Mormon teenagers attend a meeting called Mutual (which is short for what used to be called Mutual Improvement Association) once evening a week from ages twelve to eighteen or until they graduate from high school. Sometimes the teens all meet together. Other times they group by gender or age. Although they want the program to be fun, Mormon teenagers have lots of opportunities to have fun. These meetings are supposed to have a bigger purpose as well.

Take a look at the new website:

Youth Activities

You’ll see the activities are grouped into eleven categories. Mormon teens plan their own meetings under the supervision of adult advisers. The adults make sure the rules are followed and teach the teenagers leadership skills. If they see a problem, they use something called shadow leadership to fix it. That means they don’t tell the teens how to fix it—or even what it is. They will ask questions until the teens have figured out the problem and the solutions themselves. The questions just help the teens learn how to think about the problem.

They are taught to first figure out what their group needs help with or what they need more experience in. Let’s say the group is in the inner-city and many of the teens want to go to college, but they can’t afford it and they’ve been upset about that. The teens who are in the current presidency (the class president, her two counselors, and the secretary) go to the youth activities website and look under “Preparing for Future Roles,” which includes college. There is an activity on paying for college. They read the suggestions and then make their own plans, adjusting the suggestions to fit their needs.

That’s not the most exciting activity, but it can change their whole lives. It’s important, and the teens really want to have great futures, so even though it isn’t glamorous, they enjoy it because it lets them start dreaming of a better life.

Next week, they want to have a little more fun. The Mormons have been making short videos about real teens and their challenges or testimonies. These are called “Mormon Messages for Youth,” and you can watch some of them here:

Mormon Messages for Youth

The leaders of the youth group are planning an activity with all the teens in their group—all ages, both genders. They want to encourage their peers to improve their creativity and to learn more about helping others. They go to the creativity section of the new website and see an idea for making your own Mormon Messages. They know their friends would love making their own videos, holding a movie night, and maybe even posting them online, so they plan an activity that will be done over a few months. The first month, they divide into groups and show some Mormon messages. Then the groups make a plan and give assignments to the teens in their group. The next month, when they have another large group activity, they make their videos. The third month, they have movie night to show the videos, have treats, and decide what to do with them.

This activity teaches creativity, movie making, and missionary work or helping others, but it does it all in a fun way.

If you belong to a youth group of any kind, check out the site. You may find some ideas that will work for your group, no matter what religion you are.

Most pre-teens and teens like to pretend their families are a burden, even though they secretly love them. He didn’t seem to see any need to pretend. He talked about how his family worked hard to be a great family and how they planned to be a family forever—even after death. He had my attention with that one. I loved the idea of being a forever family.

Mormon Boys Were Trustworthy

In high school our drama teacher made a rule that only the Mormon kids could drive when we had club parties or field trips. He’d noticed they were the ones who never got drunk and that they tried to be responsible in our activities. They also tended to be the leaders. I noticed all that, too.

Then I moved to a new high school. It was a little school and my first day everyone just stood back and watched and waited, trying to decide which niche I belonged to before anyone spoke.

Only one person didn’t bother to wait around. He greeted me the moment I entered Spanish class and, learning I was new, invited me to join his friends during break and lunch so I wouldn’t have to be alone my first day. He didn’t know what niche I should belong to, but it appeared he didn’t care. I wasn’t surprised to learn he was Mormon. I’d noticed the Mormon boys were like that.

Soon he invited me to visit his church’s youth group and to go on a campout the church group was having. He said it would help me meet other students, who, as I quickly learned, also didn’t care what niche I should belong to.

It was at the campout that I really began to see how the Mormon boys were different from other boys I knew. They had beautiful manners and treated the girls with so much respect. When we exited the van, they took our hands to help us down. They carried things for us and waited on us hand and foot—not because they thought we were helpless but because they wanted us to feel special and cared for. They didn’t just reserve that for their girlfriends. All the girls got the same royal treatment.

