Dear brothers and sisters, on behalf of the Utah Area Presidency, thank you for joining us this evening for this special Utah area-wide training meeting for leaders, youth, and parents. I’m delighted to be joined this evening by President Emily Belle Freeman, Young Women General President, and President Stephen J. Lund, Young Men General President. We hope you all participated in the Worldwide Discussion for Youth: Look unto Christ— the youth theme for 2025. The purpose of tonight’s training is to first create a vision for how we, as leaders and parents, can more intentionally help our precious youth look unto Christ and increase their faith and desire to believe, belong, and become true disciples. Second, to clarify roles and responsibilities of leaders, youth, and parents in this effort. And three, to reinforce the principles of For the Strength of Youth and the importance of choosing higher standards to live in a higher and holier way, the Savior’s way. To the youth of the Church, President Russell M. Nelson has declared, quote, “You are among the best the Lord has ever sent to this world. You have the capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the world than any previous generation.” Just think about that, my young friends. What vision the Lord has for each and every one of you. For the sake of the world, the Church, and each of our young men and young women, we want to do all that we can do to help you realize your divine potential. Hard work reveals capacity. To realize your capacity, you will need the help of the Lord and some hard work on your part as well. President Nelson has taught, quote, “We ... increase the Savior’s power in our lives when we make sacred covenants and keep those covenants with precision.” Precision means exactness. “Our covenants bind us to Him and give us godly power.” This power is essential to your ability to become smarter and wiser, and to have more impact on the world than any previous generation. Parents and leaders, our youth will not gain an understanding of sacred covenants if we do not intentionally teach the doctrines of the gospel with clarity. They will not embrace what they have not been taught. They will not understand if they have not been taught by loving parents and leaders. Tonight we hope to re-energize and focus our collective efforts to help the rising generation increase their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen their determination to make and keep sacred covenants, and encourage them to realize their divine capacity, in short, to help them on their journey of belief, belonging, and becoming. We express our love and gratitude for all you are doing, and pray that you will be instructed and inspired by the principles taught this evening. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. We will now be pleased to receive instruction from President Emily Belle Freeman and President Steven J. Lund.
What a privilege it is for us to be with you and gather together tonight, by invitation from Elder Pearson, to talk about one of our favorite topics, which is becoming a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ. We are so excited to be here with you tonight, and so grateful that all of you gathered to come and spend the evening with us. And thank you to Elder Pearson for this invitation to come and be here and share about one of our favorite topics, which is becoming a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ. As he talked about, I’m President Freeman. And I’m President Lund.
And we probably could tell us apart. And we love training together. That's one of the things we love most about the youth program right now is how much time we spend training together. So you're going to hear from both of us all night tonight, and I'm going to start out and tell you the resources that we're going to be using as we go through this training. So we’ll be spending a little bit of time in the Young Women and Aaronic Priesthood quorum theme, in the Handbook, in the For the Strength of Youth guide, in the scriptures, with words of the prophet, and then also in the Children and Youth Parent and Leader guide as we go through this training. And before we start, let us introduce you to our social media accounts that will give you a lot of help as you interact with us with the youth program. And so, new this past year, are two accounts you might not be familiar with. The first is @YoungWomenWorldwide, and the second one is @YoungMenWorldwide_. Underscore. Underscore. That’s how you’ll find them. On those two accounts, you are going to find on Mondays tips for teaching, on Tuesdays a presidency message, on Wednesdays activity ideas, and on Thursdays we will do reels where we will answer your questions that you send in to us. And so it's a place where we can stay connected. And we love to talk to you about things that are coming up, the broadcasts and other gathering events that we have. You'll also love to visit our Strive to Be account, which is where you’ll hear a lot about the music for the youth. As we start out tonight, we want to recognize who’s in the audience and why you're here tonight. So we're most grateful for the youth who have come tonight to come and gather with us and learn together about how we can be better about becoming lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. Also, in the audience, we are going to have presidency members. These will be adult presidency members and youth presidency members. Hopefully we’ve got some bishops in the group and young women’s presidents, and we’ll be talking to all of you as we go through. Parents. Quorum and class presidents as well.
And leaders. So we’ll be talking about leadership, how to run this program. But we're also going to be talking about participation. What does it look like to actually be in this program? President Lund and I both, when we were called, had the opportunity to sit at the feet of a prophet and talk about the rising generation. And both of us left that occasion feeling a little bit overwhelmed with the responsibility that we had. But let's say what President Nelson said to you, I hope you’re also feeling a little bit of fun, excitement.
I was a little shocked when he called me and sat there in a little bit of a stupor trying to process what I'd just heard, and he finally leaned forward and said, “Well, will you take the job?” And I said, “Well, of course, President Nelson, but with fear and trembling.” And with that, the prophet kind of slumped back in his chair, a little disgusted, and said, “Well, I hope with a little joy.” And I wanted to give him some comfort, but I was just basically feeling angst at that point in time.
Yes, sometimes we might enter into these callings feeling a little bit overwhelmed. And I had an interesting experience right when I got home from that experience with the prophet, where I thought about all of the weight of that responsibility, and then I asked myself two questions. And they’re are two questions that, if you are currently serving within the youth program in any capacity, we want to invite you to consider. And those two questions are, “Why me?” and “Why now?” That’s something we both talked a lot about. Why did the Lord call me? And why did He call me right now? And that's something you might consider also. Both our young leaders in the audience, but also our adult leaders in the audience. Why did the Lord call you and why did He call you right now.
When he called us, he actually took the time to explain to us why our callings mattered and what it was that we, that he hoped that we would do. That’d be pretty good advice to follow in doing that when we find ourselves as priesthood leaders calling people into assignments. He talked to us about the majesty of this moment and about some of the things that Elder Pearson, President Pearson just talked about, about how this youth is a special generation that was called to come to the world at this time. So the work that we're doing with them has significance beyond this moment, but into the generations. And so inspired by that kind of a calling, of course, we think about our callings differently than we might have if we were just figuring this out on our own. And so when you're receiving a call or when you're extending a call under inspiration, think about that. Think about how you can help each other to feel the majesty of that moment, because everything he said to us applies to everything that you would say to each other.
And if you are not serving now, there will come a time in your life where you will be called upon to serve. And so we're going to give you some tools of how you might lead.
I’ve just pulled up my phone to look. Can I walk you through a place where we’ve given you a little bit of a, of an aid to get to that place? If you go to the Gospel Library, I'll give you just a second to do that. My phone is doing what it always does. And go to the library, and go to the little home, the little house in the corner, so that you’re on the front page. And then from there go to the little library stack, the little pile of books there, and it'll bring up the printed resources that are available. And then from there we're going to go to the youth tile. It’s the one that looks like the FSY pamphlet cover. And so if you click there. And then go to the bottom. Then you’ll go down to the bottom of that, and you’ll find a tile that says “Helps for Presidencies.” Click on that and you’ll see a menu of things that a new presidency or that a bishop could use in calling a new quorum or a class presidency. The one we're going to look at right now is the orientation guide that's up in the upper left hand corner that looks like this, that you’re seeing here right now. This is a time and a place, or this describes a time in a place where a bishop can bring this new leadership cadre, this new Young Men’s president, Aaronic Priesthood quorum president, or, or Young Women’s presidency into the leadership core of his ward and explain these things. And so, by walking through that, the questions that are found here on that page, he's going to explain to them that they're actually called of God, that they're not here because it's their turn. They're not here, even if they're the only deacon in the ward. That’s not the reason they’re getting called. That, my bishopric has been on its knees, the bishop would say, praying about this quorum and about the leadership needs they were going to have. And we felt the direct inspiration from heaven that you were sent here at this time and place to be the president of this quorum, of this class, and then, once establishing that, that their call is a subject of revelation and not happenstance, they’re going to think differently about how they were getting called. Next, you can talk about, it walks you through the administrative responsibilities of what is it that you’re going to do. And then finally planning meetings and activities that kind of walks them through how they can go about accomplishing the things that they're supposed to do.
