“Written in the Fleshy Tables of the Heart”
Spring 2005

Susan W. Tanner
Young Women General President

1. Announcements

The Young Women Resource Room in the Relief Society Building has recently been updated so that it will be just that, a resource for Young Women leaders. The first thing you see as you walk in the room is a wonderful picture of Jesus Christ. This reminds us of the purpose of the Young Women program “to help each young woman ‘come unto Christ’ ” (Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2: Priesthood and Auxiliary Leaders [1998], 211). With bright colors and youthful faces, this room represents our purposes, our programs, and our past. It gives helps to leaders with posters and plasma screens. Each time I visit the resource room I feel the Spirit of the Lord’s work in which we are engaged. Please take the opportunity to visit there.

2. Review

What do you remember about open house last fall? What did you do in your Young Women calling in the last six months based upon what you learned? You are all in the midst of a year in which we are celebrating the “great and marvelous work” of the Restoration. We hope your young women have budding or burning testimonies within them. Do you remember the six points about the Restoration that we hope will burn in their hearts?

1. Joseph Smith was the Lord’s instrument in restoring His Church upon the earth.
2. His First Vision and subsequent revelations establish basic, fundamental truths.
3. Under inspiration, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon.
4. Priesthood authority and keys were returned to the earth.
5. Temple ordinances and covenants provide eternal blessings for individuals and families.
6. Each of us can make and keep covenants.

In our workshop last fall we taught the importance and the how-tos of Personal Progress. All of that information will be posted in April in an interactive Internet resource found on the Church Web site. The workshop on teaching during this open house will also be online as an interactive Internet resource entitled “Young Women Teaching Guide.”

These new Internet resources were created to help you. We hope you will use the teaching guide as you prepare and teach in all settings. It is a renewable resource that you can come back to again and again to find the seven questions that may guide your teaching. It also has many additional teaching resources that can be used online or printed out.

We also hope you will use the Personal Progress resource to motivate young women to do Personal Progress and that you will use it in working with parents and priesthood leaders. We hope you will use these resources in stake leadership settings, in training new ward leaders, at New Beginnings, Young Women in Excellence, and Sunday lessons. In fact, during the next six months, we would appreciate hearing from you about all the ways you are using these new resources.

I will show you how to access these resources in four easy steps:

1. lds.org
2. Serving in the Church
3. Young Women
4. Feature, open house, and eventually Personal Progress and Young Women Teaching Guide

Wasn’t that easy? If I can do it, anyone can. The workshop on teaching that you will attend during this open house will also be online as an interactive Internet resource entitled “Young Women Teaching Guide.” It is accessed in the same way.

3. Retention

Just recently I returned from Mexico, where I met and hugged literally hundreds of young women. I also had a personal visit with five beautiful girls from one ward and with nine other lovely girls during their Sunday meeting. All of them had such a radiance of spirit in their countenances. I was struck with the fact that some of them, if they follow the statistics of the Church, might not make it. They might not “stay in,” as Sister Beck says. I bore my testimony to these girls that Heavenly Father knew each of them individually and wanted them to communicate with Him each night and morning. I then told them that if I could see them in five years and then again in twenty-five years, I hoped I would see the same spirit glowing in their eyes. I hoped that the gospel was so deeply embedded in their hearts that they would cling to it and be true to it through all of the trials and hardships of life.

I left these young women asking myself questions often asked by the leaders of our Church: “Will we retain these youth?” “Are we leading them to the temple?” “Is the gospel getting down into the depths of their souls so that they will never forsake their covenants?”

Let’s brainstorm for a minute. Why do we lose young women, whether they are new converts or long-time members? Your list of reasons might include things like:

• Some girls might feel that the Church requires too much time, commitment, and money.
• Some might not understand Church culture and language.
• Some might feel scorned by those in the great and spacious building, populated occasionally by their friends and even family members.
• Some may have their feelings hurt.
• Some may not feel needed or a part of things.
• Some may not feel accepted or loved.
• Some may face seemingly insurmountable trials, like divorce or death of a loved one, without having their seedling testimonies fed and fertilized.

In short, young women who fall away often lack the three things that President Hinckley has long maintained are required for retention: (1) a friend, (2) a responsibility, and (3) nurturing with the good word of God.

Young Women programs often do a pretty good job with the first two requirements for retention. Young Women activities—Mutual, camp, sports, youth conferences, and so on—provide a great way for friendships to grow and develop. Allowing youth to participate in planning activities, being called as a member of a class presidency, or sharing a talent at Mutual will give a young woman a responsibility and help her feel needed.

