You know, from the earliest
days of the Church, women have displayed remarkable
courage for their faith. Emma was a wonderful
example of that. She married a man who her
parents disapproved of, because she knew
that he had integrity and because he loved her deeply. She supported and strengthened
him in his development as a leader and a prophet. She had a baby here, and it
only lived a very short time. And when she was so desperately
ill after this baby died, she encouraged Joseph to
go and find Martin Harris and find out what had happened
to those 116 manuscript pages that he'd taken with him. When you think about
her faith and devotion, it's an example for
each one of us today. I know that women in the
Church today can have that same courage in their faith--need
to have that same courage in their faith to live the
gospel and to take advantage of the revelation that we've
received through keeping our covenants, reading the Book
of Mormon--all those helps that Heavenly Father has given us--so
that we can guide our families, so that we can bless
those in our communities, so that we can have answers in
our personal--our individual lives. I'm so grateful for Emma
and all of her sisters in the early days
of the Restoration who have been an example to
me and to all of our sisters. I'm so grateful for
her leading influence in the founding of
the Relief Society, and I hope each one of us
can make that commitment to be strong and faithful and to
recognize that sacrifices will be made and have to be made. But that's part of
the Lord's plan, where we learn and we grow and we
become able to return to Him. Thank you for that
wonderful expression. We are very grateful for
the sisters of the Church, speaking as--for the
men of the Church. We're very grateful. And as our missionaries
go out in the world, leave their families and
finance their own way, together we support
our missionaries in their missionary effort. And why do we do that? So that life can be
better for other people. That's the only
thing we want to do. We invite all people to
come unto Jesus Christ, receive His blessings in their
lives, have joy in their life, and have all the blessings
of the holy temple that will endure not only
through this life but throughout all
eternity as well.