She often comments with a smile about her family size: "A mother of twenty-four? I really don't know. Asking me how many children I have is really a hard question." She goes on to explain that she lost her first husband to cancer when her youngest child was two, the twins were four, the next child was six and then eight, twelve, fifteen and sixteen. She lost her home to fire just eight days before her husband died and at the time she was wearing an extensive back brace. Walking was difficult.

At times in her books and tapes you see how laughter, combined with a firm determination to keep life normal for the children as well as do what God wanted her to do, pulled Sister Hamilton through. Three and a half years later she married Fred "A" Hamilton, a widower with thirteen children, Although they only had eleven at home at a time, the others were out there in the world with needs to be met. After that as the beds emptied out she found there were youth who "just didn't have a place." She doesn't know which ones of this group to count as "hers," so arriving at a number just in this group is difficult - fourteen or fifteen plus, she thinks. She and her second husband sent out a total of seventeen missionaries. They had six out for a month, five out for a month and four out for two years. She laughs as she says, "I never would have believed we could have done that ten years ago. It just goes to show what God can do."

Her Passions:

• I want to make a difference.
• I want to help youth/adults learn to get answers to prayers.
• I want families to be able to pray together to solve problems and recognize when they receive answers.
• I want to help youth and parents build wonderful family relationships as they also work together to become more Christlike in the walls of their homes.
• I want to help youth and adults to find the joy in living that I believe God intended for us.
• I want to teach about the support that God and the scriptures will give us as we struggle through things.
• I want to help youth and parents talk about issues like morality and pornography and really communicate.
• I want to educate parents about the fact that because of our environment, the pornography problem does affect them. I want to teach them what they need to do to protect their homes and what they need to do to protect their communities. I want to let them know that there is help if they already have a problem, and I want them to know that all of this is "do-able."

Bare Facts:

Grew up in Brigham City, Utah
Attended, found husband and graduated from BYU
Married Sherman H. Hibbert
Attended University of Idaho
Served with husband when he served as Mission President of the Brazil Central Mission
Lost husband to cancer in 1978
Married Fred "A" Hamilton
Lives in Bountiful, Utah

Background:

BYU Graduate: academic scholarship
Wife of Mission President
Early Morning Seminary Teacher
Received the Golden Deeds Award from the Exchange Club in 1997 for service to youth
Two years service on an alternative school community council
Missionary Preparation classes involving 220 students at one time
Written articles for The Ensign
Written articles for the Church News
Written materials for the Church
Extensive work in leadership and teacher training
Has spoken in Canada, Hawaii, Brazil and across the United States including the East Coast Area Singles Conference held at Harvard University in Boston.
Relief Society Pres., BYU and Hill Cumorah Pageant
Institute instructor, volunteer
Teacher in the auxiliaries, etc.

Proudest of the fact that she is a wife and a mother

Current Activities:

American Mothers President, State of Utah
Planning six conferences in Utah on how to protect families from pornography.
Organizing American Mother groups, i.e., mothers in neighborhoods, to work on parenting and protecting their families from the pornography that is so prevalent in various forms.
Coalition for Utah Families
Utah Family Values
State PTA Safety Commission
Director, founder of CAP, Citizens Against Pornography
Advisory Board of H.O.M.E
Columnist: A Minute for Parents.

BYU Education Week Speaker
EFY Speaker
Especially for Parents Speaker
Symposium Speaker
Speaks at Relief Society Conferences, Stake Standards Nights, Youth Firesides, etc.
Sunday School Teacher, Course 16
Visiting Teacher
Mother
Grandmother

Current Books, Tapes, and CDs Available:

Click Here for a listing of Sister Hamilton's books, tapes, and CDs.