Service is Sister Parkin's priority

As hundreds of women hustled in and out of the LDS Church's Relief Society Building on Wednesday, anticipating today's opening of the faith's 175th Annual General Conference, two from Texas stepped through the doors and were greeted with an unexpected hug from a woman they've never met.

Yet they recognized her without introduction. As general president of the Relief Society for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's safe to say Sister Bonnie Parkin meets or speaks to hundreds of thousands of women worldwide each year, whether in person or via satellite.

Completing her third year at the helm of what is believed to be the world's largest women's organization, she understands how LDS women respect her office, but she retains her sense of self.

In doing so, she's perpetuated a personal touch that allows her to connect almost instantly with anyone, according to those who've observed her up close.

She often greets new faces with a hug instead of a handshake.

Eye contact is steady, and tears can well up easily as she recounts stories about women of deep faith or learns of personal misfortune.

As a self-described "most ordinary person you'll ever meet," she speaks to, and listens from, the heart.

Whether at home or in lands devastated by natural disaster, steeped in poverty or oblivious to the growing reach of the faith's 12 million members around the world, Sister Parkin says her greatest joy in the job is "to be with women who want to (serve God) and do it right. They have testimonies, and maybe they want to do it too perfectly." Dedicated to home and family, "they desire to make the world a better place."

Flipping through scores of photos taken on a recent trip through Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, she recalls names and stories of LDS women working to beat the odds: miniscule wages, tiny living quarters, long separation from family and friends, death of a beloved husband.

One makes tiny white gloves, 100 pair for the equivalent of $1.40. Others have left their families in the Philippines and live in Hong Kong, working as domestic help in the homes of the wealthy and sending the money home. "Sometimes their children are grown" by the time they return, she says, her voice and eyes softening with emotion.

Yet another lives widowed at 75 in a tiny flat cold in temperature but "warm with the spirit," serving as the Relief Society president in her Hong Kong ward and mentoring her young counselors. Seeing their collective faith, courage and even joy amid challenging circumstances is a crash course in what a love for Jesus Christ — and the knowledge that he loves them in return — can do for women, she says.