Next week, on Saturday, Oct. 5 and Sunday, Oct. 6, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will join together to listen to Church President Russell M. Nelson and many other leaders of the Church.
And while the Church’s Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City will be open to full capacity for the first time since the onset of COVID-19 and Temple Square construction, no building in the world is capable of holding all 17 million members of the Church to hear the Prophet’s voice simultaneously.
The first meeting of all Latter-day Saints took place on June 9, 1830, and found some 40 people accommodated in Peter Whitmer’s home in Seneca County, New York. Since then, the Church has gathered every year but two to hear inspired direction from the Lord’s mouthpiece. Conference has happened in good times and bad. It has happened in various locations — inside and out — and in sun, rain and snow.
Receiving instruction and doctrine from Church leaders as one unified body of Saints has never been a passive endeavor. Throughout the history of the Church, some have made great sacrifices to hear the words of the prophet.
As a child, I remember listening to general conference on the radio, watching on television and even sitting on the grass at Temple Square to listen to one session. When our family moved away from Utah for a time, we watched conference in our stake center, thanks to satellite technology. While serving my mission in Colombia, the Church began to broadcast via the internet, and members of the Church where I was serving in Leticia, on the Amazon River, could listen live to Church leaders for the first time. When I was the managing editor of the New Era magazine — now the For the Strength of Youth magazine — youth from around the world would send us photos watching conference on their phones.
As the Church News team prepared this week’s print issue, we reached out to the Church History Department to see if they had a photo of the first conference to be broadcast by radio 100 years ago. The one photo that remains of that day is featured on the print cover of this week’s issue. It shows a different time. The Salt Lake Tabernacle — completed in 1867 and dedicated in 1875 — is full, and the people are shown in much tighter quarters than are found in the same building today following its renovations that were completed in 2007. And the Church exchanged wooden benches of the Tabernacle for padded seats found in the 21,000-seat Conference Center that opened in 2000.
Regardless of the environment where one participates in general conference, listening, learning and striving to feel the inspiration of the Holy Ghost is the purpose in gathering.
In the April 2022 Liahona, Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles wrote about the importance of remembering.
“The word remember appears hundreds of times in the scriptures. In ancient Israel, remember was used in many instances to help the Lord’s people to remember what He had done for them in times past. It was even more commonly used in the context of covenants the Lord made with His people,” he wrote.
It is impossible to remember something that hasn’t been first learned or experienced.
One early Saint was counseled in January 1841 about his need to search for answers patiently at general conference.
William Law was told to “await patiently and diligently for further instructions at my general conference, saith the Lord” (Doctrine and Covenants 124:88).
Law had been called to serve a mission and to go to certain cities to preach the gospel loudly and with “great joy.” Through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the Lord told Law that if he would do what he was asked, he would need to move forward by listening to the instruction of Joseph Smith.
“If he will do my will let him from henceforth hearken to the counsel of my servant Joseph,” He said (Doctrine and Covenants 124:89).
In these verses, Law was counseled to follow the Lord’s commands in serving a mission, receive instructions in general conference and hearken to the Prophet’s words. He was also subsequently promised that he would be blessed “with a multiplicity of blessings” if he did those things (Doctrine and Covenants 124:90).
In more recent times, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles has shared a similar promise in his October 2017 general conference message to those who listen to general conference and obey the heavenly inspiration they feel.
“I promise that as you hear the voice of the Lord to you in the teachings of this general conference, and then act on those promptings, you will feel heaven’s hand upon you, and your life and the lives of those around you will be blessed,” he said.
So whether listening to the Prophet’s voice on the radio, on the television or via the internet, the promises of peace and guidance are there for those who will listen and obey during next week’s general conference.
— Jon Ryan Jensen is editor of the Church News.
