“Children and Youth Program and For the Strength of Youth (FSY) Conferences,’” 2023 BYU Women’s Conference (2023)
“Children and Youth Program and For the Strength of Youth (FSY) Conferences,” 2023 BYU Women’s Conference
Children and Youth Program and For the Strength of Youth (FSY) Conferences
2023 BYU Women’s Conference • Thursday, May 4, 2023
President Steven J. Lund: I understand that in Springville, Utah, a policeman was following a farm truck and saw the driver of the truck stop and run around behind with a stick and bang on the back of the truck a number of times and jump back in the cab of the truck again and then drive a little distance and jump out, bang on the back of the truck, and then went a little bit further again. And finally, the policeman pulled him over to see what was going on. And the farmer said, “Well, it’s simple. I’ve got nine tons of chickens in there, and this is only a three-ton pickup truck. So to make this work, we got to keep them floating.” Now, that could have been a story—that might not have actually happened in Springville, Utah—but that could have been a story about any bishop in the Church or any parent feeling like they are too little truck and too much load. Our task, after all, is to prepare a generation to march blithely into a darkening world and prepare it for the Savior’s return. So it is time for all hands to be on deck. We need to get everybody floating to make this work. We’ll succeed together as we work together. The answer to this problem of too little truck and too much load is the Children and Youth program. It’s designed to get everybody floating.
Brother Michael T. Nelson: One month after President Nelson was sustained, he spoke directly to the youth in an extended fireside and devotional. He said to them: “My beloved [young] brothers and sisters, 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!” When you think about all of the technological advances and all of the wonderful things that are happening in this world, we can understand how that statement can be fulfilled and that the youth have the capacity to do exactly what he said: to be smarter, to be wiser, and to have an impact—a greater impact on the world than any previous generation.
How are they to realize that potential and that capacity? How are we to help them to arrive at that? Very different from us. They do not want to be involved unless they are included in a part of the process from the creation to the end. They by nature are cautious of any and suspicious of any motivation that they perceive to manipulate their behavior. They have a remarkable, innate desire for everyone to belong and to be treated equally and to have all of the blessings. This young man, young boy, on this bicycle has the capacity to ride that bike alone. He had that capacity before he ever was put onto the bicycle. If he were told to sit on the curb while his father or mentor rode up and down the street, he possibly would never learn to ride a bike. If he were handed a bicycle and left alone and just told to go ride, likewise, he would never learn to ride the bike as effectively or as quickly as he does with the help.
President Nelson, two years later, 18 months later, said to the youth, or to the adults regarding the youth, “We need to let the young people lead.” That statement was made to all people, all youth, all young people. While we will consider today some of the things that leaders are helped with in supporting the youth, our approach, hopefully, will go home to parents, where youth can utilize the Children and Youth tool as well as they do in the Church. “We need to let the young people lead, particularly those who have been called and set apart to serve in class and quorum presidencies. Priesthood authority will have been delegated to them. They will learn how to receive inspiration in leading their class or quorum.”
Children and Youth is designed for our youth to learn how to fulfill their capacity. Think of it as a tool more than a program. Similar to the Come, Follow Me tool that encourages and supports and helps gospel study at home and at church, the Children and Youth tool will likewise be used in the home and at church. It will help the youth learn how to act rather than be acted upon. It is not an effective tool for parents or for leaders to use in trying to act upon the children or the youth. They will literally reject or have no interest in it at all. In order to help us as adults and parents in supporting the youth in their implementation of the Children and Youth tool, there are several resources that the Church has put together. Those resources are held in Gospel Library. If you want to be getting your telephones out, we’ll go there quickly.
President Nelson has had a plea to all members of the Church, and particularly to the youth. He has pled that faith in Jesus Christ be built and that we develop a pattern of receiving revelation. The youth’s process of doing or acting will help them build faith because faith without works is dead or has no purpose. It’s in the doing that their faith will be built. Likewise, they will learn that revelation comes in the process of seeking as they are left to find solutions. If we were, as adults or as Google, to continue giving them the answer, they will never have a need to seek for and develop the pattern of revelation in their lives.