As you think about this, whether you are in leadership right now or if you’re supporting that leadership, I want to think for just a minute, what does it mean to sustain someone and in all of these callings that you will have in your years in the youth, whether you are the one who has been called or whether you are the one who is sustaining those who have been called. In our family, we talked a lot about that Sunday when leadership was called, and we're asked to sustain or to raise our hands. And what does that actually mean when we raise our hands? And I would tell my kids all the time, it means you’re going to show up to the activities. That’s support, that's supporting the person who's been called. It means you're going to raise your hand in class and add to the discussion. That’s sustaining. That’s supporting. And so whether you are in the job of leading right now, or whether you’re in the job of supporting, it takes all of us to make a successful youth program. And first will be that introductory letter. But there's lessons that they can also use to learn, both as a presidency and a class, of how to work together better. And where would they go to find those?
There is power in quorums, and there’s power in classes. And that power is only unleashed as we engage together as new quorum and class presidencies and bishops and whoever else is called into callings. They don’t always know exactly what to do next. And so in that same Help for Presidencies page that we just breezed by, the kind of the next thing you see, there is a planning document that will help you plan an activity, but the one we want to focus on is the next one after that, called Leadership Lessons. Here are five lessons that a bishop could take a new set of quorum presidencies, class presidencies, and either individually or together, when they’re called or soon after they’re called, walk them through these lessons one at a time. These are little 10-minute lessons. They can be taught by the bishop there. They can be taught later by advisors or by bishopric members or by presidency members to these classes, to march these young people through the basic principles of leadership, starting with preparing for and conducting meetings. You, as an adult leader, will have an opportunity to teach that 11-year-old or 12-year-old or 15-year-old how to create an agenda. And when they start thinking about creating an agenda, they’re looking forward into the future, sometimes for the first time in their lives about, well, what should we together be doing in order to accomplish the good that we were called to do? And that you can learn to do that. Next, you’re going to teach them how to counsel together. Now, now, this is a conversation that goes along, goes on in the quorum of the First Presidency of the Church and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and it goes on in the, the youngest Young Women’s class and the youngest deacons quorum in the Church, too, learning how to invoke the powers of heaven and to inspire our minds to do the things that we need to do. It is powerful stuff that you can teach in just a few minutes, and then review and get better and better at next. The lesson three is The Work of Salvation and Exaltation. You, as youth leaders, haven't been called to learn how to be leaders so that someday in the future, you can become leaders. The prophet is saying that we expect you to be leaders today, and start leading out and doing the same work that your bishop does, and that the elders quorum president and the Relief Society president do, in looking out for each other at your level. So that section will help you to understand what that means to actually take a meaningful role in the work of salvation and exaltation. Lesson four is Planning, Service and Activities. That's talking about Wednesday or midweek activities, but it’s talking about so many other things. Priesthood is about service, young women. Priesthood power is about serving other people too. And then finally, lesson five is Ministering— how to take seriously our mandate as as members of the Church, consecrated members of the Church, to look out for each other. These five leadership lessons are powerful. They’re simple. They’re easy. You adult leaders have an opportunity to take your years of experience in leadership and transmit it into this generation so that they can stand and take their place, their rightful place, in the governance of the kingdom.
And you'll notice as you read through those topics that those are topics that don't just apply to a class or quorum presidency, those are topics that apply to us as Saints in the kingdom of God. We're going to learn how to counsel. We're going to learn how to minister. We're going to learn how to help assist in the work of salvation and exaltation. And so spend time with your presidencies, but also your class learning what that looks like for you. Because in essence, what we're actually trying to learn is how to become a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ, which is the entire purpose for the Children and Youth program. We’re about that one thing. -One thing. -Just building the foundation of lifelong discipleship. In fact, we read about it in the Strength of Youth Guide when it says, the Lord invites us to be His disciples and live a standard higher than the world. Now let's talk about this for a minute. What does discipleship actually look like? If we were to go back to ancient times and we were to try and understand what ancient discipleship looked like, it looked like this. You would choose someone that you wanted to be mentored by, that you wanted to become a disciple of, and you would spend time with him and you would become like him, and then you would go forth and do as he would do. Now think about that in relation to the Savior. The same is true for us. We are going to spend time with Him. We are going to become like Him, and then we are going to go forth and do as He would. This is a discipleship mentoring program for everybody who is in the program. That includes the leaders, that includes the youth, but that also includes the parents. It's everyone who is working with the rising generation. And let's talk a little bit about what does mentoring actually look like. And I’m going to ask you to turn with me to one of my favorite stories in the book of Acts. We’re going to turn to Acts chapter 8, and we're going to see what we can learn about mentoring, about help raising up disciples. And what does that actually look like on a one-on-one basis? And what does it look like as we're working with the youth and for the youth, with your friends. So this is what happens in Acts chapter 8. In verse 26, the Lord comes to Philip and he says, “Arise and go toward the south.” Now I just want to ask you this question. If that happened to you this morning, you just woke up and the Spirit said to you, “Okay, get up and go south.” How many of you would have actually started walking? Or how many of us would have been like, “Well, how far south? And what am I going to do when I get there?”
I might have gotten the wrong south.
And the Spirit says to him, “You’re going to the place that is desert.” And I love in verse 27 when it tells us, and he just arose and went. He didn't ask questions. He just got going. And as he got there, he saw a eunuch of great authority. He was in charge of the treasure of the queen, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship. And now he was returning, and he was sitting in his chariot. He was reading Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and join yourself to this man.” Now every time I read this, I get a little giggle because I think to myself, if you look around at how money is transported, for example, now if you were walking down the street and someone was moving money from one bank to another bank, it's going to be in an armored car, right? And if it pulled up to that stop sign, what are the odds you run up to the window, knock on the window and ask the guy if you can have a ride.
Can we talk?
