NAUVOO, Illinois — After the dedication of the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center on June 27, Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke to news media and explained about the distinction between honoring prophets and worshipping Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
Elder Gong said President Dallin H. Oaks spoke of three defining characteristics of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the 2026 Seminar for New Mission Leaders on June 20:
- The fullness of the gospel, including the purpose of life.
- Priesthood authority.
- A unique testimony of Jesus Christ.
“We know so much of what we know about each of these three areas because of the Prophet Joseph,” Elder Gong said. “We worship God, our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, and them only — but with the deepest gratitude — we acknowledge and recognize the prophets called by God, from the Prophet Joseph to President Oaks today.”
Elder Gong was accompanied by Elder Kyle S. McKay, a General Authority Seventy who serves as Church historian and recorder and executive director of the Church History Department; Elder Hugo E. Martínez, a General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Church History Department; Elder Ricardo P. Giménez, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s United States Central Area presidency; and Sister Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the Young Women general presidency. Matt Grow, managing director of the Church History Department, also participated.
As reporters asked questions, the Church leaders answered with thoughts and testimonies.
The dedication and press conference were part of a weekend in which Church leaders toured historic Nauvoo sites, including Carthage Jail.
All are welcome
Elder Gong said the Church hopes all visitors will feel welcome when visiting Nauvoo, especially the temple visitors’ center.
“We hope that all who come will feel that this is a place of community,” he said. “We hope that all who come will feel that this is a place where people of faith lived their faith and testimonies, and in some cases, with great sacrifice and always with great joy in the Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Elder Martínez reflected on memories of the announcement, construction and dedication of the Nauvoo Illinois Temple.
“To have now a visitors’ center so that our friends and visitors may come in and get to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, as worshipped in the house of the Lord. What a wonderful blessing it is,” he said.
Elder Giménez testified that the Lord is hastening His work with “temples around the world, inviting everybody to come unto Christ and worship Him and know that He is your Savior — our Savior — the Redeemer of this world,” he said. “That is the message that we are sharing with the world. He lives; He loves us and cares for each one of us.”
Grow said the most striking feature of the Nauvoo landscape is the temple. The visitors’ center will help people understand why it was built.
“What we’re trying to do with this space is to explain the motivation for the temple, why those people in the 1840s, out of their poverty, built this building,” he said. “The fundamental message is they did it because of their faith in Jesus Christ. … So we hope that visitors can come and understand the ‘why’ for what they see on the landscape today.”
On Joseph Smith
Sister Runia expressed gratitude for Joseph Smith and what he revealed.
“He was a revealer of Christ and talked about deity in a way that had not been talked about before, and I’m so grateful for the things that were restored through him that bless our lives now, and the hope that emanates from this place,” she said.
Elder McKay cited Joseph Smith’s last testimony in Doctrine and Covenants 76:22-23, but he noted it was not the Prophet’s last testimony — that came as he sealed his testimony with his blood at Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844. Hours before the dedication, Church leaders visited Carthage Jail.
“When we feel what we felt today, we understand that testimony is not gone, it lives on. And it’s been magnified, the earth is now full of the truth and believers that Joseph started,” he said.
‘Sacred places’
The day before the dedication, Church leaders toured historic Nauvoo sites by wagon, visiting the Mansion House, the Smith Family Homestead and cemetery, the Red Brick Store and the restored Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home.
“These were sacred places. We felt as though we were in the midst of history, but we weren’t looking back, we were looking forward,” Elder Gong said. “To have a sense that we knew not just what was being done and how it was being done, but why it was being done — the sacred testimony of our Savior that motivated the Saints and motivates them today.”
Said Elder McKay: “It’s not difficult when we visit places like that, and this, to lift the Lord’s fingerprints, if you will, from the scene of a holy experience. Sometimes holy experiences may not seem holy in the moment, but we, with a little bit of hindsight, can recognize the holiness, the shaping and the hand of the Lord in it. It was easy to see the Lord’s fingerprints and recognize His intentions [at these historic sites].”
Sister Runia was impressed by the Saints’ level of “devotion and consecration,” leaving homes only recently built to journey west.
“The devotion, consecrated living and testimony of Jesus Christ came through in all of these places that we visited,” she said.
‘Touch grass’
Referencing Elder Gong’s recent video presentation on using artificial intelligence, a reporter asked what he would say to youth and young adults about “touching grass” — stepping away from screens to engage with sacred, physical places such as Church historic sites.
Elder Gong said he loves the phrase “touch grass” because it implies and means being in touch with reality — not artificial things — but things that “connect us as community” and “spiritual things.”
“Here in Nauvoo, we felt it so deeply that we have been in touch with spiritual thought. You can feel it, you can just know it,” Elder Gong said. “I would encourage and invite all of our young people, our rising generation, to ‘touch grass,’ but not just physical grass, but to be out, immersed, in that which is real, authentic, true, so that we’re connected to the things that matter the most.”
‘A special relationship’
Following Church leaders, seventh-generation resident of Quincy, Illinois, and former mayor Chuck Scholz spoke about the connection between his city and Latter-day Saint pioneers as well as its relationship with the Church today.
As chairman of Quincy’s bicentennial, Scholz helped dedicate new signage at the Mississippi riverfront, marking the place where exhausted Saints, driven from Missouri in 1838—39 under the infamous extermination order, found refuge.
In what he calls “one of the greatest acts of humanitarianism in American history,” about 1,500 Quincy residents opened their homes, parks and public spaces to more than 5,000 refugees — a kindness the Church has never forgotten.
“We have a very special relationship,” he said.
Scholz recalls how that relationship was rekindled in the 1990s through reenactments, symposiums and shared commemorations.
He shared treasured memories with President Gordon B. Hinckley, who invited local children to help at the Nauvoo Temple groundbreaking and later at the temple’s dedication on June 27, 2002, he called Scholz out of the crowd and handed him a silver trowel to place mortar in the cornerstone — an experience he now shares with his grandchildren.
The next night, June 28, 2002, “in an expression of gratitude to the people of Quincy,” Scholz said President Hinckley brought the Tabernacle Choir to their city for a performance. During an intermission, Scholz said President Hinckley presented him with the proceeds — $75,000 — which helped the community launch a foundation that today blesses local organizations.
After the presentation, President Hinckley told about his ancestors being sheltered in Quincy, then asked choir members with ancestors sheltered in Quincy to stand.
“They all stood. It was stunning. The air went out of the theater,” Scholz said. “Everybody in the audience gasped as the significance of what our ancestors had done hit home. That was something that we’ll never forget. That was really quite a historic night.”
‘I knew he was an Apostle’
Dressed in period clothing, Sister Francine Hallows of Torrey, Utah, narrated the wagon tour for Church leaders while her husband, Elder Gary Hallows, held the reins to two powerful draft horses — Jake and Jesse — each weighing more than 2,000 pounds.
The couple decided to serve after hearing Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles give his October 2023 general conference talk in which he invited senior members to serve missions.
More than 15 months into their 18-month mission, the couple — both 71 and recently celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary — said they felt blessed to guide Elder Gong and other Church leaders on the wagon tour.
“When he shook my hand, I knew he was an Apostle of the Lord. You could feel that,” she said with some emotion. “It’s a real honor and privilege to be here today.”
