By Leah Elison
After placing a genuine Relief Society tablecloth across the podium, Bonnie D. Parkin, general president of the Relief Society, spoke about the importance of welfare at the BYU Women”s Conference opening meeting.
Cecil O. Samuelson, president of BYU, and Sandra Rogers, chair of Women”s Conference, began the meeting with brief remarks, followed by talks on welfare from Parkin and H. David Burton, presiding bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“You may think we will talk about canning peaches and packing wheat, which is part of welfare,” Parkin said. “But happiness, serving and being served are also wrapped up in that one word.”
Quoting President Spencer W. Kimball, Parkin said welfare is not just a program, it is the essence of the gospel, and its goal is to create temporally and spiritually self-reliant individuals.
A self-reliant woman is capable not only of taking care of herself but of sharing with others, Parkin said.
“We stock the storehouse with love and charity in the shape of glass,” she said. “Welfare is each of us bringing to the storehouse the talents God has given us to serve others.”
Following Parkin, Bishop Burton spoke on the importance of service and welfare.
He said he was a little nervous to speak after Parkin”s speech.
“Intimidation is always a factor in these assignments,” Burton said. “I think I might have some idea how a female might feel if invited to a general priesthood meeting.”
Burton said church members” contribution of humanitarian aid projects worldwide was inspiring.
He told a story of a woman who had secured a military cargo plane through contacts among the Joint Chiefs of Staff to help out with the Church”s relief efforts after a natural disaster.
“We learned that if you need the impossible, just ask a woman,” Burton said. “We also saw that great power comes from going and doing the Lord”s will.”
Applying principles of welfare and self-reliance are vital in the home as well as in humanitarian efforts, he said.
Families living the gospel faithfully share many common characteristics, Burton said, including strict adherence to welfare principles.
He said when parents spend within or below their income, children learn how to make critical distinctions between wants and needs.
“We struggle with affluence,” Burton said. “But living within or beneath our means brings peace of mind and reduces financial stress.”
He said mothers and fathers who work extra jobs to provide for the wants of their families, not needs, should reevaluate the long-term effects on their children”s self-reliance.
Women are uniquely capable of teaching welfare principles in the home, he said, and urged women to be persistent in teaching their children to serve.