Let's talk. Can I get in there with you? Like, we're not going to do that. And I love when the Spirit says to Philip, “Go near and join yourself to that chariot.” My personality would have been like, okay, hold on. Do you see all the guards around there? I'm going to have to, like, approach this carefully. Right. But no, it tells us in verse 30 and Philip ran to the chariot, and he hears him reading Isaiah. And he says to him, “Doyou understand what you’re reading?” And I love that the eunuch says back to him, “How can I, unless some man should guide me?” And then he said to Philip, come up and sit with me. Now we've learned a lot of really important lessons about mentoring someone, about what discipleship looks like just from these few verses. I love that Philip is just going to follow the Spirit, that he’s going to go near and join, that he's going to guide this man now. And I love this part that he’s going to go up and sit with him. And it makes me realize the importance of actually meeting someone where they are. And what does that actually look like? Well, this is what it looks like for Philip. He climbs up and he sits down by him, and the eunuch says to Philip, “Okay, I have a question.” That’s what he says, “I pray thee, who is the prophet speaking of? Is he talking about himself, or is he talking about some other man?” Now, I just want to think how we would have engaged in this conversation, because how many of us would have answered like this? Oh, the problem is, you're reading Isaiah. That's the problem. If you were—we got to go somewhere else. Let’s turn to the Book of Mormon. Let's go into the Gospels. Let's go somewhere easier for you. But that’s not what Philip did. It says, Philip began at the same scripture, and he preached unto him Jesus. I love that. I love that he let the eunuch ask the questions, that he was like, “Tell me what you want to talk about, and I will meet you there.” And what am I going to do? I’m going to talk about Jesus Christ. That’s what I’m going to do. And it tells us he preached unto him Jesus. And then I love what happens in the next verse and as they went on their way. This was not one five-minute conversation. This turned into an actual journey. They were going to journey together on their way. And something so awesome happens because as they're going and as they’re probably talking about scripture and Jesus, the eunuch sees this body of water ahead and he says to Philip, “Look, here is water. What is preventing me from getting baptized?” And so in that moment, they climb out of the chariot. And I love that what did discipleship lead to? It led to someone wanting to have a covenant relationship with the Lord. That's what it led to. That should be our goal in this program. That's everything we are about is leading someone into covenant relationship. And I love what happens when they come out because it says when they came out of the water, then the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip and the eunuch went on his way, rejoicing. And there’s part of me, when I get to verse 39 that wants to think, “Did the Spirit come and say, Philip, go west?” And then he was on his way again, on to the next thing that the Lord wanted him to do. And as you think about this list, will you do two things? First of all, who has mentored you in a manner similar to this? And second, what did you just learn about mentoring that will help you either as you are working with the youth, or if you are the youth, that would help you with your friends? What's something that you could learn from this?
Well, we all have somebody and even a list of somebodies that made a real material difference in our lives. So as we think about discipleship, which is what this is about, a path of lifelong discipleship. Part of helping each other towards discipleship is helping each other to gain covenant, to take covenants. You went to the Acts. If we're going to talk about the journey of lifelong discipleship and maybe a pattern for discipleship, we might turn to Ephesians 2 verse 19. So let's look at this for a moment. Paul says, “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints.” We we might think of that as belonging. You belong here. You're part of this kingdom. The next verse says, “And are built upon a foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.” That’s, those are statements of belief that this organization you belong to is grounded in Him. And then finally, “In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” “Growing into” that means belonging. So we can see this pattern of belonging, belief—and becoming I mean to say, excuse me for getting my Bs confused. My favorite thing. But becoming part of the kingdom of God. The way that he talks about growing unto an holy temple. The kingdom growing unto an holy temple. Now, these aren’t, this isn’t, these aren’t new concepts. Believing, belonging, belonging, believing, and becoming. But there are a new way of framing the conversation that we get from prophetic teachings. You know, one of the greatest sets of teachings that goes on in any given year in the Church is training that goes on just right before general conference. The Thursday and Friday before general conference, when apostles and prophets in the First Presidency and the Twelve train all of the General Authorities in the Church on the issues that are pressing and that are on their minds. Those teachings have never been available to the Church, until now. And so can we just look for a second at where you can find those. We're going to go back to the little stack of books in your library that'll take you to this place. And this time we’re going to go to the Handbook and Callings tile, that little blue tile. And having pressed that, next we’re going to go to the Leadership Instruction. I was looking for a blue tile. It's actually the First Presidency standing here. Leadership Instruction and then that will take us to General Conference Leadership Meetings. The first tile there. And then within that they've got all the leadership lessons, those leadership trainings from 2021 until today. So today I want you to go to the October ’24 training, the most recent one. And when we go down there, the third one from the bottom is a talk by Elder Uchtdorf given to the General Authorities of the Church, but with an ultimate audience of you and I, which is why they put it here.
And here he describes this rubric of believing, belonging, and becoming. Did I get close? Yeah, I think that’s what it is. Good, good, good. So he starts out with this heading. The rising generation needs to believe in Jesus Christ and His doctrine. We start with belief and how to believe. And then the rising generation needs to feel that they belong in His Church. And then he talks for a few bullet points about what that looks like. And then the rising generation needs to become their best selves as intended by heavenly parents. And he describes what that looks like. We use this little wheel to describe, believe, belong, and become like Jesus Christ. But these aren't new rubrics. If we can go to the next slide, we can see that we're were simply reframing the same things we've been talking about. We used to talk about gospel learning, and we’re now thinking of that in a more focused way as believing in Christ— what we need to do to believe in Him. Service and Activities. If we go back to that other slide. Service and Activities is belonging with Christ. And then of course, personal development is becoming like Christ. So you should recognize this, this little circle and understand it more clearly.
So we're going to start out with what does it look like to believe in Jesus Christ and in His doctrine. And we’re going to talk about practicing holy habits— studying the scriptures at home, church, and seminary; having and using the For the Strength of Youth guide, a guide for making choices. Okay, so first let's talk about what it looks like to believe. We want you to be thinking about what it looks like to practice holy habits, to study the scriptures at home, at church, and at seminary, and to have and use the For the Strength of Youth: a Guide for Making Choices. As we think about that, we want to start out talking about these holy habits, these righteous routines that we have. And we're going to take you back into the scriptures for a minute. We're doing this because we're hoping after this training, when you want to come back and think about what did we learn and how can we actually use this in our classes and in our quorums, that maybe you’ll come back to some of these scripture stories and you’ll remember the principles here, and it will remind you of what we're working on. So we’re going to turn to a story in the book of 2 Kings, chapter 5. This is a story of a man named Naaman. Now in the very first verse, it tells us a little bit who of who Naaman was. He was the captain of the host. He was a mighty man of valor, which means he was one of the best warriors in the Old Testament. That's what that title means. Things that he could control. He could strategize. He could win. He could work on. And then there’s one descriptor at the end that says, “And he was a leper.” And that’s actually something you can’t control, and it’s something you didn’t want, because that meant he was going to have to lose his position and his family and his life and move into a place where he didn’t have everything that he had right then. And it must have been a worry for the household because everybody's talking about it, including this little maid who says to Naaman's wife, I wish that we were with the prophet that is in Samaria, in verse three she says, because he could recover him of his leprosy. And everyone started talking about what this little maid had said. And so finally Naaman decided he would go. He would go back, he would meet this prophet. And he gets there, and here is this man, this mighty man of valor. He's so respected, and he wants to meet the prophet. And the prophet sends a messenger... -The head of an army. The head of an army, and the prophet sends a messenger. He's like, he will tell you what to do. And the messenger says, go and wash yourself. Dip yourself seven times in the river Jordan. And Naaman does not want to do this. In fact, it tells us he's mad about this. He leaves and he's like, I'm not doing that. I don't know if you've ever been to Israel, have you? Yes. So you know what the Jordan River looks like. And for those of you who have been to Israel, you know, and those of you who have not, just imagine the Jordan River in Utah because it looks exactly the same. It's a river that doesn't move fast. It's pretty muddy. And if you have a skin disease, you probably don't want to get in there. And I think that’s what he’s saying. This doesn’t seem like a good idea. I should go wash in—the rivers by my house, they’re cleaner. That’s what he says. And he went away in a rage, it tells us. And then one of his servants comes and he says, if the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, would you have done it? And I always stop at this verse. I can’t help it. Always. Because I think, how many things has our prophet actually asked us to do? Read the scriptures and pray and go to church and become a covenant member of this Church and hold a temple recommend and pay your tithing and all of these things. And how many times do we get caught up and and do you think someone might say, well, if the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? And that's where my mind always goes in this story. And a servant comes to him and he says to him, go down and try. And so it tells us in verse 14. Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. I was once being taught this lesson by a good friend of mine, and he said to me, and I will never forget, “Which dip healed him?” And immediately I was like the first one, because he went. But then I was like, well, why did he keep going? So then I was like, well, it had to have been the last one. And as I was working it through in my head, my good friend looked at me and he said, “All of them; it was all of them.” And I started thinking about the rhythm of going back down again and down again seven times. And as I was thinking about that, and if the prophet had asked you to do some great thing. And then I started thinking, what do my holy rhythms look like? What are the righteous routines in my life? That praying over and over again every day and reading my scriptures over and over again. Those are rhythms meant to heal us. Those are rhythms meant to strengthen us. And as I think about this, every time I read this story, I ask myself, what are my holy rhythms? What are the things prophets and apostles have asked us to do that would strengthen and heal us? And why are we doing those? And as you think about that, one of the things that we have learned and we feel strongly about is anything we’re going to ask someone else to do, that we’re going to invite someone else to do is something we should be doing ourselves. And if we want the youth to be in their scriptures and to be praying, then we need to be in our scriptures, and we need to be praying. And our conversations actually need to reflect that. They need to say, you know what? When I was reading my scriptures last week, there was this phrase that stood out to me and now what did that mean? Or when I was praying, I felt this answer, and I'm going to act on it because it feels right to me. If we're talking like that, then other people are going to respond and say, you know what? She got an answer when she was praying, I'm going to try that. And this is something we're practicing. This is something we're working on. In fact, I love when our Young Women’s theme and our Aaronic Priesthood Quorum theme both say something similar about this. The Young Women’s theme says, “I cherish the gift of repentance and seek to improve each day.” The Aaronic Priesthood Quorum theme says, “As I strive to serve, exercise faith, repent, and improve each day.” And you notice that repeated phrase in both this idea of improving each day. We're practicing holy rhythms. We're practicing these righteous routines. And as we practice, the rhythm of those will strengthen us and heal us. And that’s an important part of this youth program are those personal behaviors—personal prayer, personal scripture study, and learning how to receive that personal revelation. But where do we do that?