In the Gospel Library, if you’ll find “Youth.” At the bottom, it says “Helps for Presidencies.” Although we often turn to these to help teach and educate youth leaders, these tools are as valuable for parents to help their youth at home to develop these same habits and these same skills. Under the “Help for Presidencies,” there’s an orientation guide. That orientation guide is developed primarily for bishoprics to use as they send a calling to young women and young men into the quorum and into the class presidencies. The key feature of that orientation is that the bishopric will, after prayerfully considering their calling, let them know and bear witness that they were called by revelation and that they should learn to incorporate revelation as they serve in their calling. There’s other tools. There’s some planning documents, sample agendas. There’s also some leadership lessons. These lessons are not developed for just the class and quorum presidencies to know how to lead in their quorum and class. These lessons are developed for all youth so that they can lead at home, at school, within homes and families, and at church. There are also five new video resources done by youth, with youth teaching their peers how to lead according to the instruction in the five lessons. Those videos are embedded in the lessons also.
So, all of this has been developed in order to grow leaders out of our youth. President Nelson has been encouraging the youth to learn to lead. It’s known among us as members of the Church that our youth will need to lead the world in the future, that they will be those that—as thousands and millions turn to the Savior Jesus Christ for the answer to their life’s and eternal life’s dreams and goals, that the Church will need to have leaders. These leaders who are learning as youth will be prepared at the time of their day when they will be called into those positions of leadership. I share my testimony that as we use these tools not as a program but as tools to help them develop their capacity, we will find that our Heavenly Father is doing His work through His leaders in this Church with His children upon the earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox: Thank you, Brother Nelson. For the first time in Church history, the Young Men and the Young Women General Presidencies are working together. We have two of the counselors (who are going to be taking their positions on August 1) of the new Young Women [General] Presidency that was announced at conference with us today. Sisters, do you mind standing up so that they can see you? Yes. Another clap. We are anxious to work with them. We’ve been so grateful for the relationship we have with the current Young Women [General] Presidency. And in the past, the Young Men [General] Presidency has been worried and busy about running scouting, and now that scouting is not part of the program, the Young Men and Young Women are working together, training together, teaching together, serving together. We meet together regularly every week on Tuesdays; we have extensive meetings together. We’re working together to run and to help move forward FSY. So it’s a wonderful example of what needs to be happening in stakes and wards as well, as leaders of youth for the young men and leaders of youth for the young women start working closer together than we have in the past. And that’s a beautiful thing. Sister Kapp talked to us one day, and she said, “Vaughn Featherstone was serving in the Young Men, and I was serving in the Young Women.” And she says, “We used to pass each other in the hall. And Elder Featherstone would say, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could actually work together instead of just say hello to each other in the hall?’” And that day has finally come; the day that Elder Featherstone and Sister Kapp longed for is now a reality. And so, sisters, we’re welcoming you. We love you, and we look forward to working with you.
Now, when Jesus was young—we don’t have much in the scriptures about His youth and teenage years—but we do know that [when He was] a young teenager, [His family] were heading back from Jerusalem to Nazareth, and they couldn’t find Jesus. So Joseph and Mary went and finally found Him teaching in the temple. And you remember Jesus’s response? He said, “[I need] to be about my Father’s business.” This is found in Luke 2. That’s the context for the Children and Youth program. We want them to just connect with the Savior. And just as the Savior grew in every area of His life as He engaged in the work of His Father, we know that our young people will grow in every area of their lives as they engage in the work of salvation and exaltation.
Some of you might be old enough to remember when President Kimball used to talk about the threefold mission of the Church. Do you remember it? Let’s see if we can call it out. What was one of the first ones? Yeah, to preach the gospel. What else? Redeem the dead. And another one? Perfect the Saints. Now you’ll see that that threefold mission that many of us have ingrained in us has been phrased in such beautiful language. The same missions but beautiful language. President Thomas S. Monson is the one who added the fourth mission of caring for the poor and needy. Now, in the General Handbook, you see “Live the Gospel of Jesus Christ”; it used to be “Perfect the Saints.” President Monson’s addition: “Care for Those in Need.” Instead of “Preach the Gospel,” it says, “Invite All to Receive the Gospel.” And instead of “Redeem the Dead,” we have “Unite Families for Eternity.”
