The Phenomena in More Detail

It occurred to me while I was in the temple the other day that unless I explain the phenomena of the Youth Guides in a little more detail, those who read these excerpts from The Helaman Sons Letters will not understand what was happening in the lives of the youth who wrote them and the program that was an integral part of that life. It really was the only program of its kind in the whole Church. No youth anywhere else in the world had the opportunity to work in a missionary-type organization of such magnitude and excitement prior to their missions. It was like being on a mission, but you didn’t have to leave home to do it. You could still work, go to school, date, have a Church assignment, be involved in Young Men or Young Women, go to seminary or institute…you could do all of that. However, in addition you could add this marvelous missionary experience centered around the gardens of the Arizona Temple.

The setting was spectacular! Between the beautiful Arizona Visitors’ Center and the Arizona Temple is about a half an acre of landscaped gardens with a reflection pool in the center. A tour was designed with stations that took about 15-20 minutes and related the beliefs of the Church about temples, families, family history and the Book of Mormon. At each station the company on the tour had in their sight the magnificently lit temple as a backdrop for what the youths were telling them. Water from the fountains gurgled in the background, stately palm and cypress trees swayed with the breezes, and when the wind calmed, the reflection pool glistened with the beauty of the temple.

When youth discovered the program they could not believe their good fortune. It was much different from a Stake Missionary Prep Class or a two-week Youth Mission. If your timing was right you could be involved in the Youth Guides for two or three years. It became a way of living as a member of the Church in a much heightened state of missionary zeal. Everyone who came into contact with the program knew that it was special and because of that knowledge they treated it special themselves. They prayed more fervently and worked harder than they had ever worked in their life. They loved and watched out for each other. If they joined and became a Youth Guide it dramatically changed their lives. If they just hung around with the Guides they experienced vicariously the excitement of their friends.

It was structured like a mission with an adult Director and his adult Assistant Directors and youth leaders in all the other phases of the organization. There were District Leaders and Trainers, Records Specialists and an Executive Secretary, Sister Coordinators, Zone Leaders, and Assistants to the Director. To become a Youth Guide you had to have the signatures of your parents and bishop, which certified that you were a member in good standing, and you yourself signed that you would keep the Standards of Performance. In most cases the youth were unknown to the Directors of the program prior to the receipt of the application, and therefore they had no past performance to worry about. If they were willing to keep the Standard of Performance, then that’s all we were interested in. We took all comers and judged them on what they did from then on. This system worked very well.

The Arizona Temple Visitors’ Center is the only visitors’ center I know of with two major events a year; the Easter Pageant in the Spring, which hosts over 100,000 people during the week before Easter, and the Temple Christmas Lights, which has nightly concerts amid the 600,000+ lighting display and draws an estimated one million plus people to the gardens during the month of December. To be involved as a pre-missionary in this kind of setting is almost too exciting for words.

Most encountered the program as they came to the regular Sunday Night Training Meeting (Fireside), held each Sunday evening except for Fast Sunday. They were greeted at the door by their peers, given name tags, introduced in the meeting, asked to tell a couple of things about themselves (their high school and ward they belonged to) and their names and phone numbers were put on a list so that they could be contacted through the week and asked if they liked the meeting and would they like to return and be a part of the program. During the meeting they found out that the Youth Guides loved to sing the hymns of the Church, that Guides stood to sing with all their hearts, and no one in the area sang Called To Serve with such excitement and tempo! The meeting wound up with testimonies and it soon became clear that Youth Guides would share their testimony at the drop of a hat, and if you didn’t go up front as soon as you could you may lose out. Often there wouldn’t be time for everyone who wanted to bear testimony and they were told we would start with them next week.

