During a 10-day ministry in the Pacific Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson and Sister Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency, shared messages of faith and hope during meetings and devotionals aimed at strengthening members and leaders.
Beginning in Sydney, Australia, the assignment was a homecoming for Sister Runia and her husband, Brother Scott Runia, who served as mission leaders in the Australia Sydney Mission from 2018 to 2021.
“This feels like my home,” said Sister Runia on Friday, Sept. 12, in one of the devotionals, reported the Church’s Pacific Newsroom.
“As mission leaders, we didn’t just serve here — we lived here, we prayed here, we laughed and cried here, and we grew to love the people with our whole hearts,” she said.
President Johnson, who was accompanied by her husband, Brother Douglas R. Johnson, said the iconic opera house, harbor and bridge in Sydney were even more grand than she expected.
“I think that’s the case with respect to the temple,” President Johnson explained. “Our temple buildings are iconic, but it’s so much grander when we’re there.”
She invited the Latter-day Saints to be in the house of the Lord. “As President [Russell M.] Nelson said, it will change your life.”
President Johnson and Sister Runia also spent time together and apart in the countries of Vanuatu, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand.
What President Johnson saw in Vanuatu and Samoa
In Port Vila, Vanuatu, President Johnson met mothers who are being blessed through the Church’s member-focused child nutrition program with health screenings, education and follow-up visits.
“We saw distinct improvement in those children,” President Johnson said in a video on her social media pages.
President Johnson said being in Vanuatu was a “marvelous opportunity” as she saw the members anticipate a new house of the Lord. The Port Vila Vanuatu Temple has been under construction since April 2023.
“I know that the Lord remembers His children on the isles of the sea,” President Johnson said. “They’re known and they’re loved and they’re necessary. ...
“It is a time of renewal here in the Pacific. It was a glorious privilege to be with these wonderful people who are committed to making Jesus Christ the focus of their lives,” she concluded.
While in Samoa, President Johnson was able to be where her oldest son had served a full-time mission. There she was able to tell the people, “Thank you for caring for my son,” she said in a video on her social media pages.
About the Samoan Latter-day Saints, she said: “They are faithful and good people here who sing with their whole souls. They express their testimony through song in such a remarkable way.”
She also had the opportunity to go to two of the Church schools, where she told students that the work they are doing and the studies they are pursuing “will change the world.”
The director of Church schools in Samoa, Jonathan Warwick, said, “Our goal is to have every student that graduates from a Church school with deepened conversion to Jesus Christ and His restored gospel.”
Sister Runia’s invitations in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga
At a leadership meeting for local Relief Society, Young Women and Primary leaders in Sydney, Sister Runia invited them to become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. She told them they were not called simply to serve but to serve Him.
In a devotional for youth and young single adults, Sister Runia promised those present that their Heavenly Father’s love was there for them whether or not they knew it, reported the Church’s Pacific Newsroom.
Tahliya Latu-Silk, a young woman from northern Sydney, was grateful to have Sister Runia back in Australia. “I’m very blessed that she cares about us so much to do that. It’s an amazing blessing,” she said.
When Sister Runia spoke to youth and young single adults in Perth, Australia, she explained that hearing the Spirit is personal and said they can be patient in knowing God’s plan for each of them.
In Hamilton and Auckland, New Zealand, on Sept. 16 and 17, Sister Runia focused her messages for youth on their divine identity and the joy found in following Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, reported Pacific Newsroom.
“If you are in a dark place, pray. If you are having struggles, pray. Keep praying. Remember, even Jesus prayed as a resurrected being,” she said.
Elder Peter F. Meurs, General Authority Seventy and president of the Pacific Area, invited young people to look to the Savior.
“I hope you realize the healing power you have each Sunday by taking the sacrament,” he said.
Then in Tonga, in an interview with Radio Nuku’alofa 88.6 FM, Sister Runia invited young people to remember their worth as children of God and to build a foundation of faith in Jesus Christ.