So, what are the youth about? This is what the youth are about. The youth are about their Father’s business. And as Brother Nelson explained, Children and Youth becomes a tool that helps them be about their Father’s business. In a ward youth council, what are they discussing? Right in the handbook it says they’re discussing how can we better help the youth and the members of the ward to live the gospel, to care for those in need, to invite others to receive the gospel, to unite families for eternity. And as they counsel together on that, then the youth’s voices are heard. And instead of being the problem to be solved, the youth become the solution to the problem. Not many mission presidents say, “I could sure get a lot done if it weren’t for these pesky missionaries.” Mission presidents and their wives say it’s the missionaries who help us do the work. And that’s the perspective that the Young Women presidents, the Young Men presidents, of the stakes, the bishoprics—that’s the perspective they need to have. They need to be able to say not, “What are we going to do to entertain the youth while the rest of us are working on the work of salvation and exaltation?” We want them to be able to say, “How can the youth help us?” One bishop who caught that vision said, “I have two assistants in my priests quorum. That’s kind of like a mission president who has two assistants to help him.” And so when they heard that there was a passing of a member of the ward, this wise bishop, instead of calling his counselors or even the elders quorum and Relief Society, he called his assistants and said, “Would you go meet with this family, express condolences, and ask how they would like to prepare for the funeral?” And two young priests went and did the work of salvation.
We are so excited to see young people all over the world standing up and embracing this work. And as they do, this is becoming their church. This is no longer mom’s church or dad’s church or President Nelson’s church. This becomes their church. And as they feel that ownership and learn to lead, as Brother Nelson was talking about, it’s been amazing to watch what’s been happening. Now the poor Children and Youth program got off to a rough start. I mean, you have to admit it. I mean, somebody needed to bang on the back of that truck and get those chickens floating because all the chickens died during COVID. I mean, the program was kicked off in 2019, and they had a big production, and everybody was all excited. And then in 2020, the world shut down and the Church shut down and nobody even remembers there is a Children and Youth program. I ask teenagers, “What’s the Children and Youth program?” And they say, “Goal setting?” And then I asked the leaders, “What’s the Children and Youth program?” And they say, “Goal setting?” Goal setting is a small part, but it’s just a part of a larger program. There are three main parts.
[First,] gospel learning. If those young people are doing seminary, they’re doing the youth program. If they’re not in seminary, they’re not doing the youth program. And what can we do as parents and adult leaders in wards and stakes? We can get them in seminary. Then we’re getting them in the youth program. If they’re doing Come, Follow Me at home with families, in church, in classes, on their own, they’re doing the youth program. We used to have a Church that functioned over here and a youth program that functioned in addition to what was going on at church. And now church and the youth program are the exact same thing. We want them learning the gospel. And as they do, they will strengthen their relationship with Christ, and they will be engaged in the work of salvation.
[Second,] service and activities. Now, as Brother Nelson said, we don’t just want them attending service and activities; we don’t want them just going through the list and saying which activities sound interesting to me that the adults are planning. We want them involved with planning the service and activities because then they’ll own them and then we won’t have to worry about getting them there on Wednesday nights because they will be the ones worrying about getting their friends there on Wednesday nights. We’ve got to make sure that they’re engaged in the planning of these activities. President Lund is going to talk to us about the centerpiece of those activities, and that’s FSY.
President, just while it’s crossing my mind, these people—would you guys stand up from the office? These people work at the BYU office of FSY. You’ll see FSY on their shirts. They’re going to be here, so if you have questions or complaints, come down after and talk to them because they’ll be standing right over here, and you can visit with them about FSY, and you can talk to them about your suggestions or ask them questions, and they’ll be here to help you.
