A soft-launch of the newly revised LDS.org is available for preview at NewLDS.org. Not all features are working, but you can easily see what will soon be available for you to use. It is a far more personalized and interactive site than the previous version.

To use the personalized features, you will need to register. You’ll only be asked for a username and password, and if you are LDS (Mormon) for your membership record number. The membership number allows you to access the few parts open only to members—membership lists for your own ward or stake (similar to congregations and dioceses) and to information specifically for people in certain callings or programs. Although you must register, you will not be contacted by missionaries or other church members. In the years I’ve been registered, I’ve never even received an email from them. It simply allows them to provide you with private access to any personalized materials you create and to ensure no one accesses portions of the site they are not entitled to access.

LDS.org is designed for members of the Mormon Church, although most sections are open to people who are not Mormon. A companion site, Mormon.org, is designed for people who are not Mormon, but who’d like to learn more about the Mormons from an official source.

At the top right is a brief list of choices. One says Menu. Clicking on that shows you the larger categories of information available. Click on Jesus Christ is the way, found under the first choice—Heavenly Father’s Plan. Here you’ll see some basic information about Jesus Christ. If you’re not Mormon, there is a link to Mormon.org, where you can learn more about this subject in an article written with the understanding you won’t have the background information Mormons have. Of course, you can stay on this page as well. In addition, you can click on links that take you to personal testimonies of real Mormons. There is also a video about the atonement of Jesus Christ you can view. This is an easy way to study a basic gospel principle, and since it was mostly written for church members, you’ll see what the Church wants its own members to know about the topic.

Have you heard something about the Mormons in the news? Clicking on the menu at the top of whatever page you’re on will give you an option called “The Church.” Click on Church News and Events and you’ll find what looks like a newspaper page with current stories about the Mormons. On the right  hand side is a link to Newsroom, which currently takes you to the old Mormon site. Here you can find not only news, but also a section of commentary and even a blog on current issues relating to Mormons, including some that are controversial.

If you go backwards to return to the new site, you can go back to the top menu and click on Tools. You’ll see a link to a study notebook. You’ll have to sign in for this one, because it will keep what you enter private. This section is not yet active. Once active, you’ll be able to keep notes on what you are studying. If you’re using the website to read the scriptures or to find talks by Mormon leaders or to read church magazines, you’ll be able to bring all of that together into one research notebook. You’ll set up folders to do this. Suppose, for instance, you are trying to learn what Jesus taught about serving the poor. You begin by accessing the free scriptures online and want to record what the Bible has to say on the subject. You’ll be able to put that into your journal by clicking something within the scripture and by assigning keywords for future research. Next, you wonder what Mormon prophets said about it. The gospel library will help you find those words and you can also choose to save some of those talks or articles to your notebook. What about videos? Add a link to those as well. Pretty soon you have a very complete study notebook on one topic, allowing you to study in-depth and to save your research for the future. If you’re preparing a lesson or a talk, you’ll have everything in one place when it’s time to put it all together.

LDS.org is a very comprehensive place to learn what Mormons teach their own people. It contains every lesson manual currently used in our classes—the same ones you’d find yourself using if you visited a Mormon Sunday School class. You’ll even find the teacher’s manuals online with nothing hidden. Every church magazine, every talk given in General Conference (a twice a year meeting broadcast world-wide) and every class is free on the Internet. Mormon.org lets you learn what the Mormons want outsiders to know, but LDS.org lets you see the Church the way Mormons are seeing it, using the same lesson materials they use. This is the actual site Mormons turn to for their own study and lesson preparations. Few churches are so open about what they teach or so ready to give away all their materials by putting them all online. It’s a no-pressure way to explore the Mormon faith. If you don’t sign in, no one will know you were there and you can access all the lessons, materials, and talks without signing in. It’s only the personalized aspects, like the study journal, that require a login.

Should you find yourself with questions based on what you learn, you can follow links to Mormon.org and visit a chat room staffed by missionaries who are prepared to help you. This is not a place to argue religion. It’s a place for sincere questions from respectful people who honestly want to understand what the Mormons believe. You won’t find anyone willing to debate, but you will find people happy to clarify what you’ve been studying.

You’ll find many sections of this beta site are not yet developed. If you’re looking for something that isn’t there, visit LDS.org for a more complete selection of resources. (The study journal is not on that site.)

March 17^th is the anniversary of the Relief Society, one of the oldest and largest women’s organizations in the United States. From its beginnings as an organization to assist women in serving others, it has also allowed women to gain a wide range of skills, including leadership skills.

