Dear any LDS Member that disagrees with Ordain Women,
Over the last week Ordain Women supporters have been sharing our little love notes to the church with each other. You see, we as supporters, are Brothers and Sisters in your congregations. You may not know it but we’re in your Sunday School classes, we are your Home Teachers and you faithfully Visit Teach us each month. We bring you meals and you teach our kids in Primary. We are counselors in Bishoprics and Personal Progress leaders. We feed the missionaries during the week and clean the church buildings on Saturday mornings and WE LOVE MORMONISM. We love the church. We are raising our families in your communities. So while we might not see eye to eye on the topic of Priesthood Equality, we are still your family. So on this Valentine’s Day we’d like focus on the good. We’d like to focus on all the amazing parts of the church that we love. We’d like to share with you the parts that are so special to us.
I love the YW program for the strong, confidence female role models it gave me in my life. Women that sacrificed time, talents, energy, family time and emotion to cheer me on and help all of us succeed. As I was writing last night I could just hear a leaders voice in my head and felt her positive influence on me still. -JJW
I loved being a missionary. It taught me to keep going, even when I thought I was too tired to take one more step. Serving in Japan opened my eyes to a much bigger, and very diverse world. -MB
Although the church distanced itself somewhat from this with the Becoming Like God essay, my very favorite thing about Mormonism is the doctrine that we will become divine, mature, powerful spiritual adults–gods. -CR
I like that everyone gets to give sermons at church. I know that can sometimes lead to the spectacularly bad, but I like getting to know about my ward members, their family histories and their viewpoints, and gaining insights from a wide variety of perspectives.
I’m not active anymore and I married a never-Mo, but we love family home evening with our kids. -LD
All of my life I have found deep spiritual experience in music. From my early teenage years, the context for that experience was church, from playing and singing in the old June (MIA) Conference presentations to Mormon Youth Symphony, playing for the opening of the Lion House, and providing musical numbers for Sacrament Meetings. I learned to sing in harmony sitting on the chapel bench between my mom (an alto) and my dad (a tenor). As an adult I learned to play the organ when there was no one else in the ward who could play, and I spent many years playing the piano for the Primary children as well. It is to music that I turn for solace and for celebration. A simple hymn can calm my anxious heart or give joy its free expression. Music is the greatest gift the Church has given to me. -CWO
I love guidance blessing and the emphasis put on the personnal revelation. -FSD
I love my patriarchal blessing and other blessings that have been deeply meaningful to me as sources of both comfort and guidance. – CR
I will never, ever, ever forget the LDS community in North Carolina that cared for my family while my mom was sick and eventually lost the battle to cancer. They filled our home with food and company. They ran people to and from the airport for the funeral, gave strangers from thousands of miles away places to stay in their homes. That is Zion to me. -KS
I love the priesthood. Knowing that the power of God is present on the earth and is accessible. – LMS
I loved the road shows. The teamwork. The rush from one chapel to the next. Everyone setting up and tearing down in order to beat the clock. What an adrenal rush! -HSM
Perhaps what I love the most about Mormonism is it’s people. I remember last summer, I was sitting in my car, waiting for my daughter to come out of dance and I hear a knock at the window. “I know that we strongly disagree about Ordain Women. But I want you to know that we have more in common then what we disagree on. I still consider you my friend and I hope you will always consider me the same.” It was the best lesson I learned all year last year . We have more in common then we disagree on, and we are all Brothers and Sisters. What we love is YOU. My hope for the future is that we can put aside our differences and continue to build our communities with unity, friendship and faith.
Happy Valentine’s Day,
Joanna
Honoring our past,
Envisioning out future.
Joanna Wallace, is on the board of Ordain Women as Social Media Chair.