The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Organizers of a young single adult conference in Suva, Fiji, consider the five-day event to be a success after having a hard time getting participants to go home.
“We couldn’t get them on the bus,” one leader told the Church’s Pacific Newsroom, “because no one wanted to leave.”
The conference, held Jan. 7-11, 2023, gathered roughly 280 young adults from throughout Fiji to the University of the South Pacific for activities based around the conference theme: “S.M.I.L.E. — Spiritually minded is life eternal.”
Conference activities included service projects for the community, a carnival, a talent show and a dance, as well as a devotional and panel discussions with Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Pacific Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Anita Wakolo. The young single adults also served in the temple.
Conference director Lote Qima told of getting “a big bear hug” at the end of the conference from one young man who had “experienced a spiritual awakening, which he had never felt before.”
The young man promised Qima he would return home, clean up his life and go on a mission.
“That’s what these conventions are all about,” Qima said. “They help bring our young people to Jesus Christ to allow Him to heal their broken hearts, bind up their wounds and lift them on His shoulders. What a privilege it is to witness His power in action.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
