1917-01-01-Relief Society Magazine-New Year Epistle

New Year Epistle

Of the Presidency and General Board of the Relief Society, to Officers and Members Everywhere.

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GENERAL BOARD ACTIVITIES.

The members of the General Board have been very active in visiting the 71 stakes throughout the Church. Like the stake officers who perform a similar task in their own district, our sis- ters are happy in the sacrifices of time, strength and absence from home, because of the good accomplished and the love and companionship offered to the officers by the members who welcome our general and stake visitors with open arms. We rejoice in the spirit of hospitality which everwhere obtains in this Society, and feel to bless those who open their homes and minister to the general and stake officers at sundry times and places. President Emmeline B. Wells herself visited ten stakes last year and is still able to travel comfortably and profitably. Among the visits paid by our General Board members was that undertaken by our General Secretary, Mrs. Amy Brown Lyman, our General Treasurer, Mrs. Emma A. Empey, and the Business Manager of our Magazine, Mrs. Janette A. Hyde. These sisters were accompanied by the Misses Emily and Edith Smith, the two lovely daughters of President and Mrs. Julina L. Smith. They visited the Relief Society of the Eastern States Mission and its branches in Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Toronto, and other places; the Northern States Mission Society in Chicago, and branches of the Society of that mission; the Society of the Central States Mission, located at Independence, Mo., and the Society of the Western States Mission, in Denver. These sisters also visited the historic scenes connected with our early Church history, and while they brought home much valuable information and inspiration, they also left with the sisters where they visited, the good spirit of hope, faith and trust in our heavenly Father.