But before President Lund talks about that, let me mention also camping. That’s part of the activities. Somehow scouting left, and some man said to me, “Oh, I really miss scouting.” I said, “Why?” He says, “Because the boys learn to lead.” I said, “What do you think deacons quorum presidencies are all about? What do you think teachers quorum presidencies are all about? What do you think priests quorum assistants—what do you think that’s all about? Learning to lead.” He says, “Yeah, but I still miss scouting.” I said, “Why?” He says, “Because we used to camp.” I said, “You had to have the word scouting? You had to pay millions of dollars to have that word so that you could camp?” Come on! There’s nothing that says we’re not still camping. So if your bishop sold the camp trailer, go tell him to buy it back. We need that camp trailer. We need those griddles. We need to get the young men and young women away from their cell phones, up in the mountains where they don’t have any reception. And we need to be able to get them connected with nature, connected with God, and away bonding together.
FSY is wonderful because they bond as young men and young women together, but we need that camp experience every summer so that girls can bond with girls. And you know, sitting here at a women’s conference, that girls act a little differently when they’re with girls than when they’re with boys. They need that experience, and the boys need that same experience. And sisters, it’s time for you to help the Young Men leaders understand that camp is not going to Uncle Sam’s cabin and playing video games. That is not camping. We want them to have the same kind of experience that brings girls home from camp in the summer saying, “This changed my life.” Boys come home from scout camp, and they have to repent. It’s time that we get a little bit more working together so that young women can have some of the high adventure experiences that boys have enjoyed and boys can have some of the more spiritually focused experiences that the girls have enjoyed.
And camps should go on every summer even if FSY is happening. “Oh well, we’ve got FSY; everything else got canceled.” No. FSY takes the place of a youth conference, but it doesn’t take the place of camp. Camp needs to be happening every summer. We’ve got to be able to make sure that they’re having those positive camping experiences and that they’re engaged. Guess what President Lund has decided to call the older boys who take care of a boy camp, a Young Men encampment: YCLs. Does that sound familiar? We don’t have to invent a new term for something that is working beautifully throughout the Church with the young women. These older girls take responsibility for the younger girls, and we need our young men to follow that pattern. So, that’s service and activities.
The final part of the program is personal development. That’s where goal setting fits in, but not goal setting for goal setting’s sake. I asked a boy the other day, “What is your physical goal?” He said, “Breathe.” I said, “I’m glad you’re stretching yourself there. Glad you’re really stepping out of the old comfort zone.” If goals are set for the sake of setting goals, then it becomes so meaningless that it doesn’t move the young people in their personal development. Instead, as Brother Nelson said, we’re using goals as a way of teaching personal revelation. We used to have young people look at a book—a scout book, a Personal Progress book—and we used to say, “All right. What do they want us to do?” Now we’re not looking at those books. Now we want the young people to look at God and say, “What do You want me to do?” And if that young person will do that with even an ounce of sincerity, God’s going to answer, and God’s going to tell them to do something hard. He’s not going to tell them to do something easy. And whenever they feel like they’ve got a hard goal in front of them, then they have to turn to God and turn to Christ for their grace, for their power. Because they’ll realize, just like we’ve realized, that you can’t do it alone.
Now, in that moment, how can adult leaders help? Share. Share your goals. Share times when you have received personal revelation. How can parents help their youth with their goals? Share. Share a time when you’ve been told by God to do something that’s so far out of your comfort zone that the only way you could even think about achieving was turning to God. Share those experiences.
Somehow in the mess of COVID, we figured out that we were never supposed to talk to youth about goals. You’re supposed to set them. It’s a home-centered thing, and none of the rest of us are even going to ever ask about it. What kind of a youth program is that? That’s not what was intended. They simply wanted us to know that there are personal goals that might be too personal to share. But those aren’t the only goals the youth have. Don’t hesitate to ask the youth about their goals. Don’t hesitate to share with them and to help them and to coach them and mentor them as they’re reaching not for the goal that the book says they should be doing but for the goal that God says that they need to be working on. Don’t worry about planning activities to help their goals. No. Plan the activities so that we can do the work of salvation and exaltation, and let the goals be something that you’re working with them for their own personal development. Now, if all of that is too hard to remember— Well, first I wanted to share this quote from President Nelson: “We are inviting you to counsel with the Lord about how you can grow. … You will need to seek personal revelation. You will need to choose for yourself how to act on it. Sometimes the Spirit may prompt you to do things that are difficult. I think you are up to the challenge. You can do hard things.”
