Bonnie H. Cordon

A much-loved scripture of Sister Bonnie H. Cordon is found in Doctrine and Covenants 123:17: “Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”

For her this verse encapsulates lessons she has learned throughout her life. “We can do hard things, but we can also do them joyfully,” said Sister Cordon, who was sustained on March 31, 2018, as the new Young Women General President.

That knowledge was instilled in her during a “fairy-tale childhood” laboring on a small farm in southeast Idaho and then again as she struggled to learn a new language as a missionary in Portugal. It was also a message she repeated often to missionaries while she served with her husband as he presided over the Brazil Curitiba Mission. And it is one she now plans to share with young women around the world.

Today’s young women, she said, are being asked to step up and move the work of the Lord forward. “And we can do it,” she added.

Bonnie Hillam Cordon was born on March 11, 1964, to Harold and Carol Rasmussen Hillam in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA. After her mission she received her bachelor’s degree in education at Brigham Young University, where she met Derek Lane Cordon. They were married on April 25, 1986, in the Salt Lake Temple. They have four children and four grandsons.

Her lifetime of Church service has included time as a nursery leader and seminary teacher. Before her call two years ago to serve as a counselor in the Primary General Presidency, Sister Cordon loved serving as a stake Young Women president. Even after being released from that calling, “I have never stopped praying for the young women,” she said.

A message she is eager to share with young women throughout the world is that she loves them and, more important, that God loves them.