The program is about creating opportunities for each other to have those kinds of experiences. Well, so where do those opportunities find place and time in our current system? Well, this next slide details that it begins with the Come, Follow Me program at home and at church. Those lessons that we go through. It happens in seminary. And if you’ve got young people who are struggling with crises of faith, and they’re not attending to seminary, that’s the lowest hanging fruit. Get them there. Activities and conferences, including the For Strength of Youth FSY conferences that go on, are places where they can do a deep dive into spiritual routines and habits that carry over into the rest of their lives. And then the For Strength of Youth Guide for Making Choices is a powerful place to go, to have believing kind of experiences that help us to become true believers. What we discovered in recrafting the For Strength of Youth Guide, from its latest edition to its previous edition to this latest edition, was the realization that with the internet, today’s generation tends to ask more often why should I do all these things? Than what should I do? And so this new booklet is crafted around those. The answering that question, the whys. It’s they’re not—it’s not a checklist of you can do these things and you can’t do those. There was a little bit of that in the prior books that made it easy for us. This is a little harder. If you understand why then you can realistically be expected to live in a higher and holier way, which is what the Brethren are expecting of us with this new guide. President or Elder Uchtdorf talked about this. He said, as we encourage our children and youth to have these experiences, these righteous routines and holy habits, so they have these experiences. They also need to know why we do these things. Without nourishing the roots of faith in Christ, traditions alone will not be enough. And then, of course, we all know this famous truth: Jesus Christ is the strength of youth. So what are the eternal truths, then, that the For Strength of Youth Guide talks about? Well, just a quick little low flyby. It begins with that Jesus Christ will help you. Whatever it is that you’re trying to do in order to become closer to Him or to make your life better, He will help you. Love God, love your neighbor. Walk in God’s light. Your body is sacred. Truth will make you free. Learn the truth and then find joy in Christ. This shouldn't just be a slog. It shouldn’t be a slog at all. You’re following the Master of the universe. It’s a life of high adventure, living discipleship. So this isn’t a book about rules. It's a book of reasons to live in a higher and holier way. So we might ask the question, since the introduction of the new For the Strength of Youth: Guide for Making Choices, you might ask yourself, am I living in a higher and holier way? Or are my standards and are my standards higher and holier now than they were before. If not, then there's time for real reflection among ourselves and among others. And again, if we adult leaders, if you quorum and class presidencies aren't using these principles to guide your decision making, well, then neither will the people that you’re hoping to lead. This For the
Strength of Youth: Guide for Making Choices was released after the Children and Youth program was introduced to the Church. And it's a really important guide, and we're hoping that you're using that both as you plan your activities, but also as you're teaching in your lessons. As we talk about belief, this is the part of the program where we talk about teaching and what it looks like to be teaching. And as you consider that, as you think about that in your quorums and in your classes, let us just invite you to consider a couple of things. First of all, we want the adult leaders to be teaching. You have been called and set apart to help mentor these youth, and that includes your testimonies of the doctrines and the eternal truths of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are there because of what you have to teach. So we are hoping that the lessons include your voice, include your teaching, include your direction. At the same—youth participate at the same time. Where does a youth fit in? And this is a mentoring program. We’re mentoring discipleship. So we're also hoping that those youth are invited to help take a portion of that lesson, that they would maybe share an experience, that they would study a scripture story that might add to that lesson. And as they grow incrementally, and we'll talk about this more in a minute, that they may take a little bit more of that lesson and a little bit more of that lesson, but we invite you to make sure as leaders that you are teaching these youth. That’s important. That's important for this program, and it's important for the youth.
It's important that our young people learn to speak the language of discipleship, the language of faith. But job one is to drive those principles deep into their souls. And that's going to happen best under the inspired teaching and tutelage of leaders who've been at this for a while. That's so we can have it both ways.
As we finish up this section, we're going to invite you to take a picture of this slide that you're seeing now, and take that back with you into your quorums and into your classes. And will you counsel together about how your lessons and your activities can help the youth in your ward, in your branch or district or stake, whatever you are counseling together as, how can it help our youth believe in Jesus Christ?
So next we’re going to talk about belonging in His Church. Where do we gain that sense of belonging in the Church? Of course, that comes through being together, being together as a community of Christ. And that happens in various places, as you can see from this slide, that as we plan and attend meaningful mid-week activities, we come together not just to have fun—and it should be fun. It should always be fun. But we don’t come just for the fun. We come to help each other to belong and to feel belonging and be part of this. It happens at camps and conferences, including the FSY conferences. It happens when you attend those FSY conferences, and it happens especially if you invite each other to attend. Do you know that you can invite friends to come to FSY conferences? It could be one of the most meaningful invitations you’ll ever extend, to give people, maybe those kids that you used to go to Primary with, but who aren't showing up at church very much today. If you can come and give them a reset on their path of discipleship at FSY conference, they will never forget you or forget this. And interestingly, right now as you're watching this video, we are in the middle of registration season. That is true. And so as soon as you hang up from this call, you can pick up the phone or get on your computer more, more easily probably.
I love you were just three decades ago, as if we were on a call just now. Well, you never know. Okay.
You never know how long you’re done watching this broadcast. That’s what we would normally say. Then you can leave right after. And we’re really doing much today that we normally do.
Okay. We love FSY. We hope you sign up and and enjoy that time there together. And we actually want to hear about it. We want to hear about it.