We may be less effective with the third requirement. So today I would like to specifically concentrate on nurturing with the good word of God. What a rich word is nurture, meaning to train, to educate, to foster development, to promote growth, and to nourish or feed. Being taught the doctrines and principles of the gospel in such a way that they penetrate deep into our hearts is a powerful retention tool. The gospel has to be in our hearts; it has to be inside of us, in our very center, our core. As the Apostle Paul teaches, the gospel must be “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Corinthians 3:3).

Just recently President James E. Faust reiterated this very point in a BYU devotional address. He said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is found in the hearts of its members. He told of an experience he had some time ago when a car with an out-of-state license plate stopped him on his walk and asked, “Where is the church of the Mormons?” He directed them to Temple Square, but said in retrospect, “I could have pointed to my chest and said that the Church should be first and foremost in our hearts” (Church News, Mar. 5, 2005, 7).

Think about the word heart. We all know that our hearts are central to life. Physically, the heart is the life-sustaining organ of our bodies. Likewise, heart is used to describe the essential, most vital part of our spiritual being—one’s innermost character, feelings, or inclinations. In a gospel sense, the heart is our spiritual core.

President Marion G. Romney said: “The only safety we have in the world for our children is what they build within themselves. We can make restrictions against drinking and smoking, and we can make regulations to guide the affairs of people. We can throw all the protections possible around them, but after all, the thing that holds them in the final test is what is inside of them” (quoted by F. Burton Howard in Marion G. Romney: His Life and Faith [1988], 153).

4. Conversion

Conversion means embedding the gospel in our hearts. In Joel 2:12 it says, “Turn ye even to me with all your heart.” The word convert means to turn completely around, or in other words, to change, to become new or different. As Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, “It is not . . . enough for us to be convinced of the gospel; we must act and think so that we are converted by it. In contrast to the institutions of the world, which teach us to know something, the gospel of Jesus Christ challenges us to become something” (Ensign, Nov. 2000, 32). If we are converted, we become someone new.

We learn about conversion in the familiar scripture “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). These are the Lord’s words to Peter the Apostle after the Last Supper. The word when in the phrase “when thou art converted” suggests that conversion, even for Peter, is an ongoing and continual process. This is somewhat surprising because we know Peter as a strong Apostle. He had been by the side of Jesus Christ during His entire mortal ministry and witnessed His many miracles and learned His teachings. He was with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration. And it was Peter who witnessed, “Thou art the Christ” when Jesus asked the disciples who He was (Matthew 16:16).

Peter had a testimony, but Jesus taught that conversion is more than knowing and declaring. He said it is becoming. Jesus brought a little child before His disciples and said, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3; italics added). Could He have been talking about making our hearts pure like theirs? He also told His Nephite disciples that they ought to “be . . . even as I am” (3 Nephi 27:27; italics added). This is not just doing, but being. King Benjamin’s people described their conversion as “a mighty change . . . in our hearts” that the Spirit had wrought upon them (Mosiah 5:2).

President Marion G. Romney said about conversion: “It would appear that membership in the Church and conversion are not necessarily synonymous. Being converted, as we are here using the term, and having a testimony are not necessarily the same . . . either. A testimony comes when the Holy Ghost gives the earnest seeker a witness of truth. . . . Conversion, on the other hand, is the fruit of, or the reward for, repentance and obedience” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1963, 24). Conversion does not normally come all at once. It comes “in stages,” until a person becomes “at heart a new person. ‘Born again’ is the scriptural term” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1963, 23; italics added). It is a change of both how we think and how we feel.

How can we as Young Women leaders facilitate conversion, this mighty change within the hearts of the young women we serve? In the workshop we are emphasizing teaching young women. The scriptures reiterate again and again that the real teacher is the Holy Ghost. In Nehemiah 9:20 it says, “Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them.” And in Mark 13:11, “It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” And in John 16:13, “The Spirit of truth . . . will guide you into all truth.” Our devout personal prayer, study, and preparation will help the Holy Ghost work through us.

A closely related subject to how we teach is how young women learn, how they internalize the gospel deep into their hearts. The Holy Ghost again is the facilitator. He will “bring all things to your remembrance” (John 14:26); he “carrieth it unto the hearts” (2 Nephi 33:1), and “by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5). So when we teach by the Spirit and learn by the Spirit, all are “edified and rejoice together” (D&C 50:22).

Where in the scriptures do we see examples of conversion? Where do we find a mighty change of heart occur because the gospel has been written upon hearts? Let’s look at principles we can learn from Enos’s story and from the story of the Ammonites and their 2,000 sons.

