PROVO — In honor of Valentine's Day, Sister Bonnie D. Parkin, general president of the Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, urged Brigham Young University students Tuesday to open their hearts and serve.
Her scarlet red suit jacket was not chosen at random, she informed audience members at the Marriott Center.
"I'm trying to remind you that tomorrow is Valentine's Day," said Sister Parkin, who was called to the Relief Society general presidency in April 2002. "On this day before Valentine's, I've been wondering: How's your heart?"
Sister Parkin encouraged students to find charity in their hearts and look beyond formal church or civic assignments to find opportunities to serve. She pointed to Elder Neal A. Maxwell, an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve in the LDS church, as an example.
Before Elder Maxwell stepped down from the Utah Board of Higher Education, Sister Parkin said he explained the need to devote more time to his personal ministry. Other members of the board assumed he meant his apostleship.
"He explained that his personal ministry was different from his apostleship," Sister Parkin said. "His personal ministry was to comfort his fellow cancer patients."
Like Elder Maxwell, each individual has a "personal ministry," Sister Parkin said, and finding those in need of service often occurs at unusual times or places.
"Every interaction that we have is an opportunity to minister, to nurture," she said.
Those opportunities are often unplanned.
"Much of the Savior's ministry happened while he was on his way to do something else," Sister Parkin said.
Many of the stories about Christ healing the sick or helping the poor occurred through chance encounters or while he traveled from place to place, she said.
"Like Him, we can go and do likewise, if our hearts are open to these opportunities," Sister Parkin said.
To minister means attending to the needs and wants of others.
"Ministering involves extending charity to others, one person at a time," Sister Parkin told audience members.
Acts of service don't have to be "spectacular," though.
"It is something we can do every day in natural, comfortable ways," Sister Parkin said. "Mother Teresa suggested we do small things with great love."
Visiting and home teaching provide remarkable opportunities to minister, she said.
"I would ask you to look at these assignments through new eyes," she said. "Do you know the hearts of those you visit?"
Learning to receive can sometimes be as difficult as learning to serve, she said, but both are equally important. Sister Parkin invited her husband, James Parkin, to tell a story about a time he learned to receive.
One Sunday when his wife was ill, James Parkin carefully fixed the family's favorite dinner — a pot roast. When he arrived home from church, he asked his wife for further cooking instructions.
"She told me to put the roast and all the trimmings on serving dishes and take it to another family in the ward," he said.
A member of their ward had heard about Sister Parkin's sickness and volunteered to bring the family dinner.
"I said, 'Well, how about we eat our dinner and give (the donated dinner) to someone else?" James Parkin said. "Bonnie responded, 'No, we need to learn to receive as well as to give.'"
As individuals strive to fulfill their personal ministries, they will answer the prayers of others, Sister Parkin said.
"We can initiate and partake of small miracles on behalf of others," she said. "Both the giver and the receiver are blessed."
E-mail: rwestenskow@desnews.com