Sheri Dew

This past weekend, we had a women's conference at our church with Sheri Dew as the speaker. There were about 900 women from towns up to 100 miles away. The chapel and entire cultural hall was filled. Wendy Nelson, wife of Russell Nelson was with her. I sang in the choir, so I sat in the front row. I don't sing so well, but I can follow the alto part. It was definitely a privilege as there are women here with beautiful voices.

Sister Nelson gave a wonderful talk and I was impressed as I had never heard her before. Of course Sister Dew was inspirational, she always is. She tends to talk without plans or notes and has a main theme, that women have a mission as children of God. What I remember was her "Parable of Emma". Briefly, she told how, a couple of years ago, she had replaced dozens of plants in her yard that had been ruined by deer coming down from the snow packed mountains. She swept up the dirt from the sidewalks and put away tools, proud of the hard work she had accomplished. In the morning she went out, saw loose dirt scattered around and looked to see that her new plants had all been pulled out of the new planting. She felt foolish, but called the police. When the police came, they looked around, and found the plants, placed side by side in the next door yard.

The family next door were new in the neighborhood and she hadn't even met them. The police knocked on the door and the husband and wife came out to talk with them. When they heard what had happened, they looked at each other and said "Emma". They called to their daughter, a little girl of about six. She had seen the beautiful new plants, admired them and couldn't resist, she wanted the plants for her yard.

So Sister Dew bought new plants for her yard and also for Emma's yard. (She said this was mostly self preservation, to make sure Emma was happy with her yard and would leave the plants in place) Because the plants were newly planted, they had no roots system, and came out of the ground easily. So you can see what the "parable of Emma" is about.

I wish I could have Sister Dew speak to me every day.