Mormon Women

Laurie Lee Hall’s growing-up years were defined by the conflict between her physical condition as a boy and her inherent identity as a girl. Unable to explain or resolve her gender dysphoria, she committed to living her adult life as a male. She joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, eventually becoming chief architect of its temples and an ecclesiastical leader. In her church and community, rigid adherence to gender roles is not only the norm, but the defining issue of a faith that doctrinally declares one’s gender as an “eternal identity.

Secret Ceremonies is the story of the awakening of Deborah Laake. A devout Mormon, she attended Brigham Young University, received good grades, was popular - but most of all, she found the One, the man who declared that his claim to her was a matter of divine revelation. Thus, while still in her teens she was married in the sacred chambers of a Mormon temple. From there, her life began to disintegrate.

The revealing and inspiring memoir of a woman forced into polygamous marriage in FLDS Church and her brave struggle to protect others from the same fate. Rebecca Musser grew up in fear, concealing her family's polygamous lifestyle from the "dangerous" outside world. Covered head-to-toe in strict, modest clothing, she received a rigorous education at Alta Academy, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' school headed by Warren Jeffs.

In The Priesthood Power of Women, author Barbara Morgan Gardner explores teachings of the living prophets and scriptures to increase our understanding of God's power as it operates in the temple, the Church, and the family. Her well-documented research demonstrates that women have more authority and power in all those settings than they may have previously supposed.

In this first-of-its-kind guide, “Consider Yourself as Eve” seeks to illuminate these doctrines by considering how we may live the temple’s template of spiritual development, especially as women. Along the way, we discuss many other questions, including: What specifically is the temple designed to teach us? What do the symbolic signs, laws, and tokens presented in the temple endowment ceremony represent in our everyday lives? How do we receive transformative grace through the atonement of Jesus Christ?

While the women in the Book of Mormon are mostly unnamed, there are surprisingly more women included than most people think. In this book you will meet 47 women, or groups of women, who teach valuable lessons about peacemaking, gaining a testimony, perseverance, discipleship, and creating lasting conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. With gorgeous photographs and insightful analysis, add depth to your study of the Book of Mormon by discovering how the women of the Book of Mormon add their voices to another testament of Jesus Christ.

The central conceit of this book is that it is an oral history that women passed down from generation to generation, based on inspiration by God instead of genetic relationships or priesthood authority designations. The book is given to Christ at the end of the two volumes, when he appears to righteous Lamanites and Nephites waiting for him.

Sarai was a child of ten years, wise for her age but not yet a woman, when she first met Abram. He appeared before her in her father's house, filthy from the desert, tired and thirsty. But as the dirt of travel was washed from his body, the sight of him filled her heart. And when Abram promises Sarai to return in ten years to take her for his wife, her fate was sealed. Abram kept his promise, and Sarai kept hers. They were wed, and so joined the royal house of Ur with the high priesthood of the Hebrews. So began a lifetime of great joy together,

1857. Three women—once strangers—come together in unpredictable Utah Territory. Hopeful, desperate, and willful, they’ll allow nothing on Earth or in Heaven to stand in their way. Following the call of their newfound Mormon faith, Tamar Loader and her family weather a brutal pilgrimage from England to Utah, where Tamar is united with her destined husband, Thomas Ricks. Clinging to a promise for the future, she abides an unexpected surprise: Thomas is already wedded to one woman—Tabitha, a local healer—and betrothed to still another.

To her contemporaries, Amy Brown Lyman was a leader, admired for her dynamic personality, her inspiring public addresses, and especially for her remarkable vision of what Mormon women in the Relief Society could achieve. Yet today her name is barely known. This volume brings her work to light, showing how the accomplishments of Lyman and her peers benefitted their own and subsequent generations.

In 1851, Olive Oatman was a 13-year-old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own.

In 1825, in rural Pennsylvania, Emma Hale marries an itinerant treasure-digger, a man who has nothing but a peep-stone in his pocket and a conviction that he can speak directly to God. His name is Joseph Smith and in a few short years, he will found his own religion, gather zealous adherents by the tens of thousands, and fracture Emma’s life and faith.

What does killing houseplants, cowpie cookies, ugly feet, and lost keys have to do with The Book of Mormon? Everything! Women Read Scripture: 365 Daily Devotionals from The Book of Mormon offers a daily companion to The Book of Mormon, accompanied by relatable stories and poignant anecdotes that illuminate the scriptures' timeless wisdom with every excerpted verse.

Polygamous wives were participants in a controversial and very public religious practice that violated most 19th-century social and religious rules of a monogamous America. Harline considers the questions: Were these women content with their sacrifice? Did the benefits of polygamous marriage for the Mormons outweigh the human toll it required and the embarrassment it continues to bring?

Beside every beloved prophet, there is a strong, incredible woman that works and sacrifices alongside her husband. Meet Abi, the brilliant, capable wife of Alma the Younger, and experience the events of the Book of Mormon through her unique lens as a wife and mother. From Korihor’s trial to the war with Amlici, “ABI” allows you to see and feel your favorite stories of the scriptures through the eyes of the families and heroines you never knew.

What’s worse? Frying your brains all summer in the desert? Or paying the toll to stay cool in the north? What’s the toll? Helping three ghostly women solve their own murder and escape their confines.

It’s the week before her wedding, and Natalie Marsh doesn’t have a moment to spare. But when a potential donor requests a meeting regarding Natalie’s mental health clinic, she makes time for the conversation - especially since that donor is tied to a tragedy in the life of Natalie’s fiancé, Gideon: eight years ago, Gideon’s roommate Travis died of a drug overdose. Now Travis’s mother wants to honor his memory by helping others avoid the same fate. It is a noble request that soon turns into a nightmare: Travis didn’t overdose - he was murdered.

Have you ever noticed in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with God? Yet in the scriptures, we hardly ever hear of women going to the mountains, and we know why, right? Because the women were too busy keeping life going; they couldn't abandon babies, meals, homes, fires, gardens, and several responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains! As modern-day women, we may feel like we are never "free" enough from responsibilities, never quite enough, or holy enough to have the type of communion we want with God.

Quirky private investigator Erica Coleman is no stranger to murder and mystery - which is why her best friend’s daughter Megan is confident in Erica’s unique ability to unravel a disturbing mystery developing in the ramshackle old house she shares with her college roommates, Liz and Beth. In the quaint historic district of Dover, Delaware, lies Crooked House - an apt name for the once magnificent home. Following an alarming rise in the number of “accidents” surrounding Liz, the girls enlist Erica’s help to stop the mysterious assailant.

Now that all five of her sons have left home, Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim has quite a bit of time on her hands, most of which she spends worrying about the state of the country and how her youngest son, Samuel, who is openly gay, is faring on his mission in Boston. She has also become close with one of the women in her ward, Gwen Ferris. But Gwen is quickly losing faith in the church, and her issues with the Mormon power structure are only reinforced by her calling in Draper's local "Spanish ward".