Youth Seminary Program Begins A New School Year

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

Teenagers getting together during the school day to pray and read scriptural texts together may seem a little strange nowadays. But it is completely normal at the seminary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Logandale. The program welcomed back local students as schools started up another year.

“We are fully going and excited to have them all back,” said Moapa Valley Seminary Director Steven Holyoak of his students.

Enrollment for the Moapa Valley communities is 260 studentsand has been pretty consistent over the last five years.

“We even had a little more than 270 enrolled during the pandemic,” said Holyoak. “Of course everything was online then.”

The Church’s seminary program offers a curriculum for high schoolers with early morning classes taking place before school and other classes scheduled during the school-day and aligned with open periods in the students’ school schedules.

“Most students attend before school,” Holyoak said. “But we do get some of the upper-class students during the day as they have more open periods.”

The program aligns with the teachings of the Church’s Sunday School curriculum and follows the calendar year and not the academic year.

The theme they have chosen is “Focusing on Jesus Christ and learning about the Revelator as he interacts with the Saints.” The seminary program teaches from four books of scripture including the New Testament of the Holy Bible, the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, and Church History/Doctrine and Covenants. That last course of study is what students are learning from between now and the end of December.

The seminary program is not only for Church members. It is actually open to any high school students regardless of religious affiliation or beliefs.
“Every year we have always had students attend who are not members of The Church,” Holyoak said. “This year we have a few students, about 5, enrolled that are not of the LDS faith.”

Holyoak was raised in Jerome, Idaho where he grew up hiking and fishing, doing scouting and more. After serving a two year LDS mission to Argentina, he attended BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, ID. He graduated with a Bachelors in Communications.

Holyoak attended a seminary training program for 2 years in Rexburg, Idaho where he taught seminary. After training with the church, he worked for Deseret Industries (DI) in Cedar City, UT as a Job Manager and then as an Assistant Manager at the DI at Flamingo and Mt Vista in Las Vegas.

While in Cedar City, Holyoak obtained a Masters from Southern Utah University in Professional Communications. About five years ago, he obtained the director position for seminary in Moapa Valley and moved his family here.

“When I arrived here, I found out that there was another Stephen Holyoak,” said Holyoak relating an experience of having a “name” doppelganger in the valley. “Of course this brought about a lot of misunderstanding and laughter, including with even my wife being unsure what was going on.”

The seminary program currently has one part-time teacher, Wendy Mulcock, and nine volunteers who teach the curriculum at the Logandale Stake Center directly across from MVHS. There is also one adult Institute of Religion class for ages 18-30 taught every Tuesday at 6:00 pm by local resident Laura Bledsoe at the Hinckley Chapel at 1605 Hinckley Ave. in Logandale.

“I really want to again let everyone know we are focusing on Jesus Christ,” said Holyoak. “Our goals are to provide spiritual support to families, be a home center for the gospel, learn and teach together, offer support in learning to follow Christ.”

For more information or to enroll in seminary classes contact Holyoak at the Logandale Stake Center, Mondays-Fridays from 7:00 am until 4:00 pm, call (702) 398-3869, or email sholyoak@churchofjesuschrist.org.