I have visited many of you this past year, and my heart has been touched as I have looked into your eyes, hugged you, laughed with you, cried with you, and listened to your grief, joy, and triumph.
Each of you is precious beyond description and known by our Heavenly Father. As daughters of God, you are preparing for eternal designations, and each of you has a female identity, nature, and responsibility. The success of families, communities, this Church, and the precious plan of salvation is dependent on your faithfulness.
Oh, dear sisters, how we love and pray for you! All of us are in the middle of a very personal mortal experience. Two sisters I have met recently represent how to live faithfully.
One sister lives in central Brazil. Her lovely redbrick home, set in a yard of red soil, surrounded by a wall of red blocks, is a haven and refuge from the world outside. Her bright-eyed children know how to sing Primary songs, and on the walls of her home hang pictures of the Savior, temples, and prophets of God cut from the Liahona magazine. She and her husband made personal sacrifices to be sealed in the temple so their children could be born in the covenant.
She told me that she prays continually for the Lord to give her strength and inspiration sufficient to bring up her children in the light, truth, and strength of the gospel. Another sister lives alone in a tiny apartment on the 80th floor of a building in Hong Kong.
