The new Young Women general presidency, first counselor Sister Tamara W. Runia, President Emily Belle Freeman and second counselor Sister Andrea Munoz Spannaus, was announced during general conference in Salt Lake City on Saturday. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Emily Belle Freeman, an author, speaker and teacher, will be the new Young Women general president, Elder Dallin H. Oaks announced on Saturday.
Elder Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also announced new counselors, Sister Tamara W. Runia and Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, and a new counselor in the Young Men presidency.
President Freeman has written books and taught in the Church Educational System. She was born in Massachusetts and raised in Utah. She and her husband, Greg Freeman, have five children. She has served as both Relief Society president and Young Women president in her own ward.
Sister Runia, who was called as first counselor, met her husband Scott at Brigham Young University and they have seven children. They served as leaders of the Australia Sydney Mission. She was raised in Walnut Creek California and lives in Provo, where she has spent 20 years on the board of the Food and Care Coalition.
She has served teaching scripture classes in her state, as stake Young Women president and in the stake Relief Society presidency.
Sister Spannaus is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and served in the Argentina Resistencia Mission. She studied early childhood education, art and interior design.
She has been an adviser in a young single adult ward, as a seminary teacher. With her husband, Alin, she served as a leader in the Mexico Cuernavaca Mission and on the committee to organize youth conferences in the South America South Area. She and her husband have two daughters.