Jeffery R Holland – To Young Women
First of all, I want you to be proud you are a woman. I want you to feel the reality of what that means, to know who you truly are. You are literally a spirit daughter of heavenly parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny. That surpassing truth should be fixed deep in your soul and be fundamental to every decision you make as you grow into mature womanhood. There could never be a greater authentication of your dignity, your worth, your privileges, and your promise. Your Father in Heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him. Because of this divine heritage you, along with all of your spiritual sisters and brothers, have full equality in His sight and are empowered through obedience to become a rightful heir in His eternal kingdom, an "[heir] of God, and joint-[heir] with Christ." Seek to comprehend the significance of these doctrines. Everything Christ taught He taught to women as well as men. Indeed, in the restored light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, a woman, including a young woman, occupies a majesty all her own in the divine design of the Creator.
M Russell Ballard – Here Am I, Send Me
My dear sisters, we believe in you. We believe in and are counting on your goodness and your strength, your propensity for virtue and valor, your kindness and courage, your strength and resilience. We believe in your mission as women of God. We realize that you are the emotional (and sometimes spiritual) glue that holds families and often ward families together. We believe that the Church simply will not accomplish what it must without your faith and faithfulness, your innate tendency to put the well-being of others ahead of your own, and your spiritual strength and tenacity. And we believe that God's plan is for you to become queens and to receive the highest blessings any woman can receive in time or eternity. Where as, Satan's plan is to get you so preoccupied with the world's glitzy lie about women that you completely miss what you have come here to do and to become.
James E Faust – A Standard to All Nations
You are young women of great promise. You have much to do in your lives. You will do great work in your homes, in the Church, and in the community. To do all of this, you need to develop a testimony and have faith in Christ, to focus on Christ rather than the world. You are righteous daughters of God, and He loves you and wants to help you.
M Russell Ballard – Here Am I, Send Me
Every sister who stands for truth and righteousness diminishes the influence of evil. Every sister who strengthens and protects her family is doing the work of God. Every sister who lives as a woman of God becomes a beacon for others to follow and plants seeds of righteous influence that will be harvested for decades to come. Every sister who makes and keeps covenants becomes an instrument in the hands of God.
James E Faust – A Standard to All Nations
As daughters of our Heavenly Father, each of you can be a partaker of His divine nature. It is inherent in your beings. I testify that each of you young women has special gifts from our Heavenly Father. Some of these gifts are unique to womanhood. As you cultivate these gifts, you will grow in strength, purpose, and nobility.
M Russell Ballard – Here Am I, Send Me
Elder James E. Talmage stated that "the world's greatest champion of women and womanhood is Jesus the Christ" (Jesus the Christ [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1956], 475). I believe that. Of this you may be certain: The Lord especially loves righteous women--women who are not only faithful but filled with faith, women who are optimistic and cheerful because they know who they are and where they are going, women who are striving to live and serve as women of God.
M Russell Ballard – Here Am I, Send Me
At this point you may be thinking, "But what about me and my contribution? I'm not Eve or Mary or even Lucy Mack Smith. I'm just regular, plain old me. Is there something about my contribution that is significant to the Lord? Does He really need me?" Remember, the righteous who are not highly visible are valued too, and in the words of a Book of Mormon prophet are "no less serviceable unto the people" (Alma 48:19).
James E Faust – A Standard to All Nations
Next to last, you will have to answer to your natural womanly instincts which the Prophet Joseph said are according to your natures. You should respond generously to these instincts and promptings to do good. With your very being held still, you should listen to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. You should follow the noble, intuitive feelings planted deep within your soul by deity in the previous world. In this way you will be responding to the Holy Spirit of God, and will be sanctified by truth. By so doing, you will be eternally honored and loved. Much of your work is to enrich mankind. Care and mercy seem to be a dominant refrain of the song you have the opportunity to sing. I hope you will not leave any of the melody unsung.
Lastly, how do I think you, my beloved granddaughters, may become great women? You should cultivate and employ generously your noble womanly instincts of care and mercy. You should always hunger and thirst after righteousness within the framework of the revealed gospel of Jesus Christ. And, finally, most of what you do should be done within an eternal perspective.
M Russell Ballard – Here Am I, Send Me
Now, finally, I turn again to you dear sisters, you who have such a profound, innate spiritual ability to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. You need never wonder again if you have worth in the sight of the Lord and to the Brethren in the presiding councils of the Church. We love you. We cherish you. We respect you. Never doubt that your influence is absolutely vital to preserving the family and to assisting with the growth and spiritual vitality of the Church. This Church will not reach its foreordained destiny without you. We men simply cannot nurture like you nurture. Most of us don't have the sensitivity--spiritual and otherwise--that by your eternal nature you inherently have. Your influence on families and with children, with youth, and with men is singular. You are natural-born nurturers. Because of these unusual gifts and talents, you are vital to taking the gospel to all the world, to demonstrating that there is joy in living the way the prophets have counseled us to live.
More than ever before we need women of faith, virtue, vision, and charity, as the Relief Society declaration proclaims. We need women who can hear and who will respond to the voice of the Lord, women who at all costs will defend and protect the family. We don't need women who want to be like men, sound like men, dress like men, drive like some men drive, or act like men. We do need women who rejoice in their womanhood and have a spiritual confirmation of their identity, their value, and their eternal destiny. Above all, we need women who will stand up for truth and righteousness and decry evil at every turn and simply say, "Lord, here am I, send me."