Mormon Boys Treat Girls with Respect

I noticed how nicely the boys with girlfriends treated them. The girls never had to worry about the boys pressuring them. The girls told me they shared the same moral standards and the boys never tried to go beyond those appropriate limits. In my experience, Mormon boys and girls helped each other maintain their standards by setting and keeping rules for their relationship.

After a while, I understood that this was because they had bigger goals than enjoying high school. While they were definitely enjoying their teen years, they didn’t bother to spend them getting into trouble. The boys were all preparing to go on missions when they were older. (At the time, they could go when they were nineteen. Today, they can go at eighteen.) This meant they needed to keep their moral standards high and to spend time learning how to serve and respect others. They had spent a lifetime learning to treat people with respect.

Not all of them did, of course. There were some who hadn’t caught the vision yet and, even when they had, they made a few mistakes—who doesn’t? Overall, though, I found the Mormon boys I knew to be more mature, more responsible, more trustworthy—and more fun. It was a pleasure to be with a boy who treated you with respect, who paid attention to your needs instead of just his own, and who knew how to have the kind of fun that wouldn’t get you in trouble if your parents saw you doing it.

I liked them so much I ended up marrying one! It was this focus on eternal things that made the difference then and that continues to make the difference now.

Young single Mormon adults devoted June 15, 2013 to doing service projects across the Southeast as part of their regional conference. They went out into their own communities to serve, and a group from Macon, Georgia chose this project as a way to serve their town. A married couple, Faye and Keith Whigham serve as their advisors and they were the ones who first learned that a house was being built that weekend. They suggested it to the young adults, who enthusiastically agreed to assist. The young people spent a warm Saturday framing and painting the home alongside people from many other faiths and organizations.

Mormons Serve Because Jesus Served

They explained to reporters that they do this type of service regularly because Jesus taught His followers to serve others. They believe a true Christian will try to emulate Jesus Christ and so they look for regular opportunities to perform service projects. Their advisors said attendance is higher at their service projects than it is at any of their “just for fun” meetings.

Our willingness to sacrifice and our skills in cooperative efforts come from our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, from the inspired teachings of our leaders, and from the commitments and covenants we knowingly make (Dallin H. Oaks, Unselfish Service, April 2009 General Conference address).

The Day of Service activities had been done informally by congregations for generations, but in the 1980s, The Church of Jesus Christ asked several South American countries to participate in a formal day of service. They asked local government leaders what needed to be done in their community and then sent congregations to carry out those projects, inviting those who were not Mormon to assist. The program was so well-received that other areas began to imitate it and it is now done world-wide as an annual event for most areas, often with several states joining together in order to accomplish more. Volunteers wear yellow vests with “Mormon Helping Hands” on them so leaders can quickly identify their own people when necessary. Programs include cleaning parks, repainting schools, collecting food for food banks, gathering clothing for homeless shelters, and anything else a community needs. They often partner with other organizations, such as this project with Habitat for Humanity.

Some young adults might be spending the majority of their time on themselves, but programs like Day of Service demonstrate that many young people are living lives of service to others and it is to those young people we can look to for our futures.

In California, some teens are fighting the trend of overly expensive proms. Mormon teenagers and their guests held a prom at the Santa Margarita Bell Tower that cost just fifteen dollars. The boys wore suits (most Mormon boys already own suits that they wear to church) and the girls wore lovely dresses that were modest and did not appear to cost the many hundreds of dollars some traditional prom dresses cost.

You can see how the teens dressed in the media coverage of this Mormon prom at Deseret News.

The music was carefully chosen to be morally appropriate while still modern and popular. The teens were not allowed to engage in sexualized dancing. Everyone had to be at least sixteen, since Mormons believe dating should be reserved for those sixteen and older. Eighty percent had dates, but those who preferred not to date yet were welcome.

Mormons believe that dating in high school is a chance for young people to get to know each other and to develop friendships with and understanding of those of the opposite gender. However, they teach their young people to date in groups and to date a wide range of people rather than to become exclusive at such a young age. Studies have shown that teens who pair off too young are more likely to become pregnant or to marry too soon.

