Latter-day Saint Women Leaders Encourage Auckland Church Members and Guests

Bonnie H. Cordon, Young Women General President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Sister Joy D. Jones, Primary General President, were clearly moved when they walked into the packed stake centre in Auckland Sunday night, 18 November.

This was the final stop on the visiting leaders’ ten-day, four-country Pacific tour.

"As I walked in here my spirit soared,” Sister Cordon said at the beginning of her remarks.

"It's priceless to be with you,” said Sister Jones.

Approximately 1,400 women and girls in attendance echoed those feelings with their smiles, singing and hugs.

The two general presidents along with their husbands, Derek Cordon and Robert Jones, spoke to the overflow congregation.

Elder K. Brett Nattress of the Seventy, and a counselor in the Pacific Area Presidency, presided at the meeting and offered concluding remarks.

Sister Cordon and Sister Jones have visited Australia, Vanuatu, Tonga and now New Zealand on this Pacific tour.

Sister Jones described her experiences saying that each place they visited the “children are full of light.”

“It has been remarkable,” said Sister Cordon. “It doesn’t matter where we go, the Lord is in the details of all of our lives.”

Sister Jones reminded the sisters in attendance that “we all need to recognize our eternal perspective.”

"We are all children of God,” she taught, and then asked if we recognized how great it is that we know the Lord’s Plan of Salvation.

She told a story of how her missionary son was able to endure hardships in the Amazon jungle because of the daily scripture study and prayer and regular family home evening their family did throughout his life.

“Those things matter,” she said. “The little things we do every day, they matter.”

She encouraged the sisters to heed the counsel of Latter-day Saint prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, in order to be more fully guided by the Holy Spirit with personal revelation.

Both sisters expressed their great love for their husbands and their gratitude for Church leaders.

Sister Cordon stated: “There is nothing we cannot do, with the help of the Saviour. Oh yes, we can change the world, one person at a time.”

She invited a young woman who is looking into the Church and not yet a member to share her feelings about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

She then invited 20 young women to come forward and sing the Church’s 2018 youth theme song, “Peace in Christ.”

The congregation joined in singing the verse, and, according to one participant, “the Spirit was powerful throughout the meetinghouse.”

She asked the women and girls present if they would like to be part of the gathering of Israel.

She noted: “Of all the people who have lived on planet earth, we are the ones who get to participate in this gathering.”

She concluded her remarks by showing a video of modern-day apostles and prophets testifying of Christ.

Elder Nattress concluded by adding his testimony that Jesus Christ lives. He quoted President Nelson inviting all to stretch beyond their current abilities to receive greater personal revelation.

He quoted Doctrine and Covenants Section 68: 5-6: “This is the promise of the Lord unto you, O ye my servants. Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.”

Maungakiekie-Tāmaki Local Board member, Mrs Maria Meredith, was a special guest at the devotional.

“It was very inspiring,” she said after the meeting.

Anthony Wilson, president of the Auckland New Zealand Mt. Roskill Stake of the Church, said this was the largest congregation he had ever seen at that stake centre.