You quorum and class leaders. If you think about it, we’re doing a pretty good job of getting you and your quorum, the participating kids to FSY conference. But we're not getting very many of those kids that aren't already attending seminary who aren't already coming to your meetings, and those are the ones who need it the most. That's so often the ones that are in the most desperate trouble. So let’s keep that in mind. Part of our ministering as priesthood leaders and as Young Women leaders would be to prayerfully go about deciding who to invite and let’s go together. If we if we were to look for scriptural advice about what belonging feels like, I love to go to Moses, where the Lord appears to Moses in the first chapter there, and he explains to Moses some things. He shows him the universe. When I was in seminary, and I read that, you know, for my first memories of reading that I had this thought through my mind, is Heavenly Father showing off here a little bit? Look at my stuff. Look, I've got more stuff. No, there's even more stuff. And I thought that seemed a little bit unseemly. Until I realized that it wasn’t about Him showing him His stuff. He was saying to Moses, I want you to see what we do. You are mine. You are my son. And you’re part of my family. And this is our family business. This is what we do. We create and we perfect. And you have a work to do. And I’m calling you to be about helping to perfect some of my children. And that's the call that comes to us all. Another place besides the scriptures to go to learn how to belong is your patriarchal blessing. A patriarch lays hands on your head and receives a revelation. If you want to know what Heavenly Father thinks of you, go see a patriarch and have him receive a revelation in your behalf. A third place we can go to learn about belonging is by listening to the words of modern prophets. President Nelson said these powerful words. Our youth, he's talking about us, me and you and you too.
Okay. Thank you.
Our youth are unusually gifted in reaching out to others and sharing what they believe in a convincing fashion. These are gifts that you were born with and that you’re here in church learning to develop so that you can be a powerful magnet towards the gathering throughout your life. This is the reason for the timing of your birth. This is the role of the youth of the Church.
Let's talk for a minute, because this is a question we get asked about all of the time. Probably the most oft question we get asked is what is the role of the youth? What is the role of the leaders and what is the role of the bishop? And what does that actually look like in this program as we are creating belonging within the rising generation. And so we want to talk about that for a minute. We're going to start out with what is the role of the youth. And as we talk about this, I just love keeping that quote in mind from President Nelson that our youth are unusually gifted in the gathering. And what does that actually look like? And we're going to take you back into the scriptures for a minute to a story in Luke chapter 14. This is the story of a man who has prepared for a party at his house. Everything is ready. And in those days, once everything was ready, you would send someone from the household out to say, okay, it's time to come for the party. And so the person from the household goes out and he starts telling everyone, it's time for the party. And everyone says, I'm not coming. I have something else. I can’t come tonight. And that servant eventually comes back to the man who planned the party and says to him, no one's coming. And I think about this all the time. What would your reaction be? What would mine? How many of us would be like, “Cancel the caterer.” Right? You’d go to your bedroom, you’d slam the door.
You'd be like, I'm never having a party again. Right. But not this man. I love what this man says. He says in verse 21, to his servant, okay, go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed, and the halt and the blind. And I want to think for just a minute, like realistically, how did that happen? What did that servant do? Because when he got to the blind man, he couldn't just be like, go down the street at the third street on the right, turn right. It's the second house on the left. No, he had to take that man there and sit him down at the table. And the one who couldn't walk. How did that one get there? And I just imagine that servant just picking her up and carrying her and sitting her down. And one by one he goes through and he gathers these people. And then once he's got them all set down, he goes to the Lord and says, I've done as you have commanded, and there is still room. And don't you love that lesson about the Lord, that there is still room? And so he says, okay, go out into the highways and the hedges. Okay. That's the outskirts of the city. That's the margins. That’s past the city gates where he’s telling them to go. You go out there and he uses a word: compel. You compel them to come. And I think that's so interesting because I imagine that servant going out to these people and saying, hey, you are invited to come to this place and them saying, no, you have the wrong person. I don’t think, he’s not talking about me. I don’t ever get invited to stuff like this. And that servant saying, no, he wants you. He specifically asked for you. There is a place at his table for you. And why? Again, we learned the character of the Lord in verse 23, that my house may be filled. That's the job of the youth. It's to fill up the house. It's to gather as many as they can. They are unusually gifted in the gathering. You are unusually gifted in the gathering. And you have to remember that.
The last time I heard this conversation it was about FSY conferences. We had 118,000 young people go to FSY conference this past year. That’s a lot, on 60 college campuses, something like that across the country. That’s a lot. And yet the conversation afterwards was there were empty chairs at every one of those sessions, except maybe a few at BYU.
So we have a work to do, right? We have a work to do. And you are unusually gifted at the gathering. In fact, we're hearing stories about you everywhere we go. One of my favorite happened in Oregon just recently. There was a seminary teacher who gave an invitation to her seminary class: bring a friend to seminary every day. She told them different friends every day. If you want, just bring a friend to seminary. And so that class took her seriously and they did. The class was bursting. This is an early morning seminary class, and at the end of the semester, one of the friends decided they wanted to get baptized. And this is my favorite part of this story. This is the baptism. So first of all, look who came. That's what I love first. But second of all, this is so awesome. Someone from the seminary class played the piano for the baptism, and someone from the seminary class led the songs for the baptism. And two of the kids from the seminary class were the witnesses, and one of the kids baptized his friend, and all of the talks were people in the seminary class. This is a group of youth who understood their gift, who were unusually gifted in this gathering process. And this is the role of the youth. The role of the youth is to bring as many people as they can and to be thinking about that. So now, with that in mind, let's talk about then what's the role of the leaders? What's the role of adult leaders then within this children and youth program? You know, when we first, when I first came into this program and I was just getting my feet wet and I would go around and listen to people talk about this program and they would use two phrases with me all the time, this is a sink-or-swim program. They would tell me, we have to let the youth fail. That's the only way they're going to learn. And I immediately got in and started reading all of the material that we had everywhere. And I was like, I actually don't see that anywhere. In fact, when I turned to the Children and Youth Guide and I look up the role of the Young Women leaders and the Aaronic Priesthood Quorum leaders, I started to learn something really important, and I want you to read through these next two slides. And will you look at the highlighted words? Because they are words that sound like this. Assist. Prepare. Guide. Minister. Serve. Set an example as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Encourage. Support. Get to know. Pray. Help. If you look at the Aaronic Priesthood Quorum guide, it's saying the exact same things that we're going to minister and we're going to serve. In essence, we are the support team. That's our role. That's our job is to support. And so what does that actually look like? Well, it looks like this. It looks like getting to know your youth so well that as you gather together to counsel and you say, this is the lesson for this Sunday or the Sunday after. You don’t just go through a list and assign out whose turn it is next to teach. You say, who would be the best person, do you think, to teach this? Is it one of the advisors? Is it someone from the presidency that should teach? Is there someone in the youth that should add something here? And why would we choose that person? Maybe they want to invite someone from the ward family in to help teach that. You may say to them, these are the people we need to get here. So you're unusually gifted in the gathering. Who do you think should be teaching this lesson? And when you think about the activities, we're not asking the youth to lead out in these activities because we don't think they have anything to do. We know you're busy. We know you're going to school. We know about homework. We know you have jobs. We know some of you are involved in sports and other hobbies and things that you are doing. We know you're busy. We're not asking for your help because we don't think you have anything to do. We're asking for your help because you are unusually gifted in the gathering, and we need you to help us know what activities should we plan?
