What This New Young Men General Officer Says About Today's Youth

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The rising generation is needed to help gather others into the fold of the Savior’s gospel, said Brother David J. Wunderli, First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, during BYU Education Week.

“Generation Z and now Generation Alpha are gifted with talents needed to navigate these times and to perform their great responsibility of gathering Israel,” he said.

Speaking to an audience gathered inside the Marriott Center on the Brigham Young University campus on Friday, August 22, he encouraged parents, grandparents, guardians, teachers, advisers and friends to be examples to the youth.

“May we stand ready to welcome them always into the healing tent of our Savior’s church,” he said.

Brother Wunderli was sustained as the First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency during the April 2025 general conference. He began serving in his new role on August 1.

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Brother David J. Wunderli, First Counselor in the new Young Men General Presidency, speaks about gifts of the rising generation in the Marriott Center for BYU Education Week in Provo, Utah, on Friday, August 22, 2025. Photo courtesy of BYU Photo.

The Gathering of Israel

Brother Wunderli pointed to President Russell M. Nelson’s prophetic counsel to youth during a worldwide devotional in 2018 that they were sent to earth at this precise time to help gather Israel.

Said President Nelson: “There is nothing of greater consequence. Absolutely nothing. This gathering should mean everything to you. This is the mission for which you were sent to earth.”

Brother Wunderli said the youth of today have been gifted with “talents needed for gathering authentically.”

Youth today “are slow to judge and quick to love. They are sensitive to exclusionary rhetoric. It is natural for them to invite, include and love. These are their superpowers,” he said.

Brother Wunderli shared a video from the Young Men Worldwide Instagram page. In the short video, a young man tells how he was invited to seminary by a friend and felt welcome. After months of attending seminary every morning, he was baptized, and two of his brothers were baptized soon after.

“Internationally, many of our youth in rapidly growing areas are first-generation members,” he said. “They look to leaders and peers for their examples. They are new to the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet their faith is strong.”

He said he and his wife, Diane, recently observed youth in the Tahiti temple waiting their turns to perform baptismal ordinances.

“The youth are recognizing the need to feel the spiritual power manifested in the ordinances,” he said. “They have been gifted to understand more deeply the reality of the redemptive and healing power of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.”

Brother Wunderli said that although youth are actively seeking Jesus Christ, “they need leaders and mentors that will reinforce those gifts and talents, guide them, engage with them, love them, sit in the boat and row with them.”

Armed for Difficult Times

Brother Wunderli said youth need to be armed for “more difficult times.”

“This rising generation is on the front line of today’s great battles; the evil designs of Satan are thrust upon them at a speed difficult to comprehend,” he said.

Yet, youth are carrying on, trying to arm themselves.

“They are lining up at 5 a.m. at temples throughout the world to enter in and be clothed with power from on high. They are enrolling in seminary in record numbers. The young men are advancing in their priesthood offices at a higher percentage than ever before. The young women are actively participating in church at record levels. They are reading the sacred scripture and comprehending its deep meanings.”

The youth of today are sanctifying themselves to “chase darkness from them,” finding light in the scriptures, at seminary, in service and in their friendships.

“They are more capable today of understanding who Jesus is and of feeling His love,” he said. “They arm themselves with His Light and His Spirit.”

Brother Wunderli said he is certain the rising generation has been equipped for this time.

“Today’s rising generation is armed with temples; seminary; ‘Come, Follow Me’; digital resources; repeated prophetic counsel crafted specifically to them; … and a greater outpouring of spiritual power,” he said.

He invited those of older generations to help members of the rising generation feel that they belong, help them put on the armor of God and most importantly point them to Jesus Christ.

“They are trying, and they need all of us to stand with them,” Brother Wunderli said.

He said one doesn’t need to receive an official call as a leader or adviser to love and encourage the youth.

“We can learn each of their names, we can learn their interests, we can say their names each Sunday as we see them and greet them,” he said. “We can notice them, encourage them and help them look to Jesus Christ for healing.”