Jody Hadfield, a broadcast and events producer, likens the effort to crewing a ship.

“It takes a lot of different people on a ship to get it to where it needs to be,” she said. “They all have their role, they all know their job, and they do it really well.”

Added Braden Earl Howard, a lighting specialist: “We play our little part in carrying the words of the prophets to the world.”

Hadfield and Howard are among the technicians featured in “Audio and Light,” a new behind-the-scenes video produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is the first in a series created to help people prepare for October 2026 general conference.

Fifty years ago, general conference was mainly an in-person event. Now there are 21,000 gathered in the Conference Center and millions watching and listening around the world.

“It may look like we’re just turning on microphones and making things louder, but we’re also making sure that everybody here has the opportunity to hear the message,” said Aaron Kobel, one of the lead live audio engineers. “The Lord’s message is going to get across. It will be heard across the world, no matter what.”

Hadfield said the audio and lighting engineers pay close attention to every detail. The Conference Center’s production lighting typically includes between 900 and 1,100 fixtures. More than 500 audio speakers are distributed throughout the Conference Center, each section served by its own speaker to ensure that every seat, from the front row to the back, receives clear sound.

“We don’t want there to be any distractions to the message and the Spirit,” Hadfield said.

Overhead, just under two miles of catwalks allow technicians to reach every fixture without lowering equipment to the floor — a design feature that makes the Conference Center unique among venues of its size.

Audio engineers also walk “miles and miles” to verify sound quality both in the building and on the broadcast. Between sessions, they walk every row and section again to confirm that all speakers are functioning.

Hadfield works directly with conference speakers on the visuals that accompany their talks, displayed on screens throughout the hall. “We work really hard to make sure that those visuals help enhance their message,” she said.

The team even maintains a book of pulpit height measurements — hundreds of names long — so that anyone who has ever addressed general conference can return to a podium already set for them.

The technical team prepares just as carefully for the unexpected. Backup spotlights stand ready if a primary fixture fails. Contingency plans — “Plan Bs and Plan Cs” — are reviewed in advance, Kobel said.

“We all, as a team, try very hard to make sure we’re in tune with the Spirit so that we can anticipate things,” Howard said. “The Lord is very much in the details of general conference — in every facet of it.”

Hadfield wishes everybody could share her front-row seat to general conference.

“There are often tears in the control room while we are listening. It’s a pretty special experience,” she said. “We feel it when we’re working, and you can see it and feel it on the other side of the broadcast when people watch it.”

The video continues a series the Church started in March 2025, when it released three behind-the-scenes videos ahead of April 2025 general conference highlighting the work of the staging crew, guest services and interpreters. Two more followed before October 2025 general conference — one on the broadcast team and another on the Church’s magazines and their role in publishing conference messages.

Behind the scenes of general conference: Broadcast team

Behind the scenes of general conference: Magazines

Behind the scenes of general conference: The staging crew

Behind the scenes of general conference: Guest services

Behind the scenes of general conference: Interpreters

Ideas for how to prepare for general conference

A talk a day: Preparing for October 2026 general conference

The then-27-year-old Latter-day Saint and Goldman Sachs analyst had watched from the 50th floor of his office building as the second plane struck the south tower almost at eye level. After evacuating to Battery Park, Woolley and a colleague started moving toward the towers to help. Then came the roar.

“It went from a beautiful blue-sky day to just like a volcanic eruption, and we were in the middle of the ash,” he said in an oral history interview with the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Oct. 25, 2022.

The next day, Woolley and four fellow Latter-day Saints set up a makeshift food line for first responders and used an abandoned U-Haul truck to provide Gatorade and ice to Ground Zero. They stayed until 2 a.m.

For Woolley, Sept. 11 brought his faith and testimony into sharp focus.

“I thought a lot about the plan of salvation, the restored gospel and the reality of Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ,” he said. “I was profoundly aware of all these things, probably like never before.”

As Americans mark the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Church News has gathered reflections from Latter-day Saints who recounted their experiences in oral histories housed in the Church History Catalog (catalog.ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

April Cobb

The following comes from an oral history recorded with April Cobb on Aug. 11, 2022.

April Cobb’s husband woke her to say a prayer before he left for work on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 — a simple act of faith she would greatly appreciate by the end of the day.

The couple had moved to Pentagon City, Virginia, only months earlier. Their apartment sat less than a mile from the Pentagon. That morning, she boarded the Metro for a job interview near the White House, unaware that hijackers had struck the World Trade Center. Cobb’s train pulled away from the Pentagon stop roughly a minute before American Airlines Flight 77 hit the building.

“Nobody on the Metro seemed to have any idea what was going on,” she said. “I was naive and knew nothing.”

