A Very Successful Young Single Adult Convention in Port Moresby

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that people of all ages, particularly young adults between the ages of 18-30 who are making important decisions for their lives, are very important to society. Because of this, the Church places an emphasis on helping these young adults build their character while nurturing them in Gospel principles. The result is that they can become better people, and more productive, contributing members of their communities.

This is the reason the Church brought together more than 240 young single adult members of the Church from Port Moresby and surrounding communities for a 4-day convention in September, 2018. These young people came together 19-22 September 2018 in a convention with the theme, “Hangere Long Senis,” or “Desire For Change.” The theme was taken from the Book of Enos in The Book of Mormon, which, along with the Bible, is considered holy scripture by members of the Church, and is believed by members to be another testament of Jesus Christ.

The young single adults between 18-30 years of age came from as far away as Moveave in the Gulf Province, Rigo in the Central Province, and the areas of Kuriva, Anita, Sabusa, Nine Mile, Eight Mile and Port Moresby. During the 4-day convention, they participated in both spiritual and physical activities which taught them to be strong and active members of the Church and of society.

The young adults were also involved in providing service to the community as they spent part of one day of the convention involved in a service project. They planted mangrove seedlings and did a street and beach clean-up at Pari village. Shirley Liri, organizer of the service project, commented, "Mangroves are such an important part of the ecosystem that nature and people depend on. They are important for many people's livelihoods. Involving our youth in this service project to clean up the coastline and plant mangroves means people, as stewards of the land, are being responsible.  We hope our youth learned that valuable lesson from this activity."

A hard-working and dedicated committee chaired by Andy and Marissa Pagere have been busy meeting for many months planning and preparing for this convention. Committee members were assigned to handle various tasks such as publicity, registration, awareness, safety, health, service project, games and activities, security, food, accommodation, venue and transportation. Mr. Pagere stated, “We’re very excited and have had a lot of support, especially from our committee, preparing for this convention. We hope we will have a good balance of spiritual, social and physical activities for the convention, and are confident that it will be a positive experience for all involved.”

As the convention concluded, the hopes and wishes of Andy and Marissa Pagere and their committee were realised as many young people came away with their lives forever changed in a positive way.

The convention ran Wednesday through Saturday, 19-22  September 2018 at the Four-Mile chapel of the Church. The 240 youth were accommodated at a nearby hotel in Port Moresby and held their activities at the hotel and the Church’s facility at Gabutu.