Mormon boys are taught to wait until they return from their volunteer missionary service to begin courting (dating one person exclusively with the thought of possible future marriage in mind). Girls are encouraged to wait until they finish high school or return from their own missions. This allows them to avoid serious relationships until they are old enough and mature enough to marry.

Mormons also teach their young people to remain morally pure before marriage. This is one reason to avoid early serious relationships. They are taught that they are responsible for the moral well-being of their dates. This holds true for both boys and girls. The same standards apply to both.

The prom helped the teens to improve their social skills, since they were given guidance on how to plan and prepare for the date. They also learned they could have fun in an inexpensive and completely moral environment. There is no need for teens to compromise their values, even on prom night.

Read more about Mormon dating standards.

In California, some teens are fighting the trend of overly expensive proms. Mormon teenagers and their guests held a prom at the Santa Margarita Bell Tower that cost just fifteen dollars. The boys wore suits (most Mormon boys already own suits that they wear to church) and the girls wore lovely dresses that were modest and did not appear to cost the many hundreds of dollars some traditional prom dresses cost.

You can see how the teens dressed in the media coverage of this Mormon prom at Deseret News.

The music was carefully chosen to be morally appropriate while still modern and popular. The teens were not allowed to engage in sexualized dancing. Everyone had to be at least sixteen, since Mormons believe dating should be reserved for those sixteen and older. Eighty percent had dates, but those who preferred not to date yet were welcome.

Mormons believe that dating in high school is a chance for young people to get to know each other and to develop friendships with and understanding of those of the opposite gender. However, they teach their young people to date in groups and to date a wide range of people rather than to become exclusive at such a young age. Studies have shown that teens who pair off too young are more likely to become pregnant or to marry too soon.

Mormon boys are taught to wait until they return from their volunteer missionary service to begin courting (dating one person exclusively with the thought of possible future marriage in mind). Girls are encouraged to wait until they finish high school or return from their own missions. This allows them to avoid serious relationships until they are old enough and mature enough to marry.

Mormons also teach their young people to remain morally pure before marriage. This is one reason to avoid early serious relationships. They are taught that they are responsible for the moral well-being of their dates. This holds true for both boys and girls. The same standards apply to both.

The prom helped the teens to improve their social skills, since they were given guidance on how to plan and prepare for the date. They also learned they could have fun in an inexpensive and completely moral environment. There is no need for teens to compromise their values, even on prom night.

Read more about Mormon dating standards.

Stand in Holy Places

Ann M. Dibb, the second counselor to the president, spoke on the 2013 theme for the Young Women’s program. The theme is “Stand ye in holy places” and is taken from a verse of Mormon scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants Section 87 and the portion referred to includes the admonition to not be moved.

Sister Dibb suggests that while holy places can include temples, churches, and even homes, it can also include moments in time. This would refer to those times when we are receiving inspiration from the Holy Ghost, getting answers to prayers, or feeling God’s love in our lives. She encouraged girls to create their own sacred spaces, even in the hardest places or moments in their lives.

Our Choices Affect Others

Mary N. Cook, the first counselor, also spoke on standing in holy places. She suggested that our righteous choices will impact our families, past and present, and will also influence the world around us. She referenced a girl she knew whose father died when she was just fourteen. The girl was determined to hold on to her relationship with God and so she created holy places all around her as she read scriptures, attended church, and made good choices. In time, she was able to marry a good man and go on to raise a righteous family. Each decision she made along the path impacted her future options and led to the sacred place she made out of her life. These decisions can impact her family for generations to come and that gives importance to every seemingly small choice she makes.

Stand Firm

In her final talk as president, Elaine S. Dalton referenced a statue that can be found on a pier in Copenhagen. She has the replica on her desk. It is of a girl named Katrina, who became a Mormon and then came to America. The original statue faces the water and Sister Dalton noticed that she is facing into the wind, representing that she is doing something very difficult, but very right.

