Daughters in My Kingdom: A lot in common
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Julene Butler is a lifelong member who has worked at BYU's Harold B. Lee Library for the past 40 years. Still, she learned things from the new Relief Society history, Daughters in My Kingdom, that she had not known before.
The book is so well documented, said Sister Butler, director of the BYU library. "As a researcher I find that tremendously valuable."
More important, she said, the book "broadened my sense of belonging" and "helped me see my place in the broader Church."
"We need to think beyond the Wasatch Front [in Utah] and beyond the Utah pioneers in the 1840s," she said. "We need to think to the pioneers of today in other parts of the world."
Sister Butler said that in spite of the fact that many Relief Society sisters live in circumstances that are very different from her own, they all share comparable challenges.
They might be from different cultures. One might be the mother of a large family, while Sister Butler is a single woman.
Still, as she read the book, Sister Butler felt that in spite of those differences "I was able to sense that we all are facing the same thing, that we all are in this challenge together working on Heavenly Father's side.
"We have a lot in common even though it appears on the surface that we are very, very different."
She might not be the traditional woman, but Sister Butler said she has an "important role to play in Heavenly Father's plan." Her life is "happy and full."
That knowledge is part of a legacy of faith passed to her by her mother.
When Sister Bulter was 3 ½ years old, she was stricken with polio and left unable to do anything but wiggle her left fingers and turn her head.
Acting with faith, her mother asked President David O. McKay to give her a blessing.
"He blessed me that my limbs would be restored so that I could lead a useful and happy life," she said. "I have everything I need for that blessing to have been fulfilled."
