Perhaps we should shift our mindset away from simply saying our prayers to taking sufficient time to really commune with and "be with God" each day. … Whether it is in a closet or a bedroom, the principle is to find a place where you can be alone to pray, to allow your soul to be still, and to feel the promptings of the "still small voice." We can prepare by pondering on the things that we are grateful for and the questions or concerns that we would like to bring to our Father. We should strive not to have a rote manner of prayer but to talk with our Father, out loud if possible. … [President] Jeffrey R. Holland recently taught: "However much you are praying, pray more. However hard you are praying, pray harder." In addition to increasing the frequency and fervency of our prayers, studying the Book of Mormon daily and worshipping in the temple will help prepare our minds for revelation.

As Mary Magdalene and her companions mournfully approached the Garden Tomb, two angels appeared to them and shared the clarion call of all Christianity:

"Why seek ye the living among the dead?

"He is not here, but is risen" (Luke 24:5–6).

This Easter season we also joyfully testify of this same eternal truth—Jesus Christ is risen. He lives! The Savior of the world was crucified and, on the third day, rose from the dead, "the firstfruits of them that slept" (1 Corinthians 15:20). His Resurrection allows all to be resurrected, and through His grace, we can find peace "which passeth all understanding" (Philippians 4:7) and "be perfected in him" (Moroni 10:32).

We invite each of you during this Easter season to "seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written" (Ether 12:41). As you do so, we testify that your Easter celebrations can strengthen your own faith and testimony that "death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory" ("He Is Risen!," Hymns, no. 199).

The First Presidency

The responsibility of an apostle of the Lord to try to be helpful to the followers of Christ is a very heavy one. I share an experience that helped develop my feelings about that subject.

Thirty-six years ago, on the day after I was called to the Quorum of the Twelve and sustained in general conference, I was alone in my home in Provo, contemplating the significance of that calling. Our youngest daughter, Jenny, then only eight years old, entered the room. As I looked at her with all the love I felt for her, I realized that she was only one of hundreds of thousands of little girls throughout the world, also children of our Heavenly Father, whom I was now responsible to try to help as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Contemplating that reality, I could not contain my feelings and did something I have rarely done in my adult years. I wept.

My brothers and sisters of the rising generation of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, I love you. I want to help you. Since I cannot meet with you individually as I would love to do, I must try to help you through teaching correct principles and trying to help you follow them.