Latter-day Saint Sister Missionaries Honour Women in the Scriptures

Over 70 sister missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered in Auckland Friday to discuss women in the scriptures.

The theme for the meeting -- "What manner of women ought ye to be?" -- was taken from a scripture in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ (3 Nephi 27:27).

Sister Robyn Balli of the New Zealand Auckland Mission introduced the theme and led the discussion yesterday. Sister Balli's husband, Frederick Balli, is the president of the mission. Together they lead and support over 200 missionaries for the Church in Auckland and Northland.

“The purpose of our meeting today,” Sister Balli said, “is to discover together how we can become more like our Saviour.”

The focus of the meeting, according to one participant, was to identify ways to develop Christ-like attributes such as charity, love, humility, faith, hope, knowledge, virtue, patience and obedience.

The sister missionaries divided into groups. Each group did a presentation on a strong woman of faith from the scriptures. The groups portrayed the Christ-like attributes of these women through stories, music, role plays and videos.

According to one sister missionary, “The women in the scriptures are great examples for all of us.  The one thing we all have in common is we are all disciples of Jesus Christ.”

“My favourite woman from the scriptures was Esther,” said another missionary. “She demonstrated amazing courage in doing what she knew to be right."

Sister Balli reminded the missionaries, “When we look back, we can see who we are, but we need to look forward to who we are becoming.”