“We all have present or future concerns or struggles we are trying to overcome. These may include questions or doubts. Whatever they are, the way to overcome them is to get closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ,” he said during the Sunday morning session.

During his concluding remarks in the Sunday afternoon session, he invited all to the Salt Lake Temple Celebration, the open house being held next April to October.

As a service to our readers, the Church News has created downloadable PDFs of the talk summaries in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, summarizing each of the 37 messages shared during the October 2026 general conference.

View and download the PDF here of summaries in English.

View and download the PDF here of summaries in Spanish.

View and download the PDF here of summaries in Portuguese.

View and download the PDF here of summaries in French.

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

‘His grace is for all,’ President Dallin H. Oaks declares during October 2026 general conference

He had studied piano as a child and took lessons into adulthood, he but doesn’t practice now as much as he used to. In his career, Ferraz-Leite studied computer science and currently works in information technology as a business analyst.

“I was surprised to get in,” Ferraz-Leite said of the audition, adding that he’s a “hobby musician” and has since learned from many other choir members that “they had a very similar experience.”

Ferraz-Leite is one of 13 global members from 13 different countries and territories who sang during the Saturday morning session and the Sunday morning and afternoon sessions of October 2026 general conference.

The global singers are:

• Snezhana Valcheva, alto, of England;
• Mauricio Poujol Brickner, tenor, of Honduras;
• Aaron Anderson, baritone, of Australia;
• Aura Laineenkare, soprano, of Finland;
• Christian Wolfert, bass, of Germany;
• Hanna Saffer, soprano, of Sweden;
• Joan Cumming, soprano, of Scotland;
• Miguel Angel Rodriguez, bass, of Puerto Rico;
• Travis Alexander, tenor, of South Africa;
• Andrea Betancur Silva, alto, of Chile;
• Camila Cardus, soprano, of Argentina;
• Heber Ferraz-Leite, baritone, of Austria;
• JinHyoung Park, tenor, of South Korea.

Rodriguez, Alexander, Betancur, Cardus, Ferraz-Leite and Park have previously sung in general conference — Rodriguez and Park in October 2023; Ferraz-Leite in April 2024; Cardus in October 2024; and Betancur and Alexander in April 2025.

About the global member program

Global choir members go through a multistep audition process similar to the process for choir members who live within 100 miles of Salt Lake City. Global choir members receive endorsements from area leaders, submit recordings and complete a theory test. They also sing live for choir officials, which sometimes happens in the middle of the night, depending on time differences. Additionally, global members must have English proficiency and the ability to travel to the United States.

Several global members said the audition process was nerve-racking and that they were nervous during the live video interview with choir directors — likening it to meeting a celebrity.

Rodriguez said the audition was “kind of scary, but fun and marvelous.”

Ferraz-Leite said: “To anybody that wants to try it, I would say try it; if you get the chance, you might unexpectedly get in and be in for a treat.”

Plus, for this conference, they learned and memorized 17 songs in English.

See thetabernaclechoir.org/global-participant-program for more information.

The global choir members spend about two weeks in Salt Lake City before general conference for musical training, which includes choir school and rehearsals, meeting with the Church’s music department, seeing Temple Square and the Salt Lake Tabernacle and learning more about the choir’s history and music.

The first pilot group sang during April 2023 general conference. In April 2024, choir leaders announced the program would become permanent. It’s anticipated that about a dozen singers will come to Salt Lake City to perform in each general conference. Each singer serves for up to five years or until they have visited general conference twice. There are currently 72 global members, according to information from the choir.

For several of this year’s global members, it’s their first time visiting Salt Lake City. The international singers range from professional musicians or music teachers to those who have pursued other careers. Many began playing an instrument or singing when they were children or teenagers.

In this group, Betancur is an opera singer, and Saffer has traveled to a variety of countries with singing groups. Rodriguez studied audio engineering in school, and Saffer is the author of the a hymn in the new hymnbook. Others have careers in nursing, engineering, accounting, translation or business.

Betancur, Cardus and Ferraz-Leite, whose family is originally from Uruguay and moved to Europe when he was a teenager, were among the global members who participated in the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square’s “Songs of Hope” tour concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in August 2025 to celebrate 100 years of the Church in South America.

Brickner and his wife were living in Utah when he auditioned for the choir last year and began as a full-time member of the choir in May. However, he and his wife moved to Honduras in August due to a family issue. He was released from the Tabernacle Choir and then, several hours later, invited to be global member.

“It’s a blessing to be back,” said Brickner, who was the associate director of last year’s “Luz de Las Naciones” program, a celebration of Latin music and dance.

Being a global member of the Tabernacle Choir

Alexander, who is singing in his second conference, said it’s great to see the reactions of people in the global singers’ home countries, especially because “those who would normally not watch conference actually watch conference.”

When he sang in April 2025 general conference, family and friends sent him photos of themselves watching conference while Alexander was visible on screen.

“We are set apart as missionaries in the choir, and it’s been nice to see that missionary work in action,” said Alexander, who recently moved to England but is representing his native South Africa.

Park was part of the second group of singers in the October 2023 general conference. He said what he’s learned musically has helped him both personally and in his country.

“I feel strengthened in my testimony and in my faith more than ever,” Park said.

Valcheva has dreamed of singing with the Tabernacle Choir since being baptized 16 years ago while living in Bulgaria. During the first conference, she watched as a new member, she heard the choir and thought, “One day, I want to sing with these guys.”

When she found out about the global member program while living in London, England, she reached out to apply. “I’m living my dreams.”

Wolfert has seen how music helps connect people to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how it helps shape his perspective of other people as children of God.

“One of the greatest blessings is that we know that we are children of God and that those who listen to us come to an understanding that they are also children of God,” Wolfert said. “The music we sing facilitates that.”

For Cardus, being part of the choir has shown her how each choir member keeps working and learning.

“The most important thing that we are here [for] is to share the message that Jesus Christ lives and He’s our Savior, and He loves us,” she said. “And when we [have] our testimony, we [do] our best to [learn] and keep learning and keep giving our best.”

Correction: The photo captions initially had a Sept. 29, 2026, date. They were taken on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026.

‘A global family’: 12 singers from 10 countries and territories sang with Tabernacle Choir during April 2026 general conference

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

Music & the Spoken Word: Spiritual solutions

Elder Dube’s talk summary

There are three key truths to note in Moroni’s invitation: “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, … deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32).

1. Come: ”It’s an action. We choose to move from our current place to a better place.”
2. Deny yourselves: “Surrender. Let go of the things that are holding us back.”
3. Be perfected in Him: “Come as we are with a willing heart. He will give us a new heart.”

People do not need to be perfect to come unto Christ. “We come to Christ to be perfected.”

“In 1987, I was a young missionary with only two years in the Church. At the mission office, a sign on the gate read, ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted.’”

President Dallin H. Oaks asked that it be removed to avoid any impression of exclusion.

“The adversary wants to hang that sign on the gate of our heart.” Addiction, doubt, pride, pain, grief, guilt, materialism — or whatever holds one back — he tells us it makes us unworthy to come unto Christ.

“We invite all to come unto Christ through faith in Him and His Atonement. In that moment, I gained the desire to love others as the Savior does.”

Notable quotes

“We invite all to come unto Christ through faith in Him and His Atonement.”

“[Jesus Christ’s] suffering and atoning sacrifice show us how completely devoted He is to all of us. He invites us to come unto Him.”

“We do not need to perfect ourselves to come to Christ. We come to Christ to be perfected.”

Who is Elder Dube?

• Elder Edward Dube was sustained as a General Authority Seventy in April 2013 and began serving in the Presidency of the Seventy in 2024. Prior to his call, he worked for the Church Educational System for 17 years, establishing seminaries and institutes in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi.
• He was baptized a member of the Church as a 22-year-old and served a full-time mission in the Zimbabwe Harare Mission two years later.
• He married Naume Keresia Salazani on Dec. 9, 1989, in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe; they were sealed May 15, 1992, in the Johannesburg South Africa Temple. Together they have four children.

What has Elder Dube done recently?

• Elder Dube spoke after a special “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast by The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square in April that celebrated African culture.
• He told BYU–Pathway students June how education and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ changed his life.
• In May, he and Elder Carl B. Cook, also of the Presidency of the Seventy, ministered in Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• In September, Elder Dube ministered with Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Dominican Republic.
• Elder Dube spoke in the April 2021 general conference on continuing to press forward “toward the mark.” He said the opening prayer at the Saturday evening session of the April 2025 general conference.

Read more of Elder Dube’s general conference addresses.

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

However, reading it daily and cover to cover became a foundational experience for him as his testimony deepened. And that study continued as he served as a full-time missionary in his native Philippines.

“I fell in love with the Book of Mormon as a young missionary, and it truly is another testament of Jesus Christ,” he said, noting that it has helped him learn about the Savior throughout his life. “Every time we read the Book of Mormon, it will help us understand the Lord’s Atonement.”

Elder Fantone was sustained as a General Authority Seventy at the April 2026 general conference.

“We can see the hand of the Lord in everything that we have experienced,” Elder Fantone said of the experiences, including lessons and blessings, with his wife, Sister Cynthia Fantone.

Legacy, testimonies of their fathers

James Gilwell Osorio Fantone was born in Manila, Philippines, on Feb. 11, 1972, to Jose Velasco Fantone and Angelita Osorio Fantone.

Elder Fantone was a young boy growing up in the Metro Manila community of Mandaluyong when his father met missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Their family was Catholic, and young James attended a Catholic school.

“It took one year for him to study and read and pray about the Church,” Elder Fantone said of his father, who was baptized in 1976. Each Sunday, his father would invite young James to come to Church with him. His older sisters were living with grandparents, and he had a younger brother.

“That’s where I really fell in love with Primary,” he said. Young James was baptized at 8 years old.

It was several years later, when Elder Fantone was about 12 years old, when his mother agreed to meet with the missionaries and was also baptized. Elder Fantone later learned it was his maternal grandmother who encouraged his mother. His grandmother, a lifelong Catholic, said, “I have seen changes in the life of your husband, and there’s something special in the church that he joined,” Elder Fantone recounted.

Church News podcast, episode 289: Get to know the new General Authority Seventies and Primary general presidency through their testimonies

His younger brother was also baptized at 8 years old, and his older sisters eventually joined the Church as teenagers.

“I’ve seen how they truly went through that conversion process of change,” he said of his parents, including transitioning their home traditions, too.

When he was 15, Cynthia Caseres Uy’s family moved to their ward — and he described it as “love at first sight.” She was also impressed by him. But he wasn’t the only young man attracted to her in their large and active youth group.

When she was a young girl, Sister Fantone’s father met the missionaries and turned down their initial invitations. After experiencing a stroke and during his recovery at home, Cesario Ernesto Miguel Uy saw missionaries passing by their street and invited them in. Both of her parents and four of her older siblings were baptized.

“Little did he know that six months after his baptism, he would pass away,” said Sister Fantone, who was 4 years old when her father died. She added, “His best legacy to us was the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Her mother, Alejandra Caseres Uy, was active in the Church, attending Sunday School and serving as a Relief Society teacher, Sister Fantone said of the stories she heard from her siblings. Two years after her father’s death, her mother also died. Sister Fantone is the youngest of eight children and was eight years younger than the next oldest sibling, and the oldest was 20 years older.

“I fell in love with the Book of Mormon as a young missionary, and it truly is another testament of Jesus Christ. ... Every time we read the Book of Mormon, it will help us understand the Lord’s Atonement.”

Elder James O. Fantone, recently sustained General Authority Seventy

“The Church anchored them,” she said. Her siblings — the oldest were young adults — cared for her, making sure she had food and opportunities for school. And young Cynthia would go to Church with her brother and sisters who were members. She was baptized at 8 years old.

“I’m really very happy that they did bring me to church. And it became something that I looked forward to,” Sister Fantone said, adding that as she grew older, the Church “became a refuge.”

When she was 15, her family moved from Marikina about 9 miles (14 km) south to Mandaluyong, to live in a home owned by a cousin.

There were about 20 young men and young women in their age group and a program with weekly activities and supportive leaders, the Fantones recalled.

“Those youth days were really foundational for us,” Elder Fantone said.

Stepping stones

Since he was a boy, Elder Fantone always knew he was going to serve a mission. At age 19, he was assigned to the Philippines Cagayan de Oro Mission on the southern island of Mindanao, serving from 1991 to 1993.

As a missionary, his testimony deepened as he studied the scriptures and learned more about the gospel. Elder Fantone said he learned how to work and developed practical skills by living away from home as well as learned the importance of obedience. Through his mission, he also improved his English and developed leadership skills.

As the Fantones served as mission leaders in the Philippines Antipolo Mission from 2022 to 2025, they would encourage the missionaries to “take your mission seriously because it’s going to change your life,” Sister Fantone said, noting the changes weren’t just spiritual growth.

A mission can “give you balance and abilities that you probably did not know you had before. But if you continue to obey and serve God with all your heart, might, mind and strength and focus on your purpose, you will turn out to be a different, a better version of yourself,” she said.

Of her husband and his mission, she added: “I saw that in him.”

Reconnecting when he returned from serving a mission, they dated and later married on Aug. 23, 1994, in the Manila Philippines Temple.

She had finished her degree and was a manager for a pharmaceutical company, and he was pursuing a degree while working at the Philippines Missionary Training Center. On the advice of their doctor due to her schedule and travels, she resigned from her job and began a less-stressful one with a Montessori school. She had also wanted to be a stay-at-home mother — something she didn’t have growing up.

Two years later, they had a little daughter, and Elder Fantone was graduating with his bachelor’s degree and looking for a full-time job. Elder Fantone was serving on the high council when he was assigned to speak in the local branch of expatriate Latter-day Saints — and speak in English. It was his first time speaking in a Church meeting in English to an international audience. “I just spoke from the heart.”

The branch president asked to meet with him the next day at his company’s office — and offered him a job as a sales manager.

“And that became a stepping stone” to other professional opportunities, he said. “It was a spiritual and temporal blessing together.”

The Fantones said that they can see how throughout their lives, they’ve had experiences and responsibilities and met people who have put them in position to progress professionally and start their own businesses. They’ve also seen challenges with employment and other times where businesses haven’t succeeded as they’ve hoped.

“We both decided from the very beginning [of our marriage] that we would never say no to the Lord,” Sister Fantone said. “It’s not because everything is always perfect in our lives. There were a lot of challenges.”

Elder Fantone was called to be bishop when their family was young. Sister Fantone would bring lunch to him at the Church building so he could magnify his calling and they could spend time together. When they moved south to Cebu and he was called to be in the stake presidency, she did a similar thing with their growing family.

Testimony of eternal families

While they were still living in the Metro Manila area, they had their second child, a son named Jose Miguel after his grandfathers. Diagnosed with a congenital heart condition, he needed heart surgeries to correct the heart defects. During their planned vacation in the United States, where the Fantones’ family members were living, their son underwent surgery. Baby Joemig, as they called him, died at 18 months old.

Elder Fantone said, “Our testimony of eternal families sustained us and continues to sustain us.”

Since then, they’ve also helped support and comfort other families who have also had a child die.

Sister Fantone said it was easy to blame themselves and look at different “what ifs.” As they look back at the experience, they can see how they’ve grown and learned lessons during that difficult time.

She added of their young son: “And he has always been a sweet reminder to us that we need to do better in life.”

They had two more daughters. Their oldest is now married, their middle daughter is engaged to be married, and the youngest is in high school.

Elder Fantone said: “This is truly the Lord’s work, and we are just fortunate to be a small contributor to whatever God would want us to do. And we are willing, and we’ll give our very best.”

About Elder James G.O. Fantone

Family: James Gilwell Osorio Fantone was born in Manila, Philippines, on Feb. 11, 1972, to Jose Velasco Fantone and Angelita de Leon Osorio Fantone. He married Cynthia Caseres Uy in the Manila Philippines Temple on Aug. 23, 1994. They are the parents of four children and were residing in Cebu City, Philippines, at the time of his call.

Education: He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in management from Rizal Technological University and took additional guidance counseling studies at the University of the Philippines.

Employment: He has worked in multinational companies in sales and leadership positions, including as the country manager for the nonprofit Academy for Creating Enterprise, and as a training and business consultant. The Fantones have also had their own businesses.

Church service: At the time of his call as a General Authority Seventy, he was serving as an Area Seventy in the Philippines Area. He is a former Philippines Antipolo Mission president (2022-2025), stake presidency counselor, high councilor, stake and ward Sunday School president, stake Young Men presidency counselor, bishop and institute teacher, and served in the Philippines Cagayan de Oro Mission.

Find out more about the Church’s 8 new General Authority Seventies

April 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

The Lord ‘owns the work,’ says Elder Chigbundu, new General Authority Seventy from Nigeria

Elder Hathaway’s talk summary

“With perfect understanding and infinite power, [Jesus Christ] can deliver the righteous from all things, forever.” There is a scriptural pattern of divine deliverance.

Opposition brings heart-rending questions and emotions: All face opposition. Questions and emotions about trials “can create a sacred space where agency is activated and we choose whether to turn toward Jesus Christ.”

Sincere spiritual seeking: Turn “toward Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through heartfelt prayer, purposeful fasting and scripture study.” These can draw people closer to Jesus Christ.

Assurances of deliverance: “As we humbly and patiently keep our covenants, the Savior will visit us in our afflictions.”

Enabled enduring through the grace of Jesus Christ: This grace does not remove pain and difficulty. It is an enabling power to “receive divine strength beyond our own.”

Deliverance comes in the Savior’s time and way: “He knows that lessons learned while waiting can bring converting growth that an earlier rescue might not produce.” When it feels like the hour is too late, remember Jairus, when he received the news that his daughter had died. Jesus said, “Be not afraid, only believe.” (See Mark 5:36; Luke 8:50.)

“In His time and way, Jesus Christ will deliver you.”

Notable quotes

“With perfect understanding and infinite power, He can deliver the righteous from all things, forever.”

“As we wait upon the Lord and exercise faith in Him, needed growth and spiritual stretching comes, and the Savior delivers us from our afflictions and consecrates them for our gain. He does this in His time and way.”

“Some miracles are immediate, some come after long waiting, and some await the Resurrection.”

Who is Elder Hathaway?

• Elder Kevin J. Hathway was sustained as a General Authority Seventy during the April 2026 general conference.
• He and his wife, Sister Kali Hathaway, were serving as mission leaders in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission when he was sustained. Elder Hathway served as a young missionary in the Russia St. Petersburg Mission.
• Elder and Sister Hathaway initially met in a BYU home evening group but were dating other people at the time. Both are Brigham Young University graduates.

What has Elder Hathaway done recently?

• Elder Hathway’s testimony was featured on the Church News podcast in April 2026 after he was called in general conference.

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

Elder Renlund’s talk summary

People can easily fall into the trap of focusing on the here and now and lose sight of the bigger picture, both where they have been and of God’s promises.

While seen in an experience with a heart-transplant patient who survived but later complained about cold oatmeal, it’s not a modern phenomenon.

In the Old Testament, the children of Israel complained multiple times. “As they overlooked both the Lord’s blessings and His promises, their trust eroded in God and in God’s prophet.”

The Lord’s response is: “And the Lord said unto Moses, … how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have [shown] among them?” (Numbers 14:11).

“God invites us to trust Him and His promises.”

During His ministry, Jesus Christ told His disciples that in Him they might have peace and that He had overcome the world. “We can experience joy in our here and now because of Him and through our covenant relationship with Him.”

The power of the Messiah to save and exalt is “profoundly intimate and infinite beyond human comprehension; there is more than enough to cover any breach, need or deficit for all of us, for each of us.”

Notable quotes

“Jesus overcame the world; we do not have to do so ourselves. When our faith is centered on Jesus Christ, He promises spiritual peace no matter our circumstances. ”

“Faith in Jesus Christ frees us from uncertainty because our hope rests on His faithfulness and righteousness, not on our own.”

“As we reflect on the great things the Lord has already done and remember His goodness and mercy, we are better positioned to grasp the bigger picture and to rely on His promises to us. We can trust Him.”

Who is Elder Renlund?

• Elder Dale G. Renlund was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on Oct. 3, 2015. He had been a General Authority Seventy since 2009
• He was a professor of medicine at the University of Utah and medical director of the Utah Cardiac Transplant Program.
• Elder Renlund is a son of Swedish immigrants, served a mission in Sweden from 1972 to 1974, speaks Swedish and considers the country his “other homeland.”
• He met his wife, Sister Ruth Lybbert Renlund, in his home ward in Salt Lake City. After mustering up the courage to ask her out, she said no. He was more successful when he tried again a few months later. They were married June 16, 1977, in the Salt Lake Temple and are the parents of one daughter.

What has Elder Renlund done recently?

• He spoke in April 2026 general conference about Easter.
• Elder Renlund dedicated the Davao Philippines Temple in May.
• He offered five cairns to guide missionaries during a devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center in June.
• At the 2026 Seminar for New Mission Leaders, he taught how Church members and missionaries can collaborate better.
• In April, he testified to young adults that through the Savior and His Atonement, “the consequences of any unfairness to anyone will be resolved, mitigated or lifted.”

Read more of Elder Renlund’s general conference addresses, or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X/Twitter.

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

The changes include:

• A new Primary general presidency — President Rosemary K. Chibota with Sister Nina M. Garfield, first counselor, and Sister Theresa A. Collins, second counselor — were sustained in April 2026 and began serving on Aug. 1. Released were the three members of the outgoing Primary general presidency — President Susan H. Porter and her counselors, Sister Amy A. Wright and Sister Tracy Y. Browning.
• A new member of the Presidency of the Seventy also began serving on Aug. 1. Elder Benjamin M.Z. Tai, who was sustained a General Authority Seventy in April 2019, is the new member of the Presidency of the Seventy. He replaces Elder S. Mark Palmer, who has served in the presidency since 2021 and was one of seven General Authority Seventies who received emeritus status this year.
• In addition to Elder Palmer, six other leaders receiving emeritus status were: Elder Craig C. Christensen, Elder Eduardo Gavarret, Elder Brook P. Hale, Elder William K. Jackson, Elder Erich W. Kopischke and Elder Peter F. Meurs. Also, Elder W. Mark Bassett died in May.
• Eight new General Authority Seventies were sustained in April. They are: Elder Christian C. Chigbundu, Elder Matthew J. Eyring, Elder Hutch U. Fale, Elder James O. Fantone, Elder Kevin J. Hathaway, Elder Thabo Lebethoa, Elder Jeremiah J. Morgan and Elder Paul H. Sinclair.

Download the chart in English here.

Download the chart in Spanish here.

Download the chart in Portuguese here.

Download the chart in French here.

Learn more about the incoming Primary general presidency

Find out more about the Church’s 8 new General Authority Seventies

Elder W. Mark Bassett, General Authority Seventy and executive director of Missionary Department, dies at age 59

7 General Authority Seventies to be given emeritus status on Aug. 1

October 2026 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

On Sept. 1, the four men gathered on a wooded hill in Yokohama, which is south of Tokyo on Tokyo Bay, to bless the country for the preaching of the gospel.

Now, 125 years later, there are more than 131,000 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints across 230 congregations in the country of more than 14,000 islands. There are seven missions and four operating temples, with another in planning.

On Aug. 30, 2026, commemorating the 125th anniversary, Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke at a countrywide devotional. He testified of the power of covenants and how it helps sustain and bless people, reported the Church’s East Asia Newsroom (in English) and the Japan Newsroom (in Japanese).

“The spiritual power that comes into our lives as we honor the covenants we make with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ has been blessing the Saints in Japan for 125 years — and will continue. The work of the Lord will accelerate, according to His will and timing. And every single one of us plays a part in building up His kingdom,” he said.

Elder Bednar testified to the members of the Church in Japan: “If you will put God first, above all other things, and seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, you will be blessed.”

Preaching the gospel in Japan

Elder Taylor, 19, wrote of Elder Grant’s prayer on the nation, and it is in “A Priceless Pearl: Alma O. Taylor’s Mission to Japan” in the June 2002 Ensign: “[His] tongue was loosed, and the Spirit rested mightily upon him; so much so that we felt the angels of God were near, for our hearts burned within us as the words fell from his lips. I never experienced such a peaceful influence or heard such a powerful prayer before. Every word penetrated into my very bones, and I could [have] wept for joy.”

The four missionaries worked to learn Japanese as they faced challenges with the language and culture.

Elder Grant, who would later serve as Church President, baptized Hajime Nakazawa, the first Japanese member of the Church, on March 8, 1902. Other milestones followed as Church meetings were organized and more people listened to the gospel and were baptized.

Elder Ensign, who was 29 when he went to Japan, also served as mission president from 1903 to 1905. Elder Taylor, 19, continued to serve in Japan for nine years, including as mission president from 1905 to 1910. He worked to produce the first Japanese translation of the Book of Mormon, which was published in October 1909.

Missionary work continued through the 1920s, when the mission was discontinued due to the political climate between the U.S. and Japan on immigration and other issues, according to the Church’s global history essay “The ‘Dark Ages’ of the Church in Japan” on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. A presiding elder, who was from Japan, was called and ordained. It was after World War II when Church leaders reached out to Latter-day Saints in Japan and sent them shipments of food and clothing. In 1948, the First Presidency began calling missionaries to Japan, explains “Saints, Vol. 3.”

On July 17, 1949, Elder Matthew Cowley of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came to Tokyo to dedicate the renovated mission home, explains the global history article “Here To Stay” on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. He declared that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is “here to stay; we will never retreat again.”

Elder Cowley also promised that there would be many more buildings built by the Church — “even temples” — in Japan.

First stake and World Expo

In March 1970, the Tokyo Stake, the first stake in Japan — and in Asia — was organized. In Osaka, the Church had a pavilion in The World Exposition that same year. The pavilion featured a spire with the Angel Moroni statue on a white building with exhibits about the gospel and a replica of the Christus, notes “Saints, Vol. 4.”

During the seven-month event, nearly 7 million people visited the pavilion and about 650,000 Japanese people filled out contact cards, with many requesting visits from the missionaries.

“It was an exciting time for the Church in Japan,” records “Saints, Vol. 4.” In the 25 years since the end of World War II, the number of Church members had grown and there was a translation and distribution office in the country.

Building Latter-day Saint temples

In 1975, President Spencer W. Kimball ministered in Japan. During the countrywide conference on Aug. 9, 1975, President Kimball announced a temple for the country.

Then 10 years old, Seiji Tokuzawa of the Machida Ward, Tokyo Japan West Stake, traveled with his family to the conference.

“My parents and many other Saints wept with joy, but at age 10, and with four younger brothers, I could not comprehend the significance of their tears,” Tokuzawa said in an article on the East Asia Newsroom. “Today, however, I understand those feelings deeply.”

Members of the Church would work and save to go to the Laie Hawaii Temple to participate in ordinances.

The Tokyo Japan Temple was dedicated on Oct. 27, 1980, by President Kimball — it was the first house of the Lord in Asia. Tokuzawa was sealed to his wife in 1988. In 2003, his parents later served as temple president and matron of the Fukuoka Japan Temple, which was dedicated in 2000.

Tokuzawa said: “I offer my heartfelt gratitude for the Lord’s abundant love and grace, which continue to bless families from one generation to the next.”

Other temples in the country are the Sapporo Japan Temple, which was dedicated in 2016, and the Okinawa Japan Temple, dedicated in 2023. The Osaka Japan Temple was announced in October 2023 general conference.

The Church in Japan

To commemorate a century of the Church in Japan, two bronze plaques were unveiled not far from the site in the city of Yokohama where the first four missionaries to Japan offered their dedicatory prayer, reported “Centennial in Japan” on Sept. 8, 2001. The plaques are on the base of the steeples for the Yamate Ward, which was dedicated on Sept. 1, 2002, reported the Church’s East Asia Newsroom.

President Henry B. Eyring, the first counselor in the First Presidency and then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said during the April 2003 general conference about meeting with missionaries in Japan a few years prior: “I promised them that a great day would dawn in that nation. I said that there would be a great increase in the members speaking eagerly to those they met of their testimony of the restored gospel. … I know now that the great miracle, a mighty change, will come inside the members, not in the world around them.”

Throughout 2026, the area leaders have been sharing about the history of the Church in a series of articles on the East Asia Newsroom in English and Japan Newsroom in Japanese, including on translating the Book of Mormon; various pioneers, Church members and missionaries; service; and the legacy for the rising generation. Also the Asia North Area presidency designated 2026 as a year of celebration and remembrance.

The countrywide devotional on Aug. 30 also included a video presentation on the history of the Church in Japan, messages from longtime members and testimonies from children.

Bishop Haruki Konishi of the Yamate Ward said: “Through Elder Bednar’s loving message and the influence of the Holy Ghost, we gained a renewed witness that the power of the Lamb of God is being poured out upon the Lord’s covenant people in this land, and we felt anew the joy of the Savior’s gospel.”

Timeline

• Aug. 12, 1901: The first group of Latter-day Saint missionaries arrived in Japan, including Elder Heber J. Grant, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Louis A. Kelsch, Horace S. Ensign and Alma O. Taylor.
• Sept. 1, 1901: Elder Heber J. Grant blessed Japan for the preaching of the gospel.
• March 8, 1902: Hajime Nakazawa became the first convert to the Church in Japan.
• April 28, 1902: The first meeting of the Church was held in the home of Nakazawa.
• Oct. 16, 1903: The first Sunday School conducted in the Japanese language was organized.
• January 1904–September 1909: Alma O. Taylor oversaw the first translation of the Book of Mormon into Japanese. It was published in October 1909.

• January 1923: Fujiya Nara was ordained presiding elder of the Church in Japan.
• June 9, 1924: Due to rising tension between the United States and Japan, Church President Heber J. Grant discontinued the Japanese Mission.
• October 1947: Edward L. Clissold was called to reopen the Japanese Mission.
• 1955: The Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price were published in Japanese for the first time.
• March 15, 1970: The first stake of the Church in Asia, the Tokyo Stake, was organized.
• 1970: The World Exposition was in Osaka.
• Aug. 9, 1975: President Spencer W. Kimball announced that a temple would be built in Tokyo.
• Oct. 1, 1977: Elder Yoshihiko Kikuchi was called as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He was the first native Japanese member to serve as a general authority.
• Oct. 27-29, 1980: President Spencer W. Kimball, President of the Church, dedicated the Tokyo Japan Temple; this was the first temple in Asia.
• June 11, 2000: President Gordon B. Hinckley, President of the Church, dedicated the Fukuoka Japan Temple.

• March 2011: In the wake of the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku, or Great East Japan, earthquake and tsunami, the Church distributed 180 tons of emergency supplies.
• Aug. 21, 2016: President Russell M. Nelson, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, dedicated the Sapporo Japan Temple.
• Oct. 1, 2023: The Osaka Japan Temple was announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson.
• Nov. 12, 2023: The Okinawa Japan Temple was dedicated by Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Source: “Japan: Chronology,” Global Histories, ChurchofJesusChrist.org

Interfaith activities in Asia — from Tokyo to Singapore — strengthen members’ faith

2022: Legacy of missionary work, temple worship ensures Christ-centered future for Japan's Latter-day Saints

The list “includes meetings, activities and other experiences that build faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ,” according to the notice.

The schedule also notes when Church videos and resources for youth and children will become available and what local leaders can do to plan local activities and events.

Events and broadcast information are also available online at events.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, on area Newsroom sites, and in the Churchwide calendar at calendar.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Member Tools mobile app.

January 2027: “Come, Follow Me” New Testament study begins

• New Testament study begins and continues throughout the year.
• For Primary, fast-Sunday lessons begin January, and those are at the end of the “Come, Follow Me” resource.
• For all members and teachers.
• See “Instructions for Curriculum 2027” for additional information.

2027 ‘Come, Follow Me’ curriculum now available

January 2027: Update meeting times

• If a unit is changing meeting times at the beginning of the new year, update the times shown in Church systems by visiting Leader and Clerk Resources (LCR) > Reports > Unit Settings.
• For bishoprics and clerks.

Jan. 16: “Rejoice in Christ” Worldwide Discussion for Youth

• Video includes messages from a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other Church leaders to help better understand the 2027 youth theme, “Rejoice in Christ” (see Philippians 4:4).
• It becomes available on Jan. 16 in the Gospel Library and at ChurchofJesusChrist.org and may be used any time after release.
• The video can be used for a Sunday meeting, weekday activity, devotional, youth conference or camp.
• For youth and leaders.

What is the 2027 youth theme?

Feb. 7: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• Young adults around the world are invited in local units or in institute gatherings to watch the devotional with Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Watch live at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time in the Americas and on Feb. 14, 2027, in other areas of the world.
• For young adults ages 18-35.

‘Sing with redeeming love,’ Elder and Sister Kearon tell young adults in worldwide devotional

March 4: Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

• This 30-minute prerecorded training from general Church leaders helps local councils and leaders understand their temple and family history responsibilities in helping to unite families for eternity. A discussion guide will be available to assist leaders in implementing the principles locally.
• For stake and ward councils and those with temple and family history responsibilities.

2026 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction: Keep Christ at the center of family history, Elder Patrick Kearon teaches

March 4-6: RootsTech

• Three-day family history conference on RootsTech.org and in person in Salt Lake City; see RootsTech.org for registration information.
• Live and prerecorded sessions will be available beginning March 4.
• For all members and friends.

2026 RootsTech gathers family history enthusiasts ‘Together’

Jane Seymour, CeCe Moore to give keynotes at RootsTech 2027

March 6: Family Discovery Day

• An Apostle to speak during a broadcast celebrating family discovery and uniting families for eternity.
• Watch live, 1:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time or on demand.
• For all members and friends.

Elder and Sister Rasband at RootsTech 2026: ‘Build your family’s legacy of faith,’ unite and bind generations in Christ

March 6: Worldwide Relief Society Devotional

• Broadcast includes Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the Relief Society general presidency members, President Camille N. Johnson, Sister J. Anette Dennis and Sister Kristin M. Yee.
• Broadcast will be available March 6 in the Gospel Library and at ChurchofJesusChrist.org and can be used at any time afterward, especially in conjunction with celebration of the anniversary of the organization of the Relief Society on March 17.
• For all women, including young women turning 18 in 2027.

2026: Relief Society worldwide devotional emphasizes covenantal relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ

March 21-28: Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter Sunday

• All are invited to reflect on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His great love as they prepare to commemorate His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Resources to help with planning and celebrating are available at Easter.ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
• For Easter Sunday, March 28, leaders are invited to plan a special sacrament meeting with talks and music focused on the Savior. Sacrament is the only meeting that day, and wards are welcome to hold social gatherings.
• For all members and friends.

See Church News articles about Easter

April 3-4: General conference

• Live broadcast of the annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where prophets, apostles and Church leaders speak.
• Live sessions on April 3 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Live sessions on April 4 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Recordings of conference sessions will be available on conference.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Library for on-demand viewing and listening.
• For all members and friends.

April 5-Oct. 1: Salt Lake Temple Celebration

• Tour the Salt Lake Temple during the public open house, and learn more about Jesus Christ and the Church through in-person experiences on Temple Square and virtually.
• April 10 will be an opening event with music and performances aimed at helping participants rejoice in Christ.
• In October, a global broadcast with Church leaders will commemorate the end of the Salt Lake Temple Celebration.
• For all members and friends.

See recent news about the Salt Lake Temple open house and celebration

May-October: Live from Temple Square

• Events on Temple Square featuring local area hosts and native-language sister missionaries will be broadcast live.
• For all members and friends.

New experiences coming to Temple Square

May 2: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• Young adults around the world are invited in local units or in institute gatherings to watch the devotional with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Watch live at 6 p.m. MDT in the Americas and on May 9, 2027, in other areas of the world.
• For young adults ages 18-35.

Elder and Sister Stevenson encourage young adults to deepen their conversion and faith in Jesus Christ

May 22: Friend to Friend video for children

• A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Primary general presidency will share messages for children.
• For Primary-age children and their leaders, teachers and parents.

Children learn about prophets in May Friend to Friend with Elder Gong, Primary general presidency

June 10-11: Religious Educators Conference

• Broadcast provides guidance on how to improve teaching to youth and young adults to foster greater faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Watch live or on demand.
• For religious educators and seminary and institute teachers.

‘Making peace will change the world,’ President Johnson testifies to religious educators

July-August: No Churchwide events or broadcasts.

September-December: Tithing declaration

• Bishops counsel with ward members about the blessings of paying tithing and give them a chance to declare faithfulness to this principle.

2022: ‘Tithing declaration’ to replace tithing settlement, First Presidency announces

Sept. 4: Friend to Friend video for children

• A member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Primary general presidency will share messages for children.
• For Primary-age children and their leaders, teachers and parents.

Children learn about families in September Friend to Friend with Elder Caussé, Primary general presidency

October: Salt Lake Temple Celebration closing event

• Global broadcast featuring Church leaders to commemorate the end of the Salt Lake Temple Celebration.
• TempleSquare.org is also available as a resource to use and invite others to participate in this celebration.
• For all members and friends.

Oct. 2-3: General conference

• Live broadcast of the annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where prophets, apostles and Church leaders speak.
• Live sessions on Oct. 2 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Live sessions on Oct. 3 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Recordings of conference sessions will be available on conference.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Library for on-demand viewing and listening.
• For all members and friends.

Nov. 7: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• Young adults around the world are invited in local units or in institute gatherings to watch the devotional with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
• Watch live at 6 p.m. MST in the Americas and on Nov. 14, 2027, in other areas of the world.
• For young adults ages 18-35.

Dec. 5: First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional

• The First Presidency invites general authorities and general officers to speak in this prerecorded devotional at the start of the Christmas season focused on the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Broadcast on the Church satellite system, ChurchofJesusChrist.org, the Gospel Library and other media. Also, available to record and view at a later time.
• For all members and friends.

First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional 2025: Read talk summaries, see photos

Dec. 19 or Dec. 26: Special Christmas sacrament meeting

• All wards and branches are invited to have a special, one-hour sacrament meeting focused on the birth of the Savior on a Sunday near Christmas.
• Sacrament meeting is the only meeting that day, and wards are welcome to hold social gatherings.
• For all members and friends.

See what the First Presidency’s Sunday meeting schedule adjustments are for Easter, Christmas

Due to the Conference Center closing to prepare for the Salt Lake Temple Celebration and open house next year, the production will be a concert version of the first act and presented in the Tabernacle on Temple Square on Nov. 27-28, announced a post on the Savior of the World Facebook page. There will be matinee and evening performances both days.

The choir is expected to include about 30 children, 50 youth and additional young adult and adult singers and feature a live orchestra to create “a rich musical experience focused on the anticipation and celebration of the Savior’s birth,” according to the social post.

Callbacks are on Sept. 26, a full rehearsal will be Oct. 17, and other rehearsals will be scheduled. See the audition announcement for additional information about parts and how to audition.

In past years, the full two-hour musical production of “Savior of the World: His Birth and Resurrection” has been presented in the Conference Center Little Theater from late November through December. Tickets have been free but required. Due to tickets being sold out, standby lines were available. The presentation in Salt Lake City included multiple casts.

It was first performed in the Christmas 2000 season — the year the Conference Center opened.

The full “Savior of the World” will be presented this Christmas in New Zealand. It will be Dec. 16-19 in the Due Drop Events Centre, Auckland, New Zealand, according to information from the Church’s Pacific Area.