Enos had a mighty change of heart. It began with desire; he was hungry to know his standing before God. His “soul hungered” and he “cried unto [God] in mighty prayer and supplication for [his] own soul.” He had heard the teachings from his father “often,” over and over again, until they sank deep into his heart. He found a quiet place to go before the Lord in humble, penitent, mighty prayer. Enos wrestled before God to “[receive] a remission of [his] sins.” Finally “a voice came unto [him], saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed. And I, Enos, knew that God could not lie; wherefore, my guilt was swept away” (Enos 1:2–6). The Lord forgave him. He was born again, changed, converted.

What do we learn from Enos that might help our young women? He was hungry for knowledge, for a spiritual experience, for assurance from the Lord. He had been taught the doctrine often by his father. He acted upon what he had been taught. He prayed, and he repented, and he became a changed person at heart. He declared the “truth . . . in Christ . . . in all [his] days, and . . . rejoiced in it above that of the world” (Enos 1:26).

The story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehies, or Ammonites, begins with the mission of Ammon to the Lamanite king, Lamoni. King Lamoni was so moved by Ammon’s faithful service that he desired to hear Ammon’s teaching. After he learned the doctrine, he believed it and began to repent. Lamoni said, “O Lord, have mercy . . . upon me, and my people” (Alma 18:41). His wife and his servants also believed and declared unto all the people “that their hearts had been changed; that they had no more desire to do evil,” and “as many as heard his words believed, and were converted unto the Lord.” Then we read that “the Lord did begin to pour out his Spirit upon them; and we see that his arm is extended to all people who will repent and believe on his name” (Alma 19:31, 33, 36; italics added). Lamoni’s father was also converted. His desire was so strong that he said, “I will give away all my sins to know thee” (Alma 22:18). We know that “thousands were brought to the knowledge of the Lord” and “as many as believed . . . and were converted . . . never did fall away” (Alma 23:5, 6; italics added).

We know the rest of the story. These people had so completely turned from their former ways that they covenanted that they would never again fight against any of their brethren. Therefore they buried all of their weapons of war. These people were distinguished by their “zeal” towards God. They were perfectly “honest” and “upright” and “firm” in their faith in Christ (Alma 27:27).

What do we learn from this group of people that might help our young women? They desired to know the truth. They were taught the doctrines. They repented. Their hearts were changed. They covenanted that they would turn to the Lord with all of their hearts.

5. How Leaders Help the Conversion Process

How can we as leaders write the gospel message “in the fleshy tables of the hearts” of our young women? Let me suggest four ways: (1) Desire: Young women must be hungry for truth and learn to ask the right questions. (2) Repetition: Young women must hear the doctrines over and over. (3) Learning by heart: Young women must fix the truths in their minds and hearts; they must learn the gospel by heart. (4) Practice: Young women must do; they must pray, repent, and keep covenants.

(1) Desire: Young women must be hungry for truth and learn to ask the right questions. I heard recently of a young woman who heard a Church leader give a talk. She learned nothing from it. Later she was serving a mission. The same leader came and gave almost exactly the same talk, and she said it was the best talk she had ever heard. She learned so much from it. The difference? She was hungry for it. We can’t entirely control a girl’s desire to learn, but we can encourage her to not just come to meetings but to come to meetings hungry for truth. Often young women haven’t even thought about what they want to know or feel. If they are not hungry they will not eat. If we can find out what questions the girls have and what the desires of their hearts are, then we can be better equipped to feed them. Also, when they come with a desire in their hearts, the Holy Ghost “carrieth [the gospel into their] hearts” (2 Nephi 33:1). Enos, who had heard the doctrines of the gospel his whole life, only truly understood them when he desired to know the truth for himself. King Lamoni, who knew nothing of the gospel, learned the doctrine from his great servant Ammon when he desired to know the truth.

(2) Repetition: Young women must hear the doctrines over and over. Enos had been taught the doctrines often by his father. Because of that repetition the doctrines sank deep into his heart. My children often tease me for saying the same things over and over to them. They will say such things as, “Here we go with lecture number 21 again.” In fact often they will join in chorus to finish my message verbatim, in such teachings as, “Do the best you can with yourself and then the minute you leave the house, quit thinking about yourself and think about others.” Or, “Has the day of miracles ceased? Look for the little miracles in your life today.”

What have your young women heard you say over and over again? Will they remember you as the teacher who bore witness to them each time you saw them that they are truly Heavenly Father’s daughters? Will they say after the Young Women years are past that you are the one who taught them the eternal significance of their bodies? What repeated lesson will they remember from you?

