Stake Relief Society Conference

Now that I'm getting the hang of this, I'll resend the email I tried to send the other day. It's an account of our Stake Relief Society Women's Conference this past weekend.

Dear Family,

Our Stake had a Relief Society Women's conference this weekend and our guest speaker was Virginia Hinckley Pearce, daughter of Pres. Hinckley. She was absolutely delightful and I wanted to share some of the things she said. On Friday evening we held a fireside for all the women and men of the Stake. Sis. Pearce brought her "family home movies" and showed us a slide show of their family album. For 2 hours we saw some photos that I don't think the world has seen. They were marvelous. She began with pictures of her parent's childhood homes and pictures of them as young children, and told about their growing up across the street from each other. Much of what she said is included in Pres. Hinckley's biography, but it was wonderful to hear the stories and see the family pictures to go along with it.

She had a picture of their Christmas Eve celebration, and one picture showed all the children presenting the Nativity play. Everyone was dressed in costumes, and there were a passle of kids! I think they had 2 or 3 Mary's and as many baby Jesus's and Josephs. It looked like our family gatherings with people everywhere! As the picture flashed up on the screen, she spoke of the chaos that reigns at their Christmas Eve gatherings, and said, "And Grandpa just sits in the corner reading his scriptures." Looking closely you can see Pres. Hinckley sitting in a corner of the room, almost lost in the crowd, dressed in a bright red sweater vest, with his head in his scriptures, oblivious to what was going on around him.

She said the Prophet is getting very feeble (we can see that) and when she asked him if he was planning to attend some of the upcoming Temple dedications, he said he thought he'd send Pres. Eyering instead, then asked her if she thought that would be OK with her. She has him in her home for Sunday dinner each week, and takes him to the cemetary every Saturday morning to visit Sis. Hinckley's grave. She said he takes flowers to her every week, and carries fertilizer and a watering hose in the trunk of the car because he's afraid the gravesite will not be kept up properly by the groundskeepers.

She said his hearing is failing rapidly and when he talks to himself, he has to speak loudly so he can hear himself. Sometimes it's embarrassing, she says, and they have to shush him. She said the other night while he was visiting she had printed a picture for him of herself and her sisters with their Mom just a few days before her Mom passed away. Pres. Hinckley took it into the other room, and she could hear him talking: "Well Marge, we have three daughters now," (and then he called their names). "Isn't that fine?" She said he talks to Sis. Hinckley all the time as if she were in the room with him. He really misses her.

He still gets up and goes to work every week-day morning and is in his office by 7:00 AM. He puts in a full day's work and returns home about 5:00 or 5:30, which she says is a shortened day compared to what he has usually worked throughout his life. He keeps his activities pretty much focused on just what he has to do to keep the Church running. He doesn't attend any extra social gatherings, and has pretty much given up flying anywhere any more. They are concerned about his energy level, and with their Mom collapsing on the plane on their way home from the Ghana Temple dedication, they fear the same sort of thing happening to their Dad.

She said that the gift of the Huntsman jet has been a great blessing to them and to the Church. Pres. Hinckley has been able to see twice as many people throughout the world than he would have been able to see if he had to travel on the commercial airlines. And Sis. Hinckley was able to go with him to so many places. Before they had use of the jet she had given up traveling with him because she couldn't make it through the concourses in the airports. Traveling without her was too hard on him, and they were afraid he wouldn't be able to continue his trips without her. She said one of her brothers always travels with Pres. Hinckley now but he always thinks it's "humbug" that they have go with him.

Sis. Pearce stayed with Lindsay Shelton (our Stake Relief Society President), and Lindsay's been fretting and stewing about having her home cleaned and prepared for her visit. She said she had a dream the other night that Sis. Pearce called her and told her she had responsibility for her Daddy this weekend and wondered if it was OK with Lindsay if she brought him along with her. Lindsay thought she'd better get her second guest room ready just in case!

Virginia Pearce is a delightful woman! She is about as "regular" and "down-to-earth" as a next-door-neighbor, and she mixed and mingled with everyone just as if she belonged to us. On Saturday she focused on her book "A Heart Like His". You can tell she practices what she preaches! We hated to see the conference end.

Love to all,

Ramona