Sister Elaine S. Dalton, General President of the Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, recently spoke to Brigham Young University (BYU) students in one of the weekly campus devotionals. It’s a powerful talk about specific ways young adults (and really, all of us) can make priorities in our lives to help be a part of the Lord’s hastening work. She talks of the recent lowering of the age for missionary service for both young men and young women. She also talks about how missionary work can also be done by “everyday missionaries” (using Clayton Christensen as an example…see more ideas about being an everyday missionary (there’s a Facebook group as well)). She talks of temple and family history work, and of how the technology of our day and all of these opportunities and invitations from the prophets are coming together in a miraculous way.

Hear more of her counsel in her talk at byutv.org. You can also see some similar topics in this article at lds.org.

[More quotes below have been added from transcript that is now available.]

“We are being invited to take part in the greatest race there has ever been.”

“One virtuous man or woman led by the Spirit can change the world.”

” I believe the Lord is calling to each of us to become dedicated disciples. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that in order to become a dedicated disciple, “it is not enough merely to speak of Jesus Christ or proclaim that we are His disciples. It is not enough to surround ourselves with symbols of our religion. Discipleship is not a spectator sport.”

“[A]s dedicated disciples we must act and make prophetic priorities our priorities. In order to do this we will need to be riveted on the words of the current prophets, seers, and revelators. Some of those prophetic priorities include (1) missionary work, (2) teaching and learning for youth, and (3) temple and family history work.”

“As you witness these prophetic priorities unfolding and as you participate in many of them, I would like to give you some counsel similar to the counsel Paul gave to his young friend Timothy. Paul said, ‘Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

“The Lord loves and trusts the youth. He always has. He gave Joseph Smith the responsibility to open this dispensation, to translate the Book of Mormon, to hold the keys of the priesthood and the sealing power, and to receive prophetic witness and guidance. He was just fourteen. Through a prophet of God the Lord called Mormon when he was just ten to continue in his habit of being quick to observe and to prepare to keep the record when the time came. That record guides you and me today: the Book of Mormon. To Mary and Joseph, God entrusted His Only Begotten Son to be raised in virtue and holiness. They were young. Moroni led an army to defend family, religion, and God when he was about your age. And to Samuel was entrusted a kingdom because the Lord looked on his heart, not on his age. To 2,060 young men was given the responsibility to defend their parents’ covenants. And the list goes on and on and on. “