Anonymormon1

I prayed and prayed about it, received a priesthood blessing and feel good about being released. I went to talk to my bishop today and I was waylaid by the Relief Society President on my way to his office so I missed my chance to talk to him today. She asked me what was wrong so I told her. She told me that the only reason anyone is ever depressed is because they are doing something bad and feel guilty or they are being abused by their spouse or are fighting with their spouse. She told me that whatever my sin was, I needed to confess to her or tell her that I was being abused. I was like, are you kidding me?! I don't have any sins that need confessing and my husband has never been abusive, we don't fight, and he is very good to me and if there was anything to be confessed, it would not be to her. So then she told me I should have the bishop give me a blessing so I could tell her my "secrets". I told her that I had already had a blessing from my husband and I was satisfied with the comfort and answers that came through it. She told me that I needed to have someone "higher up" give me a better blessing. ???? Then she told me that she would not release me from my calling. I think the woman is either nuts or very misguided. She's been the RS pres for a long time and had been a member of the church for over 30 years. Why in the world would she say those things to me? It was very strange.

I found an interesting quote. However, I don't necessarily feel that my calling was uninspired, I just thought it was interesting. Elder Loren C. Dunn said this about the nature of a Church calling: “A calling in the Church is both a personal and a sacred matter, and everyone is entitled to know he or she has been called to act in the name of God in that particular position. Every person in this church has the right to know that he has been called of God. If he does not have that assurance, then I would suggest he give his calling serious, prayerful consideration so that he can receive what he has a right to receive” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1972, 20; or Ensign, July 1972, 44).

I think I can understand where you're coming from. I've served in Nursery for the last few years and for a couple years another time before. Nursery can be like being in a different ward and can be very isolating even though it can also be very rewarding. I'm considering asking to be released from my calling in the Relief Society. (there's a post about it here) I feel guilty about asking to be released too. I've only had the calling for a short time, not even 3 months, but I have a lot of issues right now and I didn't tell my Bishop about them before. He did give me a week to pray about accepting the calling and I did and I thought that maybe the calling would be good for me and that maybe I could handle it. The only thing I told the Bishop is that I was really nervous about doing it. I didn't tell him why I was nervous about it or how I'm struggling with depression and anxiety and have a lot of issues due to infertility issues and finally becoming pregnant only to have to end it because it was ectopic. I've been praying about what to do and I think I will at least just talk to my Bishop and see what he says. I don't think I'll demand to be released, but I think it would be good if he knew how much I'm struggling with it and with life in general right now. Several years ago I was in a YW's presidency and things weren't going very well with me and I was the third wheel to the YW president and the other counselor who were best friends. They would plan things or change things that were planned when I wasn't there and then not tell me about it but expect me to somehow know anyways. We had a small YW's and didn't have a secretary or advisers or anything, just the 3 of us. Anyway, I was ready to ask to be released and I prayed about it the day before I was going to talk to the Bishop. The answer to prayer I got was something like, "Just wait, keep serving, everything will be all right." so I ended up not talking to the Bishop about it. Three weeks later, the whole presidency was released. So I guess sometimes a Bishop is inspired to release people and sometimes we have to tell him if we're having problems. Good luck with your decision. I'll say a prayer for you.

I'm 2nd counselor in a Relief Society presidency. I haven't had this calling for very long. I was not really even very active before, just going to church once every 4 or 5 weeks due to illness and anxiety problems. When I accepted the calling, I thought that it seemed like it would be ok. But I have so much anxiety now that I have chest pains all the time and I'm only sleeping about 3 or 4 hours a night. And I am so depressed! When I get depressed, it's like I am paralyzed, I can't do anything. I can barely take care of the most basic needs of my family. I'm also diabetic and have been too much of a nervous wreck to eat regularly so my blood sugar gets too low and then too high and is just a mess. I can't make simple, stupid decisions like should I wash the towels first or the jeans first and yet I am supposed to plan and carry out all of these Relief Society meetings on weeknights. I made it through the one meeting for this month, but had an anxiety attack just before it and spent the next 2 days in bed too depressed to get up. I feel so dumb for even thinking that I could do this and if I ask to be released I'll be a bad person and how can I face the ward after that? I know it's a big no no and I've never asked to be released from a calling and I don't even know how to go about doing that. Should I asked to be released or should I just keep going how I am and hope that I don't have a heart attack or kill myself? I'm so embarrassed! What would you do?