For his first General Conference sermon as president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Dallin H. Oaks addressed an issue on everyone’s mind: peace.

It seemed appropriate for Easter, when Christians worldwide celebrate the resurrection of the Prince of Peace, and when tens of millions also face the pains of conflict, war and death.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”

What a “revolutionary teaching for personal relationships,” the 93-year-old Oaks said. “... But who are our enemies?”

It could mean “military foes,” he said, but also “any who actively oppose one another … our adversaries.”

Loving everyone does not mean surrendering cherished values, Oaks said, but rather balancing them.

“This balancing is not easy,” he conceded. “When we seek to keep all the commandments in our personal lives, we are sometimes accused of having no love for those who don’t. When we show personal love and support loving causes, we are sometimes misunderstood as implying support for results that contradict our other religious duties.”

Oaks could be alluding to recent moves to balance religious liberty and LGBTQ+ protections. The church helped pass such legislation in Utah and pushed for similar measures in Arizona and Georgia. The global faith of 17.8 million members sought the same balance by endorsing the federal Respect for Marriage Act, which codified same-sex marriage while safeguarding faith freedoms, and in backing the proposed federal Fairness for All Act.

Such moves dismayed even a number of members.

But Latter-day Saints should live “peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed,” Oaks said. “In a democratic government, we should seek ‘fairness for all.’ In countless circumstances, strangers’ suspicion or even hostility gradually give way to friendship when personal contacts produce mutual respect.”

Many current writers describe modern life as “toxic,” a time of “contempt” or “hostility” toward adversaries, Oaks said. “This hostility affects many different relationships in society, involving many whose Christian beliefs should orient them otherwise.”

How it would change the world, Oaks said, “if followers of Christ would forgo harsh and hurtful words in all their communications.”

How can individuals be peacemakers? Oaks offered several examples.

“A bishop who seeks to heal a troubled marriage or resolve a personal controversy is working for peace,” he said. “Young men and women are peacemakers when they forgo the temporary pleasure of self-gratifying activities and involve themselves in service projects and other acts of kindness.”

Then there are “persons who seek to reduce human suffering and persons who work to promote understanding among different peoples. [They] are also important workers for peace,” he said. And “faithful mothers and fathers who lovingly care for their own children or shelter foster children and raise them in righteousness rather than leave them to be scarred and twisted by the sins of others.”

Oaks urged members to follow Christ “by forgoing contention and by using the language and methods of peacemakers.”

The conference also featured a rare tradition: a solemn assembly.

In the ritual, Latter-day Saints rose in Salt Lake City’s downtown Conference Center — or while viewing the livestreamed proceedings around the world — to offer their “sustaining vote” for Oaks and his two counselors in the governing First Presidency, Henry B. Eyring and D. Todd Christofferson.

Christofferson conducted the solemn assembly, starting with the First Presidency, followed by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, other general authorities and continuing down through the adult male priesthood members, adult women’s Relief Society, Young Men and Young Women and, finally, the entire membership.

“I am grateful to be among those whose leadership callings are formally recognized in this way, and to express appreciation for your participation in this significant occasion,” Oaks said Saturday in brief opening remarks. “I express our gratitude as leaders of the church for our members’ sustaining vote, prayers and support. We also pray for you to be guided and prospered as you continue the great service you give to the children of God throughout the world.”

Oaks succeeded Russell M. Nelson as the faith’s 18th prophet-president after the 101-year-old died in late September, just a week before the fall General Conference. Oaks presided over those sessions as the senior apostle but not as the church president. This past weekend marked his first General Conference as church president.

As the concluding speaker, Oaks also offered a brief send-off to viewers of Sunday’s Easter broadcast, stating: “Truly, Jesus Christ is the way to peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.”

He instructed Latter-day Saints to study the messages that had been shared, promising that those who do will be rewarded with personal revelation.

The Utah-based faith also announced Rosemary K. Chibota, a Malawian raised in Zimbabwe, as new general president of the Primary, the church’s organization for children. In August, she will become the first African leader of any of faith’s general organizations — a list that includes the women’s Relief Society, the Sunday school presidency, and the Young Men and Young Women groups.