Now, if all of this is too hard to remember—gospel learning, service and activities, personal development—if it’s too hard to keep track of, just remember the word Jesus. Let’s say it together. What’s the Children and Youth program? Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. It’s all about becoming like Him in every area of our lives. It’s about being about the work that was His Father’s work and is our Father’s work. It’s all about connecting with Christ in such a way that you would never leave, ever. Now, we had a lot of young people go through programs in the past, and some of them never made that connection. They got their little badges, they got their little buttons, they got their little medallions, and they got their little awards, but they never made a connection with Christ that was so strong that they just wouldn’t even dream of walking away. That’s the youth program. Now, it seems a little like we’re almost being flippant when I say, “Let’s say ‘Jesus’ together.” It sounds almost like that’s being a little flippant, but it’s not. If you had asked any member of this Church two years ago, “What’s the youth program for the boys?” What would everybody have said? Scouting. If you’d said, “What’s the youth program for the girls?” What would everybody in this Church have said? Personal Progress. And not one member of the Church of Jesus Christ would have said, “Jesus.” We would have gotten there, but it would have been several paragraphs down. And we want these young people to know that this program is all about strengthening their faith and their dependence on Jesus Christ. I bear testimony that it is making a difference in the lives of the youth who are implementing it and sensing the greatness of this work. And I say that in the name of the Savior, amen.
President Lund: We have a lot of priorities in this Church, don’t we? We’ve got a lot of the most important things. You know, the main thing is the main thing. But here’s the thing. We’ve done a lot of research on this, and we’ve found that we’ve never lost a young person from the Church because they didn’t know how to tie a square knot. Never lost one. Or because she didn’t make the cheer squad or because their lacrosse game was shaky. But we lose kids all the time because they go through their teenage years never having built a connection with the Savior. They go to church with us. And then they move on, never having felt the joy and the connection of carrying the Light of Christ into dark places, places where it’s needed. So, I don’t know why Brad makes me cry like this. I just always cry when I’m around him. So. So what? Well, so it’s not an overstatement to say that the Children and Youth program is just about that. It’s about bringing people to Christ, bringing our young people to Christ and helping them to come to know Him. And we do that through all these mechanisms that Mike and Brad have been talking about. Getting them to lead. You put a deacons quorum president or a Young Women’s class president on her knees praying about the kids in their quorums and in their classes, trying to figure out how to find help, and have them feel the powers of heaven enlightening their minds about ways that they can actually bring help to these causes, then they come to know Him in ways that they are no longer tourists just passing through their parents’ church. They come to take ownership over their membership and over their discipleship because they come to know Him through these mechanisms. So thank you, Brad, for saying that so powerfully.
So, the activities program of the Church, the Children and Youth program, is a wide variety of things. It’s about camping. And that’s the piece that we’re most nervous about right now because we’re kind of losing our edge there. You know, we used to have Young Men’s presidents that were called because they had a pickup truck and a tent. And now the Young Men’s president is called because he is a judge in Israel and has the wisdom to be a bishop. And he may not necessarily come with a pickup truck or with that package or those interests that are there. And yet this needs to be going on in our units. And so we need to figure out unit by unit how we’re going to help the bishop to get these kids outside. … Our research with youth shows that the most important thing that goes on in any Church activity, the most important thing, and that includes Sunday School, is the relationship that gets formed between the youth and an adult leader. Go interview somebody who’s 40 years old and say, “Why are you active and your brother’s not?” They’ll usually say, “Because of a Young Men’s president. Because of a bishop that I became close to. And when I had problems and when I had hard questions to answer, I had somebody who I knew loved me and would take care of me.”
