“I stress … the deep need each woman has to study the scriptures. We want our homes to be blessed with sister scriptorians—whether you are single or married, young or old, widowed or living in a family. After all, who has any greater need to ‘treasure up’ the truths of the gospel (on which they may call in their moments of need) than do women and mothers who do so much nurturing and teaching?”

President Spencer W. Kimball

3.31.2011

Sister Spotlights

Elsie Jones moved to Mesa 2 years ago from Kirtland, New Mexico where she lived and raised her family for over 40 years. She has 7 children, 33 grandchildren and 57 great grandchildren. Two of her sons live here in Arizona and the others live in New Mexico, Utah and Washington. Elsie enjoyed her family reunion several years ago when she had most of her family in one place at one time!

Elsie and her husband, Myles, served a mission in New Zealand from 1983-1984 where they were involved in leadership training. Elsie enjoys sewing, painting, poetry and indexing. In fact, she gives one of her original paintings to each grandchild for their wedding gift! To read a poem that Elsie wrote years ago about Visiting Teaching, click here.

Melissa Biehl was born in Utah and grew up in Las Vegas. She has two children: Avalon in 4 and Patrick is 1. Melissa loves to eat sushi, read, spend time with her kids and connect with friends on the internet – particularly through Twitter. She loves Star Trek, Star Wars, and anything done by Joss Whedon.

Melissa (and many other sisters who have responded to this survey) claimed that the hardest thing she’s ever done is raise kids! But a close second was achieving the goal of avoiding all kinds of sugar for 2 weeks straight!

Melissa’s dream is “to open a halfway house with counseling and career education for foster kids who have aged out of the system and have no place to go.”

Theo Potter’s official full name is Theo Marlyne Howarth Potter, but she says she answers to almost anything and “Mom” gets her every time! She was born in California and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. She moved around quite a bit as her husband served in the Air Force. She says, “Father has given us such a beautiful world. All I need to be content is to live anywhere my husband is happy and anywhere that has a temple close. I also hope to always be near at least a few of our children.” One of her favorite places on earth is Germany, where she and her family lived for a time while her husband was in the Air Force.

Theo has 12 children, 42 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren with 2 more on the way! (I hope I did the math right, Theo!) The hardest thing she has ever done was bury two of her children, even though she knows she will be with them again someday.

Theo loves anything chocolate and she also loves a German dish called Rouladen. She enjoys sewing, reading, doing crafts and talking with people. She also loves to organize, which apparently drives her husband crazy!

One of the most difficult goals Theo has set and achieved was memorizing all of the things required to serve in the temple. She would love to serve a mission, travel both in and out of the country and visit as many temples as time, health and money will allow!

Theo says that the movie that best describes her life is Cheaper by the Dozen – “which, by the way, is not a true statement!”