When the meeting was over the youth were so filled with the Spirit they didn’t want to leave. They gathered in groups and often went to the Gardens to continue to feel the marvelous spirit of the evening. Afterward, they went home feeling like I did after my first meeting. I knew that I had experienced what the true Church of Jesus Christ could be like and I wanted to be a part of it! I felt different after experiencing a Sunday Night Training Meeting. It was so diametrically opposed to what was happening in my ward that I couldn’t believe it. It was exciting to be a member of the Church again and I couldn’t wait to do something about it. Neither could the hundreds of youth who became a part of the program. Their lives were changed.

They began to read the scriptures with greater enthusiasm. Their prayers became more fervent. They began to rub elbows with youth who understood what faith was and were excited with the possibility that it could actually operate in their lives. This group loved the Church and everything connected with it and they weren’t afraid to let everyone know. Seminary and Institute became more exciting because they could share something new in their lives. They found that others were thinking and praying about them and their success as never before. It was the most exciting time in their lives, next to serving a full time mission.

Most of all they began to believe that miracles could happen in their lives, based on their faith and works and the love the Lord has for each of them. The faith of the Youth Guides became legendary among the youth and their parents. Speaking of parents, I can’t tell you how many times I had parents look at me with tears in their eyes and with hearts full of gratitude for what the program had done to help them with their youth. The parents called their brothers and sisters and marveled at the program. Often we were full of cousins as whole families embraced the program and sent younger siblings after the older ones went on missions. In many families it became the tradition to become a Youth Guide. Why? Because it was considered to be the best training for a mission anyone could hope to have.

As they studied the Garden Tour and passed it off and became a Youth Guide they were offered callings within the organization that increased their responsibility and gave them stewardship over others in the program. They were taught leadership skills in one-on-one situations, both by their peers and the adult leadership. They were allowed to serve to their heart’s content, working extra nights in the Gardens as substitutes for their friends who had other important things to do from time to time. They were told that they were not ordinary teenagers anymore but that they could be depended on to get their assignments done and help others get theirs done too. They became dedicated to making sure the program worked as best it could.

The New Era and The Ensign both did stories on the Youth Guides. There were special events such as putting on over 100 Visitors’ Center Sunday Sacrament meetings. Youth Guides would be the featured speakers and afterward would teach both the adult Sunday School classes and the youth classes how to do member missionary work using the Visitors’ Center. Wards were invited to come to the Visitors’ Center and bring their friends, have refreshments in the gardens after the tours, go to a nearby park and have games and fun. Tri-Stake Firesides, Sisters’ Conferences, Temple Workers Fireside, Sunday Night Firesides, early morning testimony meetings, dinners, Farewells and Homecomings…the list seemed endless. As an example of selfless service, one year the Youth Guides put up and took down 37,000 chairs for the Temple Christmas Lights concerts.

As they served in the trenches they developed lifelong friendships forged in the fires of excitement and dedicated service. As they watched, before their very eyes young men and women grew and matured and blasted off in a blaze of glory to their missions. As they bore testimony on the last night in the program, they removed their white Youth Guide nametag and placed it on the inner pocket of their suit coat so that it would be close to their heart as they left on their missions.

The Helaman Sons Letters begins as the original group of young men I worked with left on their missions in 1989 and 1990 and continues as wave after wave of alumni of the program write home about their full time experiences. (The newsletter went through several name changes but started out as the GUIDElines and ended as The Helaman Sons Letters.) To receive the newsletter, all you had to do was send a letter to me. Between their letters I will intersperse my comments on what is happening “back home” in the program at that time, along with some letters from me to them, in addition to other material which may have been contained in the original newsletter. There really was a bond that stretched around the world and back to the beautiful Gardens of the Arizona Temple.

You will find that, as you read The Helaman Sons Letters, if you allow it, what was written by these young men and women will change your life as it has mine. You will find a greater willingness to do missionary work and to be guided by the Spirit in who you should approach. Their excitement will become infectious and you will anxiously await their next letter from the field. At least I hope you will find within these pages what I call the “real” Church and some of its best young members. My intent is to open to you the story of the Arizona Temple Youth Guides and hope you will enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoy telling the story.

Bro. P.