The best place our research shows to form those relationships—they happen in Sunday School class, and we certainly want to do that—but get them out in a wilderness environment, you know, away from their phone but also away from society, away from all of the distractions that keep them from thinking deep thoughts about deep things. And then it’s best if you can have them experience some near-death experiences together with that adult leader. No, no, we don’t want to really actually have them get close to death, do we, Brethren? But we want them to think they have been there. Take a 12-year-old on a mountainside within sight of his own house; a dog barks in the night, he knows it’s werewolves, and the only thing standing between him and the horrors are those adult leaders who are out there sleeping in the rocks and eating the same burnt eggs that they are. And they do that for a while, and they come to know each other on a level that you just can’t come to know each other sitting in church, passing in hallways, and so forth. And so it’s critically important. Everything we do, though, is about that: connecting them to the Savior through their leaders, through the teachings that go on in the various teaching mechanisms, through the goals that they set. It’s all about that: helping them to know the Savior and who He is.
So one of the most important, maybe the most important activity on our schedule here is the For [the] Strength of Youth conferences that have gone on. How many of you have had relatives attend in the past? Most of you. I hope all of you soon enough. This team that’s here with us has done an amazing thing. We went pretty much from a standing start to last year we had 103,000 youth on 60 different college campuses around the United States and Canada attend FSY conference. This year we’ve already, as of yesterday—didn’t the number just tip 15,000? 14,800—is that what it was? 14,800? Something like that. And we’re still weeks away from it beginning. So the numbers are continuing to toll. So we’re continuing to attract more and more kids into this program, kids who generally don’t want to go. You know this, right? Because going to camp is scary, and I’m going to be outside of my comfort zone, and I’m way happier here in my bedroom where I don’t have to deal with people. And then you make them go, and you’ve maybe heard me say this: they show up. And if you talk to them on a Friday and they got there on Monday and you say, “How’s it going?” they’ll say, “Well, on Monday, I wanted to kill my mother because I didn’t want to come to this. And I knew this wasn’t for me. And then I got here, and I got to know these people, and now it’s Friday, and I don’t want to go home. I want to live like this. Those kids that I met on Monday within an hour became my friends.”
So the reason we do FSY is because we’ve done research on this too. When we left scouting, the Brethren tasked the Young Men and the Young Women and the Priesthood and Family Department to build a replacement program. And so the first question they asked was, “Go figure out what we’ve already done that works that’s not scouting.” You know, what is it that’s working? One of the first things that appeared on the whiteboard was, well, EFY—this FSY program as it emerged from here at BYU. It was a program that was here, and these folks were pioneers in that. Brad, about 72 years ago, was a 40-year-old counselor. And no, he was one of the early counselors. And Todd Willey here is one of the very early, earlier counselors. And they iterated this year after year after year and figured out how to—what kinds of experiences matter and how to balance the fun factor against everything else that’s going on. And the research shows that kids who had an EFY experience had a materially better outcome on average than those that didn’t. That didn’t mean you had to go to EFY to—it’s not a saving ordinance. But on average, we were saving more kids who otherwise would have drifted than those that weren’t able to go do that.
And the Brethren scratched their heads at that and said, “Well, then why would we restrict this to kids who live close enough to get to BYU or to some other place who could afford the transportation and the hundreds of dollars it costs? If we’re making that kind of a difference, if we’re bringing these kids to Christ through this mechanism, let’s make it available to everyone.” And that has become our mandate. And we go around the world, and we’re not there yet, but any young person who wants to go, we’re going to great lengths to get them to these events here and internationally. You know, we’re working on special-needs support activities as well that will let them participate, you know, kids who’ve got special needs and so forth. We’re not completely there. We’re way further down the road this year than we were last year. We’re really proud of what’s there, but that is what drives all of this, that we want those better activity rates. And by outcomes, I mean more of them going on missions, more kids with temple recommends, more of them who got married in the temple, got sealed in the temple, who were active 5, 10, 15, 20 years later.
And so I say all that to say if you’ve got a young person who doesn’t want to go to EFY—or FSY—you have to ask yourself, “What has that got to do with it?” You know, if they have to walk through glass to get here, you get them here. And turn them over to this team and the three thousand young single adults who they’ve hired who are going to be scattered across 60 college campuses serving as counselors for them, and watch the miracles happen.
