New refinements to the Children and Youth program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will help young women become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.
The latest refinements announced on Nov. 3, build on earlier adjustments to the Children and Youth program of the Church with the new Sunday meeting schedule and “For the Strength of Youth” lessons implemented earlier this year.
Starting in January 2027, the Young Women’s program will focus on helping young women:
- Believe in Jesus Christ
- Belong to Jesus Christ and His Church
- Become more like Jesus Christ
These purposes — or pillars — have previously been broken down into gospel learning (believe), service and activities (belong) and personal development (become).
The refinements are explained in further detail in the Youth Tool Kit at youth.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. This tool kit will also be printed in the January 2027 For the Strength of Youth magazine and can be pulled out of the printed magazine for future reference and use.
The Young Women General Presidency — including Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman and her counselors, Sister Tamara W. Runia and Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus — outlined the refinements on a recent episode of the Church News podcast.
President Freeman said the refinements simplify the young women’s program with more structure where needed.
“Rolling out the names was preparing for this,” she said. “Rolling out that last Sunday curriculum was preparing for this. You’ve kind of seen this coming in steps, but now you get to see it all together in one piece. And this is the piece we are so excited about.”
In April, the age-group names were changed to Builders of Faith, Messengers of Hope and Gatherers of Light. In September, the youth lessons structured around the new “For the Strength of Youth” guide began.
Believe in Jesus Christ
Believe in Jesus Christ will focus on gospel learning.
Each week, this will include studying from the “For the Strength of Youth” guide and youth magazine.
In addition, young women will accept one invitation from the “For the Strength of Youth” guide each month to act on throughout that month. Young women may also create their own invitation not included in the guide. This will replace the previous emphasis on yearlong intellectual, physical, social and spiritual goals.
Sister Spannaus said: “We know that we become disciples as we are doers. We cannot be disciples just by being in our class on Sunday, listening to a teacher, right? But we need to go during the week and start doing all the things that we were learning.”
President Freeman said these invitations should be fun.
“You can take them individually or you can accept them as your whole class might want to learn something together that month,” she said. “And we want these to be joyful, we want them to be exciting and we want them to become something to learn for themselves.”
Sister Spannaus also encouraged young women to write down their invitations each month. Starting in January, the lessons in the youth magazine will include a space to write down the invitation. On the last Sunday of each month, another space in the lesson will be provided for young women to write down what they learned as they acted on the invitation. This will also be available in the Gospel Library app.
In addition to accepting and acting on invitations each month, Gatherers of Light will lead, teach and encourage other youth to live as lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.
Belong to Jesus Christ and His Church
Belong to Jesus Christ will focus on service and activities. This includes midweek activities, Young Women camp and two new events to celebrate discipleship and achievement.
Sister Runia said activities should create a space where each young woman belongs as they gather together.
“I believe that everybody wears sort of an invisible sign that says, ‘See me, notice me, include me,’” she said. “And that’s what we want to create for our youth — a place where they feel like, ‘This is the Church of Jesus Christ, and I belong to Him, and I belong to this Church. I’m a part of it. It’s my Church, not just my parents’ Church.’”
For midweek activities, the Youth Tool Kit includes a visual guide of how to create belonging, along with an activity planner. President Freeman said she hopes the activity planner will be used for midweek activities, Young Women’s camp and youth conferences.
Said President Freeman: “This is going to help our youth learn not just how to plan something fun, but what does the budget have to do with it? And how are we getting people there? And should we be thinking about safety?”
Two new events each year and new emblems
Replacing the New Beginnings event each year, Gatherers of Light will plan and prepare a Brand New Year event. This event at the start of each year will include parents, young women and 11-year-old girls who will turn 12 that year.
New young women in the program will receive an emblem of discipleship — a crystal Christus statue, which will serve as a reminder of living as a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ.
The bishop will also present Gatherers of Light with an emblem of achievement — a locket medallion — after they have read or listened to the Book of Mormon and acted on invitations each month.
Sister Runia said this new medallion has a lot of meaning to it, representing each young woman’s experience in the Young Women program.
“Inside the locket, you can place a picture of Jesus Christ as a reminder of your faith in Him,” she said. “The patterns of hearts on the front of the locket … will remind you of your love for God and your willingness to minister to others as a witness of Him. … A small temple is engraved inside the locket to remind you of the light, knowledge, and the enabling strength that will come through Jesus Christ as you participate in priesthood ordinances and covenants.”
Bishops will interview young women before they receive this emblem of achievement to review progress.
The previous emblems are being retired.
Gatherers of Light will also plan a Celebration of Lifelong Discipleship event at the end of each year.
During this event, young women will display or share what they are learning as they act on monthly invitations, what they learned at camps or For the Strength of Youth conferences, and what they’ve done to encourage and support one another.
Sister Spannaus said she hopes grandparents, friends, leaders and others can come to celebrate the young women’s achievements and cheer them on.
“When you have wonderful things that you can share, you want to share that with your family, with your friends, with your leaders,” she said. “This is the feeling that we want the girls to have, that they were doing wonderful things and now it’s the time to celebrate that.”
Become more like Jesus Christ
Become more like Jesus Christ will focus on personal development.
President Freeman said she hopes young women understand that God has a great work for them.
This will be reinforced as young women continue to study becoming a covenant daughter of God on the last Sunday of every month. They will continue to recite the become statement found in the youth magazine — and listed in the Youth Tool Kit on page 17.
“And this is going to become critically important to us — understanding who we are, whose we are, and the great work that is ours to do,” President Freeman said.
President Freeman said the become statements — along with a scripture and a woman who exemplifies that scripture — will help young women understand the topic they’ve studied during the month.
Builders of Faith, Messengers of Hope, Gatherers of Light and Relief Society
This third focus will also help young women ponder and answer the questions, “What does it look like to be a Builder of Faith, a Messenger of Hope, a Gatherer of Light and to enter into the Relief Society?”
The Youth Tool Kit includes additional information — including individual responsibilities for young women in each age group. For example, for Builders of Faith, the tool kit explains what it means to be a Builder of Faith, how they can help with God’s work and how the FSY guide can help them become a more faithful follower of Jesus Christ.
How parents, leaders and bishops can support the young women
President Freeman testified that these refinements will help the young women recognize that they are elect, that they are called and that there is a great work for them in these final scenes of the last days.
“If they can rise up and join this great missionary force that is on the earth today, if they can be looking toward a temple endowment at the age of 18, if they can take upon themselves His name and character of ministering, this generation will become the strongest generation the world has ever seen,” she said.
Sister Spannaus encouraged parents to ask their young women how they are building faith in Christ, including with their monthly FSY invitations.
Sister Runia also encouraged parents and leaders to follow the Savior’s example of ministering to the one.
“And this is something that we can do,” she said. “And really, when you think about the Savior’s experience, He did it oftentimes when it wasn’t convenient, but the Savior was willing to be inconvenienced.”
