Latest news from the Sunday sessions of the LDS General Conference

President Russell M. Nelson, the 100-year-old leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has yet to speak at this weekend’s general conference.

If the tradition holds, Nelson, who attended one of three sessions at the conference center in downtown Salt Lake City on Saturday, will deliver at least one sermon as the valedictorian at the final meeting on Sunday afternoon.

He watched Sunday morning’s session from home while 92-year-old Dallin H. Oaks, his first counselor in the ruling First Presidency and next in line to lead the 17.2 million-member global denomination, took over.

Nelson will likely use this time to announce the locations of new temples. In April he announced 15 such buildings in a recorded message (although he was present at the meeting). During his nearly seven-year presidency, Nelson announced 168, or 48%, of the Utah-based church’s 350 planned or existing temples around the world.

Here are the latest speeches and announcements from Sunday’s two sessions:

Morning session

President Henry B. Eyring: Preach, don’t pressure

Many Latter-day Saint parents, watching their children drift away from the Church, sought the best way to keep them in the community.

Simply teach the Savior’s core teachings, advised Henry B. Eyring, Second Counselor in the First Presidency.

“This can be difficult when you love the person you are trying to influence. He or she may have ignored the doctrine being taught,” Erying said while sitting. “It’s tempting to try something new or sensational. But the Holy Spirit will reveal the spirit of truth only if we are careful not to go beyond teaching true doctrine.”

The lessons simply allow parents to “share the saving doctrine early on,” he said, “while sparing children from the deceiver temptations they will later face, long before the truths they need to learn.” “Being drowned out by the noise of social media.” Peers and their own personal problems.”

Latter-day Saints should “take advantage of every opportunity to share the teachings of Jesus Christ with children,” Eyring said. “These teachable moments are precious and far less compared to the tireless efforts of opposing forces. For every hour spent teaching a child, there are countless hours of resistance filled with messages and images that question or ignore these saving truths.”

It’s no guarantee of success, he said. “Some may still not respond. Doubts can creep into your mind. You may wonder whether you know the Savior’s teachings well enough to teach them effectively. And if you’ve already made attempts to teach it, you may be wondering why the positive effects aren’t more visible. Don’t give in to these doubts. Ask God for help.”

Bradley R. Wilcox, Young Men Director: Understanding the Birthright

Wherever Bradley R. Wilcox, first counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, goes in the world, he hears the same question from young people in the Church: “Why do Latter-day Saints have to live so differently than others?”

The reason, Wilcox explained, is because of the important role God has given Latter-day Saints in making covenants with him.

“Is it too much for God to expect you to live differently than His other children so that you can better lead and serve them?” he asked. “Not considering the blessings—both temporal and spiritual—that have been bestowed on you.”

Wilcox explained that this birthright, a sign of God’s love and trust, does not make a person better than those who do not have it.

“But it means you’re expected to help others get better,” he said. Likewise, it means that the individual is chosen – “but not chosen to rule over others; You are chosen to serve them.”

Wilcox likened the responsibility to that of a crew working aboard a cruise ship.

“If you look around this cruise ship called Earth,” he said, “you may see other people sitting in lounge chairs, drinking, gambling in casinos, wearing clothes that are too revealing, scrolling endlessly on cell phones and wasting too much time playing electronic games . “Games.”

Instead of asking yourself, ‘Why can’t I do this?’ you can remember that you are not an ordinary passenger,” he told listeners. “You’re a member of the crew.”

And that means, he said, “they have responsibilities that passengers don’t have.”

Apostle Gary E. Stevenson: A momentous – and prophetic – decade awaits us

Between 2024 and 2034, Latter-day Saints will experience “groundbreaking events that will lead to extraordinary opportunities to serve, unite with members and friends,” said Apostle Gary E. Stevenson, and introduce the Church to “more people” than ever before before.”

The “significant” decade will include: an increasing number of temples to be completed, the reopening and rededication of the renovated Salt Lake Temple, the 200th anniversary of the founding of the Church in 2030, and the 2034 Salt Winter Olympics Lake City.

“While this coming decade will be full of days that every member of the Church will never forget, this may be especially true for you, the rising generation,” Stevenson said. “You are here on Earth now because you were chosen to be here now. You have the power and ability to be disciples of Christ in unprecedented ways.”

Bishop L. Todd Budge: Be still and seek the Lord each day

In today’s world full of endless tasks, “standing still is an act of faith and requires effort,” noted L. Todd Budge, a member of the Presiding Bishopric, which oversees the Church’s extensive real estate, financial, investment and charitable activities.

Still, this is crucial for anyone who wants to remain close to God, he emphasized.

Quoting former church president David O. McKay, he stated: “We pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion.” …Meditation is one of the… most sacred doors through which we enter the presence of the… Lord.”

For him, Budge said that the expression “to be still” meant “to slow down and live with greater spiritual awareness.”

He told his listeners: “Our worship becomes an expression of our love for him.”

General Authority Brook P. Hales: Life is a “Proving Ground”

Despite the challenges, heartaches and difficulties that everyone faces, a loving God has “designed the plan of happiness so that we are not doomed,” said Brook P. Hales, a General Authority Seventy. “His plan offers us the opportunity to overcome our fatal mistakes.”

Because Latter-day Saints view human life as a “testing ground,” “they must expect to be trained, taught, and go through the fires of the refinery — sometimes to our very limits,” he said. “To completely avoid the problems, challenges, and difficulties of this world would be to bypass the process that is truly necessary to make mortality work.”

Because of his life experiences, good or bad, Hales hopes to be “kinder to others, to treat others as the Savior would, to have more understanding of the sinner, and to have complete integrity.”

Primary Leader Tracy Y. Browning: How to Get Answers to Gospel Questions

Membership in the Kingdom of God is not a passive affair, Tracy Y. Browning, second advisor to the World Primary School Board, told the audience Sunday morning.

“Our stay there requires that we align our lives with divine principles,” declared the first black woman to hold a general presidency and the third female speaker during the two-day conference, “and make the effort to grow spiritually. “

Part of that growth, she explained, comes from asking questions and patiently seeking answers through scripture study, temple worship and seeking the words of modern leaders. Furthermore, it requires obedience to God’s commands and trust in him.

“Despite all these efforts,” she noted, “some questions may remain until God, who has ‘all power’ and ‘all wisdom and all understanding,’ who in his mercy ‘understands all things,’ enlightens us through our faith gives.” in his name.”

In 2022, Browning became the first Black woman to speak in general conference.

Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland: Jesus is not a “one-dimensional caricature”

Believers cannot stand by as Jesus “responds to difficult, often difficult, situations without witnessing that he was not and is not a one-dimensional caricature,” said Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland in the opening remarks of the second day of the church’s general conference.

In fact, said Holland, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “he is more of a divine being with a deeply rich character.”

The true nature of Jesus, viewed by believers as “refuge from the storm, that Prince of peace and high priest of good things to come,” poses “a challenge” to the 83-year-old apostle, who spoke while seated superficial, very human perception.”

Believers tend to “simplify, sometimes even trivialize, our view of him,” Holland said. “Throughout human history, some people have reduced His justice to mere prudery, His righteousness to mere anger, His mercy to mere negligence.”

Latter-day Saints need to be wary of and not fall for “such simplistic versions of him that conveniently ignore teachings we find objectionable,” he said.

To best understand this complex Savior, “through abundance as well as poverty, through private recognition as well as public criticism, through the divine elements of the (church) as well as the human frailties that will inevitably be a part of it,” Holland said , members must “follow the true church of Christ.”

Ultimately, members “signed up for the entire term,” he said.