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Reporting on the innovative leadership of the Relief Society’s $119 million campaign to provide aid to millions of women and children led me to connect unanticipated dots.
It wasn’t clear when work began that I would run into a thread of ideas that ran from Joseph Smith to John F. Kennedy to Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson and President Dallin H. Oaks.
President Johnson agreed to field a question about the idea, but the thread and her response didn’t appear in the story due to its focus and length. So I’ll share it with you here today.
As I prepared to interview President Johnson about serving as grand marshal of the Days of ‘47 Parade on Utah’s Pioneer Day, I was reminded that U.S. President John F. Kennedy spoke at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City two months before he was assassinated in 1963.
What JFK said about the qualities of Latter-day Saint pioneers
“Of all the stories of American pioneers and settlers,” Kennedy said, “none is more inspiring than the Mormon Trail. The qualities of the founders of this community are the qualities that we seek in America, the qualities which we like to feel this country has — courage, patience, faith, self-reliance, perseverance and, above all, an unflagging determination to see the right prevail.”
Those pioneers fled to Utah for their lives and for religious liberty. They went as pioneers, Kennedy said, “to a land of peace.”
Joseph Smith’s charge to the Relief Society
A quick return to the origin story of the Relief Society, the women’s organization with over 8 million members, uncovered the fact that peacemaking was one of the charges Joseph Smith gave the society when he created it in 1842.
In one of six lessons he shared with the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that summer, he encouraged them to “become a holy people” and to “be at peace with the Lord, with those around them, and with themselves.”
President Johnson’s response
“Isn’t that beautiful?” President Johnson said.
She continued to respond to the question, “In what ways is the Relief Society an organization that seeks peace in a world of division” beyond the humanitarian aid it is spearheading in 12 countries with the Caring for Women and Children Global Initiative?
“I think that women meeting and working together helps promote peace,” President Johnson said. “We’re naturally peacemakers.
President Johnson said she recently read the book by Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee, who showed how peace came to Liberia after women got a seat at the table.
“That doesn’t always happen,” President Johnson said. “Women don’t get to be at the table, and then peace comes a little more slowly. We forget about the needs of women and children if they’re not represented there at the table where peacemaking is made.
“When you don’t consider the needs of women and children, peace is always temporary.”
President Johnson spoke eloquently about the idea of peace to religious educators in June. She emphasized what she called a poignant and beautiful trio of teachings — love they neighbor, avoid contention and seek peace.
“Loving even our adversaries changes our hearts,” she said. “Avoiding contention sets the tone. And making peace will change the world.”
President Johnson’s response to JFK was to ask people to emulate the Mormon Trail pioneers.
“What if we emulated those pioneer attributes he mentioned then — courage, patience, faith, self-reliance, perseverance, and unflagging determination to see what is right prevail?
“What if we amplified them? The world would be a more peaceful place. There would be less disrespect, there’d be more unity of purpose.”
The counsel President Oaks gave about peace in April
President Oaks emphasized peacemaking in his first full general conference talk as the 18th president and prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ.
“How it would change the world if followers of Christ would forgo harsh and hurtful words in all their communications,” he said.
He added an admonition: “As followers of Christ, let us follow him by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.”
The pioneers and the Native Americans
As the pioneers sought peace from the attacks they’d experienced across the United States and fled the country, they moved into territory inhabited by Native Americans.
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Both groups sought peaceful relations generally, but painful conflicts also erupted into violence and war.
“Those realities should never be minimized,” Shoshone historian Darren Parry told the Deseret News last week. “They are part of our shared history. Neither, however, should they erase the sacrifices of the pioneers who crossed the plains seeking a place where they could worship freely. Both stories belong to this land, and both deserve to be told honestly.”
Parry shared his view — “history is rarely divided neatly between heroes and villains,” he said — in a piece by one of my colleagues last week that I highly recommend. You can reading this story: “Celebrating Pioneer Day doesn’t mean overlooking conflicts with Native Americans, scholars say.”
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About the church
President Dallin H. Oaks joined the Days of ‘47 Parade on Pioneer Day. See photos here.
President Oaks also spoke about pulling together as families at a family reunion with 600 descendants of a pioneer couple.
Elder Ronald A. Rasband wrote an article in the Liahona magazine about single men and women over 40 who are answering the call to serve missions.
Read about the mission that is on track to baptize 10,000 converts in just two years.
General Relief Society President Camille N. Johnson served as the grand marshal for the Days of ‘47 Parade. See my story above about her leadership of the Relief Society’s innovative $119 million humanitarian campaign.
The new hymnbook continues to get thicker. Here are the latest 10 songs added to the Latter-day Saint hymnal.
A second temple will be dedicated this fall in Mexico.
The Church of Jesus Christ expanded its million-dollar earthquake response in Venezuela.
Celebrating Pioneer Day doesn’t mean overlooking conflicts with Native Americans, scholars say.
A world horseshoe pitching champion traded horseshoes for a missionary name tag.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Colorado Springs Colorado Temple will be held on Sept. 12. It will be the state’s fourth temple.
Remembering the pioneer-era missions that built Utah.
The 2026 Utah Area YSA Conference is Aug. 14-15. The list of keynote speakers includes three General Authority Seventies, two general officers and two art studio directors.
ICYMI, the church has introduced new, simplified meetinghouses in remote areas of the Pacific.
What I’m reading
Jocelyn Erickson is a rare professional softball player who just played in the championship series won by the Utah Talons: a left-handed catcher and Latter-day Saint.
Why are batters are being hit by pitches more than ever. “There just is less time to get out of the way.”
From rubble to refuge: How displaced seniors in Ukraine found new lives.
NASA released one of the most detailed visualizations ever created of Earth’s ocean currents. Enjoy:
NASA has released one of the most detailed visualizations ever created of Earth’s ocean currents.
Using data from satellites and advanced ocean models, the map reveals massive rivers of moving water, swirling eddies hundreds of miles wide, and the powerful Gulf Stream carrying… pic.twitter.com/iiciDBqQ56
— All day Astronomy (@forallcurious) July 27, 2026
This is a social media post that was included in the story about Utah pioneers and Native Americans that I recommended above. It was posted last week and is very interesting:
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