When President Russell M. Nelson spoke to women around the world during the 2024 Relief Society worldwide devotional, he said that women specifically have a divine endowment that allows them to change lives.
Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said that is prophetic direction and a prophetic invitation. “It is a prophetic declaration of our capacity as women.”
On March 16, women around the world again have the opportunity to gather in their wards and branches for the 2025 Relief Society Worldwide Devotional and testimony meeting, which will commemorate the founding of the Relief Society organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This organization — one of the world’s largest and oldest for women — is not an organization in the worldly sense, but it is “divinely appointed and divinely organized,” President Johnson said.
“The history of Relief Society isn’t about setting up a women’s club; it’s about completing the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ by organizing the women in the way they had been organized before. That’s remarkable. And it happened for us in 1842,” she said.
Covenant community
The broadcast on March 16 will include a message directed specifically to the women of the Church from Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and remarks from the Relief Society general presidency — President Johnson and her counselors, Sister J. Anette Dennis and Sister Kristin M. Yee
President Johnson said women should check with their local Relief Society leader to see if they are going to assemble that Sunday night on March 16 and watch together and have their testimony meeting together as a ward. An intimate gathering with ward sisters will allow many sisters the opportunity to express testimony, she said.
For those women who can’t gather on March 16 or when their local gathering has been scheduled, President Johnson hopes they will watch the broadcast online. That can be done through broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, Gospel Library, Gospel Media, the Gospel Stream app or the Church’s inspiration YouTube channel.
During an interview on the Church News podcast, Sister Yee encouraged women to invite friends, ministering sisters and neighbors to go with them. Young women who are turning 18 in 2025 are also invited.
“Even if you can’t bring somebody, just come, because He has something for you,” Sister Yee said, adding, “There’s just something that happens in person that doesn’t happen otherwise, and it does take extra effort. I acknowledge that, because sometimes we’re used to being in our own space, but there’s an extra measure of His Spirit that comes when we’re together.”
Sister Yee said young women and women of all ages are needed now by the Lord. Each has gifts and talents that are needed and there is work for them to do in the Relief Society.
Sister Dennis has spoken about that as well. During the 2024 BYU Women’s Conference, she said there is great strength in unity and beauty in diversity. Just as giant redwood trees withstand the forces of nature by interlocking their roots, Latter-day Saint women can strengthen each other through the storms of life by linking arms and standing together.
“When we take the time to truly get to know those who we feel are different from us, we may realize we have much more in common than we thought,” Sister Dennis said, adding, “Listening to others’ stories and seeking to understand them will change our hearts, and the judgment and fear we may have had towards some can be replaced by feelings of gratitude to have them in our lives.”
Inherent in covenants made with God, she said, is the responsibility to love and care for each other.
The Red Brick Store and the Nauvoo Temple
The Relief Society general presidency recorded their remarks for the broadcast from the upper floor of the reconstructed Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Relief Society was organized on March 17, 1842.
This was an experience never to be forgotten, President Johnson said.
“I think it was particularly sweet because each of us felt the influence of angels around us. We just felt so confident that we weren’t the only ones in that room and that those angels were looking upon us, supporting us, buoying us up, and that they were pleased that Relief Society has grown to nearly 8 million women and that we continue to do the good work that they set out to do.”
While spending time in Nauvoo before filming, the presidency learned more about that sense of covenant community that was created among the women in Nauvoo.
Now that covenant community has spread across the globe. But the objective of the Relief Society is the same — to address the needs of one another, lifting and loving the way the Savior would, President Johnson said.
The Red Brick Store is also the site where the first endowments were given in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on May 4, 1842.
President Johnson and Sister Yee discovered that they have ancestors who were in Nauvoo at the same time and were endowed in the Nauvoo Temple before they headed west.
Sister Yee’s ancestor, Nancy Ann Hanes, was 17 years old, and President Johnson’s ancestor, Jane Parish, was 20.
“Armed with the power that comes from making covenants in the house of the Lord and then keeping them, they were able to face the unknown,” President Johnson said. “And that’s exactly what we hope for our sisters now, that blessed by that strengthening and healing power that comes when we make and keep covenants in His holy house, we can face our unknowns. We can face our own wilderness.”
Sister Yee has a painting in her office that shows the early Saints at the Nauvoo Temple at night, with lights in the windows as they worked to receive their endowments: “All to head into the unknown, following their Lord, but He would provide for them in the ways which they needed. They had everything they would ever need through their covenants with Him.”
Learn more about the parallels between the Nauvoo Relief Society and today in this Church News article titled “What women today can learn from the Nauvoo Relief Society” with two Church historians who were with the Relief Society general presidency during the filming in Nauvoo. Learn more about the upcoming devotional and testimony meeting in this Church News article titled “Worldwide devotional to commemorate Relief Society purpose and founding” announcing the event. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