The church also reported historic growth, adding a record 385,490 converts to its rolls last year. That tally eclipsed the previous record of 330,877 in 1990. It also represents a nearly 25% leap over the 308,682 converts recorded in 2024. Total membership reached 17,887,212 in 2025, a 2.2% uptick from the previous year.

Many speakers during the two-day conference discussed the life, death, resurrection — particularly the “empty tomb” and Atonement — of Christianity’s biblical Savior.

Here are highlights:

Service is an ‘offering to God’

In a church staffed by volunteers, “service is a choice, an offering to God and a blessing,” apostle Patrick Kearon said in the opening address Saturday morning.

And every member who gets “a calling” [assignment] is sustained by others with a symbolic raised hand.

It is an act of “common consent,” the British apostle said. “Common consent is not merely a formality, but a beautiful mix of our agency, unity and faith. It is a voluntary personal commitment to support, uphold, and help the Lord’s called servants in their responsibility.”

Not everyone will agree with those who have been called, or believe them to be doing a good job, Kearon said, “but as we pray for them, and they for us, important bridges of unity are built.”

Having callings, he added, “affords us all the opportunity to pursue Christ and his virtues such as — charity, humility, meekness, forgiveness and love — with people who may be very different to us.”

Sometimes members are “unable to respond to a calling at a given time,” he said. “Careful leaders will be sensitive to this, and, through prayer, the Lord can help you know when the time is right for you to serve again.”

This is the same act of support that the whole membership offered to Oaks on Saturday, Kearon said. “We have signified our willingness to uphold President Oaks with our confidence, faith and prayers.”

Best days and worst days

“Isn’t it amazing how you can go from best day to worst day in a matter of minutes,” said Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman.

Freeman, one of three women to speak at this weekend’s conference, told a recent experience she shared with her husband while planning their daughter’s wedding. They received a call and found out his cancer had returned.

“Have you ever accepted an invitation from the Lord and then felt unequal to the task,” Freeman asked. “We all know what it is to doubt, to experience sinking moments.”

In response to finding out about her husband’s cancer, Freeman said she opened her copy of the church’s “For the Strength of Youth” publication. She called the book a “guide for strength,” saying it gave her much-needed perspective.

“Jesus Christ knows all about best days and worst days: Suffering so great that an angel was sent to strengthen him. The betrayal of a good friend.The cross on Calvary,” Freeman said. “But his story also has a garden, a stone rolled away and an empty tomb. Because of him, no matter how bad things are right now, your best days are ahead.”

Jesus is the ‘true vine’

Christ said that he is the “true vine,” said apostle Ulisses Soares, “...the essential source of spiritual nourishment for our souls.”

He gives believers “strength beyond our own to not only survive the challenges of life, but to grow and thrive,” the Brazilian apostle said. “Through him, life becomes more hopeful and more joyful, and the fruits of the Spirit are manifested in us. Therefore, just as branches cannot bear fruit of themselves unless they remain connected to the vine, neither can we reach our full spiritual measure unless we abide in him and his gospel.”

Following Christ is “not an occasional or casual act; it is a constant, conscious and sacred choice,” Soares said. “It is allowing his holy teachings to abide in us, elevating our thoughts and governing our words in every setting — including the digital spaces where we so often interact — and purifying and consecrating our actions unto him.”

He warned listeners to be careful in their choices of voices to heed.

“Some speak with eloquence and influence and are well intentioned in their desire to promote goodness. Others are attractive in appearance but lack substance. Still others are misleading and may even appear to be connected to Christ and his gospel,” the apostle said. “Over time, many of these voices grow into tangled vines, rooted in popular philosophies and spread through various forms of media. They promise security, happiness or authenticity, yet they cannot satisfy the soul. Often, they quietly introduce doubt and division — first in the mind and then in the heart — leading to spiritual loss and sorrow.”

