Elder Kevin W. Pearson Visits Flaxmere, New Zealand

Elder Kevin W. Pearson, president of the Pacific Area of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was the visiting church leader at the Flaxmere New Zealand Stake Conference, held in Hastings 18-19 April 2015.

During the four sessions of the stake bi-annual conference, Elder Pearson and other local church leaders encouraged members to increase their faith in the Saviour Jesus Christ and to help others to come unto Christ.

Elder Pearson began his trip to Flaxmere by visiting some families who are not currently attending church services.

“Our visits were both moving and spiritually uplifting,” said President Rikki Te Kira. “After visiting those families on Saturday morning, it was great to see one family come to the general session of conference on Sunday morning. Both Elder Pearson and I went down from the pulpit area to greet them as they arrived.”

Elder Pearson also took time to meet with the youth of the stake in a special session on Sunday morning where he encouraged the more than 80 attendees to make the Saviour a bigger part of their reality by better understanding their true identity and cultivating the right attitude towards acting on their beliefs.

In the general session of conference on Sunday morning, Elder Pearson challenged attendees to seek revelation vertically when coming to church and not to rely solely on speakers or teachers for inspiration. He also invited the congregation to be actively engaged as Latter-day Saints and not to be bystanders in the hastening of Lord’s work on the earth. “The time to act is now,” he said.

After the general session, Elder Pearson met with local bishops to encourage and counsel them in their callings as church leaders and to remind them of their responsibility to strive to live and love the people as the Saviour did.

Some of the conference attendees shared verbally and on social media what they gained from the stake conference weekend:

Tane Edwards: “Aligning ourselves with the will of our Heavenly Father will bring blessings for ourselves and our families. We should be constantly striving to be better examples of what we believe.”

Tyrell Gemmell: “Was honoured to hear from Elder Kevin W. Pearson, who spoke to us about the importance of priesthood power and also about making the Sabbath day a day of delight.  It’s always good to be reminded how much God does love us.”

Shaqaila Uelese: "Enduring to the end means constantly coming unto Christ and being perfected in Him. So grateful for Elder Pearson’s counsel at stake conference this weekend.”

Joyce Ah Kiong: "The conference talks reiterated to me the awesome responsibility we have as parents to show our children through example, how to be an active Latter-day Saint and not just a member of the Church.”

William Ah Kiong: "It was an awesome spirit-filled conference weekend for me. I learned that I have an obligation to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God; that it takes exceedingly great faith and right choices on my part to be able to exercise the priesthood as God intended."

John Visesio: "My desire to go on a mission has been greatly influenced by my mother, who is a returned missionary. I also understand that by exercising my agency to choose the right and fulfilling my responsibilities within the Aaronic Priesthood, I will be better prepared to serve a fulltime mission and receive the Melchizedek Priesthood.”

Mahinarangi Lawrence: “I learned this weekend at conference that I should embrace my true identity as a daughter of our Heavenly Father and that I’m part of a special generation who will achieve great things in life as I aim toward eternal perspectives. I also learned that my destiny is determined by my identity, belief, attitude and actions. These will lead to what becomes a reality in the Saviour for me. ”

Earlier this month Elder Pearson spoke to a worldwide audience at the Church's Annual General Conference in Salt Lake City, United States. Watch a video of his remarks: