Fifteen more songs were added to the growing catalog of new hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday, Feb. 13. This third batch of published songs is the largest release of the project to date. The Church has now released 37 new songs that may be sung in Church meetings, at home and in other settings.
While some of the songs are new to the Church’s general collection of songs approved for use in various Church settings, they may already be familiar to Latter-day Saints.
“This Little Light of Mine” has been sung at Church events like the 2023 Church Music Festival and was also featured in a Friend to Friend event in September 2023.
Members of the Church in the 1990s may also recognize a hymn sung regularly as part of the commemoration events in 1997 for the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers in the Salt Lake Valley. “Faith in Every Footstep” has been sung by the Tabernacle Choir, including at the 2014 Pioneer Day concert. This hymn is already published in some non-English hymnbooks of the Church that were published after 1997, including in Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian and Romanian languages.
Each of the new songs — and the other 22 that were released in 2024 — can be found in the “Hymns — For Home and Church” section of ChurchofJesusChrist.org, in Gospel Library and in the Sacred Music app. Initially, the new batch of songs will be available in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
“I Know That My Savior Loves Me” was first published in the Friend magazine in 2002. The Friend published a singalong music video on its Facebook page in September 2022. The song has also been sung in general conference.
Now available in more languages
The first songs released in May 2024 as part of the new music project have now been published in additional languages. Those first 13 hymns are now available in German, Korean and Tagalog. Later this year they will also be available in Mandarin and Japanese.
This is particularly exciting for members of the expansive team of employees and volunteers who have been working hard over the past few years to make these songs available in increasing numbers of languages.
One Korean language translation team member for the hymnbook project, Jinhee Kim, said she understands how powerful it can be to have this music in an individual’s own language.
“By singing songs, I feel like we are able to worship God more joyfully, more easily,” Kim said. “So, what I wish for other Saints all around the world to feel is to know that Heavenly Father is talking to us through the song.”
Kayla Decker is the translation manager for the new hymnbook. Her team’s responsibility does more than a simple translation of each song’s lyrics. They employ a process referred to as transcreation. The Church’s transcreation teams have professional linguists, poets and musicians who all work together.
“What we’re asking teams to do is to take the source text, the source poem, and help it resonate culturally, help it resonate linguistically, help it resonate for the community who will be receiving the product,” she said.
Elder Matthew L. Carpenter, a General Authority Seventy who serves as an adviser on the hymnbook project, said all of this process plays a role in building faith in the Savior.
“The Lord is accelerating His work. Part of this project to adjust our hymnal and bring in more worshipful songs is helping accelerate that mighty work as we prepare for His Second Coming,” he said.
The Church will continue to release small groups of songs multiple times each year until the project’s completion in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French in 2026.
