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Transcript

I spent a lot of time with President Hinckley in the beginning, and he laid out a philosophy that needed to be done. He said, "The sisters of the Church need to be unified. And I want all of the sister auxiliaries together in the Relief Society Building, and that is your charge." And I said, "OK." To bring us into this building physically caused some problems because it was not built for offices for three auxiliaries. And so that meant actual physical changes. We moved out of this building. Everyone moved out. And we were housed in the high-rise building, and we were there for a year and a half while this was being remodeled and redecorated. And the day that we moved back into the building when it was complete, the three presidencies and their administrative assistants knelt and held hands and had a prayer of gratitude that we had made it. And so I feel really deep feelings of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for helping us with that. Every time I walk in here and feel the continuing spirit of unity, I feel it's here. And I am so grateful. I think that is probably one of the things that has been my joy.

It didn't take me very long to realize--and my work on the board prior to this helped me know--that we are a very diverse church. And so it soon became clear to me that we really did need to have some sort of a simplification where there could be latitude for the sisters to be able to solve their problems in their own ways without feeling guilty because they weren't following this complex, thick handbook that we had that described every jot and tittle of what we were to do. [INAUDIBLE] And so that became my work, was to bring us together in unity and in the same building and to work under the arm of the priesthood and to simplify the program. I did have the privilege of traveling, and it was needful. I'm so grateful for that because it helped me to have the vision of what we really needed to do in the way of simplification and cutting back. We had to face the simplification of the curriculum and the simplification of the handbook. We were told we could have an 8-page handbook. We'd had about a 64-page handbook. And we had to condense it to 8 pages, and that was quite a challenge. But we did it.

--to think of the history of Relief Society and how much Heavenly Father loves His daughters and has given us this wonderful organization so that we can watch over and cherish one another and be united sisters, helping to raise our families together and take them back to our Heavenly Father. I just feel so blessed to know that I am a daughter of our Heavenly Father, who loves us. I am so grateful for the priesthood direction and so grateful for all of the helps that we have been given to help us be able to return to our Heavenly Father. We have it in our wonderful Relief Society organization and all of the wonderful aids that we are given. I appreciate this. And I appreciate our living prophet so much for this constant guidance and direction and the continued revelation to help us be able to meet our needs. And all we have to do is say, "Thy will be done. I will. I do. I will. I do." [LAUGHTER] "I will go and do."

An Interview with Barbara Winder

Description
Julie Beck sits down with Barbara Winder, the eleventh Relief Society general president. Sister Winder was at the helm of the Relief Society from 1984 until 1990 and helped simplify the organization for the needs of the increasingly global Church.
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