So one wonders, “Why does it have to happen here? Why does a kid have to go to FSY to discover he belongs to a cool church and that that church is actually true? That Christ heads that church? Why would they? What happens at FSY?” You go there, and I expect them to be talking about some arcane doctrine, you know, that nobody’s—you know—that we don’t talk about in the rest of the Church. They don’t. It’s the same gospel. In fact, it’s the very same teachers. These are seminary teachers, primarily, institute teachers, that are teaching these classes and so forth. They’re not quite as good as the Sunday School teacher in your ward, but the thing that matters— I’m just kidding about that. They’re about as good. The thing that matters is that they’re pulled out of their lives for an extended period of time. Those days matter because they immediately start to become reoriented around the realities of earth life, about who they are and what their identity is. And they have fun together. And mixing fun with spirituality is so inviting that they can’t help themselves. Let’s go to this next. …
[Start video]
Music: Light my way, light my way. Without You I’m just lost in the haze. Light my way, light my way. You are my only escape, so, come and light my way. So, come and light my way. Light my way, light my way.
Youth 1: I was hoping when I came to FSY, I’d be able to connect with more of the youth my age, and that was accomplished tenfold.
Youth 2: We only met two days ago, but we are already best friends.
Youth 3: I also was able to feel the Spirit so much throughout all of FSY. It was just a great experience.
Youth 4: When I came here, it, like, changed me, and I had, like, so much faith.
Youth 5: This is such a good environment to be in. I will never forget this.
Youth 6: I feel like the person I was four days ago has changed, and I can’t recognize me now.
[End video]
President Lund: “I feel like the person I was four days ago has changed, and I [can] recognize me now.” That me—that me she recognizes is the beloved daughter of Heavenly Parents with a divine nature and eternal destiny that she’s always been but that she’s been talked out of by modern society. And when she gets reminded of that, then the powers of heaven start to become activated in her life and in their lives.
[Start video]
Youth 7: It really wasn’t what I was expecting.
Youth 8: Like, the first day was always, like, was already amazing. But I was able to get to know the girls that were in my room. And just, like, I was already, like, convinced, like, at that moment I was like, “Oh, wow, I really want to be here.”
Youth 9: The company that I was in started to be like my family.
Youth 10: It was, like, the best week of my life easily.
Youth 11: I really liked all the people I got to meet.
Youth 12: It just reminded me of how fun it was to make memories with a bunch of new people.
Youth 13: I was able to know that there’s other people just like me with the same kind of struggles.
Youth 10: I made so many friends and I learned so many things there, and I would totally do it again.
Youth 7: They went over stuff that I was not expecting to be taught. Like, “How can I feel the Spirit in a world that’s constantly busy and full of distractions?”
Youth 8: It just taught me to give time for the Lord and just study more of the gospel. Put my heart into it. And it just blessed my whole life.
Youth 14: It just helped me, like, open my eyes to see how much I can, like, take out of gospel study into my life. I made a goal to, like, choose a different topic every week, and I’ve been able to do that since FSY, and it’s been amazing.
Youth 15: I’ve been able to, like, understand the gospel more thoroughly.
Youth 10: You get to know the Savior more.
Youth 7: And then there was testimony meeting. That was—that was the highlight of the week. That was awesome.
Youth 16: It’s a fun experience to get away and to meet new people that are really good people.
Youth 7: We had a blast. It was a lot of fun.
Youth 14: It’s so worth it. Like, you get the chance to build your testimony, become closer with Jesus Christ, and like, get to know Him and just, like, be around a bunch of good people that have the same standards as you.
[End video]
President Lund: So what’s the secret sauce of FSY? It’s important that we know because these kids shouldn’t have to come here to discover that there’s a God in Israel, should they? If we—maybe if we can do some of these same things at the ward level and at the stake level, you know, every week, every month, every year, then we’ll start escalating these kids so that when they come to FSY, every time they’re on a higher plane and a higher plane. And so, just quickly, fun factor matters, and these guys know how to have fun. They teach them dances. They sing songs. They do great things. Another secret sauce ingredient is time spent. You can’t do this stuff passing in a hallway, and you can’t do this stuff in an overnighter. Getting them out of the world where they can come under the influence of the Savior and remain there for days on end allows their brains to get reoriented around this truth that they are—their identity is that of sons and daughters of God, and He has a work for them to do. Meaning there’s purpose to this life. They’re not just automatons drifting through life with nothing to do. But there’s a reason for them having come here. As they come to understand that, they become different people.