The Relief Society today is headed by Julie B. Beck, born in Utah. She spent much of her childhood, until age nine, in Brazil, where her father served as a mission president. She has a degree from Brigham Young University. Today, she leads the Relief Society for the entire international church, serves on the Church Board of Education and the Boards of Trustees of Church schools and universities; and is on the executive and general councils for Welfare and the Perpetual Education Fund of the Church.

Sister Beck is assisted by two counselors. Her first counselor is Silvia H. Allred, who was born and raised in El Salvador. Sister Allred attended the University of Arizona, Brigham Young University, and the General Francisco Morazan Institute in El Salvador, where she studied mathematics and languages. The second counselor is Barbara Thompson, who holds a Masters Degree in social work. After retiring from the Utah Department of Human Services, she became an executive director for The Christmas Box International, which serves abused and neglected children. She has never married and has no children.

The three women work under the direction of the priesthood, but they have real authority to design programs and make decisions. Women also lead the Primary program for children and the Young Women’s program for teen girls, from the international level to the local level. In addition, women hold a variety of other callings—unpaid church work. They serve in Sunday School, Activities, and other necessary tasks.

Relief Society is the auxiliary for all adult women. It is a comprehensive program of service and education. On Sundays, the Relief Society conducts a meeting for the adult women in which a lesson is taught concerning scripture, doctrine, or fulfilling the roles of women.

The Relief Society also holds programs on weeknights. Each local branch of the auxiliary selects activities, clubs, and classes they feel will benefit the needs of their own organization. These can be as diverse as the membership. Classes often include ethnic cooking, crafts, home repair, parenting, foreign languages, computer skills, car maintenance, and blogging. All of these activities and planned and carried out by women.

Of course, the Relief Society, true to its name, also carries out an extensive program of service both within and outside the Church. One program that allows LDS women to serve each other is the Visiting Teaching program. Each woman is assigned a companion and the companionship is asked to visit several women each month. As they meet with the three or four women on their “route” they build close friendships with one another. The visiting teachers deliver a brief gospel message to the women they visit and take time to get to know them. If the women have a need, they turn first to their visiting teachers, allowing them to call on someone who wants to be called. Visiting teachers provide meals to the family during illness, pick up children from school in an emergency, babysit, and do whatever else might need doing. The program ensures women who have recently moved to the area have friends right away, women who are older are checked on, and someone is aware if a serious need arises that should be brought to the attention of leaders, such as unemployment or serious illness.

It is the Relief Society that helps to administer the food program for the church. The Relief Society president will meet with the wife after the family has been approved for food assistance in emergencies, to help her plan her food needs for the month and arrange for her to visit the Storehouse, similar to a food bank.

The Relief Society also operates a literacy program world-wide. Although men can serve as literacy teachers, only women can be assigned to run the program. The literacy leader works with the Relief Society presidency to assess literacy needs and desires and to develop programs and find teachers to help. In addition to teaching reading, the program helps with other aspects of literacy, including teaching members the native language of their country (such as English as a Second Language in the United States.) The literacy program can also teach computer skills, the writing of personal and family histories, helping parents raise readers, and even blogging.

Relief Society groups are often found doing service for their community or the world, creating supplies for the Church’s Humanitarian Aid program, volunteering for community events, and stocking food pantries in their community.

All of these varied projects help women, even those who are serving full-time in their homes as mothers, opportunities to develop leadership skills. They plan and conduct meetings and activities, carry about service projects, teach, preach, and pray. The women are an essential part of any functioning congregation and serve at every level of church leadership, from the congregational level to the international level.

Because most positions are assigned, rather than volunteered for, women often find themselves serving outside their comfort zones, requiring them to learn new skills and to accomplish things they never imagined themselves doing. A shy woman might find herself conducting a meeting or teaching a class. Someone most comfortable caring for the toddlers on Sunday might find herself on the Internet, trying to figure out how to teach English to a group of men and women at church. A woman who prefers to follow might find herself in charge of the entire program. Barbara Thompson, the second counselor of the Relief Society at the international level, for instance, admits she’s more comfortable wearing jeans and putting together hygiene kits for Humanitarian Services than she is in her dress suit leading women worldwide, but she has risen to the challenge to improve her skills. As women serve in the various callings of the church, they become more than they thought they could ever be. Many of the skills carry into the business world if the time comes for a woman to leave her home and take employment. Others simply widen the range of a woman’s experiences, and help her to see herself as God sees her—a woman who can do anything.

Learn more about Relief Society.

Watch a video about Relief Society.