To the Young Women of our family

Memo to: Staci, Trina, Heidi, Rachel, Camille, Alyssa, Megan, Amy, Krysta, Erin, Tricia, Lindsey, Brianna

Grandma Wendy and I are just finishing reading all of the conference talks in the May 2011 Ensign, and today we read Sister Elaine Dalton’s Young Womens conference talk “Guardians of Virtue.” This has got to be one of the classic conference talks of all time, and I endorse every word. She called for you young women to become the guardians of virtue, to protect, shield, and defend moral purity, both in your own life and in the lives of others.

She told of a ward young women’s group that did a walk the 22 miles from Draper to the Salt Lake Temple remembering John Rowe who made the same walk on a wooden leg he had carved himself, to work as a stone mason and who carved in temple granite the words, “Holiness to the Lord.” This story was a metaphor for you to live the gospel with faith and determination with the temple as the goal.

“Being a guardian of virtue means you will always be modest not only in your dress but also in your speech, your actions, and your use of social media. Being a guardian of virtue means you will never text words or images to young men that may cause them to lose the Spirit, lose their priesthood power, or lose their virtue. It means that you understand the importance of chastity because you also understand that your body is a temple and that the sacred powers of procreation are not to be tampered with before marriage. You understand that you possess a sacred power that involves the holy responsibility of bringing other spirits to earth to receive a body in which to house their eternal spirit. This power involves another sacred soul. You are a guardian of something “more precious than rubies. Be faithful. Be obedient. Prepare now so that you may qualify to receive all the blessings that await you in the Lord’s holy temples.”

I hope that you have a personal copy of this talk. It is one that should be read and re-read and quoted and, above all, internalized and implemented. I love you all, and hope for each one of you a happy life in the gospel as you become a “guardian of virtue.”