Wisdom in “our technological day is found in using modern tools with spiritual discernment — through the Holy Ghost,” Soares said, “without allowing them to replace the rightful voice of the True Vine.”

On loving ‘each’ and ‘all’

In his first worldwide conference address since becoming an apostle, Gérald Caussé emphasized both the expansiveness and individual nature of God’s love.

This, the Frenchman said, is the kind of love that a life of church service is designed to bring in members.

“Discipleship was never meant to be a comfortable circle of familiar friends focused on their own interests,” he said. “Rather, our congregations are a beautiful mosaic — enriched by diverse backgrounds, cultures and experiences — yet united in devotion to Christ.”

At times, this will, like in the story of “Beauty and the Beast,” require service to those one might find initially off-putting. That, he said, is by design.

“Service in the church expands our circle of love and widens our associations,” he said. “We meet people from all walks of life — new friends, brothers and sisters in need, recent converts and missionary or ministering companions.”

He added: “We don’t serve only those we already love; rather, we come to love people as we serve them.”

‘Come home’

Speaking to those with doubts and feelings that they don’t belong, the church’s newest apostle, Clark G. Gilbert, encouraged members and former members alike to hold fast to their faith and to “come home.”

“Feeling we don’t belong, struggling with doubts, or being limited by traditions are just a few of the reasons we don’t immediately find our way home,” Gilbert said. “But even as societal pressures pull people away from faith, life’s deeper questions don’t go away.”

He recounted the story of a woman who left the faith 30 years ago. She wanted to come back but was “overwhelmed to just walk back into church.”

On one occasion, Gilbert said, she mustered the courage to attend a temple open house.

She went to the event “dressed for Sunday church, only to park her car and watch others walk into the building,” he said. “Overcome with anxiety, she simply drove home, changed her clothes and wept alone.”

A bishop later sent her a note inviting her back to church, and she, in turn, finally decided to accept this invitation.

Gilbert expressed to those who are struggling that, although they are loved, “in the end, everyone must make their own choice to come home.”

With his new calling, Gilbert pledged to be a witness of Jesus Christ and that he will “specifically witness to the names of Redeemer and Repairer, as I focus on Christ’s invitation to come home.”

‘Glorious’ message of the empty tomb

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and second in line to lead the global church, said he cannot imagine the experience of those women who arrived at Christ’s tomb on that first Easter morning only to find it empty.

Yet their encounter “changed them forever,” the popular German apostle said. “It changed the world.”

That’s because “the bold message of the empty tomb is that Jesus Christ is not merely a historical figure,” he said. “We do not seek him among the dead. He is risen.”

That “glorious work continues today as we proclaim his way in word and deed throughout more than 150 countries,” he said. “...I have stood at the entrance to the empty tomb and seen with spiritual eyes the eternal truth that Jesus Christ is not found among the dead but among the living.”

That testimony, Uchtdorf said, “has made all the difference in my life.”

“As we desire to encounter Christ, we must eventually make our way to the empty tomb,” he added. “We must come to know for ourselves the blessed words, ‘Be not afraid, for Jesus who was crucified is not here. He is risen!’”

Ministering as Jesus would

Kristin Yee, second counselor in the global Relief Society presidency, recounted how two brothers in the church ministered to her father when he was at a low point in his life, and helped him become active in the church and temple work.

“Bless this ministering couple for helping my dad,” Yee said. “They didn’t judge him for where he was in his life. They walked with him and helped him to develop his relationship with God.”

Likewise, Yee added, church members are called by the Savior to be ministers to people who are struggling.

“We may not be able to fix difficult or heartbreaking circumstances as we hope; some changes are not ours to make,” she continued. “But we can choose to love and minister as the Savior would. Ministering by the spirit invites the Savior’s healing into our lives and the lives of those we minister to.”

In ministering to others, Yee said, members follow Jesus’ divine injunction for them to love one another.

“As we emulate his sacrifice by loving and ministering as he would, we will be blessed to find our own joy, healing and relief in him,” Yee said. “We will become even as he is.”