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Young women, their mothers and leaders recently participated in the annual Young Women meeting in the Conference Center and in thousands of meetinghouses across the world. The Church’s Young Women organization provides instruction, encouragement and support in living the gospel of Jesus Christ for teenage girls ages 12 to 17.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency, told young women that God will help them stand firm as they face challenges. “Your Heavenly Father knows you,” he said. “Even when no one else hears you, He hears you.”
President Uchtdorf compared life to a journey and said Heavenly Father has provided a map to help His children find their way. “He didn’t send you on this journey to wander aimlessly on your way,” he said. “This map is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news, and the joyful way of a disciple of Christ.”
The purpose of the Young Women organization is to help young women build their faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, understand their identities as daughters of God, obey God’s commandments and feel and recognize His guidance in their lives.
Young Women general president Sister Elaine S. Dalton said young women have a “great destiny” before them. “I truly believe that one virtuous young woman, led by the Spirit, can change the world.”
The Young Women program emphasizes eight values — faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works, integrity and virtue — each represented by a different color, as in these flags.
Sister Dalton said young women are facing “gale-force winds of opposition, adversity, peer pressure and moral pollution.” She said the young women of the Church “stand immovable” against these storms and must continue to do so.
Sister Mary N. Cook, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, said young women who choose to stand firm in their beliefs bless all those connected to them.
A choir of young women from Highland, Utah, provided the music for the 2013 General Young Women Meeting.
Young women typically provide the musical numbers for each General Young Women Meeting. Breanna Gibson from Highland, Utah, accompanied the choir on her cello.
Over 20,000 young women, their mothers and leaders attended the meeting. Second counselor Ann M. Dibb said young women can create holy places of solace for themselves no matter where they are, “even in the hardest times you have ever experienced.”
The Conference Center in Salt Lake City welcomed those attending the annual meeting with banners that displayed the Young Women logo, a torch that represents the light of Christ, surrounded by the motto “Stand for Truth and Righteousness.”
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