27 October 1869

[. . .] present Mrs Eliza R Snow Mrs Zina [D. H.] Young and Bishop Daniel Evans

[. . .] Sister <Snow> then arose and said your presidentest [Sarah T. Coleman] has Desired me to Address you I do not of my self feel Competent to do so but with your faith and prayers and the spirit of the Lord I may be able to say some thing that will Comfort and Bless you. while sit[t]ing here I have been looking upon the faces of my sisters and Can see the form of Deity there and I have been Reflecting off the Great work we have to perform. Even in helping in the Salvation of the living and the Dead

the Lord has organized these Societys that we may Gain knowledge, and pra[c]tice in A organised Capacity and learn to Respect our selves and one Another and give Honour w[h]ere Honour is Due. we want to be Ladys in very deed not acording to the term of the word as the world Judges but fit Companions of the Gods and Holy ones in A organised Capacity we Can assist Each other in not only Doing Good, but in Refineing our selves, and W[h]ether few or many Come forward and help to proscecute this Great work they will be those that will fill Honourable positions in the Kingdom of God. we should not act from feeling but from principle and seek to understand the workings of the Spirit of God for it is not Trouble Greif and sadness that it Bringeth, but peace, Joy and sattesfaction, we have got to cooperate not only with our Husbands but with God so that we may Become savours [saviors] upon mount Zoin for it is one thing to be A savour [p. 26] and another to be saved, one thing to be A Queen and Govern and Control and another to be A subject and be Governed, Women should be Women and not Babys that need petten [petting] and Correlen all the time I know we like to be apprecilated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due what matters, we know the Lord as laid High Responsibilitys upon us, and there is not a wish or Desire that the Lord has implanted in our Hearts in Righteousness but will be Realized, and the Greatest Good we Can do to our selves and each other is to Refin and Cultivate our selves in Every thing that is Good and En-nobleing to Qualafiy us for those Responsibilitys, when the Lord spoke to our parrents in the Garden of Eden it was to Both of them, instructing them in the principles of Life and salvation but through their desobedence [disobedience] the Curse was placed upon them, and the Earth, the Curse Upon woman was, in sorrow and pain thou shall Bring forth Children and thy Desires shall be to thy Husband, my sisters how is that Curse to be Removed, we are privilidged to live in the Dispensation and to Embrace principles that will Eventuly Remove it and this Devine Institution of p[l]urality of wives is to try us and prove us and see if we are willing to submit and bear all things so that we may become savours and those that oppose or use their influence against this Doctrine will never Gain A fullness of Glory,¹

the wise men of the world have made Laws to try and stay the Corruption and Degredation that is storking Abroad in the world Draging the fair Daughters of Eve Down to Death and Disstruction, but Can they Due it; No it is only through the principle of poligamy that it Can be Done, our Brethen Can not Go forward without us then it is our Duity to be one with them in Isstablishing and Carr[y]ing out those principles which will Bring such Gloryious Results, we have not come [p. 27] upon this Earth to Gratify our own selfish feelings but to work with God and our Brethern in the Great plan of salvation and Redemtion,

I was mortified last Conferance to hear president [Brigham] Young say, he was affraid to Call A vote to see if the sisters would sustain poligamy, I told him he had not faith in the sisters and if he had Called the vote he would have found that the sisters would have sustained that principle. I am my self ambitious and <the> Grand object of my Life is to perform Every Duty or promose I may have made before I Came here in Relation to the salvation of my Kindred and to Gain for my self an High and Exalted place in the Kingdom of God

we do not know what promoses we may have made to our Kindred before we came here, and when I hear A sister say I would not marry a man that [h]as A wife, I begin to think how small she will feel when she meets her friends and finds she as not only Broken her promose in not Doing the work for them, but as lost for her self what she will never Regain. then it Beho[o]ves us so to live that we may be one with our Husbands as Eva was one with hers before the Curse was placed upon us, and if <we> Cultivate and live by the Spirit of God we shall allways be Happy. I once heard Brother Joesph Smith say that some spirits in the Eternal world of their own Choice Came Down here to fill Certain positions Even to Rule and Govern because they Could not Endure to be A poor Despised saints of God. and the smal[l]est Saint that tries to live A Life <of> Rightiousness would be Greater and more Noble then the Greatest Monarch of the Earth for to live and Reign in the presence of God, is the Nobleity [nobility] of Heaven,

I feel thankful to my Heavenly Father that I have been preserved from Aposstise [apostasy], I have seen prophets and Apostles turn away on the Right and the Left and I am still here with the saints [p. 28] it makes me feel humble and my heart swels with Gratuated [gratitude] to God for his merices untou [unto] me

my sisters it is the Duty of this society to help the Bishop in taken Care of the poor, you <should> strive to have the spirit of God with you all the time, so that you may understand and know those that need help and not be led by false sympathy to Relive [relieve] those that is unworthy.

sister snow hear [here] Refered to A Case or two w[h]ere the Bishops and the Societys had been imposed upon God Bless you my Sisters and may you Ever be found faithful to the End Amen.

followed by sister Zina Young and the president Bearing their Testamonys to what had been said and Exhorting the sisters to keep the word of Wisdom and to faithfulness, meeting then adjourned untill two o clock [. . .]

Afternoon 2 o[c]lock met pursuant to adjournment [. . .]

Sister Snow then Gave some Good instructions to the Secretarys of <the> way they to keep their Books.

spoke of home manufacture said she were ple[a]sed to see so many home made Hatts and bonnetts for it showed an independent mind. God Bless you. Amen [p. 29]