The 2026-2027 seminary school year was kicked off at the Far West Missouri Stake Center on Sunday, August 16th, 2026. High school-aged youth from around the stake were gathered to receive encouragement and learn truth from leadership as they prepare to wake up early throughout the school year to draw closer to Christ.
Brother Elliot Seibold was the first speaker at the meeting. He is the Seminary and Institute Coordinator for this area of the church. He spoke excitedly about the wonderful truths they will be studying this year, starting with Isaiah and Jeremiah. He inspired the youth to prepare to feast on the scriptures.
Then the high counselor over Seminary, Tyler Thorne, spoke about personnel experience from sacrificing to go to early morning seminary and the blessings for that came. He shared that one unexpected blessing was having a high school coach talk with Bro. Thorne about his faith because the coach knew about his seminary attendance and faith. Bro. Thorne testified that the sacrifices they make now will bless them for the rest of their lives.
Bro. Bill Shull introduced all of the seminary teachers for the year and acknowledged that it’s not easy to get up early, but it’s worth it. There is power in attending seminary, he said.
President Mayne was the final speaker and he started with an analogy. He lined up 12 students in the front and had them link arms. Then he asked another student to stand and consider where he would run if he were playing Redrover with these young men and young women. President Mayne drew the comparison that when the Devil wants to hurt us, he looks for the weak links. We have to always strengthen our spirits and fortify our armor. How do we do that? President Mayne shared that research the church has done shows strong correlation that personnel prayer and personnel scripture study will lead people to the temple and make sacred covenants there. Family prayer, family scripture study, and adopting gospel standards are the strongest indicators of adopting those personal habits. Seminary is one of the ways youth learn to adopt gospel standards. All of these things lead us to the Celestial Kingdom and living with God again.
We asked a few in attendance what they are looking forward to with Seminary.
“I’m most excited to have my scriptures open and reading them with my students,” said Sis. Humphreys, one of two seminary teachers in the Whitmer Ward.
“I’m excited to learn more about the scriptures.” said Lillian Webster of the Far West Ward.
“I’m excited to be around other people that want to learn the gospel and study the scriptures with them,” said Jacob Cross of the Grindstone Creek Ward.