President D. Todd Christofferson provided some guidance for how members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can prepare for the anticipated Second Coming of the Savior in the Sunday afternoon session of April 2026 general conference.
The second counselor in the First Presidency focused his remarks on the need to acquire “the character of Jesus Christ.”
“It is in emulating the character of Christ that we become the ‘manner of persons’ (2 Peter 3:11) we ought to be,” he said. “Acquiring the character of Christ is one of the most important ways we take His name upon us.”
President Christofferson explained that acquiring the character of Christ — attributes such as virtue, integrity, humility, compassion and courage — begins by reflecting on what it is in the Savior that gives rise to such character traits.
“I believe they are the natural fruit of the thoughts, desires and intents of His heart,” he said. “Christlike character grows out of a Christlike heart. Thus, if we are to succeed in developing a Christlike character, we must possess His motivations — His thoughts, desires and intents of the heart.”
President Christofferson taught that through consistent and sustained effort, individuals can access the promised blessings of baptism, the companionship of the Holy Ghost, and the Savior’s grace, influence and spiritual gifts. This access to the power of godliness results in a transformation of heart and the development of the associated character qualities.
President Christofferson focused on three desires of Christ’s heart that will help to develop the other traits.
The first is the pure love of Christ, which yields character traits such as compassion, patience, a willingness to correct when influenced by the Holy Ghost and a willingness to forgive.
“Foremost among the motives that form Christ’s character is charity, ‘the pure love of Christ’ (Moroni 7:47),” he said. “It was pure love that, before the Creation, led Him to offer Himself as our Redeemer. His Atonement was and is the supreme act of love.”
The second is lifting and ministering to others — “His passion to foster happiness and advancement of others,” said President Christofferson. “After all, His entire object, in harmony with the Father, is ‘to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life’ of God’s children (Moses 1:39).”
Character qualities that grow out of devotion to the well-being and success of others include humility, meekness, selflessness and courage.
A third motivating force that President Christofferson said is essential to the character of Christ is devotion to the will of God.
“A Christlike desire to glorify God and do His will leads to the character qualities of honor, integrity and virtue.” He added that a life of moral excellence is a life of virtue, a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards, fidelity to God and others, and striving to be clean and pure spiritually and physically.
“It entails a search for and devotion to truth, to right thinking and right action,” President Christofferson said.
President Christofferson emphasized the point with a thought from President Russell M. Nelson’s final general conference address in April 2025: “Our thoughts, words and actions need to be unfailingly virtuous and filled with the pure love of Jesus Christ towards all men. The great opportunity before us is to become the people God needs us to be.”
Summarizing, President Christofferson said Jesus acts and thinks out of pure love, He yearns to bless and lift others, and He delights to do the will of God.
“With faith in Christ, we can pray that the Holy Spirit will effect a mighty change in us to instill these same divine motivations in our heart and help us practice the attributes of a Christlike character,” he said.
Adopting the character of Christ will not only bless individuals but help prepare the world for the Savior’s Second Coming.
“We tend to underestimate the influence of Christlike individuals in the world, but working one by one has always been Jesus’ approach to changing society and establishing His kingdom,” he said. “It is the aggregation of individual choices over time that forms and changes societies for good or ill. No one of us alone can change the world, but each of us can have an influence in the world.”
President Christofferson concluded by bearing his witness of the living, resurrected Savior and of President Dallin H. Oaks’ role as the Lord’s prophetic spokesman to the world.