She likened this to the girls listening to her. They also stood poised on the brink of challenging changes in their lives and would need to stand strong against the winds that tried to blow them off-course. She encouraged them to “be not moved” regardless of worldly pressures.

Sister Dalton asked the girls to stand firm in four ways. First, she requested that they be not moved in choosing right.

Elaine S. Dalton told the girls she had recently revisited the high school she had attended. She was there for a religious conference, but in the audience were many people she had gone to high school with and even men she had dated as a teenager. She encouraged the girls to look ahead and to vow that they would never, as adults, be embarrassed by the choices they made as teenagers, particularly those choices they make in their relationships with others. The choices they make often impact other people, too. If they refuse to lower their standards on a date, it becomes easier for a boy to hold his standards high. When the two meet again at a reunion or somewhere else, they will not need to be embarrassed by the relationship they had.

This led to her second request, that they be not moved in their desire and commitment to remain virtuous and sexually pure. Satan was not allowed to have a body and in his fierce jealousy, he tries to convince us to abuse our bodies and to treat them disrespectfully. When we allow ourselves to practice addictions, moral sins, tattoos, and other poor choices related to the body God gave us we dishonor the gift God gave us and we also limit our own choices for the future.

Mormons are often taught that their bodies are temples. This is a comparison to the sacred temples in which Mormons go to make sacred covenants with God. Sister Dalton taught that our bodies house our own spirits, but they also have the potential to house the spirits of other children of God through motherhood. We have a sacred responsibility to keep that housing pure and ready to receive a precious child of God.

Third, Sister Dalton asked the girls to be not moved in being worthy to make and keep sacred covenants. A covenant is a two-way promise between God and ourselves. Mormons make their first covenants at baptism when they are eight years old (or older if they are converts). At this time, they promise to take on themselves the name of Jesus Christ and to keep His commandments. When they keep their promises, God vows to keep His own. Each week when they take the sacrament (communion) they renew those covenants. Covenants are made again in the Mormon temples in adulthood. They commit themselves to following the Savior and honoring and respecting their family relationships. However, they must have already achieved a fairly high level of faith and commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ before entering the temple and so they need to demonstrate their faith by actually living like a follower of Jesus Christ, rather than just saying the words. The teen years are critical to that process, since they often set the pattern for adult behavior.

“As you keep your baptismal covenant, you will look different, dress different, and act different from the world. Keeping this covenant will enable you to be guided by the Holy Ghost. Stand in holy places, and do not even go near those environments or music, media, or associations that might cause you to lose the companionship of the Holy Ghost.”

Finally, she asked them to be not moved in their acceptance of the Savior’s Atonement. Although girls should try to live a virtuous life at all times, everyone falls short. She advised them to accept the power of the atonement to bring about forgiveness when that happens. She invited them, should they be not feeling worthy to stand in holy places that day, to not live another day with that feeling. They can repent, something Satan does not want them to know. He doesn’t want them to believe they can ever change, but they can, with the help of God and Jesus Christ.

Love the Journey of Life

Dieter F. Uchtdorf was the final speaker. He is the second counselor to the president of the church. His theme was journeys. Our life is a journey that began in Heaven and ends with a return to Heaven. In between, we are here on earth. Our map for this journey is the gospel of Jesus Christ and can be found in the scriptures, in the teachings of God’s prophets (both ancient and modern) and in personal revelation we receive directly from God for our own lives. He reminded the girls that a map is useless if it isn’t read and followed.

He asked the girls to look around and to remember that every person in the room, every person they will ever meet, was valiant in the pre-mortal life, where Mormons teach we had to choose whether to follow God or Satan. Some people may have forgotten they were once valiant and might have lost their way, but they started out on the right path and so that potential for success is inside them. He reminded them that it is the Holy Ghost that converts, but it is their responsibility to be a good example, to share their faith, and to be kind to those who feel alone or lost.

To that end, he asked them to focus not always on what they want, but on the needs of others, to spend their mortality showing love to God’s other children. Finally, he also asked them to make this a joyful journey. Even though life is sometimes not ideal, and sometimes is even very painful, they can choose to be joyful.

This video was shown to the girls at the conference. It is about a teenager going to the temple and remembering all the things in her life that made her able to go.

Most Mormon classes are taught from a printed manual written many years ago. The new program is online, which means it can be updated as often as necessary. If a new talk or even occurs the week before the lesson is supposed to be taught, that can be included in the resources.

The new curriculum includes music, videos, and pictures, and many teachers are using their tablets or laptop computers to assist them in presenting the lesson. Teens can find those resources online, which means they can re-watch the videos or download the music at home. It brings in tools that are familiar and comfortable to teenagers and help visual learners process the material better.

The new lessons are not really teacher-taught. The teacher is more like a mentor or guide. Each month has a theme and the themes are listed with smaller topics, different ones for Sunday School and the class that follows, which is Young Men or Young Women. The students will study the same topic all month, but from different perspectives. The teachers select from a list that has more topics than can be covered, so she (or he) can choose the ones her class most needs. Students can even request a focus from the list.

The teacher studies all the materials and looks over all the suggested resources. Then she chooses the ones she feels will best help her own class. However, she won’t be standing in front of the class giving a lecture. Instead, she will guide the students to find answers to questions. For instance, she might ask why we have trials in life. She might show a video and play some music and then divide the class into groups. Each group will be given a reference material and a list of places the answers might be found. They study the materials, figure out the answers to the questions—and then teach it to their own classmates. In this way, a range of materials can be explored in a short time, with each group sharing the results of its research.

Students are free to ask questions that can be answered by the teacher or by the other students. Students, in fact, are encouraged to be the ones to give the answers. By asking and answering their own questions, a discussion begins and the lesson takes on a life of its own. It travels in the direction that meets the needs of the students. If they are particularly worried about something, or something is in the news that week related to the topic, they are able to explore it. At the end of the lesson, they decide if they understand that day’s topic well enough or if they’d like to continue it the following week.

During the week, students are expected to study the topic on their own in their own way, to have real-world experiences with the topic, and to come to class ready to share what they learned and to ask about what they didn’t understand. They take responsibility for their own spiritual growth—a method that is very different from the way they are used to learning. Many teens are finding it a challenge to learn this way at first, since it isn’t usually done that way in school and wasn’t done that way in church. However, once they get used to it, they love it. They love being able to participate, to have a variety of teaching methods, and to have more control over their learning experience.

Check it out for yourself:

Come Follow Me

The Theme:

The theme for 2013 is “Stand ye in holy places.” It comes from a Mormon book of scripture called the Doctrine and Covenants. The full verse is: “Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 87:8).

The theme will remind teenagers that the gospel of Jesus Christ is an all-day everyday part of life. Wherever we find ourselves we have to keep our standards with us and not let the world drag us down into a world without standards. Teens will work to prepare for the day when Jesus Christ returns.

A webpage is available to help you study the theme. You’ll find videos, posters, t-shirt designs, and even a free downloadable album of music entirely written by teenagers. You’ll also find thoughts posted by other teens on the theme.

New Learning Program for Church Classes

The way you’ll learn in your classes is all-new. Sunday School, Young Women and Young Men, and Seminary will all be coordinated so you’re following a theme each month.

Your leaders and teachers will become mentors, guiding you while you teach yourself the gospel. If you and your classmates decide you need another week on that topic, you’re free to take it. If there are parts of the topic you have special concerns about, you’ll deal with them. You’ll be using the current prophets and apostles to learn what the church teaches today and you’ll have the opportunity to discuss some of the big issues going on around you. Instead of using a manual written years ago, you’ll learn from what is being said right now. Your teachers will take the study guide from the Internet, so the material can be updated at any time.

