Youth from around the world are invited to gather Sunday, Oct. 22, for something that has never happened in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — a global youth testimony meeting.
The worldwide “meeting” actually will be a series of thousands of shorter, local gatherings that combined will span 24 hours.
The event is meant to fill the world with testimonies of Jesus Christ. Youth may draw upon the 2023 youth theme, “I can do all things through Christ,” and share with each other how their testimonies have grown over the past year.
The event is not a centralized broadcast from the Church, but will include short, recorded messages with testimonies from the Prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, as well as Young Men General President Steven J. Lund and Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman.
Youth and leaders are encouraged to gather at 7 p.m. in their time zones that Sunday to view the recorded messages and then share their own testimonies with each other. The start time may be adjusted as needed by local leadership.
Below is a suggested outline for this meeting, according to information posted on ChurchofJesusChrist.org:
- Opening musical number and prayer by youth.
- View the recorded message; video will be about 20 minutes long.
- Testimonies from youth.
- Closing prayer.
- Post-event gathering as desired.
Youth can connect globally during the 24 hours of testimonies by sharing their experiences on social media using the hashtag #AllThingsThroughChrist.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox, first counselor in the Young Men general presidency, told the parents, grandparents, youth leaders and youth in the Marriott Center during BYU Education Week last month that bearing testimony is powerful.
“You can feel the spirit confirm the words of someone else’s testimony, but it is much more powerful to have the spirit bear witness of the words that are coming out of your own mouth,” he said.
He told the audience to mark their calendars for Oct. 22 when — because of different time zones — for 24 hours, the youth of the Church will stand wherever they are and will participate in the largest youth testimony meeting in the history of the world.
“On that day, they will feel the Spirit,” Brother Wilcox said. “We encourage quorum and class presidencies to council together on how best to encourage all the youth for whom they are responsible to gather and participate on Oct 22. On that day, they will feel like leaders in this work. ... The Spirit will pour out in those testimony meetings among those young people and tell them the words they are speaking are true.”
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