Church history is full of indomitable women. We are going to explore the story of the unlikely link between three such women today and how they refused to be defeated no matter what challenges they faced. Mercy Fielding Thompson, Mary Fielding Smith, and Jerusha Smith impacted early church history and their connected family left a legacy for generations of saints to come.

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On a wall in the Manti Utah Temple hangs part of the legacy of the woman in Church history we are talking about today. Diantha Morley Billings was living in Kirtland, Ohio, when Joseph Smith and the Saints arrived. She was also the first woman baptized in the Kirtland area. Diantha then started her exciting journey to Zion, which led her to Missouri, Nauvoo, and eventually across the plains to Utah. Her story is one of faith and one worth studying this year.

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Joseph Smith’s history has been told and canonized in scripture. You may be familiar with the names of the women close to him, but what do you know about their stories and roles in the Restoration? Today, we are focusing on the women from his family: Lucy Mack Smith (his mother) and Sophronia, Katharine, and Lucy (his three sisters).

Further reading:
At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/church-historians-press/at-the-pulpit?lang=eng
The Witness of Women:
https://www.deseretbook.com/product/P5157256.html?utm_source=ldsliving&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=pod250320-SOM-S4E2

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There are only two women named in the Doctrine and Covenants, but Church history is filled with stories of strong women of the Restoration. And thanks to diaries, recorded speeches, and family histories, we know many of their names. This bonus series will serve as a companion to our weekly Come, Follow Me podcast this year. And today's episode features two young sisters, without whom we wouldn't have the pages recording the early revelations of this standard work.

Teach kids about the Rollins Sisters with the animated scripture stories on churchofjesuschrist.org.

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Helaman went to battle with 2,000 young men and they needed every single one of them. They needed to be ready and they were prepared physically and spiritually by incredibly faithful mothers. What did it take to raise a stripling warrior and what can we learn from them?

Find great Book of Mormon art at the Book of Mormon Art Catalog.
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Close your eyes and picture the wilderness. What does it look like to you, and what is or isn’t there? If you had to live there, what would those living conditions be like? Today, we are going to study what the word wilderness means, looking at the Book of Mormon’s named and unnamed women who not only lived in the wilderness but thrived.

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Art forms an impression on our minds. When we visualize scripture stories, it’s often in the style we’ve seen before through art. It’s easy to picture Nephi’s family on the boat, Moroni praying over the plates, Abinadi before King Noah, and more. But can you picture the women from the Book of Mormon? There’s art for them, too.

Find all the art mentioned in today’s episode at bookofmormonartcatalog.org:

Nephi Protected from his Brethren by the Daughter of Ishmael and her Mother by George M. Ottinger
And They Were Strong by Tehya Vassar
Sariah in the Wilderness by Rose Datoc Dall
Holding Holy Things (Sister of Jared) by Caitlin Connolly
The Vision of Abish by Anna Wright
Morianton’s Maidservant by Mandy Jane Williams
They Did Not Doubt by Joseph Brickey

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The scriptures are filled with stories of women once you start looking for them. In conjunction with our weekly Come, Follow Me podcast, this bonus series will explore accounts of women throughout the standard works, focusing on the Book of Mormon this year. Did you know that the only time the word “sisters” is mentioned in the Book of Mormon is when it refers to Nephi’s sisters? Today, we’ll talk about the sacrifices and faith of the women—named and unnamed—of the first family in the Book of Mormon and what we can learn from their examples.

Listen to full weekly episodes of Sunday on Monday with Bookshelf+ | Start your free trial at deseretbook.com/sundayonmonday