News
Features
Calendar
Community Outreach
Missionaries
Be the "Bug"
Hodge Park Ward member presents at BYU's Women's Conference
Norma King, Director of Media (Rush Creek Ward)
Rebecca Morgan (Hodge Park Ward) confesses she had a moment of panic when she was asked to speak at the 2025 Brigham Young University’s Women’s Conference even though she was excited about the opportunity.
“I will take any opportunity that I have to share my testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” she said. “I love sharing my testimony.”
Morgan and her co-presenter, Holly Lauritzen, a social media influencer, spoke to 500 women at the annual conference in Provo, Utah.
Their topic, assigned by the conference committee, was “Peacemaking,” a topic she had never spoken on before. But as she studied and turned to the spirit for guidance, she recognized experiences in her life that addressed the topic.
“When we are about His work, He will give us everything we need to accomplish His work. That was a big takeaway for me.”
Morgan has had many opportunities to speak since her husband, Elder Jeremiah Morgan was called as an Area Seventy, but with the topic of “peacemaking,” she felt she was starting at ground zero.
“Ironically, but not coincidentally, because this is how the spirit works—I had just started reading a book off of Deseret Book that was on peacemaking,” she said.
She actively worked on the talk for four months and felt she got more out of it than the 500 women attending her presentation in the Hinckley Building at BYU.
She decided to memorize her 25-minute talk and said the spirit helped her every step of the way to prepare.
She used an experience she and her husband had when visiting New Zealand where they learned how to make traditional Maori Rēwena bread. Rēwena bread is a form of sourdough which uses a leaven called a “bug.”
“Like the Rēwena bug, we too can be leaven in our interactions with all of God’s family,” Morgan said. “In Matthew 13:33, Jesus spoke unto the Jews and to each of us when he said, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.’
Each sister can spread peace to others no matter what difficult circumstances she finds herself in. God is counting on us to be the bug.
Like the Rēwena bug that requires nourishment and care, our attempts at peacemaking will likewise require nourishment and care. We won’t be solving all the conflict in our lives overnight. But God expects our consistent and diligent and best efforts.
Like the Rēwena bug that is shared with others, our efforts will be multiplied. The impact of our peacemaking will spread from us to members of our families, to our communities, throughout the world and through the generations. We have the opportunity to leave an incredible legacy of peace in every corner of our lives.”
As she prepared the talk, experiences from her past came to mind. One which she shared with the women concerned a conflict her daughter had previously with a friend at school, and the bitterness which had developed.
Some wise counsel from a dear friend helped them: “It doesn’t matter how right you are. Cold hearts will never belong in the Celestial Kingdom.”
It was a turning point for them.
“It didn’t matter how wronged we felt our daughter was or how right we thought we were. What mattered was the condition of our hearts and at that time, our hearts were cold,” she told her audience. “We needed a change of heart.”
Citing Ezekiel 36:26—“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh,”—Sister Morgan told the sisters that this is the kind of change of heart we all need in order to become the peacemakers God is calling us to be.
“God never leaves us alone in our righteous efforts,” she said. “When we dedicate ourselves to doing His work, He promises nothing short of everything we need to accomplish His work. The same is true for our efforts at peacemaking.
God will help us in our efforts to bring peace into every corner of our lives. In fact, He has promised us His peace by covenant…. All covenants require something from us – obedience to commandments—in order to receive the promised blessing.
We use our agency to choose peace. We use our minds to cultivate peace and we use our bodies to work for peace. In short, we must be all-in if we are to be the peacemakers God needs us to be.”
Concluding her talk, Sister Morgan shared her testimony and told the sisters, “the Lord needs strong women bearing strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you are those women.”
Morgan was speaking at an EFYSA in 2024 when she was approached by a Women’s Conference organizer to speak. To become a presenter for BYU Women’s Conference, you can apply online. October 14, 2025, is the application deadline.
