A little over a year ago, Tracy Browning sat quietly beside a dear friend days before she died. Browning recalled how this ailing friend “poured” into her and shared her conviction of “some things she knew with certainty,” including that:
- “Jesus Christ lives” and “had overcome sin and death.”
- “The tomb is empty” and “his promises are sure.”
- “Covenants matter,” and “there is none like Jesus Christ.”
Browning was nearing the end of her formal tenure in the Primary General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She shared how her friend left her “filled with joy, longing, belonging, motivation, and peace all at once,” and Browning left the home with a clarified desire to follow Christ “more faithfully.”
“This is one of the great gifts that certain women offer the world,” Browning suggested, when someone’s words and walks with the Savior help others desire to know and follow Jesus Christ.
Browning was the morning keynote speaker among roughly 70 women presenting, moderating or singing at the daylong women’s conference of the U.S. Northeastern Area, “Onward, Ever Onward,” held Saturday, May 30, in Times Square, New York.
Two thousand women gathered in person, with thousands more joining the broadcast online from 97 locations across the Northeast, taking up questions such as:
- “How has Jesus met me personally in this season of my life, and what is he inviting me to do next as his disciple?”
- “What is one way the Lord may be inviting me to use my voice, example, or presence more intentionally?”
- “How can I ‘speak with the power and authority of God’ and how do I access that power?”
Elissa Gifford, director of humanitarian services for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shared in the afternoon keynote her own experience of deepening discipleship.
“Over time, my prayers changed,” Gifford said. “They shifted from asking the Lord to give me the life I wanted to asking Him to lead me to the life He had prepared for me.”
Meagan Kohler, a Deseret News contributor who participated in a panel discussion, said afterward that she came away feeling “hope in the power for good of so many women who are all focused on doing the Savior’s work.”
‘Become like little children’
“You cannot know how much of a joy it is for me to be with you,” Browning said to participants as she opened her remarks. She admitted she could not have “imagined” how much she would one day learn “while sitting in tiny chairs among the Savior’s youngest disciples.”
Reflecting on her recent years serving “within the spiritual ministry of Primary,” Browning said, “I have discovered that children often understand truths that, for any number of reasons, can become more complicated as we grow older.”
Maybe that’s one reason Jesus invited disciples to “behold” little ones, she said, noting that “children have a remarkable ability to center their faith in simplicity and certainty”:
- “They know Jesus.”
- “They trust Him.”
- “They follow Him.”
- “They love Him.”
- “And most importantly, they know that the Savior knows and loves them.”
‘Not on the margins of the Savior’s ministry’
Browning described revisiting “again and again” a brief passage in Luke where Jesus shared his message through different cities. “And the 12 were with him, and certain women, which had been healed … and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.”
“It seems clear to me that these women were not standing on the margins of the Savior’s ministry,” she remarked. She described coming to wonder more about these women’s formative experiences with the Savior and “the truths that had become so deeply rooted in their hearts that they reordered their lives around Him.”
“The world’s greatest champion of woman and womanhood is Jesus the Christ,” Browning said, quoting earlier Latter-day Saint apostle James E. Talmage (1862–1933). She continued:
- “Jesus noticed women.”
- “Jesus taught women.”
- “Jesus healed women.”
- “Jesus trusted women.”
- “Jesus welcomed women among his followers.”
First certainty
“How have I come to know Jesus Christ?” Browning described pondering after reading of Mary Magdalene’s own connection to the Savior. “When have I experienced his mercy? Where have I seen his power at work in my life? How have I felt his love?”
These New Testament women aren’t women who “know everything,” she said. “But they are women who are certain that Jesus Christ is worth following.”
Their lives reflect King Lamoni’s father, who said in the Book of Mormon, “I will give away all my sins to know (God).”
Browning added that Lamoni “reached a point where he was willing to exchange anything that stood between him and God for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Browning’s invitation
“What is one thing I can do this week to deepen my relationship with Jesus Christ?” Browning encouraged conference participants to consider. “Whatever comes to your mind, I invite you to write it down. Not 10 things. Just one.”
With the words of Christ in Luke as a preamble — “The disciple is not above his master, but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” — Browning attested that “one simple act of discipleship can invite God’s power into your life and increase your certainty about being a follower of Jesus Christ.”
Second certainty
“Jesus Christ can do extraordinary things with whatever we offer. Even miracles,” Browning continued. “And miracles are rarely determined by the size of the offering.”
Through the power of Christ, she said:
- “A conversation can become a turning point.”
- “A lesson can become a lifelong memory.”
- “A simple act of service can become an answer to prayer.”
- “A life devoted to Jesus Christ can bless generations.”
Third certainty
“One of the certainties that women can gain is that Jesus Christ is actively leading his work,” Browning added. “And because we trust him, we can remain close to him and to those he has called.”
“Jesus Christ still leads his church,” she said. “He continues to guide it through prophets and apostles.”
The former Primary general leader noted how prophets have taught that the church needs "your strength, your conversion, your conviction, your ability to lead, your wisdom, and your voices.”
‘Many other’ women following Jesus
Noting that Luke mentions “many others” following Jesus in addition to Mary, Joanna and Susanna, Browning said, “I love that phrase because it leaves room for the rest of us.
“The story of certain women did not end in Galilee. It continues wherever covenant women choose to walk with Jesus Christ … It continues in wards and branches, in homes and neighborhoods, in classrooms and workplaces.
“It continues through women whose names are not known through scripture but are known and beloved by God. It continues in women like us.”
Coming to Christ in New York
“As a young adult here in bustling New York City, I was searching for direction, purpose, and belonging,” Browning reflected. “Through Jesus Christ and his restored gospel, the blurry background image of myself gradually came into focus and became clearer as the Savior became more of the focus of my life.
“I am one of the ‘many others’ who Luke speaks of, who are invited to come near to Jesus Christ — to walk with him, learn from him, be changed by him, and become bound to him through sacred covenants.
“New York is where I found the restored gospel of Jesus Christ,” Browning said. “This is where I began to understand my place in God’s plan of happiness.
“There is none like Jesus Christ. He is the source of our hope … our peace … our healing,” she said. “Of these things I am certain.”
