Rebecca Craven, Global Young Women Leader, Addresses North Texas Teens
Kara SchofieldFeatured Photo: Rebecca Craven, center, with some of the teenagers who attended the meeting about the newly revised guide, For the Strength of Youth. Photo by Cherise Sallaway.
Rebecca Craven, Second Counselor in the Young Women General Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, visited the youth of the Church of Jesus Christ in Prosper, Texas, on Sunday evening, October 23. She brought with her the love of President Russell M. Nelson, the Church’s 17th prophet, as well as all Church leaders who oversee the young men and women of the Church. While discussing a new guidebook for living gospel standards, Craven shared a message of confidence, as President Nelson did in 2018, in these teens’ “capacity to be smarter and wiser and have more impact on the world than any previous generation!”
The Church of Jesus Christ announced a newly revised guide for the rising generation of the Church at the October 2022 general conference. First published 50 years ago, the guide uses the previous version’s title, For the Strength of Youth, and emphasizes a personal relationship with Jesus Christ in making choices about living according to the commandments. Indeed, when Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles first made the announcement about the publication, he declared, “The best guide you can possibly have for making choices is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the strength of youth.”
Craven echoed this in her address to the youth of Prosper. She encouraged them not to focus only on what they want to do, but rather on what the Lord would want them to do. A good question to ask, she said, is whether a choice will lead them closer to God or further from His ways. Craven also asked the teenagers to ponder how they can make the gospel of Jesus Christ their gospel, their church, and not just that of their parents. She quizzed them on recognizing famous characters or singers only by their voices, ending with a voice that only she recognized: that of her own mother. Craven shared that this voice is one she loves and trusts and knows, and teens can come to know the “voice of the Lord,” or receive personal guidance from God, by trusting and loving Him.
After inviting attendees to think of two things they each know and love about Jesus Christ, Craven ended her presentation by sharing what she personally knows in her testimony of the good news of the Savior’s gospel.
Elder Mark A. Gottfredsen of Coleyville, Texas, an Area Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ, also shared a message at the meeting, comparing the experiences of the prophet Jeremiah in the Old Testament to others today who feel “his word … in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9 KJV).
Ellie Schofield, 17, shares her favorite part of the meeting: “I liked that they talked about the feelings of personal revelation and testimony-building experiences [being] the best feelings in the world.”
Logan Dellenbach, 17, adds, “I really like this quote [about fire in the bones] because it emphasizes that strong and undeniable feeling you receive when you strengthen your testimony and truly believe in the gospel.”
An estimated 675 youth attended the event at the church building located at 522 S. Teel in Prosper, the largest gathering so far in that location, with another 230 logins for streaming access. The meeting was open to all teenagers in Prosper, Little Elm, and Frisco, Texas.
Kara Schofield lives with her husband, nearly grown youngest, and the family doodle in the Prosper Texas Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She can often be found at one keyboard or another: writing, documenting personal and family history, accompanying school choirs and learning how to play jazz music. Her greatest joys are her four children and their spouses, a sizable extended family, pies, mountains, and Jesus Christ.
