Michaelene P. Grassli

Michaelene Packer Grassli was the eighth president of the Primary organization in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Church programs continued to be simplified during the years of her presidency (1988 to 1994). Rather than sending out scripts for the annual Primary sacrament meeting program, a short booklet outlining the annual theme with suggestions for implementing it during the year now went out to all Church units. The Children’s Songbook, which had been under development for ten years, was published. Grassli was a member of the National Cub Scout Committee of the Boy Scouts of America and received the Boy Scouts' Silver Beaver and Silver Antelope awards.

Grassli became a member of the Primary general board in 1975. In 1980, she was called as second counselor to Primary general president Dwan J. Young. From 1995 to 1996, Grassli was a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In 2006, she was honored as Utah Mother of the Year by the American Mother Inc.

She authored six books: All I Really Need Is My Mom, What I Have Learned from Children, Leaderspeak, and with Susan Grassli Andersen: Ammon Saves the King’s Sheep, Jesus Visits the People of Nephi, and Nephi Breaks His Bow.

Grassli was born on June 19, 1940, in Salt Lake City, Utah, and was raised primarily in Blackfoot, Idaho, although she also lived in Colorado, North Carolina, and Washington. She studied homemaking education at Brigham Young University. She and her husband, Leonard, are the parents of three daughters. She served with him in the Zurich Switzerland Mission as Outreach missionaries in the Bern Institute of Religion (2008–2009). He is a native of Switzerland.