The Relief Society was organized March 17, 1842, in Nauvoo, Ill.

There are 70 student wards on the BYU-Idaho campus. Each semester one young woman is called to the position of Relief Society president.

Her responsibilities entail visiting teaching, going to ward council and welfare meetings, planning Relief Society board and presidency meetings, conducting, teaching and meeting the individual needs of the sisters.

Charlotte Larson, a senior from Ucon, Idaho, is the Relief Society president of the 42nd Ward at BYU-Idaho.

When first called to the position, Larson responded, “I was overwhelmed and cried.”

As a elementary education major, she knew that she would have to balance a full weekday schedule of classes, observations and student teaching. With travel time, meetings and personal life, Larson felt slightly overwhelmed.

Larson’s Sundays are full with meetings, but she explains all members in the ward have the same responsibilities. Everything Larson does is what anyone should be doing.

“On top of everything I should already be doing, it is not that much,” Larson said.

This was a new experience and big responsibility. But Larson said as time went on she saw the calling “more as an opportunity than an obligation.”

The Relief Society was called “a select society separate from all the evils of the world, choice, virtuous and holy,” the Prophet Joseph Smith said.

As Relief Society president, Larson is getting to know the girls and realities of what goes on in the ward that most are unaware of. Most importantly, she is seeing how the Savior changes people’s lives.

This calling has also changed Larson’s life.

At the beginning of the semester Larson was given a father’s blessing. When called to Relief Society president she was set apart and given a blessing by the Bishop. Later one of her counselor’s prayed for Larson’s new responsibilities. In all three blessings the words were the same. This was a manifestation to Larson that her calling was from the Lord.

Larson called 20 different girls she had only briefly spoken with, trusting they were right for their positions in the Relief Society organization. She had not even met her first counselor, but felt strongly it was right.

“With school I have been blessed to accomplish all I need. … When serving in any capacity the Lord blesses you in anything else in your life,” she said.

Now Larson sees how her calling has made her a stronger student. She is currently observing a classroom at Ucon Elementary school where she is about to interact with students.

She loves every moment of her work with her fellow women and the students who depend on her.

“You can never do too much,” Larson said.