Young women all over the world repeat the Young Women theme each week. Think of the strength that comes to them as they say those powerful words over and over. In Brazil I met girls in every situation from completely inactive in the Church to extremely valiant in the gospel. In spite of the individual circumstances, each one could say the theme, and each one had a favorite part that had penetrated from her mind deeply into her heart. And that leads to the third point, learning by heart.

(3) Learning by heart: I believe in the power of memorization when that entails learning things “by heart.” Young women must fix the truths in their minds and their hearts. Closely related to repetition is memorization. It is the means by which we place the truths we are taught in our minds and hearts. In our family we have a tradition of giving memorizations to my husband. For as long as I can remember, John has discouraged buying store gifts to celebrate his holidays. Instead, he has asked that we memorize a poem, song, or scriptural passage to recite for him. He has always felt that this gives our children and me a chance to give him something that we can also keep for ourselves. It is a gift from the heart. I think there are many benefits to memorizing. It deepens our understanding of the passage. There may be new meanings that you’ve never noticed or understood before. Learning by heart, which may be somewhat of a dying tradition, means to learn something so deeply that it becomes part of our core; it fills us; it changes us.

Often my heart has been filled during early morning runs as I have gone over in my mind “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” “The Living Christ,” or some scripture or poem I was memorizing. I had read the “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” many times and felt love and appreciation for it. But as I memorized each word and sentence, I began to see how it spoke in detail to each of the cultural ills that plague our society. I felt hope that the eternal truths taught in the proclamation could arm me as I faced current and difficult moral issues. I began to feel greater affirmation from apostles and prophets and from the Lord for the family choices I had made over a lifetime. I knew that we had a Father in Heaven who has an unfailing plan for us. I felt His matchless love and goodness. As it explains in Proverbs, I felt that “the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding” and “wisdom entereth into thine heart” (Proverbs 2:6, 10). My heart was filled with knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and love. This knowledge encouraged gratitude, personal improvement, and the desire to strengthen others. It changed me. The teachings that sank deep into Enos’s heart changed him. And the young women can have a similar mighty change through heart learnings.

“Learning by heart” is a rich phrase. In a sense it is a gospel duty. It is a twin commandment to remembering. Elder Henry B. Eyring talked about how the Holy Ghost can help us remember as we write in our journals. He said, “Journals are a way of counting our blessings. . . . As you start to write, [you could have an experience with the gift of the Holy Ghost.] [You] could ask yourself, ‘How did God bless me today?’ If you do that long enough and with faith, you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes, you will have gifts brought to your mind [by the gift of the Holy Ghost] which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God’s hand in your life” (Ensign, Nov. 1989, 11). We are to learn spiritual truth by heart and then retain in remembrance what we have placed deep in our hearts.

(4) Practice: Young women must apply the gospel in their lives; they must pray, repent, and keep covenants. Enos and King Lamoni acted upon what they came to feel was true. Their first action was to give up their sins. Enos asked for a remission of sins. King Lamoni’s father said he would give away all his sins to know God. Then they acted to enter into sacred covenants with the Lord. Enos promised to declare the truth in all his days (see Enos 1:26), and Lamoni and his people covenanted to bury their weapons and “never . . . fall away” (Alma 23:6).

Our young women need ways to practice what they know. Personal Progress is a great tool for practicing personal religious behaviors such as scripture reading, journal writing, praying, bearing testimony, and serving others. In Personal Progress young women also learn to follow a pattern of commitment which prepares them for covenant keeping. They make a goal. They keep the goal. Then they report their success and learnings. When we practice or do what we know, the gospel is written in our hearts and the Spirit will change us; we become new, changed, converted people.

6. The Power of a Converted Generation

Let’s return to those bright countenances of my young Mexican sisters. I have high hopes that we can raise that Church statistic about retention. I have hope for each young woman throughout the world that the gospel will be written in her heart, that she may believe, be converted, and, like Enos and the Ammonites, never fall away.

In a recent personal interview with our presidency, President Hinckley said: “I believe this is the best generation of youth we have ever had. We are also facing the greatest evil we have ever faced. It is a constant contest, but we’re going to make it. We are saving more and more of them.”

Think of the power of a converted generation. I like to think of our youth as a save-the-day generation. Our three-year-old grandson, Joshua, is very enamored with heroes right now. He pretends to “save the day” almost every day, imagining himself as the hero, of course. He also loves the heroes in the scripture stories his mother reads to him. And each time they reach the climax of the story, he shouts, “And then Jesus saves the day!” Actually he is right, isn’t he? Jesus Christ does save the day. Often He does it by raising up people who will be instruments in His hands. I think that about our generation of youth. They may be the “save-the-day” heroes for their generation.

