By Jan

April 28, 2012

Back in 1942, the Relief Society set out to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of this great organization. For months the sisters held bazaars, promoted the Relief Society Magazine, talked about it’s history, started more projects, and organized huge celebrations. They organized a magnificent program that would be held in the Tabernacle, in Salt Lake City, with a choir of Singing Mothers, and speakers that would speak on the accomplishments of the women of the Church. But World War II changed everything.

From the First Presidency:

Having in mind the heavy tax burdens which it is announced are to be imposed in the coming year, as also the limitations which have been made upon automotive travel, and desiring to help the people as much as possible in meeting these problems by cutting down, to the lowest feasible limit, all expenditures incident to Church activities, we are asking the general boards of all the auxiliary organizations to discontinue all their institutes and conventions. For the same considerations, we request that all auxiliary stake union meetings be discontinued. The policy is to take effect immediately and will continue in force until further notice.

From the General Relief Society Board:

The Church-wide general celebration of the Relief Society Centennial, which was to have been held in Salt Lake City at the time of the General Conference in April, has been postponed for the present. Plans for this celebration included a Relief Society centennial pageant, a centennial concert by a chorus of Singing Mothers composed of delegations from the various stakes and missions, and an exhibit of Relief Society activities. All of these features have been postponed.

Unfortunately, because of the war, and the rations, fear, and hardship on the nation, the celebration was actually cancelled, as was the General Relief Society Meeting that year. Everyday life was overwhelmingly focused on the war and the sacrifices each family had to make at that time. One thing they did do to celebrate was that every ward and branch Relief Society throughout the Church was encouraged to have a small celebration, and they were encouraged to plant a centennial tree on church grounds.

The 200th Anniversary of the Relief Society will be celebrated 30 years from now. I may not be alive then or, more likely, too old to feel like doing anything. And who knows what the state of the world will be like at that time.

So, celebrating the 170th year of this wonderful organization sounds pretty good to me.

I wanted to celebrate, so I decided to do 170 service projects throughout the year. With everything else that happens in a given year, my projects will most likely run in clumps of frenzied focus. So far, opportunities are falling into my lap luckily, but I also have plans to set into motion. All I need to do is stay trained on my goal and work little by little, here a little, there a little, hopefully not leaving 70 to finish in December.

Here are a few things I’ve been working on: