Elder Ballard talks about the essential role of motherhood.  He speaks about ways that fathers, children and the church can help support the mothers throughout the world.

• There is no role in life more essential and more eternal than that of motherhood.
  
• There is no one perfect way to be a good mother. Each situation is unique. Each mother has different challenges, different skills and abilities, and certainly different children. The choice is different and unique for each mother and each family.
• What matters is that a mother loves her children deeply and, in keeping with the devotion she has for God and her husband, prioritizes them above all else.

He speaks about the short time period that we have to raise our children in our homes.  He says this time is very limited and needs to be a priority to both fathers and mothers.

• It is crucial to focus on our children for the short time we have them with us and to seek, with the help of the Lord, to teach them all we can before they leave our homes. This eternally important work falls to mothers and fathers as equal partners. I am grateful that today many fathers are more involved in the lives of their children. But I believe that the instincts and the intense nurturing involvement of mothers with their children will always be a major key to their well-being.

He speaks about the views that the church has on motherhood.  He says that the church wishes to support mothers in their essential role.

• As a Church, we have enormous respect and gratitude to you mothers of young children. We want you to be happy and successful in your families and to have the validation and support you need and deserve.

Elder Ballard asks four questions and then provides answers on things that can be done to support the role of motherhood.  Each includes bullet points that make it easier for us to know exactly what we can do to show our support.

What can you do, as a young mother, to reduce the pressure and enjoy your family more?

• Recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction.
• Don’t overschedule yourselves or your children. We live in a world that is filled with options. If we are not careful, we will find every minute jammed with social events, classes, exercise time, book clubs, scrapbooking, Church callings, music, sports, the Internet, and our favorite TV shows.
• Even as you try to cut out the extra commitments, sisters, find some time for yourself to cultivate your gifts and interests.
• Pray, study, and teach the gospel. Pray deeply about your children and about your role as a mother. Parents can offer a unique and wonderful kind of prayer because they are praying to the Eternal Parent of us all. There is great power in a prayer that essentially says, “We are stewardparents over Thy children, Father; please help us to raise them as Thou wouldst want them raised.”

What more can a husband do to support his wife, the mother of their children?

• Show extra appreciation and give more validation for what your wife does every day. Notice things and say thank you—often. Schedule some evenings together, just the two of you.
• Have a regular time to talk with your wife about each child’s needs and what you can do to help.
• Give your wife a “day away” now and then. Just take over the household and give your wife a break from her daily responsibilities.
• Come home from work and take an active role with your family.

What can children, even young children, do?

• You can pick up your toys when you are finished playing with them, and when you get a little older, you can make your bed, help with the dishes, and do other chores—without being asked.
  
• You can say thank you more often when you finish a nice meal, when a story is read to you at bedtime, or when clean clothes are put in your drawers.
• Most of all, you can put your arms around your mother often and tell her you love her.

What can the Church do?

• I suggest that the bishopric and the ward council members be especially watchful and considerate of the time and resource demands on young mothers and their families. Know them and be wise in what you ask them to do at this time in their lives.

I have had opportunities to play a motherly role when my wife has gone out of town.  I have joked that I am the world's greatest father but I am the worlds worst mother.  My wife does amazing things in raising our family and teaching our children the things that they need to know to be responsible adults.  I find that in the day to day activities, she seems to make everything work for each child, each event, and seems to keep me informed of where I need to be to make the events that are important to attend.  I am grateful to her and appreciate the essential role she plays in our family.  I recognize from this talk that I can do better.  I can be more helpful, more supportive, and more loving.  I can also help my chilren learn that they can do the same.

Elder Hales speaks about obtaining a testimony of God the Father, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost.  He talks about the desire of all men to know who God is and to understand our relationship to Him.

• People all over the world, of every creed and persuasion, search and struggle to know, Who is God? What is His relationship to Jesus Christ? And what is our relationship with Them?
• I know with surety that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live. The Atonement is real. God the Father and Jesus Christ are distinct, separate, immortal beings. They know us as individuals, and They hear and answer our sincere prayers. The Savior testified to the inhabitants of the New World, “I bear record of the Father, and the Father beareth record of me, and the Holy Ghost beareth record of the Father and me.” The Holy Ghost has testified to me that these things are true.

Elder Hales goes into detail about the significance of how God has introduced His Son throughout the scriptures.  In all occasions he encourages us to "hear Him" during His introduction to the people he is talking to.

• The manner by which God the Father introduced His Son on several occasions is significant: “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. … And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And again, on the Mount of Transfiguration, “there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.” When Jesus appeared on the American continent, He was introduced in the same way by His Father: “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.” And then nearly two millennia later, the same words were spoken to the young Joseph Smith: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” It is of special significance that whenever Heavenly Father wants to introduce His Son to us, He commands us to listen—to “hear” the words of Jesus.

Elder Hales shares his testimony of the Savior and the significance of the mission He accomplished.

• From before the foundation of the world to the final moments on the cross, the Savior had been about His Father’s business. He completed the work He had been sent to do. Therefore, we do not wonder to whom He was talking when, upon the cross, “he said, It is finished,” and “cried with a loud voice, … Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” We know He was praying to His Heavenly Father.
• I testify that our Savior lives. He is the Only Begotten of the Father, and He will come again on this earth to reign. He is Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, “full of grace, and mercy, and truth. … It is he that cometh to take away the sins of the world, yea, the sins of every man who steadfastly believeth on his name.” He is the literal Son of God, who rose from the dead on the third day, bringing the reality of resurrection to all who will come to earth. I also testify that God our Eternal Father lives and loves each of us, for we are His children. So great is His love that He sent His Only Begotten Son into the world “that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

He closes with his testimony of the scriptures and the revealed true that the Holy Ghost can share with us.

• I testify of the truth of what is in the scriptures and what has been told to me and can be told to you by the Holy Spirit. It will be revealed according to your obedience and desires.

Elder Hales bares a simple testimony of God and the Savior.  The examples from the scriptures speak to the divine mission that was organized and established before the world came into existence.  I find great comfort in knowing that we are not aimlessly in the world with no purpose, no guidance, and no direction as to the things we should be doing.  I am grateful for a clear understanding of the plan of salvation and my specific role in that plan.  What a blessing it is to know that I am a son of God and that I have a reason to be on the earth at this time.

Elder Holland in the last General Conference spoke about one item that makes us Christians.  He spoke about our belief in Christ and the restoration of the gospel to the true New Testament teachings.  He continues his teachings to speak about the other thing that makes us Christian.  That other item is that fact that we believe in continuing revelation from apostles and prophets and the ability to receive personal revelation on our own.

• Some Christians, in large measure because of their genuine love for the Bible, have declared that there can be no more authorized scripture beyond the Bible. In thus pronouncing the canon of revelation closed, our friends in some other faiths shut the door on divine expression that we in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hold dear: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, and the ongoing guidance received by God’s anointed prophets and apostles. Imputing no ill will to those who take such a position, nevertheless we respectfully but resolutely reject such an unscriptural characterization of true Christianity.
  

He speaks about the need for continuing revelation as proof that all times in the history of the world require additional understanding from Heaven.

• If one revelation to one prophet in one moment of time is sufficient for all time, what justifies these many others? What justifies them was made clear by Jehovah Himself when He said to Moses, “My works are without end, and … my words … never cease.”
• Continuing revelation does not demean or discredit existing revelation. The Old Testament does not lose its value in our eyes when we are introduced to the New Testament, and the New Testament is only enhanced when we read the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

He speaks of the churches view of the Bible.

• We love and revere the Bible, as Elder M. Russell Ballard taught so clearly from this pulpit just one year ago. The Bible is the word of God. It is always identified first in our canon, our “standard works.” Indeed, it was a divinely ordained encounter with the fifth verse of the first chapter of the book of James that led Joseph Smith to his vision of the Father and the Son, which gave birth to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our time. But even then, Joseph knew the Bible alone could not be the answer to all the religious questions he and others like him had. As he said in his own words, the ministers of his community were contending—sometimes angrily—over their doctrines. “Priest [was] contending against priest, and convert [was contending] against convert … in a strife of words and a contest about opinions,” he said. About the only thing these contending religions had in common was, ironically, a belief in the Bible, but, as Joseph wrote, “the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question [regarding which church was true] by an appeal to the Bible.” Clearly the Bible, so frequently described at that time as “common ground,” was nothing of the kind—unfortunately it was a battleground.

Elder Holland uses modern scripture to illustrate that the Book of Mormon confirms the Bible to be the word of God and enhances our understanding of biblical teachings.

• In one of the earliest revelations received by Joseph Smith, the Lord said, “Behold, I do not bring [the Book of Mormon forth] to destroy [the Bible] but to build it up.”

He speaks boldly about the true source of knowledge being the living God.

• The scriptures are not the ultimate source of knowledge for Latter-day Saints. They are manifestations of the ultimate source. The ultimate source of knowledge and authority for a Latter-day Saint is the living God. The communication of those gifts comes from God as living, vibrant, divine revelation.
• We believe in a God who is engaged in our lives, who is not silent, not absent, nor, as Elijah said of the god of the priests of Baal, is He “[on] a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be [awakened].” In this Church, even our young Primary children recite, “We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”

He concludes with his testimony of living prophets and apostles and the divine instruction received by these men from God.

• I testify that the heavens are open. I testify that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God, that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I testify that Thomas S. Monson is God’s prophet, a modern apostle with the keys of the kingdom in his hands, a man upon whom I personally have seen the mantle fall. I testify that the presence of such authorized, prophetic voices and ongoing canonized revelations have been at the heart of the Christian message whenever the authorized ministry of Christ has been on the earth. I testify that such a ministry is on the earth again, and it is found in this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
  

Apostles and Prophets are on the earth today.  We believe that God continues to reveal truth and provide direction to His prophets on the earth today.  Since the time that Joseph Smith entered the grove of trees, the Heavens have been opened in our time and continues to be open to this day with Thomas S. Monson.  I am grateful to study the words of these men on a daily basis.  I believe these men are inspired by God, led by His direction, and given a clear understanding of the direction we need in our lives.