Let’s look at the Young Women’s monthly theme for September. The boys will have the same theme, which is commandments. The lesson materials for the teachers suggest seven possible topics. Since you’ll only have four or five Sundays, the teacher will choose the topics she feels are the most important for you—or you might ask the teacher to cover one of them you’re concerned about.

One suggested topic is to discuss how to be in the world, but not of it. This means to figure out how to live the gospel even when the people around you aren’t and to keep your standards high no matter what the world tries to tell you.

The lesson guidelines for teachers include a list of scriptures, talks by church leaders, and videos that could be used. The teacher will choose the ones she feels are best for your class.

Every lesson starts with a discussion of the last week’s lesson. At the end of each class, you’ll be asked to try to have an experience with the topic of the day’s lesson. Then, the next week, you’ll have a chance to share what you did or what else you learned as you studied and thought about the topic.

Then it’s on to the new topic of the day. The guidelines offer several suggestions for ways to introduce the topic that your teacher can choose from. Let’s suppose she decides to talk about what the lesson title means and how Jesus set the example. Instead of telling you what it means, she will ask you what you think it means. She will ask you what examples from Jesus’ life show that He was doing those things. You’ll teach each other through your comments, thoughts, and questions.

One suggestion is to watch some of the recommended videos and then talk about what they show us about living the gospel. Another is to look up some scriptures for clues. Students might also decide to make a list of commandments some teens find difficult to live and then look in For the Strength of Youth for answers.

Some lessons also use Mormon Ads or include a craft project just to break things up a little—for instance, making a poster for your room. The better the teacher knows you, the better she can plan good experiences for you.

The lessons end with students deciding what they’ve learned and whether or not they want to discuss this again next week. They commit to having an experience with the topic over the coming week and to share it with others. The weeknight activity might be related to the lesson learned on Sunday.

These lessons require the students to really participate. They need to come to come to class ready to discuss the topic and they need to participate with questions, comments, and ideas. How well these new lessons go will be up to the students, who will choose the path by their own participation. When you come to the topic feeling spiritual and curious, ready to really dig in and learn, the entire class will be more intellectually and spiritually exciting.

During one of Mitt Romney’s political campaigns, he was sent inside someone’s garage to stay out of the heat while photographers set up a photo shoot. When they went to get him, he was cleaning out the garage for the owner.

Of course, for a Mormon, that kind of behavior isn’t really unusual. Sure, Mormon teens like attention as much as anyone and there are days they might choose to be out with the reporters or doing a little flirting. But they’ve also been taught from an early age to look for ways to help others.

One of the ways Mormon teens learn how to help others is by serving in church leadership positions. The teens run their own youth program. They have adult leaders, but the leaders provide what is called shadow leadership. That means that instead of running everything, they help the teens learn to do it themselves. If a teen class presidency started to plan an activity that was against the rules, for instance, the leader might say, “Have you checked the rule book to see if that is allowed?” That way, the teens are reminded to become familiar with the rules. The leader could just say, “You can’t do that. It’s against the rules.” But if they did, the teens would never learn to look up the rules themselves. If the teens are running an activity and don’t notice one girl is sitting off by herself without friends, the leaders might ask the teens if they’ve looked around to see if everyone is having fun. This will remind them that part of being in charge is noticing what the others around you are doing and then solving any problems you see. When the teens are having a problem, the leaders will ask questions rather than offering solutions so they will learn how to solve their own problems.

This means that the teens learn to pay attention to what needs to be done and then to do it, rather than to think that “someone” ought to fix it. Their parents do the same thing. They read the Bible and the Book of Mormon and see how Jesus served others all the time, even when no one asked for help. He noticed the person who was sick, the person too scared to come up and talk to Him, and the person who was lonely. He stepped in and did everything He could for them.

One day I was teaching a class of preschoolers. We were in a big room with the children and adults from all the classes for a little while. One of my little students looked behind him and noticed an adult standing in the back of the room. He got up, found a chair, and took it to her. It was clear to me his parents had taught him to notice when people need help and to not wait for an invitation to get involved.