What will bring your friends out? What do people want to gather together and do you know? You know what will bring them here. And as we counsel together and we learn from you what we should do, it might look like this. You may come up with the greatest activity we've done all year long. And as we start putting the particulars together, then your leader might be like, hold on, don’t, don’t you have soccer on Wednesday? Yeah. What time does it end? At seven. Okay. So what time are you going to get to us? Like 7:15? Yeah. Okay, then what I need you to do is I need you to draw out on this paper how do I set up the activity? Because I’m actually really great at setting up activities. And can you make a shopping list of what will we need to make this activity successful? Because also, everyone, I’m super good at shopping. Don't tell Greg, but I'm actually fantastic at shopping. And if it’s that kind of a conversation, then you can say to them, when you get done with soccer, you just come running in this room, we will have everything ready for you. You'll just come in and you will take over and we will be ready to go. And on finals week it might be saying, you know what? Isn’t it finals week this week? At 8:00, you guys, you’re out of here. Go home and study. Because guess what? We're also really good at cleaning up. And we're the support team. And we can do that. We can support you. Our job is to help them find success, and it's to know them so well that we know their capacity and and we know what might be too much for them right now. And most of all, we want them to come and to bring their friends and to to own these activity ideas and the things that we're doing so that they will come. What this looks like is actually teaching someone to ride a bike. You don't just buy a bike without training wheels and give it to one of your kids for Christmas, and hope they're going to figure that thing out. There is a process of tutoring and teaching, of running alongside, of helping them find balance and also courage to know how to manage that situation. And as they get older and older, it requires less and less from you until they eventually find success. That's your role as a leader and as we balance those roles between letting the youth lead because they are unusually gifted in the gathering, but also doing a really good job of being the support team so that they are learning and will be, at the age of 18, independent learners and independent teachers and independent planners. But we want that to take place over time, at their capacity and at their level.
The thing I love about this picture is if you look at the dad or the man, he’s about to drop. He’s just taking his last lunges here. And to me, that speaks of leadership that we have to be very purposeful about this. Because if you’re carrying these kids from station to station, you know, you’re going to wear out before they do because they’re not doing any work. But if you're very purposeful about it, and if he's a very good teacher as he teaches as he goes along, then he’s not going to have a heart attack before that little boy is off climbing mountains on that bike.
And let me just say this about the youth, because I think this is important. We trust you. We know your capacity. We know your creativity and your abilities. We know how good you are at inclusion and at welcoming in. And we need you and those of you who have been called into presidencies, you have been set apart to help with the leadership of this program, and that's important. And you should be working hand in hand with adult leaders who have also been called and set apart to lead this program. And as we work in tandem, that's where real growth happens. We all remember the one who mentored us through those years. And as adult leaders, you have the opportunity to do that. And as youth, you have the opportunity to become that.
Well, we're talking about adult leadership. Let's talk about bishops for a minute. It is not uncommon for a bishop, we don’t hear this in meetings often, but for a bishop to grab us in a hallway and say, I’m struggling here a little bit. I've been called to be a bishop, and I take that very seriously. I want to be a great bishop. I want to be the bishop my dad was. I want to be a bishop that my dad, that I, that I had when I was a youth. And yet I’ve also been called to be the Young Men’s president. I’m very serious about that. The prophet is saying it's my number one imperative to take care of the youth, and I want to be the Young Men’s president that I had, and that my dad and that I was before I was called to be the bishop. And I can’t figure out how to do both of those things. So how can I do that? Well, let's talk that through a little bit. If you look at this little chart on the Bishop’s Role column, it says that the bishop was called to be the Young Men’s president because he holds keys. And we'll talk more about that, because the relationships he builds can span longer periods of time than the relationships we usually see as youth leaders, because youth leaders are only usually called for a few months or a couple of years at a time, whereas the bishop has some longevity and can see these kids through major portions of their developing years. The bishop's foremost responsibility is the rising generation in the ward. It says in the Handbook, and that we have to recognize Young Women’s presidencies and everybody else in the ward, that the bishop is the Young Men’s president. But he’s a different kind of Young Men’s president than we’ve ever had before, because rising generation means something different when it's extended, when it's placed in his lap, because it means young men and it means young women, but it means the Primary and it means young single adults, too. And so if he's going to keep all of those balls in the air, which he needs to do and will do, and he’s not going to sleep at night unless he can, he’s going to need a lot of help and a lot of our help. So let's talk for a moment about how that can come together. One of the reasons going over to the other column that the bishop has to be the Young Men’s president is because he holds the keys not only of priesthood, but he has the keys to the bishop's storehouse. And as you know, we've been taught that that storehouse is a figurative thing. But it is that set of assets that belongs to the ward, all of the human capital, you know, the people, the consecrations, the resources, the abilities, the willingness of the ward all sit in that warehouse waiting to be tapped. And when a cause is as important as this one, our youth programs is involved, we need to deploy those. I’ve got a good friend who’s called to be a bishop out in California, and we were talking about this and he said, I've got a very busy professional life. And I get called, you know, at unexpected moments where I've got to go to work because somebody is struggling. He works in the mental health field, and so it's not unusual for me to have to miss meetings. But I got my ward council together, my extended ward council, the ward council, plus everybody who touches the youth, Primary on up. And I said to them, I can’t let—we can’t allow our youth program to be delimited, to be limited to my personal bandwidth and capacities. If it’s up to me to do the whole thing, our kids are going to get a crummy program because I'm just not going to be able to be there sometimes when I should be there. And so let’s take a minute and go to a whiteboard. And can we agree that our youth and this ward, given our bishop's storehouse, deserve a world class program? Well, what would that look like here? And they started going through the Handbook and writing down how many activities should be held and what activities, FSY conference. We're going to need somebody to make sure that that's being driven properly. Now, girls camp, Young Women’s camp. How often? Every year.
Young Men’s camp?
Every year. Aaronic Priesthood camp? Every year. Well, what about years when we’re having FSY conference? Yeah. No. Every year. Every year you've got to get together to create belonging within and the wards. And so he went down the list Sunday mornings there's got to be a robust Young Men’s class in each of those quorums. And the bishop gets grabbed on his way to priests quorum. He's got some wonderful things to say, but somebody is having a crisis, and so he's got to go and do that, and he can't be showing up back at the Bishop's office after, you know, 45 minutes into the lesson and find they've been waiting for him to show up. And so, so after having described what an ideal program would look like, they said, okay, now let's staff up to make sure that this happens. What about Sunday mornings? I'm not always going to be able to be there on time, but we need to start on time because that's a limited amount of time and we've got to teach the gospel. And so I'm going to call John here to be the assistant to the priest quorum. And John, you have “buck stops here” responsibility, that every Sunday there is a world class activity going on there in that class. Great teachings going on. The young people are being involved in advance so they can come prepared to help out and so forth. And whether I'm there or not, that's going to go forward Wednesday night, midnight, midweek activities, same thing.
I love that we’re just going to have midnight activities.
We—probably not every Wednesday okay. But when, but if you’re waiting for me to show up, I promise I'll come if I can and I'll come when I can. But you know me and I know you. If it's up to me, we're not going to have very good Wednesday midweek activities or whatever the midweek activity is. And so let's just work together here and let’s staff up all these positions. Girls camp, Young Women’s president. What do you need? Tell me what your resources requirements are in terms of people and money and whatever else it needs to be transportation. And then we're going to organize around that here because job one is our kids deserve a world class program, and we have the resources here. No, no one of us or no ten of us has the resources. But together as a ward, we can give them a world class program. And so if your program looks like this, Bishop, you know, you're the only one with an oar in the water, and the ship isn't going very fast. Maybe think about deploying some of these concepts we just talked about another one being many, many bishop’s call an extra an assistant executive secretary whose job it is to just help him focus on the youth so that he's making sure that meetings are being held, following up for the bishop, letting him know if somebody, you know, moved.