Recently I sat on the stand at a missionary preparation devotional at BYU. It was held in the ballroom of the Wilkinson Center. All the partitions were raised, and every available spot was used for seating. I sat before 2,000 young people, full of the Spirit, who were singing, “We are as the army of Helaman. We have been taught in our youth. And we will be the Lord’s missionaries to bring the world his truth” (Children’s Songbook, 172). The connection with that audience to the army of 2,000 stripling warriors was startling. I’m not sure that I had ever envisioned those young warriors as such a large body with so much power and strength. But this visual helped me see it.

I know the 2,000 young Ammonites were converted to the gospel. They had been taught by the goodly parents we have been talking about, who were converted to the gospel and “never did fall away.” They were a generation who was raised up, I believe, to help save the Nephite nation. They, like their parents, kept the commandments and walked uprightly. They made and kept sacred covenants. They covenanted to fight for their liberty. And then they were “true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted” (Alma 53:20). Helaman loved them. He was not only their military leader, he was also the prophet of their day. They followed with exactness everything he asked them to do. Can you feel the power in a generation that is raised up for the purpose of saving the day?

Our young people today are such a generation. They can be taught by faithful parents and leaders. They can make and keep their baptismal covenants. They can follow the prophet. They can find happiness in selfless service, consecrating their lives to the building up of the kingdom in these last days. They can endure to the end. They can and they must do these things. And we must be there to guide them, to prepare them, to write the gospel in their hearts.

7. Encouragement to Leaders

I am grateful to each of you leaders as you help us raise this wonderful generation. I appreciate you for your love, sacrifice, dedication, and selfless service. A short while ago I sat at a dinner table with a ward Young Women president. She was quite breathless as she told me about her ward with about 50 active young women. They had just completed a Standards Night and New Beginnings. Their ward “Praise to the Man” commemoration was upon them, as was a dinner for all of their girls prior to the general Young Women meeting broadcast. That would be followed by a Joseph Smith celebration on a stake level that would be over just in time to get youth conference planned and then, of course, it would be time for camp. And that doesn’t even count in all of the regular weekly lessons, activities, class presidency meetings, and other meetings in which she is involved. This woman has all of her children raised, and she doesn’t work outside of the home, so it would seem that she has it made. But during this hectic time, her husband was diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy, and one of her parents-in-law died. You all understand. It’s never easy. It’s never convenient. But it is worth every sacrifice. You are engaged in raising up an army of Helaman in these latter days.

A number of years ago, I heard a Church leader tell about the importance of your work as leaders. He was asked to hold a religious meeting at a prison. Some of the men who attended the meeting were fathers. The man who gave the prayer at this meeting was especially contrite. His prayer went something like this: “Heavenly Father, we are sorry that we have made mistakes that have brought us here. And inasmuch as some of us have children out there who we cannot teach at this time, we pray that you will provide good leaders in their lives who will teach them the right way to live.” You are those leaders. We all know that the first, most vital place for youth to be taught is in their own homes. We also know that not every youth has that advantage and that we need to be there as the second line of defense for them. And even the best parents need second witnesses and additional help in rearing their children.

I have a testimony that each one of you has been called to serve by the Lord. He has called you because He needs you at this particular place, at this particular time. He has called you to succeed. As Elder Henry B. Eyring taught us in general conference, “First, you are called of God. . . . Your voice to testify becomes the same as His voice, your hands to lift the same as His hands. His work is to bless His Father’s spirit children with the opportunity to choose eternal life. So, your calling is to bless lives. . . . [Second] the Lord will guide you by revelation just as He called you. You must ask in faith for revelation. . . . Answers will come . . . by the Holy Spirit. . . . [Third] He will magnify you [which] you will need . . . [because] your calling will surely bring opposition” (Ensign, Nov. 2002, 75). I know that the Lord’s promise to us is true that “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up” (D&C 84:88).

We can never be weary in well doing. Although sometimes we, as a presidency, on a particularly long day, pull out our favorite “weary” scripture: “For behold, I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak” (1 Nephi 19:20). So maybe we can be a little bit weary, but we can never give up. We are working with Heavenly Father’s precious children. “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind” (D&C 64:33–34). And so we come full circle. What we must give to the Lord in His service is exactly what we desire the young women to give to Him—their hearts and willing minds. May each of us turn to the Lord, completely converted, giving our hearts and our lives to this great work.