Neill Marriott

“How often do we miss the joy all around us because we have a fear, duty, or disappointment facing us and we can’t see past it?”

While serving in Brazil, Sister Marriott prepared a Christmas reading that juxtaposes the Savior’s birth with turmoil of his last mortal week.

When our lovely twenty-one-year-old daughter was hit by a truck, my husband and I and three of our children were in Brazil serving a mission. All the children living in the United States flew immediately to the Indiana hospital where Georgia lay fighting for her life. Those living in our home, understandably, left the house in great disarray as they rushed to find a plane. Dear neighbors spoke to one another about the situation, and the next morning, as the family was in Indiana trying to cope with Georgia’s passing, twenty-five covenant-keeping sisters gathered at our home in Salt Lake City.

When I was very young, my parents planted a magnolia tree in our yard, in hopes of my having magnolias at my wedding. Plans for my future wedding also came up when I was 16 years old. Daddy arrived home from a church meeting with a rolled-up drawing of the soon-to-be Methodist church building. He unrolled the plans and pointed with pleasure to the chapel, saying, “Look, Neill, the new church will have a center aisle, instead of the side aisle of our church now, so at your wedding, I can walk you down the center of the sanctuary!” That anticipation held a particular poignancy since I was the only daughter in a family with six sons. I expected that trip down the church aisle and planned on it. Those expectations vanished like the dew of a Louisiana morning when I took an eternal step and entered the waters of baptism in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A former member of the Church Writing Committee and a convert, Sister Neill Marriott exhibits a sincere charity that endears her to Latter-day Saints around the world. Recently, we sat down to learn some interesting facts and inspiring insights from this mother of 11 and beloved second counselor in the Young Women general presidency.

General Young Women presidency second counselor Neill Marriott has had a lot of powerful moments of inspiration in her life. One of those was the moment she joined the Church. Read her story here, as she tells it in her new book, Seek This Jesus.

Recently, members of the Young Women general presidency sat together for an interview with the Deseret News during which they discussed the messages given by women that have been the most impactful in their lives. During that interview, they shared very honest but beautiful insights into what it is like giving a talk in general conference.

You may remember Sister Neill F. Marriott speaking of her daughter's death in her October 2015 general conference talk. While Sister Marriott and her husband were serving a mission in Brazil 14 years ago, their daughter, Georgia, passed away following a bike accident in Indiana.

Prior to the general women's session of the 186th Semiannual General Conference, Sister Neill F. Marriott, second counselor in the Young Women general presidency, and Sister Linda K. Burton, Relief Society general president, helped bring comfort to Church members in Louisiana, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic.

Two days before participating in the women's session of general conference, Sister Neill F. Marriott, second counselor in the general presidency of the Young Women, inspired women from around the world of all faiths as she spoke on a panel at the United Nations 60th Commission on the Status of Women.

Some people have criticized Church leaders in the past, claiming they do not relate to or connect with the youth of the Church today. Those critics obviously don't follow LDS leaders on Facebook.

MR says: Two women general officers of the Church recently visited Latter-day Saints in a former landfill known as “trash mountain” as well as other places throughout Asia, observing how the Church has flourished despite hardship.