All the youth interviews. So they've got all just specific to the youth. Only then he can be in every meeting he can write down. Here's what's coming up. Here's what we're responsible for. He’s scheduling all the youth that, all of a sudden that whole part of that assignment is in functioning order.
Because he’s not a normal Young Men’s president. He’s carrying such a load. But if you can enable him to just show up when he can show up and make a valuable contribution there, then he will do that. And next thing you know, with everybody with oars in the water, you can have a really, truly world class program going on.
As we think about what the parents’ role is, the parents’ role is also support.
Wait, before we leave that, can I just say, yeah, quorum and class presidencies are part of that or on that boat? Yes. When they’ve been called, set apart, and trained, those young people will largely take care of themselves. And that takes a huge burden off the bishop where he's not worrying about them every minute. So please.
I love that. And as you think about now, we’ve talked about the youth, we’ve talked about the leaders, we’ve talked about the bishops and parents also fill a role of support. There's teaching the gospel at home. There’s helping your kids get to church and to the temple. Why? Because that's where the ordinances are happening. That's how they'll learn to draw upon the power of God. It's supporting them. If they've been asked to help teach a lesson, it's reminding them that sustaining actually means showing up and being. If we want a world class program, then everyone needs to be there. Because more often the youth are saying not what are we doing, but who’s going to be there? That’s how they’re deciding. And we need everyone to be showing up. And in order for that to happen, as we talk about this belonging, we want you to think about a couple of things in particular as you're planning those weeknight activities. So as you look at this last slide for this section, the job to be done is to create belonging. And you're going to see at the bottom of this slide two things. One is that For the Strength of Youth Guide for Making Choices. And one is the word fun. And we're hoping that those activities that you are all gathering together and planning, youth and the leaders, we’re hoping there’s a balance there.
Should some of those activities be fun? Yes, they should just be fun. They should be the kind of thing that when they're at school on Tuesday, they're like, you know what? We're actually doing the most awesome thing in our youth group this week. Do you want to come and just be with good people who are having good fun? And they go back to school the next day and they brag about this group that they have that gets together. These kids that are just doing good things that should be part of your youth program. But we also want to expand your vision a little bit. We've been talking a lot in these years as we've gone through the Children and Youth program about the four goals that you look at and work on, and we want to expand that vision a little bit. Now that we have the For Strength of Youth Guide for Making Choices, and it's a book that we're hoping that you don't just actually own, but you're actually reading that you're opening it up, that you're using it in your lessons and in your homes. But also, what about this? Could your youth be setting goals according to what they're finding in the For the Strength of Youth guide? Could they set goals about Jesus Christ and and how they might come to know Him so He could help them? Could they set goals about walking in the light and learning what that looks like? Could they set goals about truth and their education or something that they want to learn? Could we expand that goal opportunity a little bit by going into the For the Strength of Youth guide? And with that in mind, could we expand our activities? Could you sit together as a group and say what if, what if one of our activities this month comes from one of these principles in the For the Strength of Youth guide? What if our activity is centering around Jesus Christ? Or what if our activity is going to center around loving your neighbor? What would an activity like that look like? Or maybe you're going to talk about your body and that your body is sacred. And what does that look like? Well, that might look like a hike. That might look like learning how to feed it properly and making healthy food and clean food that you could get in this book, and it could actually give you so many ideas that would just expand your vision of what this program could look like. So will you take a picture of this slide and go back and counsel together with your class or your quorum? How could we be better at creating belonging at this gift that you're unusually gifted with? How could we create this gathering or this belonging at church, at camps, at conferences, at our annual events and at our midweek activities? What might that look like?
And if your youth plan a fun activity that just is fun, ask the question. Get them thinking about, okay, this is going to be great and we're going to enjoy this a lot. Now what could we do to to meet one of those spiritual dimensions that we hope exist in these kinds of programs? Could we do that? Is there anything we could do? Well, we could have an opening prayer. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's good. And we could, or we could have a spiritual thought before we go bowling or... You know what? I've got a friend who loves to do fingernails that we're going to do on this night. I could I could invite my friend. And if they start thinking about it, then these special gifts they have will come into play. And these activities will be fun as can be, but they'll also be rich.
We just need to expand their vision and in doing that, hopefully enlarge their souls. So what can you be doing to help create belonging in your youth program right now? We're going to talk about the last section now. And this section is becoming your best self as intended by heavenly parents. As we talk about this and what we want to help the youth with here, we're going to talk about helping them understand their purpose, sharing their progress through those regular bishop and bishopric interviews, and making and keeping covenants and what that looks like in their life. And as we do that, I’m going to take you back into the scriptures. We’re going to go to Acts chapter 3. This is a story that is familiar to all of us. This is the story of the man, the lame man, who is carried and laid daily at the gate of the temple in Acts chapter 3. And what happens is, on this particular day, Peter and John come, and seeing Peter and John about to go in the temple, he asked alms from them. He asked for help from them. And I love what happens in verse 4. It tells us Peter fastened his eyes upon him. And I just want you to pause for one second as we're ending this training, and I want you to think about the people in your class or in your quorum, who needs you to fasten your eyes on them right now? Is there someone who comes to mind as you think about that? And I love what happened is Peter says to him, look on us. And the man looked at them, hoping to receive something. And then Peter said, silver and gold have I none but such as I give, such as I have, I will give you. And then he says, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he takes him by the right hand, and he lifts him up. And again, I want you to think about that person and how might you lift them? What promptings might come that would help you as you are working with that person? And immediately he receives strength. And I love this. We see it in the Bible video when he just gets up and he doesn't just stand up. He tells us he leaping up, stood, and then he starts leaping and walking and praising God. And it is this moment of great celebration. And then there’s the sweetest line that talks about that he entered with Peter and John, and they went into the temple. And I love in verse 11 when it says, and as the lame man which was healed, held Peter and John. And there is just this moment of this companionship of this discipleship turned friendship in that moment. And what it led to was them walking into the temple together. And as we think about this last section, about this last call, about what it is to become, I want to turn again to the For the Strength of Youth guide and what it teaches us. It says keep your covenants with God and prepare to make more. Covenants connect you to Heavenly Father and the Savior. They increase God's power in your life and prepare you to receive eternal life. And this is one of the most important things that we can do in this youth program is to help everyone who's in this program come to understand how those ordinances and covenants will increase our ability to access the power of God. As we talk about the Aaronic Priesthood, this is something that we're not just teaching to the young men. This is something we're also teaching to the young women that those ordinances that we’re participating in, and the Melchizedek priesthood ordinances that we are preparing for are going to change their life. This is how they will draw upon God's power. And this topic of ordinances and covenants and priesthood power. This is one of the most important things we can teach the youth and how do we do it?
