Jenifer Greenwood, executive secretary to the Priesthood and Family Executive Council for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a forum speech at the John Taylor building on Thursday afternoon.
Greenwood went into depth as to the steps she went through in her life in order to get to her current job with the church.
“My message today is not to have dreams — In fact, I advise just the opposite,” Greenwood said at the forum. “Dream and dream big. I am saying that dreams should not always be the end … it gets us somewhere, but we don’t live in them. They are not our happily ever after.”
She recalls a time when she was helping a general authority edit the talks he was working on. When discussing ideas for the talk, the general authority mentioned that he and his wife found a document that he wrote at a young age with the dreams he’d wanted to achieve.
They both noticed they had accomplished many of the dreams that were written on that document. But, with time, they noticed that those dreams were not getting their family where they were supposed to go in the eternal sense.
He ended up moving to another state and changing his career. They both stepped away from those dreams which led to being called to full-time church service.
“I hope it becomes clear that some things we love and dream are stepping stones — they are not destinations,” Greenwood said.
Greenwood concluded her discourse by talking about what it is like working for the church. She explained that her testimony has grown immensely through sharing the gospel.
She gave a list of things she has learned over the course of time:
— Confidentiality is essential: Employees don’t share what they are working on.
— Transparency is essential: The church wants people to know how everything is being managed.
— Timing is important.
— Look for the why: Teach people why the gospel is important.
— Revelation sometimes happens constantly.
— The team doesn’t move without unity.
— Writing matters.
After the forum ended, there was a Q&A session for students and faculty to ask questions to Greenwood. She covered topics of sexism, discovering one’s path, defending the Church, the in-depth responsibilities of her job and how to apply for Church jobs.