Voices of the Restoration: The Relief Society

In 1842, after the Relief Society was organized in Nauvoo, Illinois, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “The Church was never perfectly organized until the women were thus organized.” Similarly, a study of the Restoration of the Lord’s Church and His priesthood is not complete until it includes a study of the Relief Society, which itself is “a restoration of an ancient pattern” of female disciples of Jesus Christ.Eliza R. Snow played an important role in that restoration. She was present when the Relief Society was first organized and, as the society’s secretary, took notes during its meetings. She witnessed firsthand that the Relief Society was organized “after the pattern of the priesthood.” Below are her words, written while she was serving as the second General President of the Relief Society, to help her sisters understand the divine work entrusted to the covenant daughters of God.To learn more about how the Relief Society was organized, see Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (2017), 1–25; The First Fifty Years of Relief Society (2016), 3–175.