Conference Focuses on Needs of Single Women

“You can increase your self-esteem and your self-worth by developing your natural talents, improving skills, and participating in intellectual and emotional growth,” Elder John K. Carmack of the First Quorum of the Seventy told six hundred single sisters at a Thirteen-Stake Single Women’s Conference in San Diego August 10.

He was one of fourteen speakers who addressed twenty-four topics at the one-day conference, which was directed toward the needs of Young Adult, Young Special Interest, and Special Interest women. The event was sponsored by the San Diego North Stake. The theme of the conference was “The Worth of a Soul Is Great.” (See D&C 18:10.)

Elder Carmack also urged sisters to participate in physical activities and to interact socially to keep a balance in their lives, noting that nourishing, wholesome activities would enrich their lives and the lives of others.

He quoted President Spencer W. Kimball’s comment that “much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives, and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world. …

“Thus it will be that female exemplars of the Church will be a significant force in both the numerical and the spiritual growth of the Church in the last days.” (“The Role of Righteous Women,” Ensign, November 1979, pp. 103–4.)

Ferren Christensen, a former regional representative, drew on personal experiences with living prophets in talking about how to make prayer more powerful. Brother Christensen identified three general categories of answers to prayer. “Yes” means “You will receive just what you asked.” The second answer, “Wait awhile,” requires the listener to exercise patience and restraint and to realize that there is a reason for waiting. “The third category, the ‘No’ answer, just means we should go back to the drawing board and figure out a new plan, a different approach,” Brother Christensen observed. “We should be grateful for that guidance, that opportunity to choose again.”

“Making prayer more powerful,” Brother Christensen said, “requires marshaling our love, faith, and compassion for each other, being aware of who is in need, and praying for them specifically by name and by need. God needs to know that we care about each other. We need to pray specifically for Sister Jones, who is recuperating from surgery, not for ‘the sick and the afflicted,’ if we want to make our prayers more powerful.”

JoAnn Autenrieb, San Diego North Stake Relief Society president, encouraged sisters to use their lonely times to talk to Heavenly Father, pleading with him and telling him of their need to be loved. “You will feel the love of your Heavenly Father encircle you,” she promised.

“Don’t sit back and wait for others to come to you. Make yourself count,” Sister Autenrieb counseled. “Let your voice be heard, and let your leaders know that you are willing to serve.” Delynn Decker, San Diego, California