While reading Daughters in My Kingdom, I especially loved reading about the organization of the Relief Society in Nauvoo, March 17, 1842, on the upper floor of a building called the Red Brick Store.
This is special to me because I got to witness a reenactment of that sacred, special meeting during the last week of September 2006.
My husband and I were with his sister and brother-in-law, and with his second cousin, Paul Smith. Paul was one of the instructors of the Church program Nauvoo Semester Abroad. He had brought his students to the Red Brick Store as Joseph, Emma, John Taylor, Willard Richards and all the others who were in that room in 1842. All students were there, dressed in costume and with lines learned, eager to complete their assignment.
We all sat down and watched the meeting commence, the Relief Society was organized, and Emma was called to be the first president of the Relief Society. What a great, spiritual feeling there was in the Red Brick Store that day! It was a wonderful feeling, like I was witnessing the actual event!
Afterwards, we left to go do the endowment and sealing for ElRay’s grandfather! It was a very special day for our family. As a former Relief Society president, this was a sacred experience for me to take a step back into the Church’s early history.