Those Melchizedek Priesthood ordinances will change their lives, and President Nelson says will change the world. And so as our young people think about, they usually have a hard time viewing themselves as disciples. And they wonder, how do I, how do I deepen my discipleship? You know, I believe, I want to believe, I have hope, you know, but how do I go from here to, you know, to Peter and the pathway flows through those covenants and through those ordinances that matter so much to us, so helping them to take them seriously matters. The Aaronic Priesthood members need to understand their place and their purpose and their potential in God's plan. Young men can learn a lot about who they should be and how they should behave themselves. With these simple sections in the Doctrine and Covenants. I say simple. There's nothing simple about them. There's just such beauty and texture to how we drive our lives in section 20 and 84 and 107. We must teach these Aaronic Priesthood young men who they are in God’s kingdom. They are more than just administrators of the sacrament. The deacon who passes the sacrament, the teacher who prepares the... The priest who who blesses the sacrament. As if that's not enough, because that's astonishingly a lot. But that's not everything. President Oaks has made the statement that the Aaronic Priesthood holds the keys of the gospel of repentance and of baptism and of the remission of sins. This is the gospel of Christ right here in the hands and under the stewardship of the Aaronic Priesthood. The cleansing power of our Savior's Atonement is renewed for us as we partake of the sacrament. The promise that we may always have His Spirit to be with us is essential for our spirituality. The ordinances of the Aaronic Priesthood are vital to all of this. Priesthood holders serve, and they serve in lots of ways. In sacrament meeting we know what that looks like, but it looks something like that throughout their lives. If they take it seriously, you Aaronic Priesthood holders will unlock the the blessings of the Atonement and of the the powers of Jesus Christ and of the lives of our members through those ordinances that you perform. You, you can draw on the power of God to bless them. We are preparing you and the young women in your ward and everybody in your ward to be prepared for endowment, for missions, and for a lifetime of service as disciples.
Let's talk for a minute about what this looks like for the young women, because this understanding of Aaronic Priesthood and Melchizedek Priesthood is not just for the quorums in our wards. This is something that is critical for our young women to understand, and I love that President Nelson has been tutoring us in helping us understand that these priesthood ordinances, combined with our covenant promises, are going to allow us to draw upon God's power to increase our capacity to help us overcome and become, to help us to be able to also understand our place, our purpose, and our potential in His plan. And so we are also going to turn to the scriptures and we are going to study, just as President Nelson invited us to, Doctrine and Covenants, section 25, 84 and 107. President Nelson said, what I can tell you is that accessing the power of God in your life requires the same things that the Lord instructed Emma and each of you to do. So I invite you to study prayerfully, section 25 of the Doctrine and Covenants, and discover what the Holy Ghost will teach you. This is important for the young women of the Church. We need to be reminded of who we are, the role of women in God's plan. As we look into scriptures and as we look into this restored scripture today, we find our purpose and our place within His plan and who we can become as we also turn to these priesthood ordinances and become promise keepers of these covenants. We also have the opportunity within the Young Women’s program to pray and to ask the Lord if a mission is right for us as young women, and also to prepare for the next ordinance that will come, to prepare for that next covenant that we will enter into that privilege that it will bring into our life as as we become covenant keepers. And we go through the temple, and then we go forth and serve in whatever capacity God calls us to. We have learned a lot today in this training. We’ve learned about believing in Jesus Christ, in His doctrines, in the importance of going to church and studying the scriptures and praying—those holy habits and righteous routines, and to look to the Come, Follow Me curriculum and what we’re learning there, but also to open the For the Strength of Youth guide and learn how to live in a higher and holier way. We’ve talked about what it looks like to belong in this Church, that the youth are unusually gifted in the gathering, in the welcoming in, how it’s going to take all of us working together, the youth, the leaders of the support team, the parents, and the bishop and the entire storehouse of a ward to create a program that will help this rising generation to prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. We've talked about that belonging that comes through seminary, through church attendance, through camps, yearly camps, and then through the FSY conference and youth conferences where we develop those relationships. And we've talked about what it looks like to become like Christ through ordinances and our covenant promises. And as we come to understand the priesthood deeper. Now, as you think about all of this, we want to end with a video. I love this little clip we're going to show you. It's short. And as you watch, will you pay particular attention to the phrases that stand out to you and think about why those phrases stood out to you? Simon.
Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Every time we show this video and we have the opportunity to talk with a live audience after, there's always the same things that they notice. And maybe these were some of the things that stood out to you. I love that moment when Jesus says, I will pray for you. I love knowing that Jesus Christ is a part of this great work, that He is in this with us. I love when He says to Peter, when thou art converted. Peter, who’s been with Him for three years, who’s witnessed the miracles, who's heard the teaching, he has been there. And I think to myself, you know what? It gives me a lot of hope when Jesus says, Peter, when you’re converted, and I realize this is something we’re practicing, this is something that happens over a lifetime. Becoming a lifelong disciple is actually going to take our life, our whole life long, to accomplish that and that He knows that about us. And then I love when He says, and as that happens, Peter, will you just strengthen your brethren along the way? And there are things that we can learn from that, important things that will help us. And I think this as you think about this and as we're practicing becoming these lifelong disciples, I love this quote that we read in the For the Strength of Youth guide. He will change your heart and your life. Little by little you will grow and become more like Him. Your covenant connection with Him will bring you greater access to His power. And that's how this is going to happen. That's how this is going to work, is we've got six years to become something, and it's going to happen little by little. All of us working together. This is a discipleship mentoring program.
You know, one of the powerful moments that you'll recall from the General Authority training that went on this, this April was, was from President Holland, who was speaking for his first time as, was training as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. And he got quite reflective about his time of service. And he said this thing and this is contained in that little library that we’ve directed you to, he said, I am consumed with the feeling that our Father in Heaven would like us to pray more frequently, to pray more seriously, to pray with an eye single to His glory. We can't just pray the way we always have in the same way, or inasmuch as nothing else we’re going to do from here on in, is going to be done in the way that we've always done it. We’re about a work of curious workmanship here, and President Holland, as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, is leading out in that. And so, as we finish our training now, would you just take a moment and let's reflect on the things that maybe you've captured in your notes or that have been captured in your minds? What is one thing that you're going to do differently? What's the next thing you're going to do in furtherance of your calling going out of here? Let's just take take a moment and have you think about and jot down what that one thing is that you’re absolutely going to go do now.
As we finish, I would just love to close with my testimony. What a privilege it is for us to be here in this program. We spent all of last year working on discipleship. Our theme scripture was I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life. This year we embark on a new challenge to look unto Christ, to doubt not and to fear not. I love that He is part of this journey with us. There are some things, as I have entered into this calling, and I have had the opportunity to visit with youth all over the world that I have come to believe. I know that we are beloved children of heavenly parents. I know that Jesus Christ is our strength. And I know that the Holy Ghost will not fail us if we listen and we respond to the promptings that we receive. This is a program that has been divinely orchestrated by a Father who loves His children. And I love the opportunity that the great privilege that is ours to work with the youth of this rising generation as we prepare the world for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And I bear testimony of that in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
And likewise, what a thrill it is to work with these young people, understanding as we have come to, that they are a special generation. They talked nice about us too, when we were young. But the way the prophet talks about these young people and the very specific purpose for the timing of their calling, we ought to treat each of them like the powerhouses that they, that they truly are and will become. And it must be said that if they were born for a time such as this, and surely they were, then so are you adult leaders born at a time such as this, to nurture them. There would have been no sons of Helaman. There would have been no stripling army if they hadn't had mothers who believed it, and if they hadn't, or who knew it, and if they hadn’t had fathers willing to lay down their very lives rather than violate their covenants. This is the Church we belong to, with parents and leaders like that, and with youth like that, who will go about just as the stripling warriors of old did in saving civilization. I’ll leave you my testimony that this is the Savior’s work. He’s serious about it. This is His work and His glory that we can play a role in. It is the greatest blessing of our existence. And I leave you that testimony. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.