Salt Lake Temple Celebration gives reason to ‘Rejoice in Christ’

2024: The personal and spiritual impact of ‘Savior of the World’

The schedule also notes when Church videos and resources for youth and children will become available and other reminders to help leaders plan local activities and events.

Events and broadcast information are also available online at events.ChurchofJesusChrist.org, on area Newsroom sites, and in the Churchwide calendar at calendar.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Member Tools mobile app.

“Area, stake and ward leaders are invited to review the schedule and prayerfully consider how and when to use these resources to bless the lives of those in their stewardship,” according to the notice released on Thursday, Oct. 30, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

The list also notes which events will need local planning and gathering to supplement the materials from Church headquarters. “Please also note the intended audiences for each broadcast and work with the stake and ward organizations over those audiences to plan these events,” the notice states.

Jan. 18: “Walk With Me” Worldwide Discussion for Youth

• Video will feature Church leaders, youth and music to help understand the year’s theme, “Walk with Me” (Moses 6:34).
• It can be used during a Sunday meeting or as part of a weekday activity.
• Audience: Youth and youth leaders.

See Church News’ coverage of the devotional.

Prayer, repentance and covenants a way Jesus invites to ‘Walk with me,’ President Christofferson teaches in worldwide youth discussion

2026 youth theme logo, music, other resources now available

Feb. 1: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• This broadcast will commemorate 100 years of institute.
• Young adults around the world are invited in local units or in institute gatherings on Feb. 1 or during the week to watch the devotional. Watch live at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time or on demand.
• Audience: Young adults ages 18-35.

See Church News’ coverage of the devotional.

Elder and Sister Andersen to host Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults on Nov. 2

Prepare for Christ’s Second Coming through righteous stewardship, President Johnson tells young adults

March 5: Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

• This 30-minute, prerecorded training from Apostles helps local councils and leaders understand their temple and family history responsibilities. A discussion guide will be provided to assist leaders in implementing the principles locally.
• Audience: Stake and ward councils and those with temple and family history responsibilities.

See coverage of the 2026 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction with Elder Kearon.

Elder Kearon to speak during the 2026 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction

When Latter-day Saints can watch the 2025 Temple and Family History Leadership Instruction online

March 5-7: RootsTech 2026

• Three-day family history conference on RootsTech.org; see RootsTech.org for registration information.
• Live and prerecorded sessions will be available beginning March 5.
• Audience: All members and friends.

See Church News’ coverage of RootTech.

Steve Young, Marlee Matlin and more announced as keynote speakers for RootsTech 2026

RootsTech 2026 organizers unveil new theme and lineup of global emcees

RootsTech 2026 registration now open

March 7: Family Discovery Day

• Apostle to speak during a broadcast celebrating family discovery and uniting families for eternity.
• Watch live, 1:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time or on demand
• Audience: All members.

See coverage of Elder and Sister Rasband at RootsTech.

Elder and Sister Rasband announced as RootsTech 2026 Family Discovery Day speakers

Family Discovery Day 2025: President Holland expresses gratitude for covenants, priesthood power

Family Discovery Day 2025: Elder Andersen teaches gospel lessons learned on the farm and testifies of Jesus Christ

March 8: Worldwide Relief Society Devotional

• Broadcast celebrating the Relief Society and to share testimony.
• Can be used in local women’s gatherings; more information about resources and their availability will be shared at the start of 2026.
• Audience: All women 18 and older.

See the 2026 Relief Society worldwide devotional.

2026 Worldwide Relief Society devotional to be held in March

Global sisterhood and covenant community celebrated at Relief Society worldwide devotional

March 10: 2025 Caring for Those in Need: 2025 Annual Report

• Annual report published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org outlines how the Church has used tithing and other donations to bless the lives of individuals and families around the world.
• Audience: All members and friends.

Read about the Caring for Those in Need 2025 summary.

Church spends $1.45 billion to care for those in need during 2024, annual summary outlines

March 29-April 5: Palm Sunday and Holy Week

• All are invited to worship together at the start of this Holy Week. Sacrament meetings should focus on the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. During Holy Week, all are invited to reflect on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and on His greater love to prepare to commemorate His Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Holy Week study guide available.

See all articles published about Easter.

April 4-5: General conference and Easter weekend

• Live broadcast of the annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where prophets, apostles and Church leaders speak.
• Live sessions on April 4 are at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Live sessions on April 5 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sessions are also available on demand.
• Audience: All members and friends.

See announcements, talk summaries, photos and session highlights from the April 2026 general conference.

May 3: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• Young adults around the world are invited to gather to hear counsel from Church leaders. Watch live at 6 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time or on demand.
• Audience: Young adults ages 18-35.

See coverage of the devotional with Elder and Sister Stevenson and how they encourage young adults to deepen their conversion and faith in Jesus Christ.

May 24: Video for Children

• This video can be used at home or as a resource for a Primary activity or Sunday lesson to help children better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Audience: Primary-age children and their leaders, teachers and parents.

See thee May Friend to Friend with Elder Gong, Primary general presidency as they teach about prophets.

Primary children invited to watch September 2025 Friend to Friend with Elder Kearon and Primary general presidency

June 11-12: Religious Educators Conference

• Broadcast provides guidance on how to improve teaching to foster greater faith in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Watch live or on demand.
• Audience: Religious educators and seminary and institute teachers.

2026 Religious Educators Conference coverage:

• President Johnson testifies that ‘Making peace will change the world’ to religious educators

• Church leaders, veteran educators share their best tips for teaching youth and young adults

August: “Festival 2026: Walk With Me music devotional”

• Festival uses sacred music to strengthen faith and testimony in Jesus Christ and create belonging.
• Youth leaders can use provided resources to create a special devotional, standards night, fifth-Sunday class or other event.
• Audience: Youth and youth leaders.

See 2026 youth music experiences resources now available and music experiences to unite youth in worship and faith.

2025 Festival: A Youth Concert prerecorded events now available online

August: Emphasis on inviting all to receive the gospel

• All are invited to use Church resources to love, share and invite as the Savior did.

Sept. 14: Video for Children

• This video can be used at home or as a resource for a Primary activity or Sunday lesson to help children better understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Audience: Primary-age children and their leaders, teachers and parents.

See the September 2026 Friend to Friend with Elder Caussé, Primary general presidency.

Oct. 3-4: General conference

• Live broadcast of the annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where prophets, apostles and Church leaders speak.
• Live sessions on Oct. 3 are at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. Live sessions on Oct. 4 are at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sessions are also available on demand.
• Audience: All members and friends.

First Presidency invites all to participate in October 2026 general conference.

Nov. 1: Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults

• Young adults around the world are invited to gather to hear counsel from Church leaders. Watch live at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time or on demand.
• Audience: Young adults ages 18-35.

November: “Luz de Las Naciones”

• Celebration of Latino cultures and faith.
• Audience: Spanish-speaking members and friends in the Utah Area (for live attendance) and worldwide to participate digitally.

Dec. 6: First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional

• The First Presidency invites general authorities and general officers to speak in this prerecorded devotional at the start of the Christmas season focused on the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Streamed at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time and available on demand.
• Audience: All members and friends.

First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional 2025: Read talk summaries, see photos

First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional 2024: Read talk summaries, see photos

Dec. 20: Sacrament meeting only

• The First Presidency has invited all wards and branches to hold on the Sunday before Christmas a special, one-hour sacrament meeting focused on the birth of the Savior. Talks and music should be focused on the Savior.
• All are welcome to worship.

See what the First Presidency’s Sunday meeting schedule adjustments are for Easter, Christmas

Church announces dates for 2025 Churchwide broadcasts

October 2025 general conference: Announcements, talk summaries, photos, session highlights

Mack Wilberg, the choir and orchestra director, said: “The question was, ‘Are we going to go ahead?’ … It was decided that we would go ahead, but we would change the program significantly.”

With the approval of the First Presidency, Craig Jessop, then the choir director, and Wilberg, then the associate director, changed the program to more patriotic songs, said Heidi Swinton, former choir historian.

President Gordon B. Hinckley, then President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke; counselors President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust offered the prayers.

In his brief remarks, President Hinckley pointed to the Savior, Jesus Christ. He said, “There is shining through the heavy overcast of fear and anger the solemn and wonderful image of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, the Prince of Peace, the Exemplar of universal love — and it is to Him that we look in these circumstances.”

Wilberg said President Hinckley’s words “brought a sense of calm and a sense of comfort.”

Since that night 25 years ago, the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra have marked anniversaries of the events of Sept. 11, when airline jets crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York City; the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.; and a Pennsylvania field. Flights were grounded across the country.

Wilberg said, “With continued challenging times, a primary purpose of the choir [and orchestra] is to bring hope, comfort, light and peace.”

2 comforting messages President Gordon B. Hinckley shared after the 9/11 terrorist attacks

Remembering the week of Sept. 11, 2001

That night, the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performed patriotic songs, including the U.S. national anthem, “America the Beautiful,” “God Bless America” and an encore of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” reported the Church News archives.

Wilberg recalled that the songs “took on a totally different significance” that night.

The choir and orchestra performed Roy Ringwald’s arrangement of “God Bless America” that “starts like a prayer and then it builds, and then it comes back down to a prayer or a soft ending,” Wilberg said, adding, “It’s unusual for that piece.”

Wilberg said of that song, “It was so poignant for that particular occasion in that particular time.”

Friday, Sept. 14, 2001, was declared by then-U.S. President George W. Bush as a national day of prayer and remembrance. The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra performed two memorial services — at 10 a.m. and noon — that were broadcast over the Church’s satellite system.

In 2001, about half of homes in the United States had internet access, according to a report on Census.gov, and the vast majority of those were powered by dial-up connections.

During the Sept. 14, 2001, memorial, the choir and orchestra performed songs of peace and comfort, including “Blessed Are They That Mourn” (from Johannes Brahms’ “Requiem” drawn from Matthew 5), “How Great the Wisdom and the Love,” “God So Loved the World,” “Where Can I Turn for Peace?” and “Nearer, My God, to Thee”; and patriotic songs, including “God Bless America” and “America the Beautiful.” President Hinckley and other Church leaders also spoke during the service.

2001: 'Balm for wounded hearts' at Sept. 11 memorial

Scott Barrick, who was the choir’s general manager for more than 20 years, was living in California at the time and went to his local Church meetinghouse for one of the services.

“I remember feeling connected,” he said. Barrick had applied for the general manager position with the Tabernacle Choir and was still in the interview process. He started with the choir in November 2001. “It was really interesting to me to see what impact the choir could have in a situation like this.”

Swinton said: “The choir has a way of breaching all kinds of divides and even languages because they sing from their hearts and from their very souls. And that touches people, no matter where they’re from, or what language they speak.”

5 Latter-day Saints reflect on Sept. 11 experiences that shaped their faith

Marking the anniversaries

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra did “Music & the Spoken Word” specials for many holidays and notable anniversaries, including 9/11, Barrick said. The first year, they released two songs that could be used in remembrances, according to the Church News archives. Through the years, they did patriotic programs near the Sept. 11 anniversary, especially if it was on a Sunday, Wilberg said.

For the 10th anniversary in 2011, television anchor Tom Brokaw was the guest narrator of the special “9/11: Rising Above.” The six songs from that special were released as a digital album.

The Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel launched the following year on Oct. 31, 2012, Barrick noted. That gave the choir more flexibility in sharing its music.

For the 20th anniversary in 2021, the choir and orchestra were still in the COVID-19 pandemic pause, creating some challenges, Barrick said.

Journalist Jane Clayson Johnson hosted the “9/11: Coming Together” anniversary broadcast, recording in New Jersey across the river from the World Trade Center memorial. Singer Kristin Chenoweth’s performance of “Angels Among Us” from the 2019 Christmas concert was included, along with other previously recorded songs from the choir and orchestra, Barrick said.

Swinton said the choir and orchestra “have provided a voice that can bolster the nation, that can bring peace and calm to the nation when we are suffering and can celebrate and bring joy when things go well.”

2024: Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra perform 9/11 remembrance ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol

Timeline: Key 9/11 events involving the Church, its leaders and members

See more of Church News' coverage of Sept. 11 remembrances

Wednesday marked the 23rd anniversary of when hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, into the Pentagon and in a southwest Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.

The 310 choir members filled the grand staircase, wrapping around into the balcony while the nearly 70 orchestra members were set up next to the stairs.

A timeline of key 9/11 events involving the Church, its leaders and members

After the Pledge of Allegiance, the choir sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful,” concluding the ceremony with “God Bless America,” which filled the hall and received a standing ovation.

Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp noted the choir’s “heavenly voices” on this solemn occasion of remembrance.

“Thank you to the choir for accepting our invitation to be here to help us mark this occasion in such a powerful way,” Kemp said. He added that while many choirs and orchestras have performed in the capitol building, the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s appearance likely set a record for the number of choir members and was “certainly one of the best sounding.”

In the aftermath of the 9/11attacks, “we all witnessed a new spirit of patriotism and courage that we must continue to drive us forward to this day,” he said.

Just the nation was shaken 23 years ago by the attacks, the state was shaken a week ago when four students died in a school shooting, the governor said.

“As we did in the days following Sept. 11, we’re all coming together to pray for the families and friends and those touched by this tragedy,” he said.

He also thanked any veterans, current military members and first responders.

Choir President Michael O. Leavitt and his wife, Sister Jacalyn Leavitt, met with Kemp and his wife, Marty Kemp, after the ceremony.

The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra are in Atlanta, Georgia, as part of the southeastern U.S. stop on their multiyear, multicity “Songs of Hope” tour.

President L. Whitney Clayton, first counselor in the choir presidency, said after ceremony, “We’re taking the message of hope in Jesus Christ across the world. This particular occasion, which we remember 9/11 and the tragic events here in Georgia just a few days ago, helps us remember the need for hope, and that hope can be found if we know where to look for it. And we believe the choir’s message of hope in Jesus Christ does that.”

Also in attendance were Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt, General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and first counselor in the Church’s North America Southeast Area, and his wife, Sister Jayne Corbitt; President Gary B. Porter, second counselor in the choir presidency, and his wife, Sister Debbie Porter; Sister Kathy Clayton; Elder M. Andrew Galt, Area Seventy, and his wife, Sister Karen Galt; and Elder Robert C. Gay, an emeritus General Authority Seventy. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the choir and orchestra’s sponsoring organization.

Earlier this year, the Georgia Senate recognized The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during a legislative session at the Georgia Capitol on Feb. 22 and announced the “Songs of Hope” concerts. Five senators co-sponsored the bipartisan resolution commending the Tabernacle Choir and the Church for 95 years of “Music & the Spoken Word” and their collaboration with the Morehouse College and Spelman College glee clubs.

Georgia Senate resolution commends Tabernacle Choir and the Church

This tour stop’s concluding concert is Wednesday, Sept. 11, at State Farm Arena. It will feature singers from the Morehouse College Glee Club and the Spelman College Glee Club.

The first concert of the southeastern U.S. tour stop was a bilingual Spanish/English concert in south Florida on Saturday, Sept. 7, with singers Adassa, known for her role as Dolores in “Encanto,” and Alex Melecio, one of the narrators for the Spanish “Music & the Spoken Word.”

The choir and orchestra joined with the Morehouse and Spelman glee clubs on Monday, Sept. 9, at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel.

The concerts during the tour are being livestreamed on the choir’s YouTube channel, on broadcasts.ChurchofJesusChrist.org and on the Gospel Stream app, and the arena concerts will be available for on-demand viewing. (See www.choirworldtour.com for streaming information.) There are also watch parties across the southeastern U.S. to view the concerts live.

Singer Adassa returns to southern Florida roots for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra ‘Songs of Hope’ bilingual concert

‘Spectacular’: Tabernacle Choir and the Morehouse and Spelman colleges’ glee clubs combine together as they sing, testify of Savior through music

More photos of the choir, orchestra at the Georgia State Capitol

Church News’ coverage of ‘Songs of Hope’ southeastern U.S. tour stops in Florida and Georgia

• Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra in Florida for first concert of southeastern U.S. ‘Songs of Hope’ tour stop
• Singer Adassa returns to southern Florida roots for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra ‘Songs of Hope’ bilingual concert
• ‘Spectacular’: Tabernacle Choir and the Morehouse and Spelman colleges’ glee clubs combine together as they sing, testify of Savior through music
• What the Morehouse and Spelman college glee clubs are saying about performing with the Tabernacle Choir in Georgia
• Kristin Chenoweth surprise guest artist at Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s final tour concert in Georgia
• How to watch the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra’s concerts in Florida and Georgia
• See photos of watch parties across southeastern U.S. for Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra’s ‘Songs of Hope’ concerts

As a young woman in Indonesia, Sri Anon’s passion was learning English, but her father wanted her to go to pharmacy school.

This desire to learn English led Sri Anon, who like many Indonesians only uses given names, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just a few years after missionaries arrived in the country. Now 79, she has seen the Church grow in her native country, has translated many Church materials and records that history as part of her current assignment as the Indonesia Church history adviser.

Finding the gospel

After graduating from pharmacy school, she worked at a drugstore and studied at an English language academy for two years. When the academy closed, a friend suggested Sri Anon attend a new English class — one taught by native speakers. The instructors were American missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“The missionaries were successful, and there were more than 100 students learning the class,” said Sri Anon, who also speaks her native language of Javanese and Indonesian. And she enjoyed learning in the classes.

At the time, too, she was seeking answers to religious questions.

Sri Anon grew up in Solo, a city also called Surakarta, in the Central Java province, in a Muslim family that was happy. At pharmacy school, she lived in the dorms with a Christian roommate named Rohana.

One day, Rohana took Sri Anon with her to a Christian bookstore, where she saw a statue of Jesus Christ being crucified.

“I felt that His eyes looked directly at me and touched my heart,” Sri Anon said.

It was around that time that her mukena, the garment worn by Muslims when they pray, was lost, she said. She soon began going to church every Sunday with Rohana. When she graduated, returned home and started working at a drugstore, Sri Anon started looking for a church to attend.

“I thought: ‘I am a Muslim, but I do not pray anymore. I am a Christian, but I am not baptized. When I die, where should I go?’” she said. She also had other questions and began attending a local Christian church, but she wasn’t satisfied with the answers from the reverend.

When she started attending the missionaries’ English classes, they invited her to attend Sunday School — and she went. She had questions, such as why there wasn’t a collection plate like other Christian churches she had attended. The missionaries told her about tithing and invited her to learn more about the gospel.

“While they taught me about the plan of salvation, I felt that I found the answer to my question,” Sri Anon said. “I was sure that [the Church] was a true church.”

She was 30 when she was baptized on Feb. 22, 1973, by Elder Warren Harper from Idaho and confirmed by Elder David Koch from Utah — less than three years after the Church had received official recognition in the country.

Then, about 20 members met for the Solo Group in a large home for Sunday School and sacrament meeting. By October, the group had grown to about 100 people and became a branch, Sri Anon said. There are now several wards there.

Her first calling was a Primary teacher in the Solo Group. She later served as the branch Primary president, the district Primary president and a youth Sunday school teacher. Sri Anon has also been a temple worker in the Hong Kong Temple and taught institute classes.

Not long after her baptism, the drugstore she worked at was sold, and she began searching for a new job. A few months later, she saw an announcement from the Church’s distribution center in Bandung, West Java province, looking for part-time translators. It was a position that could be done remotely. She applied and was hired as one of the first group of translators from the Central Java province. Sandra and Irma, the other two translators, who were from Semarang, the capital of the Central Java province, would review Sri Anon’s translations.

Her first assignment was to translate the family home evening manual, she said.

“Maybe the missionary [the leader of the Solo Group] gave me these callings because at that time the guidebooks and the textbooks, even the Book of Mormon, had not yet been translated into the Indonesian language,” she said. “Therefore, when teaching the youth class, I translated the textbook and assigned the students to take turns teaching the class. My purpose was to educate them in self-confidence and how to teach and learn the gospel better.”

She’s translated many children’s songs into Indonesian, especially for Primary presentations, and has also helped with songs for the first edition of the Children’s Songbook and about 90 hymns for the fourth edition of the Indonesian hymnbook. And since 2017, she has been involved in a group translating more hymns.

Sri Anon later was able to get a full-time position for an engineering firm that was looking for a typist who knew English, and she continued with her translation work. She got married in 1979 and they moved to Jakarta with his work. Her late ex-husband, Koko Bintarko, was the first branch president of the Jarkarta Ray Branch when it split from the Jarkarta Branch in the early 1980s.

In Jakarta, she met a Church member who was the vice president of a Canadian oil company, Asamera Oil, who was looking for a secretary. She retired from there after about 19 years and served as a senior missionary.

“I have a testimony that the Lord has a wonderful plan and gave me uncountable blessings,” she said. Sri Anon later noted that she’s seen how “the Lord is always taking care of me.”

The Church in Indonesia

The first Indonesian to be baptized in the country was Sustrisno, on June 1, 1969. He had met Latter-day Saints who were living in Indonesia in 1957 and lived with one of the families for three years.

Then-Elder Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Elder Bruce R. McConkie, then of the Seventy, visited and Elder Benson offered a prayer over the land and people of Indonesia in October 1969.

In January 1970, six missionaries from the Southeast Asia Mission arrived in Jakarta and were met by several Latter-day Saints, both Indonesians and those on work assignments in the country. The first branch was organized in February, and the missionaries baptized two people in March. In August, the Church received recognition by the Republic of Indonesia.

President Russell M. Nelson, during a visit to Jakarta during his Southeast Asia ministry in November 2019, said, “That sequence is a testimony of the divinity of the priesthood power of an atmospheric dedication.”

In the late 1970s, at the request of government leaders, foreign missionaries were to be replaced by Indonesian nationals, and the last foreign missionaries left in 1981. Many native Indonesians have served in their home country and foreign senior couple missionaries began serving in the 1990s.

“Many local young men and women have served missions. We have our own local missionaries ,and our self-confidence is growing that local missionaries are capable. And the Church kept growing,” Sri Anon said of the Church’s growth in a country where 87.2% of the 277 million people are Muslim.

There were eight groups or branches when she was baptized. As of the end of 2021, there are more than 7,500 members, two stakes, and 15 wards and nine branches.

Meeting Church leaders

Sri Anon remembers two visits from President Gordon B. Hinckley — as an Apostle in 1976 and as Church President in 2000. In 1976, due to flight delays, he wasn’t able to make it to Semarang in Central Java province, where members waited for him to arrive. She took the train with about 20 other members to Jakarta to see him the next morning. Members picked them up at the train station, took them to the meetinghouse, and she heard him speak. After lunch, they returned home that evening.

It was after those spiritual experiences that “the Solo Branch was growing very fast and became the first branch which was separated into four branches,” she said.

Sri Anon also saw President Hinckley during his ministry in 2000 while she was doing her missionary training.

“I attended the incredible devotional in a big meetinghouse and felt a strong influence of the Holy Spirit,” Sri Anon said.

She also sang in the choir when President Nelson and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ministered there in 2019.

“I was very happy to listen to the Prophet,” she said.

‘Uncountable blessings’

“The Lord blesses me abundantly with uncountable blessings,” Sri Anon said.

Many times she’s wondered how she would be able to do her callings, especially when it seems there are people more talented, have better English or use technology better.

The answer she received through a dream was “If not you, then who?”

As she has pondered this, a scripture that has resonated with her is Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.”

“I understand and am grateful that the Lord wanted to make me (clay) to be a potter, or to change … to something,” she said.

“We are deeply saddened by the devastating disaster that has affected communities across Nepal and China. Our prayers are with all those who have lost loved ones, been injured or been displaced as a result of this tragedy, as well as with the emergency responders, relief workers and volunteers who are serving tirelessly to care for those in need.

“As recovery efforts continue, we pray for the safety, strength and resilience of all those affected and for the swift restoration of impacted communities. The Church will assess opportunities to provide relief and assistance to those impacted as individuals, families and communities begin the challenging journey of recovery and rebuilding.”

The Asia Area presidency is composed of Elder Kelly R. Johnson, president, and Elder David L. Buckner and Elder Wan-Liang Wu. All are General Authority Seventies. The statement was posted on the Church’s Hong Kong Newsroom in English.

Caused by a glacier collapsing in the Himalayas, mudslides — water carrying mud and debris — reached several stories high. They swept through villages and washed out bridges on Wednesday, Aug. 26, according to news reports.

In Nepal, officials report at least 389 people are dead and more than 460 injured, reported the Associated Press. And 910 people are reported to be missing in Nepal, including hundreds of foreigners and pilgrims. Authorities in Tibet, an autonomous region of China, reported at least three dead and 558 missing, according to news reports.

Rescue teams and military were searching Thursday for missing people. More than 100 people had been rescued by the Nepalese army.

The Nepal Red Cross Society chairman Bishal Kumar Bhandari said the agency has shifted its focus from rescue to large-scale relief operations in the flood-hit districts and that 1,200 people were displaced from at least three villages.

The Church has three administrative areas in Asia: the Asia North Area, which includes Japan, Mongolia and South Korea; the Philippines Area; and the Asia Area. Across Asia, there are more than 1.3 million Church members in 2,192 congregations, according to the Church’s statistics as of the end of 2025.

Nepal was one of three Asian countries Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson ministered in during an 18-day ministry in May and June 2025. She met with representatives of nonprofit organizations that have been collaborating with the Church on the Relief Society’s global initiative to help women and children and spoke to Latter-day Saints gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal.

2025: President Johnson speaks at women’s conference in Thailand and sees humanitarian efforts in Nepal, Sri Lanka

Church supporting those affected by Kumamoto earthquake in southern Japan

The 32-member handbell choir is under the direction of conductor Geoff Anderson and associate conductor Mat Ulmer. The two-hour concert also featured Temple Square organists Linda Margetts and Joseph Peeples.

Midway through the concert, Anderson said that when he was planning the program — about six months in advance — he felt the “need to focus a little bit on light and the heavens.” In parts of the program, he planned songs that help listeners reflect on “those things that influence our lives — the light of Christ and the heavens that we look toward.”

He also pointed out two of the songs — “Escape Velocity” and “Pale Blue Dot,” by Jason Krug — are both about space travel. “Escape Velocity” is a musical version of a trip to space, including a rocket launch, the astronauts walking out to the rocket, the engines firing up and then the descent and landing back to Earth.

About ‘Ring, Rejoice, Rise’

The program for “Ring, Rejoice, Rise” included a variety of music, from religious to patriotic to space-themed (inspired by the Artemis II flight around the moon).

• “Everlasting Light,” arranged by Fred Gramman
• “Ring His Glorious Praise,” by Patrick Merey
• “Toccata” from “Organ Symphony No. 5 in F minor, Op. 42, No. 1”; organ solo by Joseph Peeples
• “God of Our Fathers,” arranged by Claude T. Smith, handbell arrangement by Linda Boatright
• “Festive Dance on Slane,” Irish folk tune; arranged by Caleb Onstead
• “Come, Thou Almighty King,” arranged by Lloyd Larsen
• “Determination,” by Alex Guebert
• “Fly Me to the Moon,” arranged by Ron Mallory
• “Escape Velocity,” by Jason Krug
• “Pale Blue Dot,” by Jason Krug
• “The Thunderer March,” arranged by and organ solo by Linda Margetts
• “Sao Paulo,” by Elizabeth Peters
• “Semper Fidelis” march, by John Philip Sousa and arranged by Carol Lynn Mizell
• “Celebration,” arranged by Ron Mallory

Meet Bells at Temple Square conductor Geoff Anderson and assistant conductor Mat Ulmer

About the Bells at Temple Square

The Bells at Temple Square was formed in 2005 as part of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square organization with 28 charter members. The group currently has 32 ringers, and the number has varied over the years between 30 and 35. The bell ringers are volunteer musicians, like the members of the Tabernacle Choir, Orchestra at Temple Square and Chorale at Temple Square.

The handbell choir’s performances include two yearly concerts, taking part often in the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcasts of the Tabernacle Choir and having a major role in the choir’s annual Christmas concerts. The bell ensemble rehearses weekly.

Watch the bellringers’ 2025 holiday concert “Ringing in the Season of Light.”

2025: Bells at Temple Square celebrates ‘Season of Light’ during concert

2025: See photos of the Bells at Temple Square performing ‘A Festive Journey’

“We would watch general conference, and I was totally mesmerized by the organ,” Udy said.

Udy, a Salt Lake City native who teaches organ at the University of Utah, will be the featured performer at the Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso concert on Friday, Aug. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.

The 90-minute concert is free and open to the public; no tickets are required. It’s recommended for those 8 and older. While past Organ Virtuoso Performance Series concerts have been streamed online, this one will be available only in person.

Udy said that in his experience with teaching, “nobody tells you you’re going to like the organ or that you are going to play the organ. You tell your parents, ‘I’m going to play the organ.’ And it calls out to you.”

Growing up, Udy and his siblings took piano lessons. When Udy was finally tall enough to reach the pedals, in about ninth grade, he started taking organ lessons. As he progressed in his lessons, he played the piano in his meetings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — priest quorum meetings and in Sunday school opening exercises. His instructor was the organist for a local Protestant congregation, and Udy would occasionally substitute for him.

Udy also studied in high school with Clay Christiansen, who later was a Tabernacle Choir organist. Udy graduated from Skyline High School and served a mission in Japan. After his mission, he studied at Utah State University and University of Southern California and earned a doctor of musical arts from Claremont Graduate University.

After coming back to Utah, he started playing at Wasatch Presbyterian Church in 1991 and is the director of music and organist there. “They’re my home away from home.”

He also was the organist at Congregation Kol Ami for 25 years. “That’s what organists do is play for churches,” he said.

In 2000, when the University of Utah was building the Libby Concert Hall, a pipe organ and funds for an organ program were part of the donation, he said. Udy was hired as the university organist and helped develop the curriculum for the undergraduate and graduate organ degrees. He’s now an adjunct professor and organ area head at the University of Utah.

“It just beats my soul, that sound,” he said of organ music. “I love the repertoire.
I love the history. I love helping people come into that world, because it is such a niche in the world of music.”

He’s also a guest organist at the Tabernacle on Temple Square, playing in the daily organ recitals and has played on both organs in the Tabernacle and the Conference Center.

As he’s played for various congregations, Udy said, he’s seen a lot of overlap in hymns and beliefs. “What I love about Church music is that it’s so universal,” he said.

For the Organ Virtuoso concert, the program will highlight works of Alexander Schreiner, who was a longtime Salt Lake Tabernacle organist, and a childhood hero of Udy. This year is the 125th birthday of Schreiner, who was born in 1901.

Udy plans to play music to highlight Schreiner’s life. Udy wrote a book on Schreiner called “Alexander Schreiner, the California Years” that was published in 1999 and came across music in his research that was previously unpublished.

Schreiner’s career began as a theater organist for silent films and Udy had done some arrangements of music for silent films to perform. Udy is also playing some of the songs Schreiner performed in the daily organ recitals and other broadcasts from the Salt Lake Tabernacle, including a lyric interlude that Schreiner improvised to fill time in a broadcast. He was an organ professor at UCLA in the 1930s and wrote and arranged music while he was there, including a toccata that Udy is planning to play.

Schreiner also wrote the music for hymns and children’s songs, including “God Loved Us So He Sent His Son,” (“Hymns,” No. 187) which Udy is planning to perform an arrangement of.

About Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series concerts

The Tabernacle Organ Virtuoso Performance Series started in 2022 and was created to showcase the Tabernacle organ and world-renowned organists and has been presented quarterly. Each year, national performers and local organists are invited to perform, and one of the Tabernacle Choir staff organists also presents a concert.

This year, Daniel Hyde, the director of music at King’s College in Cambridge, England, was the featured performer in January. Isabelle Demers an associate professor of organ at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, performed in May.

Later this year, Joseph Peeples, an organist at Temple Square, is scheduled to perform on Nov. 13.

There is also a free, 30-minute daily organ recital in the Tabernacle at noon Mondays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays. They are occasionally moved to the Conference Center. See TheTabernacleChoir.org/daily-organ-recitals for information and the weekly schedule.

Playlists of organ music, including “Organ Solos” and “Tabernacle Choir Organ Performances” are available on the Tabernacle Choir’s YouTube channel.

About the Tabernacle organ

The Tabernacle organ currently has 11,623 pipes — and 10 of the largest pipes in the facade on the west end make sound. There are about 11,000 pipes behind the facade and about 600 on the east end.

It has five manuals, or keyboards, and 206 ranks of organ pipes and is among the world’s largest instruments. Its golden pipes are made from wood staves fashioned from Utah timber and still add to the sound of the famous instrument today.

Church News podcast, episode 272: Tabernacle organist Richard Elliott on sacred music and his conversion

2025: Salt Lake Tabernacle organ renovation project includes repairs to thousands of pieces

The temple in the Cleveland suburb of Independence, Ohio, is about 25 miles southwest of historic Kirtland, Ohio, where early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built the Church’s first temple — the Kirtland Temple. That temple is operated as a historic site and is open for public tours.

In Doctrine and Covenants 110:10, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery are told in a vision by the Savior in the Kirtland Temple that “the fame of this house shall spread to foreign lands.”

Elder Bednar said, “Now it comes back home.”

It’s “quite remarkable” to “see the connection between what was said about the worldwide influence of the Kirtland Temple and how now we are dedicating a house of the Lord in Cleveland,” he said in an interview prior to the dedication.

How the new Cleveland Ohio Temple is ‘a call to action’ for local Church members

Read Elder Bednar’s dedicatory prayer for the Cleveland Ohio Temple

The Cleveland Ohio Temple was dedicated in a single session Sunday morning that was broadcast to Church meetinghouses throughout the temple district, comprising four stakes in northeastern Ohio — the Cleveland, Akron, Hiram and Kirtland stakes. It was rebroadcast later in the afternoon.

The Cleveland temple is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ 221st operating house of the Lord. Also on Sunday, Aug. 16, the 220th, the Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple, was dedicated by Church President Dallin H. Oaks.

Elder Bednar was accompanied by his wife, Sister Susan Bednar; Elder K. Brett Nattress, General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Shawna Nattress; Elder Mark D. Eddy, General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Temple Department, and his wife, Sister Annette Eddy; Elder Alan T. Phillips, General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s United States Northeast Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Lindsey Phillips; and Bishop Sean Douglas, second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, and his wife, Sister Ann Douglas.

‘Intersection between heaven and earth’

It is in a dedicated house of the Lord where “we receive the sacred ordinances of the priesthood and can have access to the power of godliness in our lives,” Elder Bednar said, referring to Doctrine and Covenants 84:20.

“The opportunity to live closer to a house of the Lord, more frequently participate in the ordinances and be reminded of the covenants create a channel through which the power of godliness can come into our lives,” he said. “I cannot imagine a more important blessing than having greater access to the power of godliness through the ordinances of the temple.”

In many parts of the world and in the Church’s history, Latter-day Saints have had to make significant sacrifices to attend the temple — with some only able to attend once in their lifetimes. As temples continue to be built around the world, those sacred structures are closer to the Church members than ever before.

Now, once a temple is dedicated, “we have to be intentional and not let the ease of proximity become a barrier to receiving the blessings that we need in our lives,” he said.

Elder Bednar said each apostolic assignment to dedicate a temple is a rare and remarkable experience.

“A temple is a point of intersection between heaven and earth,” Elder Bednar said, adding, “I appreciate each opportunity to participate in these sacred dedications.”

‘A warm welcome’

Robin and Bryan Laubaugh, who served as the dedication and open house committee coordinators for the Cleveland Ohio Temple, have been involved with behind-the-scenes efforts for this temple for years. They also served as coordinators for the groundbreaking ceremony June 1, 2024.

“We had such a warm welcome from the community,” said Bryan Laubaugh. “The city of Independence, where the temple is located, has been very warm and welcoming.”

The Cleveland temple is located off a highway but has a quieter, neighborhood-type feel, surrounded by trees. The building size is 9,950 square feet and sits on an 11-acre site with an ancillary building.

During the open house, which ran from June 18 through July 3, “there was a constant flow of people from Independence, not just neighbors but city officials,” he said, adding that there was a feeling that people really wanted this temple in their community.

Open house begins for Cleveland Ohio Temple, not far from historic Kirtland Temple

“I think by and large, everybody that came — those that weren’t members of our faith — were very open and interested and inquisitive as to what it was. They were all very impressed with the interior of the temple. There were a lot of comments about how beautiful it was, how they felt when they were sitting in the celestial room,” Laubaugh said.

He said volunteers were encouraged to “stick to the script” of brief explanations of what goes on inside the temple and “stay out of the way” to let the temple speak for itself. “And as the people came out, they were just really impressed with the spirit that they felt, with what they learned, and they were excited to have it in their neighborhood.”

As coordinators for the open house and dedication, the Laubaughs worked with 11 committees overseeing efforts such as ushering, music and technology. Approximately 800 volunteers from the four stakes in the temple district helped with the open house, including some 200 youth. Many volunteers served more than one shift during the open-house period.

Robin Laubaugh shared one of the many miracles that took place during the open house. The Saturday before the open house officially began, the temple was open for neighbors and contractors. “We were thrilled to host many neighbors and individuals that lived nearby, who had watched the construction occur over the many months. They were just very curious,” she said.

In casual conversation with two of the volunteers, one neighbor who has adjoining property with the temple mentioned she had told her father she was going to tour the new Latter-day Saint temple next door. Her father said something like, “Well, you know, you have an ancestor who had something to do with that book of theirs.” She didn’t know what “that book” meant.

The volunteers asked her ancestor’s name. “Peter Whitmer,” she said.

This brief conversation led to the volunteers giving her and her family a Book of Mormon and telling them more about Peter Whitmer, one of the Eight Witnesses, and historic Kirtland, which they also didn’t know about.

Robin Laubaugh said of this: “The neat thing is they had a family reunion later this summer and they said, ‘We’re going to take this book, and we’re going to show everybody.’”

Of the open house and the experiences of those who came, Robin Laubaugh added: “I think everybody left with a feeling that it was time well spent. They had a greater understanding of our faith and respect and appreciation for our faith.”

Robin Laubaugh, who has spent most of her life in northeast Ohio since age 4, is excited to see a house of the Lord in her hometown. For many years there weren’t a lot of Church members who lived in Kirtland and surrounding areas, she said. “I’ve been in different stakes and different wards, as wards have developed. It’s just really neat to see the area grow.”

The township of Independence was formed in 1814, reports a history of the area. The Kirtland Township was organized four years later, in 1818. Early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began moving to Kirtland in 1831, and the Kirtland Temple was dedicated in 1836. Today Ohio is home to nearly 66,000 Latter-day Saints who meet in almost 130 congregations.

Also in Ohio, there is a dedicated and operating house of the Lord in Columbus and one in planning for Cincinnati.

The cupola on the Cleveland Ohio Temple is reminiscent of the Kirtland Temple. One of the original paintings in the Cleveland house of the Lord features the historic pioneer-era temple.

A house of the Lord closer to home

Nicole Sender, a 15-year-old from the Hiram Ward, Hiram Ohio Stake, spoke during Sunday’s dedication. With the Cleveland Ohio Temple only 30 minutes from home, she is thrilled for the opportunity to be in the house of the Lord frequently. Members in this area were previously part of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple district.

“I definitely feel closer to Heavenly Father when I go, and it’s just refreshing,” she said of attending the temple, in an interview before the dedication. “It’s almost like you don’t realize how drained you are until you exit and you just feel recharged. You just feel everything a little more, you’re more sensitive.”

Nicole said preparing for the temple dedication has given her a boost of spiritual momentum. “I’m actually reading my scriptures more diligently, and I feel like I’ve been praying a lot more. I’m not just going through the motions.”

Her biggest takeaway from watching a temple be announced, constructed and now dedicated close to home: “Never think that God forgets about you. I feel like the one thing I’ve really gotten from all my experiences in the temple is just how God’s love and His plan are really for us, and about us, and getting us back to Him.”

The skies were overcast and threatening rain prior to the dedication. Afterward, the sun had come out, and there were white clouds.

Geraldine Squire, 97, raised her family in the Medina, Ohio, area and lives in the Medina Ward, Akron Ohio Stake. She went to the dedication with three of her children who live in the area.

“It’s marvelous,” she said of the newly dedicated house of the Lord. She added, “I didn’t think I would ever live [long enough] to go to the temple in Cleveland.”

She served as a temple worker in the Columbus Ohio Temple after it was dedicated. She has been going with her family to the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Temple, and she is looking forward to going more often now that the house of the Lord is closer.

Karl Anderson, known as Mr. Kirtland for his research on the community, attended the dedication. “I was a stake president 50 years ago, and this is what we envisioned, and it’s finally come to pass,” he said, adding, “Now we’re looking at greater things” in the future.

David and Terri Klopp who live in Fairview Park, Ohio, were sealed in the Washington D.C. Temple 45 years ago, as that was the closest house of the Lord. They attend the Westlake Ward in the Cleveland Ohio Stake.

Having a house of the Lord move closer and closer to their home, now about 15 minutes away, has been exciting, said Terri Klopp.

“It gives us the opportunity to come to the temple more often because it’s a peaceful place, especially in today’s world,” she said.

For Brenda Murawski, who grew up in northeast Ohio, having a new temple in her area brings her a lot of joy and excitement. “I grew up as a little child with my parents who would take us to Kirtland and the John Johnson farm, and it’s just really cool to have a temple less than an hour away from my house,” she said.

Her family traveled great distances to attend the temple in her youth. “Salt Lake was our temple district when my family decided to go to the temple. When we showed up in Salt Lake for our family to be sealed, it was closed for cleaning. We had to go to Logan,” she recalled with a chuckle.

Linda Young, a member of the Hiram Ohio Stake who will be an office worker in the Cleveland temple, attended Sunday’s dedication with her son. “I enjoyed traveling distances to the temple because it felt consecrating,” she said. But now that it is close to home, “we get to come often and abundantly.”

She explained, “I think that we need that abundance in our lives right now, to be able to just feel the peaceful spirit of being in the house of the Lord, a dedicated space.”

Her son Winston Young said he is looking forward to serving as a temple worker. He described the feeling of belonging he finds inside the temple: “In the temple, everyone is in white. Everyone is equal, regardless of background. … We’re all one, and we all work together to bring souls back to Christ.”

Cleveland Ohio Temple

Address: 5997 Brecksville Road, Independence, Ohio 44131

Announced: April 3, 2022, by President Russell M. Nelson

Groundbreaking: June 1, 2024, presided over by Elder Vaiangina Sikahema, a General Authority Seventy

Public open house: June 18 through July 3, 2026, excluding Sundays

Dedicated: Aug. 16, 2026, by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Property size: 11.04 acres

Building size: 9,950 square feet

Building height: 100 feet (including the spire)

Temple district: 4 stakes in northeastern Ohio

And this spring, it came true for Erickson, who sings first tenor. He applied last summer and since then has been progressing through the four-phase audition process, including participating in The Chorale at Temple Square and Choir School from January to May.

He is one of about 40 singers who are now joining the Tabernacle Choir and adding their voices to the weekly rehearsals and “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcasts.

Erickson said the experience has been a “mix of [being] nervous and absolutely thrilled.”

“The magnitude of singing with the Tabernacle Choir is just starting to sink in, and I can’t wait to see what new experiences I will have,” he said. “The first ‘Music & the Spoken Word’ was emotional.”

In addition to when new choir members join, May is also when those who have reached the end of their service years in the choir, Orchestra at Temple Square or Bells at Temple Square, or as support staff, celebrate their last performances and are recognized for their service.

On June 1, the choir begins accepting applications to audition for the choir. The last day to apply is Aug. 15. The application-and-audition process has four phases that start with the initial application, including a bishop’s recommendation and submitting a recorded audition. The second phase is an in-person aural and written test, and the third is an in-person singing audition. The fourth step is Choir School and participating in The Chorale at Temple Square, which also includes those choir members finishing up their first full year in the choir, and singing in the chorale’s spring concert.

See thetabernaclechoir.org for an application guide, videos about the application process and the link to begin an application.

Find out more about the audition process from Tabernacle Choir managers and former choir members

Laura Webster, 41, who sings second alto, was part of the Choir School’s 2024 class and is finishing her first full year in the choir.

She’s had “pinch-me moments like, ‘Am I really doing this? Am I really here? I really get to do this?”

Webster had heard The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform live multiple times. She said of joining the choir, “I just want to be in the choir to help people feel what I feel when I listen to the choir.”

During the past five audition cycles — from 2019 to 2024, as the audition cycle in 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions — about a quarter to a third of those who applied became choir members, according to information from the choir.

The 360 members of the Tabernacle Choir are volunteers and are considered “musical missionaries.” The choir’s origins date to 1847, when pioneer members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints formed a choir to sing at a conference of the Church weeks after arriving in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley.

Deciding and preparing to audition

Both Webster and Erickson grew up in musical families.

Webster’s parents met in an institute of religion choir. Her mother served as ward organist and would bring her children to ward choir practice.

“I like to think that choir is in my blood,” she said. Webster played the flute and sang in the choir in high school. As a newlywed, she sang in various community choirs.

“I’ve never considered myself a soloist. I’ve always loved choral music and small ensembles and things like that.”

Then their family began growing — they have five children from 7 to 16 years old — and her husband was serving as ward bishop.

“Once he was released, he knew this was something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time,” she said.

Erickson, 49, grew up in a family of six children in the Dallas, Texas, area, and they all participated in musicals. He was part of the Texas Boys Choir, and they sang with different opera groups.

“We just love singing in our family,” he said. Erickson sang in high school and a little in college and majored in international economics. He works for the Church in the Information and Communications Systems Department. It had been on his bucket list to audition for the Tabernacle Choir when it would work for his job and family life.

He accepted an invitation to be a guest at a Tabernacle Choir rehearsal last year. “I’ve sung in some pretty amazing places. This tops them all.”

The choir members he sang next to were welcoming and told him, “You really need to come do this,” Erickson said. After that performance, he decided he was going to audition and started voice lessons. He and his wife have a 23-year-old daughter.

The first time Webster applied, in 2021, she didn’t move beyond the first phase. She decided to take voice lessons before auditioning again. “My teacher and I were both like, ‘Now you kind of know what you don’t know.’”

While taking voice lessons is not a requirement for the audition, both Erickson and Webster know of many choir members who have.

Webster said, “I would say the audition process is intentionally challenging because they have to know that you can withstand the rigor of the choir.”

The Tabernacle Choir’s invitation to celebrate the 5,000th week of ‘Music & the Spoken Word’

See the Church News’ archive of ‘Spoken Word’ messages

Phase 1: The application

The first phase includes a recorded vocal audition. Erickson said he started the recordings in June but kept redoing them and didn’t submit the recordings until right before the deadline in August. “I’m my own worst critic,” he said.

When Webster applied again in summer 2023, it helped her to record the different exercises multiple times and then to pick the one she liked the best. Also, there was one exercise she struggled with, and when she got it right, that’s the version she submitted.

Phase 2: The musical assessment and theory test

“The theory test is very intimidating,” Erickson said. He hadn’t previously specifically studied musical theory. The choir has a book with study materials that can be checked out, if needed.

Both Webster and Erickson used the provided study materials and tried to cram in as much as they could. Some parts of the test were recognizing different intervals, whether on paper or listening to it, and another part included hearing two lines of music and noticing if there were differences.

Webster also met with a choir member she knew through her husband who also helped her study and helped her understand why having the knowledge base and skills are important. Webster said during the test, scratch paper with a piano keyboard on it was provided, and that helped her.

When she took the test, current choir members came to help with things like passing out pencils and the test forms. During the breaks, the choir members would share some of their experiences with the choir, Webster said.

“I think that helped us feel at ease and say, ‘This is why we want to do what they do,’” Webster said.

Auditioners have to score at least 80% on the test to move to the next round.

“I think once I found out that I passed the written test, I cried more then with relief than when I actually made it in,” Webster said.

Erickson said he received the email with his test results while he was in a meeting. It was his meeting, so he cut it short and then read it.

“Honestly, I thought I blew it,” he said of the test. There were parts he knew, but others he wasn’t as sure about.

“It was kid-at-Christmas type” of excitement, Erickson said of getting the news he was moving on to the next step.

Phase 3: The in-person vocal audition

The audition includes singing a hymn for director Mack Wilberg, associate director Ryan Murphy and other staff members.

“I’m standing in front of essentially my heroes,” Erickson said. He sang the hymn he prepared — “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy” — and the directors asked him to sing it with different variations, including tone and volume, and then he was given a piece to sight-read.

Said Erickson: “I knew I did some things very well, and I knew I did some things horrible. I felt so accomplished, if I’d made it or not.”

After the test, Webster got sick and lost her voice. Her voice was about 90% back when she went to the vocal audition a few weeks later. “That was really nerve-wracking.”

She had intended to sing the hymn from memory, but forgot the words when the nervousness set in. During the hymn and the audition, Webster said the directors were kind and helped coach her through it.

“I left that part of the audition thinking: ‘Who knows? Who knows if I made it? I have no clue.’ I didn’t feel really super confident about any of the steps,” Webster said.

Both Webster and Erickson said that in the interviews with a choir presidency member, they reviewed the time commitment to serve in the choir and had a chance to bring up any concerns.

When Erickson got the email notification that he had made it into the choir, he cried. His wife, Mindy, found him in the kitchen and guessed that he had gotten in the choir.

“I just sat there for a little bit at our kitchen table and let it all soak in,” he said.

During the audition steps, his job had changed to include supporting the Tabernacle Choir organization, which he double-checked that it wouldn’t interfere with him auditioning.

“I had, in some cases, resolved myself that if I didn’t get in, I was still supporting the choir and I would be OK with that.”

Said Webster: “It’s a huge relief when you find out you made it. Now the real work begins.”

Phase 4: The Chorale at Temple Square and Choir School

Webster said Choir School felt like a college-level course and like she was studying for a music minor with the types and depth of the things they were studying. There were lectures, discussions, handouts and a test at the end.

Erickson said Choir School felt “intimidating at first, because I really did feel like I was surrounded by people who are better than me. Come to find out they all thought the same thing, too.”

In Choir School, he learned more about musical theory, singing in the choir and also his voice as an instrument, including how it works, what affects it and how to take care of it.

While the Choir School instructors were nurturing and caring, it was an intense study as they were realistic about what it takes to sing in the choir and the level the choir performs at, Erickson said.

In the chorale, they work on a longer piece with several movements and other shorter pieces. One of the pieces performed in the spring concert this year was the oratorio “The Redeemer: A Service of Sacred Music,” by the late Robert Cundick.

“You really get to dive deep into it and dissect it and really perfect it and polish it,” said Webster, who finished her second year of being in the chorale. She had chorale rehearsals on Tuesdays, choir rehearsals on Thursdays and then the Sunday “Music & the Spoken Word” performances, with an occasional rehearsal afterward.

Webster said being in the choir is nonstop, as members are always preparing for Sunday broadcasts and then another, larger performance, whether it’s the Christmas concerts, the “Songs of Hope” tour stops, general conference or the chorale concert.

“I do feel like I’m blessed. When I pray for help, I receive help,” she said. “I’ve prayed for the Lord to guide my voice. And help me remember the words.”

The first “Music & the Spoken Word” Webster performed in was “nerve-wracking.” She sat next to a veteran choir member, who helped comfort her.

“My family came and supported me, so I loved knowing that they were there,” she said, adding that the songs for the first were at least familiar to her.

Both Erickson and Webster practice on their own time for that week’s music, whether while listening or singing along to a recording or sitting at a piano.

During the first several months, Webster said, a friend in the choir would record their part and she would listen to that to help learn the second alto for the music.

As Erickson looks forward to performing with the choir, he said, “I’m intimidated, but encouraged.” He hopes he doesn’t take this opportunity for granted.

His advice to anyone considering auditioning for the choir? “Pray about it. Follow the inspiration. And do it.”

He added: “if for no other reason, then that first time through, you’re going to learn what needs to be done.”

Webster said, noting people have three chances to audition, “If you don’t make it in, don’t give up.”

Tabernacle Choir 4-phase audition process

The four-phase audition process begins with an online application, which can be submitted between June 1 and Aug. 15.

See thetabernaclechoir.org/2025-auditions-for-the-tabernacle-choir for an application guide, videos about the application process and the link to begin an application.

