Touring the RS Building

I'm back in the Beehives these days. It's great to be in Young Women again. I feel like I get as much out of the lessons as they do and I love getting to know the awesome YW and leaders in our ward! Being in YW has lots of perks and one of those was getting to have a special tour of the Relief Society building last Wednesday (somebody's friends with a board member).

We waited to meet up with everybody outside and snapped some pictures:

When we started the tour, we first learned about the building itself and the main floor; then we got to go upstairs and visit the offices of the general presidencies of RS, YW, and Primary. None of the actual leaders were there (it was 8:00pm). I loved getting to see how they decorate their offices and feeling like we could get to know them a little better through that. Apparently when a new presidency is called they get to go to the Church Archives and pick out the artwork they want to hang. Cool, huh?

We first went to Sis. Beck's office. Here's a picture:

Sis. Beck's office is very light and classy. The blue chairs and drapes are like those famous blue and white porcelain vases only in furniture form. On the east wall she has a HUGE (about six feet across and four or five feet high) portrait of the daughter of Jairus (I assume) right after Christ raised her from the dead. I'd never seen it before. The artist did a good job of capturing a quiet look of wonder on her face. Too bad I didn't snap a picture. In the picture above you can see two pictures on the south wall. I think they were very deliberately and wisely chosen. The one on the east is of a Central or South American family praying around their table. The one on the west is of a pioneer woman and her newborn. These portraits are a poignant reminder of our worldwide church and of the challenges so many Saints face. I'm glad to know those portraits are there and that in spite of the Church's prosperity and the beautiful places our general leaders are surrounded in, those early Saints and the struggling Saints are just as much a part (or more) of this growing and generational gospel. On the north wall Sis. Beck has portraits of her meeting with Pres. George W. Bush, Michelle Obama, Condoleezza Rice, and others. She is our LDS woman ambassador. :)

Next we visited Sis. Dalton's office (General President of the YW). We spent a lot of time in there and took lots of pictures:

  

One of our beautiful Beehives

 Our great tour guide

Our group

We wandered into a few other offices as well, including Sis. Dibbs' (daughter of Pres. Monson and General YW presidency member). It was fun to get to know these women a little better by seeing where they come to "work." I liked seeing members of Sis. Dibbs' extended family:

I also liked seeing this statue of two courageous early YW of the Church (Mary Elizabeth Rollins is my ancestor):

Mary Elizabeth and Caroline (ages 15 and 13) were in Independence, Missouri when a mob broke into the printing office and threw pages from Joseph Smith's revelations into the street. The girls grabbed them and ran into a cornfield where they hid while mob members searched for them. These revelations later became part of the Doctrine and Covenants (http://lds.org/liahona/1990/03/caroline-and-mary-elizabeth-rollins?lang=eng).

Anyway, it was great to learn more about the RS Building and its offices. The Spirit there was really nice, and I appreciate the contribution that these women and their boards make to the Church!