The coming new century and new millennium can be a time to remember, said Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve during the April 29 Fireside Address of the 1999 Women's Conference at BYU.

"Let us rejoice in the marvelous changes that we have seen in this last hundred years," Elder Perry continued. "They have blessed lives, extended health and well-being, and reduced suffering and misery. But in the remembering, let us also be wise enough to see things of value that have been lost, trends that are a cause for alarm and situations which can lead to sorrow. Remembering those things as well can be beneficial, if we, in the remembering, determine to move away from those things which lead us away from God and His commandments."

Elder Perry was one of four general session speakers during the two-day annual conference on the BYU campus April 29-30. Nearly 20,000 women gathered from throughout the country to hear a total of 211 participants give 109 presentations. In addition, nearly 1 million may have watched satellite telecasts of 10 sessions. (These sessions will be retelecast Sundays, May 9-July 18, excluding July 4, at 9 a.m. over KBYU-TV.) And, for the first time in the history of Women's Conference at BYU, a humanitarian service project was conducted by both presenters and visitors at work stations throughout the Wilkinson Center.

Numerous topics were presented, such as family and marriage, tithing, discipleship and exercise. A favorite part of the conference was a presentation, entitled "Strength and Wisdom Through Experience," by wives of members of the First Presidency — Marjorie P. Hinckley, Frances J. Monson and Ruth W. Faust — and daughters Kathleen Hinckley Barnes, Ann Monson Dibb and Jana Faust Coombs.

In his fireside address, Elder Perry focused his remarks on three trends of the Twentieth Century: (1) technological advances, (2) growth of the Church, and (3) what has happened to the family. For the first trend, he spoke of enhanced modes of transportation, communication and the media. For Church growth, he summarized the tenures of each Church president and his contributions to the spread of the Church throughout the world.

Speaking of the family, he explained there are some things which have been "lost" in the past century. "I think one of the important things which has been lost is the family meal time. Early in our century it was a given that families ate all their meals together."

Among other things lost to the family are family prayers and families working together, he said. He also spoke of modern conveniences that have saved time and energy. However, he asked, "Have we filled that extra time with play or other projects that do not strengthen the family as the basic unit of society? We need to carefully prioritize and plan for meaningful family time that preserves the essentials of the home and family life that were so much a part of earlier generations."