Welcoming Young Women into the Bishop’s Office | An Interview with Jennie and Dave Blaser

Jennie Blaser is the ninth of 11 children and has lived all over
the world: Hawaii, Utah, California, Arizona, Argentina, Slovenia,
and Hong Kong. She served an 18-month mission in one branch in
Ljubljana, Slovenia, and speaks English, Spanish, and Slovenian.
She graduated in International Finance with a minor in Spanish from
Brigham Young University, returning to earn an MBA. Jennie has
taught early morning Seminary, Marriage and Family Relations,
Relief Society, Sunday School, and Gospel Doctrine. She has also
served as a second counselor in a Young Women presidency twice and
second counselor in a Relief Society presidency five times. Jennie
is currently the second counselor in her stake Young Women
presidency. Dave Blaser grew up in an Air Force family and also
lived all over. He served a mission in Mendoza, Argentina,
graduated from BYU in Construction Management, and has worked in
commercial construction management for 24 years. He is currently
the executive vice president of operations for Layton Construction
in Arizona. Dave has served as an elders quorum president, Young
Men president, in a bishopric, and as a stake executive secretary.
He currently serves as the bishop of his ward. Jennie recently
published her first book, a short novel entitled One Plus One
Equals Three. She was an adrenaline junkie until her body literally
stopped producing adrenaline—one of the health challenges she deals
with daily. Dave runs nearly every day and has finished multiple
marathons. He is a parrot-head (Jimmy Buffet fan) and a Swiftie.
The Blasers live in Gilbert, Arizona, and have three children.
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14-day access to the Core Leader Library Highlights 2:00 Kurt
introduces Jennie and Dave and their callings. 3:20 Jennie shares
how and why she got started researching the Church handbook. She
has been on a journey of learning and has written a few articles
about the youth programs. 6:30 Dave was a previous priesthood
quorum advisor before he became bishop. He shares what he learned
from the handbook and tried to apply it in his calling. 8:15 Always
start with the handbook when beginning a calling. 9:20 Helping the
young women have more interactions and feel comfortable with the
bishop. The bishopric needs to be spending regular time with the
young women. 10:40 The bishopric is not the Young Men presidency.
Since Doctrine & Covenants 107 was written they have always
been the presidency over the Aaronic priesthood and nothing has
changed. 12:40 There are four different people that are critical to
buy into the new system for the youth to make it a success. The
first is the bishopric. They need to balance focus between Young
Men and the Young Women programs. 16:10 The responsibilities of the
bishop have changed in the past five years with the new focus on
the youth. To help him focus on the youth, the Relief Society
president and elders quorum president can step in and help with
people that need help in their organizations. 18:30 Dave’s ward has
begun support groups in the Relief Society for people struggling.
It helps take some of the load off of the bishopric and allows them
to do more with the youth. 19:40 Empowering the elders quorum
president and Relief Society president and delegating to them. Dave
shares how he does this. 20:40 When the new handbook now states
that the bishop's role is to be over both Young Men and Young
Women. With the release of the Young Men presidencies it allows the
young men to step up and take on more leadership and
responsibility. There needs to be training done to help get this
done. 26:30 Helping the young women feel more welcome, more needed,
and like they have a place in the Church. 28:30 There are numerous
trainings in the handbook and those trainings should happen twice a
year.