[Start video]
Youth 17: We go to FSY, and it’s an opportunity to really find ourselves and express ourselves freely. When we got there, we were all strangers, but by the second hour that we were there, we were brothers. It definitely left a really great impression on my habits and the things I do daily and the way that I think, especially. I think that’s a very important thing that we went there to do is to learn how to think, to learn how to perceive God’s commandments, to perceive His teachings. You’re so full of joy and pride for your religion, for God, and for your brothers and your sisters that you are able to mingle with and get to know and really, really share experiences with each other. It’s really changed my perception of how I see the world.
[End video]
President Lund: So it’s those trusting relationships formed with these young single adults. Now, adult leaders, you know, we do our best, and we do great. But a 21-year-old returned missionary or an 18-year-old about to leave on his mission becomes a near-peer confidant of these kids—“near-peer” meaning they look at me and they say, “I don’t even think I want to become that. I don’t even want to become that.” But they look at these—any one of these young women or young men—these young single adults, and they say, “Wow, here’s somebody who brings cool factor into their discipleship and their discipleship is never compromised. I didn’t know you could do that. I can do that. I do want to be that.” And so somehow in our wards and stakes, if we can use those young single adults to greater effect, they can have perhaps a bigger difference, a bigger impact on these kids than we can as adults.
Finally, a final ingredient that really matters is every night that they’re there during that week, they find themselves in a little circle in their dorm rooms, usually with one of these young single adult advisers or two. And they get asked the questions “So what happened today that we should remember? What did you feel today that would be worth writing down? What should we be capturing here? Let’s talk about that.” And so they start talking about, well, you know, in Brother Johnson’s class, he talked about this thing, and I felt this thing, and it made me think about my brother. And then the next person talks like that. And in a very casual way, without them even realizing it, they’re having a testimony meeting where they’re talking about the powers of heaven intersecting with their lives that very day. And so then, “OK, then let’s write those things down.” And so they’ll start capturing those things. And the next day, it’ll happen again. And the next day, it’ll happen again. And as they see the mound of evidence that continues to grow as they go through this week, as they apply themselves to living the gospel and studying the gospel, by the end of the week, they’ve discovered that they don’t have to live in the dark, that they can actually be disciples. That’s our prayer for them.
When I was 16 years old, I had a friend who is a real go-getter who said, “Up at BYU”—this is in Northern California—“at BYU, they do something called an Explorer-Ensign Conference.” This was a precursor to EFY. Nobody I’ve ever talked to has ever even heard of this. I think it happened once. And so we saved money and sold—I don’t know. We somehow managed to get up here, and they held the sessions in this room, and it was poodles on a leash. The place was just vibrating with 14-, 15-, 16-year-olds who were just completely out of control, and they were having a meeting. And we’re all talking up there, and we’re just so happy to be away from home and out of the heat. It was air-conditioned in here. And a Seventy—and I was not intellectually equipped to know what a Seventy was—came up to this microphone like this, and nobody’s paying attention. It was the most embarrassing thing in the world. We weren’t smart enough to be embarrassed. And he said, “I know that God lives”—110 decibels. And he looked around, and then he said again, “I know that God lives.” And now people started to quiet down as he let that sink in. Until it got silent. And then—then when it dropped to silent, he said again, “I know that God lives.” And then he spoke for five minutes, and he sat down. And we went from here over to Deseret Towers, where we were staying, and they put us in a little room, and our leaders were ready to kill us because we were so embarrassing to them all. And so they were going to make us have a testimony meeting. “And we’ll start with you.” And he points at me. He wasn’t as refined as everybody else. “Bear your testimony or go home” kind of a thing. So I thought for a minute and said, “Well, I did feel something today when whoever that was said that. By the third time I knew that I knew it too, that God lives.”
These mechanisms work. My life is better because of these experiences. Our prayer is that through these Children and Youth features that are available to us, that we’ll bang the back of that trailer and get everybody in float so that we can move toward a brighter future together. I’m grateful to be part of this amazing work that has been inspired by prophets and seers and revelators. I leave you that testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.