Chris Bauco was serving as a Young Men president when the program was changed during the 2019 General Conference. This interview was recorded the week before and includes many principles that can guide advisors in the Young Men program, no matter their title. Chris lives in Kaysville, Utah, and works for Zions Bank. He is originally from Bridgeport, Connecticut, and came to Utah for college. He joined the Church eight years later, influenced by the examples of friends who were returned missionaries.
Highlights
6:30 Serving as a Young Men president when this podcast was recorded—something he had no previous experience in
8:00 Presidency meeting and private moments are where the Spirit has come to give them guidance about leading the young men
8:50 Passionate about preparing young men for missions
11:15 Experience learning that only 50% of the young men in his strong LDS area were going on missions
12:50 Four barriers to mission preparation: fear, lack of testimony, worthiness, physical preparation
14:00 Addressing fear and testimony: 5/5/5 program for the young men, 100 days starting January 1 each year; priest quorum members mentor by sharing their experiences
18:25 Creating companionships on a group retreat, then sending the young men out to member houses to teach
20:30 Addressing worthiness: Powerful activity using “commitment stones” and “sin stones”
23:20 Approaching repentance as an opportunity to get closer to the Savior and infusing spiritual strength into the culture with the young men
28:50 Addressing physical preparation: creating challenging high adventure activities so they can have increased physical abilities as well as experience handling a difficult challenge
32:15 Priest Quorum leadership preparation setting up service projects where the young men do all the work
34:50 Visiting each young man on his birthday and giving birthday socks
Links
Resilience—Spiritual Armor for Today’s Youth, by Elder Lynn G. Robbins