LDS conference highlights: Dallin Oaks takes church reins, steps away from a Russell Nelson tradition

In a surprise announcement during his first major speech as the top Latter-day Saint leader, senior apostle Dallin H. Oaks broke from tradition at the faith’s General Conference on Sunday: He did not name any new temples.

For many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, temple announcements — often listing far-flung regions and cities — had become a highlight of the two-day gathering streamed from the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City to millions watching around the world.

Oaks noted that during the nearly eight-year-tenure of President Russell M. Nelson — who died Sept. 27 — the 101-year-old leader had announced the construction of 200 temples (more than half of the faith’s 382 existing or planned temples).

“He loved to announce new temples at the conclusion of each General Conference,” Oaks said, “and we all rejoiced with him.”

However, due to the “large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction,” said Oaks, Nelson’s presumed successor, “it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”

“Therefore, with the approval of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” he explained, “we will not announce any new temples at this conference.”

Because Nelson died just a week before General Conference and his funeral is not until Tuesday, the 93-year-old Oaks chose to preside over the global gathering as the senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, not as the church president.

A new three-man First Presidency, with Oaks at its head, has not yet been announced nor sustained by the faith’s 17.5 million members.

For all the intrigue, though, the sessions had much the same look and feel as previous conferences, with dozens of sermons by male apostles and general authority Seventies, along with three speeches by women.

Latter-day Saint authorities focused on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, ways of emulating the Savior, reaching out to those who feel lost or isolated, sacred music, biblical examples, and meeting God at the judgment bar.

President Dallin Oaks: ‘We are a family church’

For his part, Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice, took on a topic he has addressed many times during his decades in high-level church leadership — the family. This time, though, his remarks were more personal and emotional than many of his other talks.

Latter-day Saint faith “centers on the family,” Oaks told his listeners. It is “sometimes known as a family-centered church,” adding, “It is.”

The gospel of Jesus Christ, he said, “is the plan of our Heavenly Father for the benefit of his spirit children.”

Oaks sees opposition to that principle in the United States, which, he said, seems to be “suffering from a deterioration in marriage and childbearing.”

He noted that for nearly a hundred years “the proportion of households headed by married couples has declined, and so has the birthrate.”

“The marriages and birthrates of our church members are much more positive,” Oaks said, “but they have also declined significantly.”

It is “vital,” he said, that Latter-day Saints not lose their understanding of the purpose of marriage and the value of children.

Oaks acknowledged that “not all of our families are traditional.”

Divorce, death, and separation “are realities,” said Oaks, as he described losing his own dad at age 7.

His grandfather gave young Dallin “the tragic news that my father had died in far-away Denver, Colorado,” Oaks recalled as his voice choked up. “I ran into the bedroom and knelt beside the bed crying my heart out. Grandpa followed me and went to his knees beside me and said, ‘I will be your father.’

“That tender promise,” Oaks added, “is a powerful example of what grandparents can do to fill in the gaps when families lose or are missing a member.”

The family circle “is the ideal place to demonstrate and learn eternal values,” Oaks said, “such as the importance of marriage and children, the purpose of life, and the true source of joy.”

Jesus Christ “is our ultimate role model,” he said. “We will be blessed if we model our lives after his teachings and self-sacrifice.”

Here are highlights from other speakers over the weekend.

Apostle Gerrit Gong: ‘Let us not simply accommodate or tolerate’

In a sermon that celebrated the global faith’s increasing diversity, apostle Gerrit W. Gong stressed that all were responsible for extending the hand of fellowship, including — and especially — to the foreigner and stranger.

“Everywhere people are moving,” he said. “The United Nations reports 281 million international migrants” — a much higher number than in recent decades.

At the same time, Gong added, “everywhere, record numbers of converts are finding” the church.

All told, nearly 200 countries and territories and 125 languages are represented in Latter-day Saint pews each week.

Such variety, Gong taught, requires an all-hands-on-deck approach to ensuring that all feel welcome.

“Covenant belonging deepens as we come to the Lord and each other in his inn,” Gong said. “The Lord blesses us all when no one sits alone.”

The church’s first Asian American apostle explained that such outreach goes beyond the perfunctory.

“Let us not simply accommodate or tolerate,” he said. “Let us genuinely welcome, acknowledge, minister to, love.”

Adding to the urgency is the isolating effects of the digital age.

“Social media and artificial intelligence can leave us thirsting for human closeness and human touch,” Gong observed. “We want to hear each other’s voices. We want authentic belonging and kindness.”

Meanwhile, comparing how different languages and cultures approach the gospel can bring new understanding to them. To explain, Gong used the example of the fortune cookie, explaining that the snack is more American than Chinese.

“Scriptures studied in multiple languages and cultural perspectives deepen gospel understanding,” he said. “Different expressions of Christ-like attributes deepen my love and understanding of my Savior.”

Gong taught that Christ’s followers must “put off the natural man and worldly culture.”

“As President Dallin H. Oaks teaches,” Gong said, “we are to give up any tradition and cultural practice that is contrary to the commandments of God and to become Latter-day Saints.”

Relief Society counselor J. Anette Dennis: ‘We need each other’

No one wants to feel unwelcome at church, so Latter-day Saints should treat one another with kindness, said J. Anette Dennis, first counselor in the presidency of the worldwide women’s Relief Society.

“We need each other,” she said. “Divine strength comes from unity.”

Dennis shared a past experience when she was going through a period of deep depression.

When struggling going to church, Dennis recalled, she attended solely because she was afraid of being labeled “less faithful” or “inactive.”

“What I really needed during that time,” Dennis said. “was to feel genuine love, understanding and support from those around me, not judgment.”