What followed was a seven-mile walk home — in strappy sandals, with her husband’s socks pulled over her feet — through streets thick with rumors and smoke. A stranger put her arm around Cobb as she wept. Others in minivans offered cold water and rides to people they had never met.

“The humanity of the people that day toward strangers is nothing I have seen since,” she said.

When they arrived home, Cobb’s husband asked: “Don’t you visit-teach Liz Howell? Doesn’t her husband Brady work in the Pentagon?”

Weeks earlier, April Cobb was asked to be a visiting teacher to Liz Howell, a fellow Latter-day Saint one floor above her. Rather than wait, Cobb had visited. When her new friend said that afternoon she still hadn’t heard from her husband, Cobb went upstairs and sat with her.

Others gathered in the Howells’ apartment: the Relief Society president, the bishop, close friends and a military chaplain. Seven days later, Brady Kay Howell’s death was confirmed.

The chief medical examiner who received Brady’s remains was a Latter-day Saint. He found Brady’s temple recommend in his wallet and contacted the stake president.

Cobb learned that even one visit to someone in need can make a difference.

“If I had not done my visiting teaching, I wouldn’t have known her,” April Cobb said. “Instead, it opened us up for a lifelong friendship and a joyful opportunity to serve.”

Peace of service binds Latter-day Saint woman's broken heart

Manuel Mercado

The following comes from an oral history recorded with Manuel Mercado on Sept. 29, 2022.

On the morning of Sept. 10, 2001, Manuel “Manny” Mercado, a native of Puerto Rico, woke with a prompting: Give away a Book of Mormon.

He pulled a new copy from his closet, wrote his testimony inside, and gave it to a coworker at their kiosk on the ground floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower.

The next morning, the tower was gone. Mercado later confirmed his coworker was safe — Sept. 11 was his day off.

Mercado, a cellphone programmer, was supposed to be at work at 6 a.m. But the night before, he had asked his boss for permission to vote in New York City’s mayoral primary. His boss told him to come in at 9 a.m. instead. The first plane struck at 8:46.

“My boss went through what I did not go through,” Mercado said. “He did my shift.”

Within days, Mercado was back at Ground Zero as part of the rescue effort, programming phones so first responders and construction crews could reach their families. He worked 12-hour days, six days a week, for two months, but he always attended worship services on Sunday.

His anger was harder to manage. Mercado said that if given the chance, he would have gone to war “like Captain Moroni” to defend freedom.

Then came the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance. On Sept. 14, 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush asked the nation’s houses of worship to open their doors. Mercado walked into the Latter-day Saint chapel on 65th Street and Columbus in Manhattan. Among the first to arrive, he was greeted by music performed by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square playing over the speakers.

“I started crying like a baby,” he said. “All the hate that I had in my heart against the terrorists — it was like wiped away, like cleansed. It was like, ‘All is well.’”

He said he sat in the quiet chapel and let it go.

“The Church is true,” Mercado said. “Definitely.”

Susan Robison

The following comes from an oral history recorded with Susan Robison on Dec. 13, 2022.

Susan Robison’s husband, Ron, normally arrived at his office on the 72nd floor of the World Trade Center’s south tower by 5 a.m. But having returned from a business trip to Hong Kong at 2 a.m., he stayed home on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

The couple was eating breakfast together in their Battery Park City apartment — three blocks from the towers — when a colleague called to say a plane had struck the north tower. Minutes later, a roar passed directly over their building. It was the second plane, followed by an explosion.

With no electricity in the building, residents were told to shelter in the basement. In the dark, lit only by the glow of cellphone screens, a small group began singing to calm several frightened children. Susan Robison stood beside a woman she had never met — a mother whose own children were at a school somewhere in the city — and held her hand.

During that time, Robison served as Relief Society president of the New York New York Stake. In the weeks that followed, kindness arrived from around the world: 400 teddy bears from Washington state. Thirty-five quilts hand-stitched by friends in San Diego. The inscription of a book of well wishes from the Harrogate Ward Relief Society in England read: “We pray that each of us may find peace and comfort in the scriptures, and in the knowledge that we have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior.”

Years later, Robison reflected on what she had witnessed — the singing in the dark, the strangers clasping hands, the hotel maid who offered a hug, the Red Cross worker who called her cellphone that night just to make sure she was OK.

“The terrorist attacks were horrible, terrible acts. But in the aftermath, I saw the best of people,” she said. “In times of extreme trial and danger, there is comfort in knowing that the Lord is with us, that we can turn to Him for peace and direction.”

Evan McMullin

The following comes from an oral history recorded with Evan McMullin on Feb. 10, 2023.