Choir member requirements

• Be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing and hold a temple recommend.
• Be between 25 and 55 years of age on April 30 of the year following applying, when choir service would begin. (Choir tenure is until age 60 or after 20 years of service, whichever comes first.)
• Currently reside within 100 miles of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
• Be willing to maintain required attendance levels. Choir membership means about 10 to 20 hours a week, depending on projects and schedules.
• Be in good health for consistent participation in rehearsals, travel and performance-related requirements.
• Have auditioned not more than two times in the past. Applicants are limited to a total of three applications over their years of age eligibility.

Phase 1: Application

• The first phase includes the online application, a bishop’s recommendation and a recorded audition. Applications are accepted from June 1 to Aug. 15, 2025.

Phase 2: Music skills assessment

• The second phase is an in-person aural and written assessment that is currently scheduled for September. Auditioners must score at least 80% on the exam to move to the next phase.
• See the application guide for more on study materials and specific areas covered in the exam.

Phase 3: In-person vocal audition

• For the in-person audition, singers are asked to prepare to sing the melody line of a hymn of their choice in the vocal range of the part they are auditioning for and in the key of their choice. An accompanist is provided. It’s anticipated that these will be in October, according to the application guide.
• The directors will also do a general survey of vocal and musical abilities, including musical memory, rhythmic proficiency, sight-singing and voice-part determination.
• Also, auditioners meet with a member of the choir presidency for a short interview.

Phase 4: The Chorale at Temple Square and Choir School

• The Chorale at Temple Square and Choir School function concurrently as a choral training ensemble and choral music training school. The chorale rehearsals are on Tuesday evenings, and choir school is on Thursday evenings, from January to the end of May. Additional dates are listed on the application guide.
• Singers are asked to commit to 100% attendance.
• The Chorale at Temple Square typically performs in a spring concert.
• Those accepted into the choir are also required to serve in the chorale the following year. So, those accepted into the choir in spring 2026 will participate in the chorale January to May 2027.

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“I had known the level of artistry of the choir,” he said during the press event. Maliakel, who has been portraying the title character in Broadway’s “Aladdin,” added, “They are known for that around the world.”

During time with the choir at Christmas, he also learned about the choir’s audition process.

“I did a lot of pro choral singing in New York, and it is probably more rigorous than those auditions,” he said of the sight-singing and other elements of the Tabernacle Choir audition.

The application and audition process for the 360-voice Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square opened this year on Saturday, June 1, and will close Thursday, Aug. 15. The application guide and link are available on the choir’s website at TheTabernacleChoir.org. The annual four-phase application and audition process stretches up to 10 months, and auditions are open for all voice parts.

The all-volunteer Tabernacle Choir performs in about 75 scheduled performances each year, including the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” live broadcast and other concerts, tours and recordings.

Choir managers Grant Jex and Syndy Lambert, and Alison Barton, choir executive assistant, all have been choir members and talked with the Church News about the audition process. Jex sang bass for 15 years, Lambert sang second soprano for 20 years, and Barton sang first soprano for 10 years.

“Don’t be afraid or intimidated,” Jex said of the application process.

Lambert added: “Follow your heart.”

Barton said: “Make the whole experience prayerful.”

Who can apply?

Applicants must be a members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing, between 25 and 55 years old on April 30, 2025, when choir service would begin, and currently reside within 100 miles of Temple Square.

Choir members must also commit to the time for rehearsals and performances, be in good physical and mental health for consistent participation, and not have auditioned more than two times in the past.

Choir members are released at age 60 or at 20 years of service. It’s anticipated that choir members would serve at least five years.

The choir members have a variety of musical backgrounds. While many have music-related degrees or been professional musicians, many don’t have those credentials, Barton said.

Jex said the misconception of needing a degree or more experience is what prevented him from trying out for several years.

“They don’t want 360 opera singers,” Jex said. “They want people whose voices blend.”

Barton recently talked to someone on the phone about auditioning and recommended being able to sight-read and knowledge of musical theory.

“You need to be able to sight-read really well,” said Barton. “The choir sings 300-plus pieces a year. You need to be able to keep up with that.”

In determining the number of available spots, choir officials do look at the needs of each of the sections and whose service may be ending in the next year. But the number of people isn’t usually limited to a specific number of spots, and the directors will bring in all those who are qualified during the audition process, Barton and Jex said.

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Phase 1: Application and recorded audition

The first phase is submitting the electronic application, including a digital photo and digital voice recording, during the June 1-Aug. 15 application period on the choir’s website at thetabernaclechoir.org/2024-auditions-for-the-tabernacle-choir.

A recommendation from a local Church leader will be requested after the application is submitted.

Read through all of the instructions to be sure to include all of the different recordings, Barton advised.

Barton, who plays piano and has sung in many choirs, said that in talking with other choir members and others who have applied, “everyone has their own least-favorite phase.” It’s the one that went less than smoothly.

For her, it was creating digital recordings. Then, it was a two-minute recording — and it took her eight hours. “I was so nitpicky about myself.”

She wanted to redo it as some of the last notes felt off.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Barton said. “Really do your best.”

People don’t need to go to a recording studio or other professional setting. Barton did hers in her living room. Jex did his on a handheld recorder. Lambert auditioned when submissions were on cassette tapes.

Barton said to listen back to your audio recordings to make sure audio is clear and loud enough.

Jex said many people may feel that way about their recordings. When the directors listen to those recordings, they can tell in 30 seconds or so if it was a “whoops” or if it’s habitual, he said. They can also usually sift through any issues with equipment as long as the audio is clear.

Jex said he auditioned three times, before three times was the maximum number of auditions. He had played in bands in high school and college and did take private voice lessons.

“It was nerve-wracking,” he said of applying and then waiting. The first two times he auditioned, he didn’t make it past the application phase. He was sent letters with specific things he could do to improve — and everything mentioned was teachable.

“The things that they told me to work on got fewer and fewer,” he said. Getting a personalized letter helped encourage him to work to audition again.

Those who advance to the next phase will be notified by email in early September.

Phase 2: Music skills assessment

The next phase is a music skills assessment, which has three parts, and Jex and Lambert administer it.

Auditioners are required to get at least 80% to move to the next phase, Jex said.

First two parts are aural. The first is where auditioners hear chords and intervals and are asked if they are major, minor, the root and key tone, and others.

For Lambert, she worried about the test during her audition.

“The test I worried about, but you’re supposed to be worried about tests, right?” Lambert said.

She was taking it in the Church Office Building and struggling with one of the key tones. She heard a car horn from outside the building that helped her with identifying it.

The second part is listening to a melody and then hearing it again and identifying if there are any differences.

Jex said: “It can be five to six measures long. And then they repeat it and you have to say was the note different or the rhythm different.”

Jex added this can be considered the hardest part of the test.

The last third is a written theory test.

Auditioners can study for the written test and, if needed, can listen to chords to help learn to distinguish minor and major chords.

The test is designed to push the auditioners’ limits to see what they know.

“That’s a big stress day,” Jex said. Jex and Lambert do what they can to put people at ease and invite choir members to come to help, including to share their own experiences and testimonies. “We try to make it something that’s not just this big, scary thing,” he added.

See the past 'Music & the Spoken Word' messages

Phase 3: In-person audition and interview

The in-person audition is with director Mack Wilberg and associate director Ryan Murphy.

Barton said the directors and the music team are all cheering for the auditioners.

The audition is designed to push the limits of each singer.

Jex’s in-person audition was with then-director Craig Jessop and Wilberg. He was nervous leading up to the audition. (“You know that feeling where you want to throw up?” he said.)

“When I walked into the room, I just felt an overwhelming sense of peace and support,” Jex said. Jessop told him the directors were praying for him and wanted him to do well.

When Jex finished the in-person audition, he called his voice coach and said, “That was just terrible.” His voice coach reassured him that each in-person audition is tailored to each singer to see the full range of his or her abilities.

Barton said she doesn’t know of anyone who came out of the in-person audition feeling things went well.

“It is nerve-wracking,” Barton said of the in-person audition.

Jex added: “But you never know if you don’t try.”

Singers will also meet with a member of the choir presidency, either before or after the in-person audition to get to know them and ensure the choir fits with their life, Barton said.

The in-person interviews and auditions are usually in late fall.

Phase 4: Choir school and Chorale at Temple Square

The next phase is participating in the 16 weeks of the Chorale at Temple Square on Tuesday evenings, with a few Saturday rehearsals, and choir school on Thursday evenings, Barton said. It typically begins in January, and 100% attendance is required — with accommodations for illness.

The chorale is directed by Murphy and includes the first-year and second-year choir members, along with other volunteers from the choir. They learn choral masterworks, such as Gabriel Fauré’s “Requiem” or Felix Mendelssohn’s “Elijah.” The concert earlier this year featured Edward Elgar’s “Variations on an Original Theme” and Mack Wilberg’s “Requiem.”

“You really work on the nitty-gritty,” Lambert said of the chorale. “You don’t have time for that in the choir.”

Choir school is the equivalent of a master’s course in vocal performance and is led by Cherilyn Worthen and Rebecca Wilberg, with support from the organists, Barton said. It includes sight-reading, music theory, rehearsal techniques, vocal blending, listening skills and choir policies.

Choir school concludes with an exam, and the chorale puts on a concert with the Orchestra at Temple Square in the spring.

Time commitment

The choir leadership is aware of the time commitment for choir members and the effects that has on singers’ families, Jex said. Before auditioning, singers need to make sure their family members understand and are supportive of the time commitment.

There are at least 10 to 20 hours a week of rehearsals and performances. Choir rehearsals are typically on Thursday evenings for two and a half hours and early Sunday mornings before the weekly “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast. There are also additional rehearsals as needed after “Music & the Spoken Word.”

When preparing for concerts or tours, other rehearsals are scheduled on other days.

For general conference, there is a Tuesday rehearsal. The week of the Christmas concert, there are rehearsals on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the concerts are typically Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with the “Music & the Spoken Word” on Sunday.

Choir members are expected to have a minimum of 80% attendance to be eligible for events, Jex said.

The choir is touring more frequently now, twice a year for about a week each, rather than every couple of years. Tours are not mandatory, and many choir members have to juggle time off for work to go on tour, Jex said.

During the first year, there are the chorale rehearsals Tuesday evenings and choir school Thursday evenings. These members begin singing with the Tabernacle Choir after the spring chorale concert.

Second-year members are also part of the chorale and have the Tuesday evening rehearsals and the Thursday rehearsals, along with the Sunday rehearsals and performance.

Being part of the choir is a calling, so choir members usually don’t have callings in their wards.

Also, choir members typically memorize their music. For new members, that means initially memorizing all of the music, Barton and Jex said.

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Deciding to audition

“I think everybody has a moment” when they decide to audition, Jex said.

For Jex, it was when he was 14 in the 1980s. His father was a barbershop singer, and when the international convention was in Salt Lake City, “they dragged me to it.” He attended “Music & the Spoken Word” where Vocal Majority was singing with the choir.

“They did an incredible rendition with the choir of ’Love at Home,’ and that was life-changing for me,” he said. “And at that point I thought, ‘Wow, this is something incredible that I would love to be a part of someday.’”

His father never auditioned and regretted it. Jex said he didn’t want to have that same regret.

His first audition, he wanted to see how he did. With the feedback, he was able to improve.

It wasn’t a lifelong dream for Barton to join the choir. Barton went to the Pioneer Day concert in 2012 with Welsh singer Katherine Jenkins, and Jenkins asked the choir who had Welsh roots, and many people raised their hands. She then asked the audience members.

“I raised my hand. And then I turned to my friend next to me and I said, ‘Should I apply for this?’” Barton said. He said yes, and so she did. She had only a couple of weeks to pull her application together and submitted it a few days before the deadline.

Lambert’s mother was a choir member for many years, and Lambert would go early with her mother to the Sunday rehearsals.

“I grew up with a choir, and I knew that that’s what I wanted to do,” Lambert said.

“I’ve loved the choir since I was little,” said Lambert, whose musical background is in piano performance. She did study voice with one of her mother’s friends in the choir.

Then, those auditioning had to be 30 years old, but the year she turned 30 the choir didn’t accept applications. When she applied the following year, she made it through the stages of the audition process.

After the in-person audition, she went home and told her mother. “She says, ‘Well, now it’s up to the Lord to let you in.’”

Her mother’s service in the choir ended in May 1993, and Lambert began singing with the choir in 1994. At the time she had young children.

Because her mother had been in the choir, her mother, father and also her husband understood the time commitment.

More advice

“There’s a time and season for being a member of this organization,” Barton said.

Barton, Jex and Lambert have known people who were incredibly qualified who initially didn’t make it in, but things came up in their lives that would have made choir participation difficult. Then the choir came in right after that.

“If the choir becomes part of your path, the Lord knows exactly when to have you be there,” Barton said.

Jex and Lambert in their role as choir managers meet with the singers each year to check in on their experiences in the choir.

Lambert said, “We want to see how to help them and sustain them in their calling.”

Through those interviews they’ve seen how much people give to the organization and the choir, even through struggles. “It’s inspiring.”

Jex said while there are many challenges, “it’s worth every minute of it as a member of the choir.”

Barton said, “Your life will change in really good ways.”