A group of teenagers from Melbourne’s Tarneit congregation of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came together to participate in a weekend of service for their own families, and to others in their community.
The 30 young people began their service on Friday evening May 23rd, with a visit to the Latter-day Saints’ Melbourne Australia Temple to participate in proxy baptisms for family members who have passed away.
“For those who have passed on without the ordinance of baptism, proxy baptism for the deceased is a free will offering,” Mormon Newsroom states. “According to Church doctrine, a departed soul in the afterlife is completely free to accept or reject such a baptism — the offering is freely given and must be freely received.”
Early Saturday morning the youth met at their local Latter-day Saint meetinghouse where they took part in a working bee. They wiped down blackboards, mopped floors, emptied bins, cleaned up rubbish and vacuumed.
The group then joined with Latter-day Saint missionaries from their area to participate in what they called a “backyard blitz” to do yard work for a local man. They mowed the lawn, weeded extensively and raked leaves. They left the grateful recipient of their service with a smile on his face.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Then they travelled to another home where they did more yard work, as well as housework inside a family’s home.
Youth leader, Liahona Mathieson, appreciated seeing “the young men and women interacting and working together for the good of others.”
The young people then traveled a little distance to take gifts to a wife and mother. She thought they were there to see her husband and told them he was actually at the Latter-day Saints’ meetinghouse where they had cleaned earlier, but Bishop Ariel Mendoza said, “We are here for you.”
Sister Mathieson said, “It was good to see her shock, and then pleasure, because of a simple visit.”
After a hard day of work the youth enjoyed dinner together and 16-year-old Laionosi Vave shared her feelings about the event. “I really enjoyed the weekend and felt like we had drawn a little closer as youth.”
Shinehah Tauati, 12, said, “I enjoyed getting baptized for people who have passed away, and I liked getting closer to the girls as friends and sisters during the weekend of service.”
Liahona Mathieson summarized her feelings about the youth activities: “We live in an ever adapting world, where we see our values challenged and our unity becomes ever more necessary. I loved seeing our youth enjoy themselves and “come [together] in the unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:13).