Even if no one has taught you to do that, you can teach yourself. Tomorrow, when you’re at school or work or even at home, look around. Who could use a hand right now? Does your mom look like she needs a glass of lemonade? Do the dishes need doing? Is someone sitting alone at lunch? Does anyone look sad? What can you do to step in and help out? How many chances can you find in a single day to make a difference, even a small one, in the lives of the people around you?

Abortion is probably one of the touchiest subjects that is brought up amongst the women in and outside of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But it’s also an essential topic of discussion, which should be gone over with every person.

Abortion, the taking of life, is one of the most grievous of sins. We have repeatedly affirmed the position of the Church in unalterably opposing all abortions, except in two rare instances: When conception is the result of forcible rape and when competent medical counsel indicates that a mother’s health would otherwise be seriously jeopardized. The Church maintains this stance thirty years later. Even when one of the rare extenuating circumstances arises, the Church counsel’s women that abortion is still a gravely serious matter which should be considered only after having consulted with local church leaders and after fervently praying to know if the decision is correct (President Spencer W. Kimball).

A few years ago, I was listening to a speech given by a political figure on the subject of abortion. His view as a father was that if his daughter had a child out of wedlock, he would not make his daughter suffer the consequences of her actions, that he would allow her to have a abortion if she so desired. There are several arguments about when a child is actually considered a living being. Most believe that someone is not considered a living being until they are born. The Lord has taught, through revelation to His prophets, that we existed as spirits before being born on earth, so our lives and identities are eternal. A human being has this unique identity even before it is formed, and once it starts to grow inside the mother’s womb, and eliminating a pregnancy is considered an act close to that of murder.

As it says in the above quote by President Kimball, there are only a few exceptions that can justify abortion. Even in those situations, prayer and thorough consideration is necessary. Adoption is a favorable choice for mothers to make and gives the child a chance to be raised in a loving and complete family. Even if they don’t get adopted, they can go on to live a full and prosperous life.

I had a friend a High School, who made a few poor decisions after High school and became pregnant, by a boy who was not responsible and did not have the greatest morals. When I found out, she and I had a long conversation about what she was going to do. She knew that her boyfriend was not going to do the right thing, and when she told her parents, they kicked her out of the house. She talked to me about the possibility of having an abortion. I told her “It’s not fair, that you should make a child suffer for something that was not its fault. Give it a chance to live, whether it’s with you, or with another family.” When I said that to her, she began to cry into her hands. Not another word was uttered that night. We didn’t talk for about two weeks after that. I was afraid that I had said something that offended her, or upset her. After those two weeks of silence between us, she called me and told me that when I talked about her child, she could see its smiling face and knew that it deserved to live.

That’s the view on abortion, in the Church and for me. Every being deserves to live, every being has a purpose in this world and it should not be decided to shorten that life, because of poor decisions that another made.

“Most abortions are performed on demand to deal with unwanted pregnancies. These abortions are simply a form of birth control. Elective abortion has been legalized in many countries on the premise that a woman is free to choose what she does with her own body. To an extent this is true for each of us, male or female. We are free to think. We are free to plan. And we are free to do. But once an action has been taken, we are never free from its consequences. To understand this concept more clearly, we can learn from the astronaut. Anytime during selection or preparation, he or she is free to withdraw from the program. But once the spacecraft has lifted off, the astronaut is bound to the consequences of the previous choice to make the journey. So it is with people who choose to embark on a journey that leads to parenthood. They have freedom of choice—to begin or not to begin that course. When conception does occur, that choice has already been made. Yes, a woman is free to choose what she will do with her body. Whether her choice leads to an astronaut’s mission or to a baby, her choice to begin the journey binds her to the consequences of that choice. She cannot ‘unchoose.’” (The LDS Perspective on Abortion, quoted from Abortion: An Assault on the Defenseless, Russell M. Nelson, Ensign — October 2008, 32–37)