Small groups of young men were invited to join Young Men General President Steven J. Lund and his wife, Sister Kalleen Lund, while visiting historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Missouri as part of his ministry there March 13-16.
At each historic site, President Lund and the young men discussed the events that took place there and issues facing youth today, according to a report posted March 18 on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
At the reconstructed Liberty Jail, President Lund encouraged them to have hope in Jesus Christ and remember the final words shared by Joseph Smith from that very location in March of 1839 — Doctrine and Covenants 123:17: “Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.”
The Prophet Joseph Smith and others were imprisoned there on false charges for several months from December 1838 to April 1839.
At the Far West Temple Site, where cornerstones were laid but a temple wasn’t built, President Lund bore his testimony of priesthood keys by speaking of modern-day prophets and apostles.
In Independence, Missouri, the theme discussed was “Building Zion” in individual lives, quorums, wards and stakes.
Early Church members moved to the frontier town of Independence in the early 1830s, but tensions with earlier settlers resulted in the Saints being driven from the county. The Church has a visitors’ center there.
Speaking at an evening devotional, President Lund told experiences of youth who are changing the world in places he has visited, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Pakistan, Thailand and Uganda.
“I feel the strength of the youth of Zion that are the leaders of the Church already and will continue to lead throughout their lives,” President Lund said. “The youth battalion we have spreading out over the world is changing this world.”
Additional activities during the four-day ministry included a service project with young men clearing debris and planting trees near the Kansas City Missouri Temple grounds, as well as a devotional and music festival in Olathe, Kansas, with young single adults in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Sam Benson, a young man in the Lenexa Kansas Stake, said: “Knowing what the early Saints sacrificed in that time to serve the Lord and to build Zion showed me that this work of the Lord left such an impression on them to continue in faith despite the many trials they went through. We need to work together, and like the people of Enoch, with ’one heart and one mind’ so that we can prepare the world for the Savior’s return to Zion.”
