The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting all children ages 3–11, their parents, and Primary leaders and teachers to participate in a Friend to Friend broadcast—a Face to Face-style virtual event for children available for viewing beginning February 20.
The historic, first-of-its-kind broadcast will include music and activities as well as messages by President Russell M. Nelson, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and members of the Primary General Presidency.
“I am so excited for the children to experience this very special Friend to Friend event,” said Primary General President Joy D. Jones. “I hope they will feel valued, needed and loved by Jesus and Heavenly Father. This will be a memorable opportunity to feel connected to other children around the world as they learn and sing together about how they can help like Jesus.”
The 40-minute event will be available to view beginning on Saturday, February 20, 2021, at 11 a.m.* mountain standard time in English (including ASL), Spanish and Portuguese, with originating content in each of these three languages. It will be available to view on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, Youtube, BYUtv and other media.
Beginning March 13, 2021, the event will be available for viewing in Cantonese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Cebuano and Tagalog.
Parents are encouraged to watch the event with their children at their convenience (during the live broadcast, during home evening, on Sunday, or at another time). Primary leaders and teachers are encouraged to share this event with children, especially those who may not be watching with their parents, or to consider to use the recording as part of a Primary activity. During the event, children will be invited to participate in activities and adults should plan to have a piece of paper, drawing utensils and scriptures nearby. Depending on local circumstances and government restrictions, priesthood leaders may encourage children, parents, and leaders to gather in homes, meetinghouses, or other locations to participate. Priesthood leaders should follow the counsel of local and government leaders on gathering at the time of this event.
The Friend to Friend event is made up of short segments that are designed to be watched over and over again, explained Sister Lisa Harkness, first counselor in the Primary general presidency. “Each segment will be a great asset to home gospel study and be the catalyst for inspired family conversations,” she said. “We can imagine children watching with their friends and sharing gospel messages as they learn to follow Jesus’ example together.”
Sister Cristina B. Franco, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, said, “We hope this Friend to Friend event will strengthen children’s faith in Jesus Christ as they follow the Savior’s example by making and keeping covenants, serving and loving others as He has.”
The event can also be viewed any time after the initial broadcast. It will be archived on face2face.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, the Latter-day Saints Channel, Gospel Media and Gospel Library and may be streamed or downloaded.
Press release from Newsroom.
