For your Relief Society Birthday dinner, you may want to provide some historical fodder at each table. Feel free to use this, or make up your own with information from this site; and have fun!

Q) When Joseph Smith said, “I now turn the key, in the name of the Lord, and this Society shall rejoice”, what did he mean?
A) Bruce R. McConkie explained that Joseph meant two things: 1) Keys represent the right of presidency; the right to govern and direct all of the affairs of a particular purpose; in this case Relief Society. 2) Keys are also the way and means whereby knowledge and intelligence may be gained from God.

Q) Belle Spafford felt she learned true wisdom when a friend taught her the difference between influence and power. Sheri Dew offers five principles of influence every woman of God should understand:
A) 1) We all have more influence than we think; 2) righteous influence is a spiritual gift; 3) having influence is not about elevating self but about lifting others; 4) it isn’t possible NOT to have influence; and 5) women of God have influence that has no limit and no end.
**Pres. Joseph F. Smith said, “It is not for you to be led by the women of the world; it is for you to…lead the women of the world.”

Q) Did Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, etc. belong to a women’s organization?
A) Eliza R. Snow recorded Joseph Smith as saying that the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo was a facsimile of what has always existed when the Church of Jesus Christ has been fully organized since the beginning of time.

Q) Our Relief Society leaders have quoted original ideas about the potential of women for years. Where do these wonderful quotes, thoughts, and ideas come from?
A) Eliza R. Snow, secretary to the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, kept a record she called The Minute Book, which documents every meeting held by these women in Nauvoo. In particular, Eliza recorded everything Joseph Smith said to the women, which cannot be found anywhere else.

Q) What contributions have our early sisters accomplished, that have made a difference in the world?
1) It was the women who bought wheat fields, grew wheat, built granaries, and played the stock market in the 1800’s. This wheat fed Europeans in both world wars. It also provided the base for the General Church Welfare Fund.
2) Mormon women were some of the first women in the world to be trained as doctors. Mormon women organized a wing in the local hospital to take care of Primary age children. This wing is now one of the top children’s hospitals in the world: Primary Children’s Hospital.
3) Mormon women have been trained in leadership positions since the early stages of the Church. We have organized one another, children, young people, and even the men into action, and in accomplishing great things. As well, Mormon women have spoken across the globe to presidents, kings, people of every nation, about the defense of women’s rights, health, and better lives.
4) The Woman’s Exponent was one of three newspapers in the west, in the 1800’s, written and published by women. This magazine, subtitled, The Organ of the Relief Society” was a voice for the Suffrage Movement in Utah, and Mormon women everywhere.
5) The Humanitarian system is the mastermind of the women of this Church. It was women who saw needs in the world and organized ways to fulfill those needs. It was a woman, Stake YW Pres. Rose Ann Gunther, who invented kits, and the collecting of supplies, to offer appropriate aid. It was a woman, General RS Pres. Amy Brown Lyman, who formed a relationship with the Red Cross that still exists as a standard today in every emergency situation. It is the individual woman who contributes her time and talents.

If you would like to reenact the meeting where the Relief Society was organized, visit Women in the Scriptures to see pictures and get a script.