LDS Church Young Women General President Vists VC

Valley City State University’s campus was host to a gathering of the young women from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. More than 270 young women aged 11-18/1217 from across North Dakota, Minnesota and Montana are attending a 4-day camp, June 1619. The time is focused around gathering, sharing one another’s company, learning skills, having fun, meditating on their faith and finding ways to be of service. Their service in the community included mulching trees, planting native grasses, weeding at the Hi-Line Prairie Gardens and Community Orchard, as well as volunteering at the Open Door Center, museum, library and food pantry.

Service to others is a pillar in the faith of members of the LDS Church. President Spencer W. Kimball in 1978 said that through service, “the abundant life noted in the scriptures… We become more substantive as we serve others—indeed, it is easier to ‘find’ ourselves because there is so much more of us to find.”

In addition to the young women and their adult leaders, Bonnie H. Cordon, General President of the Young Women organization of the LDS Church, is in Valley City for the gathering at VCSU’s campus. That’s kind of a huge deal—the LDS church has 16 million members, hundreds of thousands of whom are young women. The Young Women organization of the LDS Church provides these young members with instruction, encouragement and support, helping them build their faith in Heavenly Father and helJesus Christ. The general presidency of the Young Women, comprised of a president and two counselors, travel around the world to meet with church leaders and the young women of the church, helping to guide and support them. Sister Cordon is the 15th

Young Women general president. She and her counselors, Sister Michelle D. Craig and Sister Becky Craven, have served as the general presidency since March 31, 2018. Their travels brought them to Valley City for the camp this week.

Cordon was born in Idaho, attended Brigham Young University and has served a full-time mission in the Portugal Lisbon Mission. Her husband, Derek, who also attended BYU, presided over the Brazil Curitiba Mission from 2010 to 2013. Cordon has also served in her local congregation and diocese, as well as Young women and Relief Society organizations. She was serving as first counselor in the Primary general presidency of the LDS Church at the time of her call to Young women general president.