out of the blue my visiting teachers came to visit. I was so excited to have someone come to see me and care about me. They stayed for a few hours and we had the greatest time talking and laughing. The sisters were quite older than me, had been married years longer than I and had children. I realized that I had purposely distanced myself from the ladies at church because I had judged them to be people that I didn’t have anything in common with. Shortly after I was called on the enrichment committee and became close to the counselor who oversaw the Relief Society activities. As I got involved I got to know more sisters, my desire to do visiting teaching became stronger and I felt apart of things.

Unfortunately, when I moved to Hawaii a lot of negative feelings for Relief Society returned and I made up my mind before even attending our ward that I did NOT want a calling in Relief Society. The ladies in Hawaii were older than my mom! No way was I gonna be part of that club (once again the judgment set in…) Lo and behold I got called to be the Relief Society President of our ward- boy oh boy did Heavenly Father have a few lessons for me to learn…..


Here are just few things I’ve learned as Relief Society President- this is just scratching the surface.

1. Be flexible. No matter how hard I try, things will NEVER run perfectly or like clockwork. Life will always get in the way but that is what makes things exciting. At the end of the day it isn’t important whether or not the tiny details were perfect or that all the boxes in my to do list are checked off. But rather how I treated others and what I learned and how I grew that day.

2. No one is perfect- even our church leaders and especially me. Whenever I make judgments about others, I’m usually wrong. I love the quote “there are only 2 kinds of people in the world, those you love and those you don’t know yet.”

3. We have angels in our midst. Women are AMAZING. So many ladies do so much that is never publicly known or recognized. I am amazed at all the accomplishments achieved by the women in my ward in spite of difficulties, heartbreak and challenges that they face sometimes on a daily basis.

4. There are miracles all around us. People have shown up to help me or called right when I needed help. I have known exactly what needed to be said or done at the exact moment I needed it. There were times I’ve gotten things done in one day that would’ve taken 3 to complete. I’ve been sick and healed and discouraged and comforted, with no other explanation than being blessed by my Father in Heaven.

5. Women need other women. Young and Old we need one another. Only women understand women and have the power to uplift or tear down one another. I am grateful for my circle of sisters that are always there for me.

6. We all feel like we are not enough. I’ve always thought that everyone else has got it “together”. I’ve always felt that I somehow was behind and that everyone else had these incredible talents and abilities. It wasn’t until one day a friend of mine shared with me how overwhelmed and inadequate she felt when she compared herself to me. We both learned that we were comparing our weaknesses to each other strengths which were keeping us from being closer friends. I personally feel that our feelings of inadequacies and low self-worth come from the adversary. He thrives on negative feelings and uses them to tear us down. Heavenly Father wants us to share our talents and strengths to support and build up one another.

One of my favorite scriptures is D&C 46: 11&12 “For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of god. To some is given one, and to some is given another, that all may be profited thereby.”

I have learned that we can actually multiple the gifts and talents that we are given and strengthen our weak areas by pooling our talents and relying on one another. Without the help of others, I could never have managed and lead almost 300 sisters. Our judgments keep us from progressing whether those be judgments of others or judgments of ourselves.

7. Church Callings don’t last forever but a lot can be expected of you. There were lots of meetings to attend and demands to be met as president. But now that it’s all over with it doesn’t seem so bad. You definitely get more than what you give those you serve.

8. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy. I love Relief Society- it is a program that is inspired especially for me and is exactly what I need in my life right now. I just need to remember that I need to put what’s most important first and “everything else will either fall into place or fall out of my life” as President Uchdorf said.

I appreciate the love and support of all my family, friends and ward members as I have fulfilled my calling as President. I tried my hardest and am grateful for the opportunity.

 Now….time to learn those primary songs!