Purpose of Relief Society

February Week 1 | Relief Society

How Can I Strengthen Individuals and Families through Ordinances and Covenants?

The purpose of Relief Society is to prepare women for the blessings of eternal life by helping them:

• Increase faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement.

• Strengthen individuals and families through ordinances and covenants.

• Work in unity to help those in need.

Prepare to teach by prayerfully studying, seeking inspiration from the Holy Ghost, and recording impressions about how to help the sisters strengthen individuals and families through ordinances and covenants.

Share Experiences

The Relief Society president or one of her counselors asks questions like the following to help sisters share experiences:

• What have we felt and experienced as we have tried to develop greater charity as a result of last month’s discussions?

• What can we share about how temple ordinances have strengthened us and our families? (Consider asking a sister to come prepared to share an experience.)

Learn Together

The Relief Society president or one of her counselors uses one or more of the following activities to help the sisters understand how to strengthen individuals and families through ordinances and covenants.

How can we strengthen our families? The Lord has given us guidance about how to build strong families. Ask the sisters to review the seventh paragraph of “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 129), looking for principles that can help strengthen families. How did Lehi’s family apply some of these principles? (see 1 Nephi 16:14–32). How have we applied these principles in our families?

What are we doing to prepare ourselves and others for gospel ordinances? As we read the section about keeping covenants in Sister Linda K. Burton’s talk “The Power, Joy, and Love of Covenant Keeping” (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2013, 111–14), what insights do we find about preparing ourselves and others to receive ordinances? What are we doing in our homes to prepare others to receive ordinances?

How can we strengthen families through visiting teaching? Invite the sisters to share experiences in which their families were strengthened through the ministering of a visiting teacher. Ask a few sisters to read chapter 7 in Daughters in My Kingdom (2011) before the meeting and come prepared to share stories that inspired them. What are we inspired to do as a result of what we learn?

Plan to Act

The Relief Society president or one of her counselors concludes the meeting by counseling with the sisters about how they can act on what they are learning:

• What can we do to help children prepare for baptism and confirmation?

• Invite the sisters to ponder the following question and write down their impressions: How can I become a more charitable visiting teacher?

How Do I Feel Prompted to Teach This Topic?

Leader Training

The Relief Society was “divinely made, divinely authorized, divinely instituted, divinely ordained of God” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph F. Smith [1999], 184). Relief Society presidencies use delegated priesthood authority and operate under the direction of priesthood leaders (see Handbook 2: Administering the Church [2010], 64).