Women, young women and girls gathered all over the world March 29 as disciples of Jesus Christ, with “a desire to defend and sustain the kingdom of God.”
Sister Rosemary M. Wixom made this declaration as she addressed the General Women’s Meeting that originated in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and was broadcast throughout the world.
“We are daughters of our Heavenly Father. We are covenant-making women of all ages walking the path of mortality back to His presence. Keeping covenants protects us, prepares us and empowers us,” she said.
Whether in the Conference Center, a Church building or in their homes, Sister Wixom invited all girls ages 8, 9, 10 and 11 to stand and sing the Primary song “Teach Me to Walk in the Light of His Love.” She then invited the rest of the congregation to sing the second verse, which begins, “Come, little child, and together we’ll learn.”
“As women of all ages we walk in His light,” she said. “Our journey on the path is personal and well lit with the Savior’s love.
“Entrance to the path of eternal life comes through the gate — the ordinance and covenant of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. With baptism comes a change, one that will change lives forever. As individuals partake of the sacrament and renew their baptismal covenant, they are able to look to the temple, and other ordinances they will participate in that lead to — with the help of the Atonement of the Savior —exaltation in the celestial kingdom.
“As we strive to keep our covenants, our feelings of inadequacies and imperfection begin to fade, while the ordinances and the covenants of the temple come alive. Everyone is welcome to walk that path to eternal life.”
Sister Wixom spoke of the strength of girls, young women and women she has met around the world. She told of a girl in Argentina who, unable to speak, made a simple drawing of the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, which represented her witness and testimony.
Sister Wixom told of meeting at the Lima Peru Temple a father who has five daughters, four of whom are in wheelchairs. He had brought with him an able-bodied daughter and two other daughters who could endure the 14-hour-trip. Sister Wixom said the temple meant so much to them that they had come that day — two of them simply to observe the one who could perform the sacred ordinances of baptisms for the dead.
She spoke of a single woman who finds joy and peace in the promise of the sacrament to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost at times she faces loneliness and of a woman in her 90s who continues to stay firmly planted on the path to eternal life.
Through keeping sacred covenants all can feel the love of Heavenly Father and the Savior Jesus Christ, Sister Wixom said.
“Each one of us is on that path. Tonight, we sang about walking the path in the light. As individuals we are strong. Together, with God, we are unstoppable.”