Evan McMullin was sitting in a windowless Central Intelligence Agency basement room taking a Microsoft Excel course on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when a woman in a dress and tennis shoes poked her head through the door and asked, “Do you know we’re under attack?”

Within minutes, the returned missionary and Brigham Young University graduate was watching the World Trade Center towers burn on a monitor in his supervisor’s office.

Within weeks, McMullin was at the Pentagon helping select targets in Afghanistan.

Within months, he had entered the CIA’s Directorate of Operations — undercover operations — a path that would take him to conflict zones across South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa for the next decade.

But early in McMullin’s training, a moment of doubt nearly derailed his confidence. Seasoned officers took him to lunch in a North African country and ordered wine. When McMullin declined, they asked if he was a Latter-day Saint. He said he was.

“They said, ‘You can’t do this work without alcohol,’” McMullin said. “I worried about that through the rest of training.”

He chose to keep his standards anyway and was surprised to discover that people he worked with — foreign contacts operating in dangerous, high-stakes settings — trusted him more because of it.

“Your standards are an asset and your faith is an asset, not a liability,” McMullin said. “And it certainly was in that most difficult context.”

McMullin spent nearly three years in one country tracking al-Qaida operatives, reenlisting again and again when colleagues encouraged him to move on. He described the experience in language familiar to any returned missionary: “I was on a mission.”

There were no chapels in most of the places he served and little Church support. He slept with a loaded weapon beside him. Yet he said he felt sustained by a quiet confidence that the work was right — and that the freedom he was protecting had eternal significance.

“This country allows for that,” he said — the freedom to learn about the gospel, to choose it and to pursue a path toward exaltation. “Without America being what it is, the cause of freedom suffers globally.”

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

The unforgettable responses of President Hinckley, President Monson and others after 9/11

9/11 and the myth, reality and miracles of New York City missionaries

“I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to participate in this gathering and share with great friends from other religious denominations,” Elder Corbitt said. “Activities like this reflect the importance of religious freedom, which allows us to unite, engage in dialogue and work together for the well-being of the Dominican people.”

Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader called for the event to bring together leaders from various religious denominations to pray for the nation and convey a message of gratitude and hope.

Pastor Milcíades Franjul, director of the Christian Liaison Office to the Executive Branch, organized the gathering. Attendees included first lady Raquel Arbaje; Monsignor Carlos Tomás Morel Diplán, coadjutor archbishop of Santo Domingo; and leaders from the nation’s evangelical and Protestant communities, among other religious leaders and representatives.

The Church’s participation in the event reflects its commitment to follow Jesus Christ’s example of serving others and working alongside government, religious and community organizations to support families and strengthen communities worldwide.

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Elder Corbitt tours Puerto Rican television station

Members of Caribbean Area presidency meet with presiding Catholic leader in Dominican Republic

How singing a Hebrew psalm in the Taylorsville Utah Temple led to a powerful interfaith moment for Jewish, Latter-day Saint friends

The donation included a 3D digital mammography unit, a specialized ultrasound system, backup power systems and furniture — along with renovations to the hospital’s mammography, ultrasound and patient care areas. The upgrades will serve more than 36,000 women in the country.

The donation reflects a commitment by the Church to follow Jesus Christ’s example of serving, ministering and caring for others.

Elder Patricio M. Giuffra, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Central America Area, participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony. He was joined by his wife, Sister Maria Eugenia Giuffra.

“Today, we celebrate much more than the delivery of equipment and the renovation of the clinic’s physical space,” he said, “we celebrate an investment in hope and in the well-being of thousands of women, who are daughters of God and an important part of His plan.”

Commissioner General Luis Octavio Saavedra, deputy director of the hospital, thanked the Church and said the donated technology will make a lasting impact.

The donation comes as the Church opens the doors of the Managua Nicaragua Temple for public tours. The temple — the country’s first — will be dedicated on Oct. 18.

Nicaragua Latter-day Saints celebrate 70 years of the Church in the country

Joy at groundbreaking for Nicaragua’s first temple

The ways new donations from the Church will help health care in Nicaragua

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, represented Church leaders in announcing the theme for the upcoming Salt Lake Temple Celebration — “Rejoice in Christ,” based on Philippians 4:4 — on the same day reservations were made available for open house tickets. The theme will also serve as the 2027 youth theme.

Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught missionaries at the Provo Missionary Training Center to testify of three “keystones of faith.”

Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met with the president of Peru as part of a ministry in the South American country.

Elder Ulisses Soares of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ministered in Mexico, meeting with members, missionaries, religious leaders, government officials and news media.

The Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple was dedicated by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The Church News reported on the beginning of the open house for the Ephraim Utah Temple. Read what Church leaders had to say about the State of Utah’s 26th temple.