Apostle Gary Stevenson: Be peacemakers after Michigan attack

Apostle Gary E. Stevenson began by acknowledging the deadly Sept. 28 attack on a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Grand Blanc, Michigan.

“We realize that our hearts are mourning loss, and some feel uncertainty caused by violence or tragedy throughout the world,” Stevenson said. “Even devout people gathered in sacred spaces — including our hallowed chapel in Michigan — have lost their lives or loved ones.”

The apostle then recalled Jesus’ command to be peacemakers willing to turn the other cheek.

Comparing the current day to the time of Jesus, he said: “Polarization, secularization, retaliation, road rage, outrage and social media pile-ons, both generations face cultures of conflict and tension.”

Stevenson then spelled out a one-week peacemaking challenge to listeners to be kinder in the home and online, while seeking to mend a relationship in need of repair.

Seventy Peter Johnson: Ministering to the one

Ministering to the one with love and without judgment can help those who feel unimportant, alone, discouraged and unseen, general authority Seventy Peter M. Johnson instructed conferencegoers.

Just as Jesus ministered to the Samaritan woman at the well with love, and his apostles later healed a man who was lame from birth and who lay daily at the gate of the temple, Johnson said, it is important to minister to the one.

“As we minister to the one, we invite the one to come unto Jesus Christ and to worship in the House of the Lord to receive his redeeming power,” Johnson said. “In other words, we help one another become devoted disciples as we minister to the one in ways that lead to the House of the Lord.”

Johnson, who became the faith’s first African American general authority in 2019, recalled how discouraged he felt as a young missionary when he found out that Black members were once denied the priesthood and temple entry. He credited his missionary companion at the time for his patience and love in directing him to resolve his doubts and questions through prayer. He also harked back to his belief and testimony of the Book of Mormon, the faith’s foundational scripture.

“My friends, I promise that as we live the doctrine of Christ and minister to the one in ways that lead to the House of the Lord,” Johnson said, “we will press forward with faith in Jesus Christ even amid unanswered questions and feelings of being unimportant, alone, discouraged and unseen.”

Apostle Ronald Rasband: Family proclamation is doctrine

In 1994, Latter-day Saint apostles became worried about “how society and governments were pulling away from God’s laws for family, marriage and gender,” said apostle Ronald A. Rasband, quoting President Russell Nelson, as saying, “We could see the efforts of various communities to do away with all standards and limitations on sexual activity. We saw the confusion of genders. We could see it all coming.”

When President Gordon B. Hinckley announced the family proclamation in 1995, Rasband said, the document “did not align with the views of many in the world. Not then. Not now. There are those who take issue with the declaration on family, marriage and gender.”

These days, he said, some suggest the church “pull back, revise, or even set the proclamation aside.”

That’s not going to happen, the apostle said. It is “doctrine.”

The principles “are not out of step but perfectly in step with the ways of the Lord and his covenant path,” Rasband said. “The teachings of the proclamation were revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ to his apostles then and now.”

Though the document says that fathers are “to preside” and mothers “are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children,” Rasband said “preside does not mean dominate and nurture does not mean a secondary role.”

God has given men and women “different but equal and essential roles that complement each other,” he said. “Equal is a word that matters.”

To those who don’t see themselves in the proclamation, who don’t think they or their families “fit” in the document, that it “seems insensitive,” the apostle said, “know that you are a child of Heavenly Parents, part of Father in Heaven’s family.”

No one “knows you better or cares more deeply about you than [God] does,” Rasband said. “Pour out your heart to him, trust him and his promises.”

Apostle D. Todd Christofferson: ‘Look to God and live’

In June, a small bus carrying 20 young Latter-day Saints from a Lesotho congregation collided with another vehicle, and 15 people died, including six of the youths, two Young Women leaders, and the branch president and his wife.

At a funeral, apostle D. Todd Christofferson reported, a female leader of a neighboring congregation urged those grieving to “turn to the Lord, and find the strength to accept his will. Jesus Christ is ‘the author and finisher of our faith.’ Don’t look away but look to him.”

That is a crucial gospel teaching for all believers, Christofferson said. “‘Look to God and live,’ has meaning for us not only in eternity but also makes all the difference in the character and quality of our mortal lives.”

Such a perspective is the only way that “individuals, families and even nations can flourish,” the apostle said. “In looking to God, we can find peace in difficulty and our faith can continue to grow even in times of doubt and spiritual challenge. We can receive strength in the face of opposition and isolation.”

Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland: Evidence of God’s truth

Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland opened his remarks with a mention of Nelson’s death — as many other speakers did — and the Michigan attack.

Holland then turned to the New Testament story of Jesus curing a young man’s blindness as “evidence” of his healing powers. The apostle went on to detail what he said were “evidences” of the truthfulness of the church, beginning with the Book of Mormon.

That Latter-day Saint text “has been, for me, a rod of safety for my soul, a transcendent and penetrating light of revelation,” Holland said, “an illumination on the path when mists of darkness come as surely they have and as surely they will.”

Holland said he had seen “evidence” as clearly as the blind man who could see.

“The newly blessed man’s parents said their son should be heard because he was ‘of age,’” the apostle said. “Well, so am I. He was old enough to be taken seriously. Well, so am I. I am two months away from my 85th birthday [and was, at one point, near death]. I have walked with kings and prophets, presidents and apostles. Best of all, I have at times been overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit.”

Holland believes his “witness” should “be given at least some consideration here.”

He ended by semi-singing the famous Christian hymn “Amazing Grace,” with its powerful lyric, “was blind, but now I see.”