Seeing as the Savior, Seeing the One

After sharing her remarks at the Women's Devotional in Offenbach, Germany, Sister Kristin M. Yee, Second Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spent a couple of hours greeting women who had gathered. One by one, she offered embraces, handshakes and a few unhurried moments of conversation on Saturday, August 29, 2026.

For Sister Yee, those moments were central to her 11-day ministry in the Europe Central Area. Her meetings in Germany, Austria, Cyprus and Spain included instruction for Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary leaders, and devotionals for Relief Society sisters and young women, missionaries, temple workers, and other members. Those Church organizations serve adult women, teenage girls and children, respectively. She said the purpose of coming in person reached beyond what a streamed message or prepared presentation could carry: to help them feel of their Savior’s love.

On her second visit to Europe, Sister Yee said she expected to remember the faces more than the places—“beautiful faces of great faith” among people who seek to know the Lord and hunger to feel His Spirit. Her journey also carried a personal note. Speaking in Vienna, she shared that some of her ancestors came from this part of the world. Returning as a descendant made it a privilege, she said, to stand on the same continent where they had once walked.

Germany: Seeing the One

At a leadership training in Offenbach, Germany, Sister Yee recalled the story of a nursery room where a picture of Jesus Christ hung behind a door, too high for many children to see. The detail led her to ask a larger question: How can we help those in our lives see the Savior, feel that they belong to Him and learn to follow Him?

She returned to that invitation in word and practice. Lifelong discipleship, she taught, begins with drawing closer to Jesus Christ. Then His love changes how a person sees—and serves—the individual in front of them.

Sister Yee illustrated the principle with a personal experience. She had set aside a short time to repair a broken sprinkler in her front yard when a woman from her congregation pulled up outside the fence and waited in her car. Although Sister Yee initially wanted to finish her work, she felt prompted to respond. Wet from the sprinklers, she put down her tools and went to speak with her. “Somebody’s hoping to be seen,” she told the Offenbach audience. “Somebody’s hoping for His love.”

The need to pause rarely arrives at a convenient time, Sister Yee said. Yet sincere care does not need to be dramatic. “The hardest part may be just pausing,” she explained. “It doesn’t have to be profound; it just needs to be sincere.”

Saria Fleege, a children’s music leader in Frankfurt, said the sprinkler story encouraged her to be “more open to the Spirit” when she needed to pause for something more important. “For me, it means seeing other people as Christ sees them and trying to do that.”

For Coraline Giraud-Carrier, a Relief Society president in Frankfurt, the training expanded how she now thinks about the people discussed in local leadership council. Rather than considering only the needs of adult women, she said, she would also ask about the children and young people in their homes—and how the whole family might be supported. “The best way to minister to our sisters and brothers is to do it the same, one by one,” she said.

Austria: Serving Together

That same concern for women, children and families continued in Vienna, where Sister Yee visited a Caritas Austria home on Tuesday, September 1. The Catholic social-service organization provides a dignified place for women and children facing difficult circumstances. The Church helped furnish the home the previous year. With Elder James W. McConkie III, a counselor in the Europe Central Area Presidency, and local Church representatives, Sister Yee met with Caritas Austria representatives and the home’s director to learn about their work and the needs of the women and children they serve.

Helmut Wondra, a Welfare and Self-Reliance Manager for the Church who joined the visit, said the conversation built on earlier projects and opened the way for deeper cooperation. Sister Yee described the potential of such partnerships simply: “When organizations or people come together, you find that one plus one equals three or four.” Together, she said, they can accomplish more than the sum of their individual efforts. Moreover, she explained that it was a blessing to work with like-minded, like-hearted people doing so much good.

In connection with the visit, women from local congregations in and around Vienna organized a service project for three Caritas shelters. They assembled hygiene kits and encouragement packages for 80 women and 75 children living in the facilities—an outward expression of the invitation Sister Yee shared throughout her travels: draw closer to the Savior and, through Him, more readily notice and serve the person in front of you.

Cyprus: A Message for One

Before Sister Yee’s arrival on Wednesday, September 2, the Europe Central Area Presidency prayerfully considered several possible destinations for her ministry. Cyprus continued to rise to the surface, Sister Yee explained, even though it was not the location with the largest number of Church members. Sister Yee said she felt Cyprus was on the Lord’s list.

Once there, Sister Yee met Elder Samuel Gür, a missionary from Preston, England, who told her that her October 2024 general conference message, “The Joy of Our Redemption,” had helped begin his conversion to the Lord and was one of the main reasons he chose to serve a mission. Meeting the sister leader whose conference talk had reached him so personally felt, he said, like “a huge tender mercy and a huge blessing from the Lord.”

Sister Yee shared that the encounter was deeply moving for her as well. “I think the Lord was showing us both, ‘I know you. Each one of you matters. Your path matters. Where you go matters, and I will speak to you,’” she said. For her, Elder Gür’s experience is part of the reason Cyprus belonged on the itinerary: the Lord’s purpose is not always to reach the largest crowd, but often to bless “the one.” “When we strengthen one person deeply in the Lord, in His way, that blesses the whole in a powerful way that nothing else can,” she said.

Madrid: A Place of Welcome

During a devotional with volunteers at the Madrid Spain Temple on Friday, September 4, Sister Yee reminded them that people may arrive at the house of the Lord carrying burdens, questions or a need to be lifted. She invited workers to receive each person with the patience and love the Savior would offer. “Our job is to keep our arms wide open,” she said, “for we know not when people will return or what healing they may need from the Savior.”

The devotional brought a wider theme of her ministry into focus. Throughout Germany, Austria, Cyprus and Spain, Sister Yee invited women to receive the blessings of temple worship. She explained that the endowment is a sacred temple ordinance in which Latter-day Saints make promises with God and receive access to His priesthood power and blessings as they keep those promises, including the spiritual strength to follow Jesus Christ. His covenant blessings, she said, are intended personally for each sister—not only for those preparing for missionary service or marriage.

For Jorge Ivan Martinez Dominguez, 23, Sister Yee’s message gave new urgency to the purpose he finds in temple service. He said that helping those who come to worship brings him closer to God and gives him an opportunity to develop “more attributes like Christ.” That conviction extended beyond the temple: he felt impressed to take the same spirit of ministering back to his local congregation immediately, rather than in a week or a month. He also came to see service as a daily process, not something done in expectation of immediate blessings.

Becoming

At the close of her ministry, Sister Yee returned to an image she had used throughout the journey: the unfinished canvas. Drawing on her background as an artist, she said every stroke requires faith because the final outcome is not yet visible. The work can look different from what an artist first imagined, and some parts take far more effort than others.

For Sister Yee, those unfinished stages are not evidence of failure; they are part of becoming. Discipleship asks people to keep moving forward, even when they cannot see the whole path. It is a partnership with God, she said: people bring their willing hearts and effort, and He provides direction, strength and grace as they continue. Wherever she went, she invited listeners to be patient with the unfinished canvas of their own lives. With faith in the Savior, they can keep adding faithful strokes, even when the picture is not yet clear.

“The painting isn’t finished yet,” she said, “but it’ll get there … with His help.”