Laura Mirabal from La Vega, Dominican Republic, was baptized after a good friend invited her to attend a For the Strength of Youth conference with her.
At first, Mirabal said, she just wanted to spend more time with her friend. But at FSY, everything changed.
“I felt something different, a positive energy that made me open my heart to things I didn’t know,” she said in a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Youth from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints attend FSY conferences to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ. The multiday experience includes opportunities to learn the gospel, develop new friendships and participate in wholesome activities.
During a devotional, Mirabal listened to testimonies about the Savior’s love.
“I felt a very strong peace, something I can’t explain in words,” she said. “I felt loved, understood and a sincere desire to draw closer to God. It was there that I began to read the Book of Mormon and feel that I wanted something more for my life. That was the moment when I began to seriously think about getting baptized.”
Sister Andrea Muñoz Spannaus, second counselor in the Young Women general presidency, said FSY changes lives — like for a young man named Mauro, whose friend invited him to attend FSY a few years ago.
“He was not a member of the Church, but after that experience, he loved it, so he started to receive the missionaries at home and started learning with his family about the Church,” she said on a Church News podcast episode earlier this year.
The whole family got baptized, and Mauro later served a full-time mission.
“FSY has this power to change the lives of the people because of the Spirit that they can feel there, because they are learning about Christ and feeling the Holy Ghost,” Sister Spannaus said.
Alexandar Ynfante, also from La Vega, joined the Church after his friend invited him to FSY.
“From the first day, I noticed a very spiritual and beautiful environment that, as time went by, was helping me to know more about Jesus and the Church. I met incredible people, I shared many laughs, beautiful moments and people who teach you to grow personally and spiritually,” he said.
Ynfante said thanks to his friend, he was able to get to know the Church and then change and transform his life.
“[FSY] is a place where you can grow spiritually that will help you remember our Father [and] Jesus Christ more,” he said.
Mirabal said other youth who want to invite their friends to FSY or share the gospel with them should do so from their hearts, without pressure.
“Sometimes it’s enough to just share how good you feel about living the gospel and talk about your experience with joy,” she said. “A sincere invitation can change someone’s life, as it did for me. You never know the impact you can have just by speaking with love and enthusiasm about what you believe in.”
Learning how to ‘love, share and invite’ while at FSY
At FSY conferences, youth are participating in activities that help them learn how to share the gospel — such as panel discussions with full-time missionaries, activities focused on missionary work and devotionals teaching them to “love, share and invite.”
These experiences not only strengthen their faith in Christ but also help them gain confidence in sharing their faith with others, now and in the future, said the Church’s news release.
Canada Calgary Mission President Peter H. Barth and his wife, Sister Heather Barth, have helped facilitate FSY panels where missionaries answer questions about the gospel.
“It helps the youth understand they have the opportunity right now to share their testimonies and experiences with the gospel with others,” President Barth said.
During the panel discussions, missionaries shared some of their own experiences, the sacrifices they made to serve missions and what they did to prepare for a mission when they were between 14 and 17 years old.
“We received wonderful feedback from the FSY youth about the testimonies of the missionaries,” President Barth said.
Clark B. Maxwell, former president of the Idaho Boise Mission, and his wife, Kari Maxwell, organized an FSY panel of missionaries in 2024.
The Maxwells invited the youth during a devotional to use their phones to take a couple of minutes to share a gospel message with a friend or invite a friend to an upcoming Church activity.
“The youth of Zion are filled with testimony and light,” Clark Maxwell said. “We noted that the youth are so natural at sharing the gospel. They really understand how to invite their friends in normal and natural ways.”
In another FSY conference, Elder Isaac Wilkins and Elder Davin Avery from the Idaho Boise Mission gave the youth two or three minutes to list the names of at least five friends with whom they could share the gospel.
“We sat there, realizing there were thousands of names of individuals in that room. It was an overwhelming feeling,” they wrote.
The missionaries said they testified that the Savior knew each of them and He would help the youth know how to share the gospel with their friends.
“We can only imagine the impact that the youth have had since then.”
Learn more about FSY at FSY.ChurchofJesusChrist.org. Learn more about how to love, share and invite at share.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
