Before Randy Orovi knew anything about the Church, he knew there was something different about the young men in white shirts that frequently passed by the bike shop where he worked in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

"I wanted to say hi," recalled Orovi, a shy, polite Papuan. "I didn't know what their black tags said, but I was too scared to ask!"Now second counselor in the Young Men presidency of the Korobosea Branch, Australia Brisbane Mission, Orovi remembered that even after meeting the missionaries through some LDS friends several years later, he was still too shy to ask them about the Church. Apparently his friends in the Church were just as shy - they forgot to mention to the elders that he wasn't a member.

That was in 1979. By 1980, Orovi was attending Church every Sunday and translating the Motu and Pidgin English languages for the missionaries, having learned English by speaking with the elders and studying a dictionary.

About three years later, he was surprised when local Church leaders, who had assumed he was a member, asked him to perform a baptism.

"I told them I could not!" Orovi said. "They were very surprised when I told them I was not yet baptized myself."

That soon changed, and he became a member of the Church in 1983. Now, along with his responsibilities in the Young Men, the 30-year-old father of six is head custodian for the branch, and Queen Scout leader to some 80 18-year-olds.

Orovi recently had an opportunity to sharpen his Scouting skills, when he was chosen as one of two Papuan men to attend an international training school for Scouting in Dubuque, Iowa, last month. There he was able to share his talents with 400 Scout leaders from throughout the world, as he taught them the art of making rope bridges, outdoor cooking, and how to build a house from bush materials. He learned these skills in the small village of Kikori, where he was born.

But even more memorable than the Scouting camp, and even more impressive than visiting Disneyland, visiting Temple Square and seeing the Salt Lake Temple on his return trip from Iowa was an experience that he said he won't soon forget. "I was so excited to see it," he said. "I felt a spirit with me even when I just looked at it.

"I'm so proud to be a member of the Church!" he said. "When the missionaries began teaching me, I had already seen the differences between this Church and the other churches. The missionaries told me that I should ask Heavenly Father in prayer to find out if it was true, so I did, and I found out."