In other temple news, a rendering was released for the Charlotte North Carolina Temple, the groundbreaking date was scheduled for the Iquitos Peru Temple, and the site was announced for the Queen Creek Arizona Temple.

On this week’s episode of the Church News podcast, Young Men General President Timothy L. Farnes and Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman talked about ways youth can develop into stronger disciples of Jesus Christ through the new Sunday youth schedule.

Read summaries and find links to these articles below.

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

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a letter on Sept. 3 inviting all to participate in October 2026 general conference.

The 196th Semiannual General Conference of the Church will be held Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4.

Read more about the First Presidency’s invitation to conference here.

A talk a day: Preparing for October 2026 general conference

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

Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the theme for the upcoming Salt Lake Temple Celebration on the same day reservations were made available for open house tickets.

Speaking from the new temple entrance building north of the Salt Lake Temple on Temple Square, President Uchtdorf called the celebration a historic event that will accompany the reopening of the Salt Lake Temple in 2027 following its extensive, seven-year renovation.

“We invite the world — everyone, hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people,” he said. “We expect 5 million people to come and see and enjoy this wonderful experience — what the temple, the house of the Lord, represents.”

Read more about the Salt Lake Temple Celebration and theme here.

Read about the 2027 youth theme here.

What to know about the Salt Lake Temple open house, ‘a celebration unlike anything else in the Church’

Restored Salt Lake Temple doors rehung as outside nears completion

3. Elder Cook teaches missionaries 3 ‘keystones of faith’ to anchor each testimony

Speaking to missionaries at a Sept. 1 devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center, Elder Cook taught that “true conversion is the result of the conscious acceptance of the will of God, and we can be guided in our actions by the Holy Ghost.”

He testified of three “keystones of faith” — the divinity of Jesus Christ, the truth of the Book of Mormon and the role of Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Restoration.

Read more about Elder Cook’s MTC message here.

Elder Quentin L. Cook: How the Book of Mormon is ‘fundamental’ in missionary work

4. Elder Stevenson meets with Peru’s president, discusses the spirit of peacemaking

Elder Stevenson met with the president of Peru, President Keiko Fujimori Higuchi, as part of a ministry in the South American country on Thursday, Aug. 27, at the Government Palace in Lima, Peru.

The two leaders discussed the importance of being peacemakers in an increasingly divided world.

“Peacemaking is so important,” Elder Stevenson said. “We approach peacemaking first in our hearts. Each of us as Heavenly Father’s children need to have the spirit of peacemaking in our hearts, then in homes and families. As we practice there, peacemaking will spread into our neighborhoods and communities.”

Read more about Elder Stevenson’s meeting with the president of Peru here.

Celebrating a century: Latter-day Saints commemorate 100 years in South America

President Nelson meets president of Peru, addresses members in their native language

5. Elder Soares ministers in Mexico, inviting thousands to center lives on Jesus Christ

In an Aug. 27-30 ministry in Mexico, Elder Soares met with members, missionaries, journalists, religious leaders and government officials in events centered on dialogue, shared values, service and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“As we center our lives on Jesus Christ and allow Him to be the most powerful influence in our decisions, our discipleship is strengthened and our hearts become more fully united with Him,” he said in a stake conference.

He also met with several members of the Mexico Senate on Aug. 28. The lawmakers acknowledged the positive contributions of religious organizations — including the Church — in strengthening communities and improving lives.

Read more about Elder Soares’ ministry in Mexico here.

Elder Soares testifies in the Philippines that the Savior’s ‘arms are extended to all of us’

6. Elder Kearon dedicates Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple, where vision ‘draws heavenward’

With an invitation for all to let thoughts, focus and gaze be drawn heavenward, Elder Kearon dedicated the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on Sunday, Aug. 30.

Everything about the Phnom Penh temple points toward heaven, Elder Kearon said, from the traditional architecture that draws the eye toward the beautiful spires and then heavenward, to the covenants made inside with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

“As we let our gaze be drawn heavenward in this way, we find the inward peace which can be so elusive in our busy lives,” Elder Kearon said.

Read more about the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple dedication here.

Read Elder Kearon’s dedicatory prayer here.

Watch a video about the Cambodia temple here.

Learn more about the Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple on the Church News Almanac

7. Ephraim Utah Temple begins open house

The doors of the Ephraim Utah Temple opened to the public on Monday, Aug. 31, as the public open house officially began with guided tours for media and invited guests.

Elder K. Brett Nattress, a General Authority Seventy and assistant executive director of the Temple Department, told members of the media that this temple — located just 7 miles from the Manti Utah Temple — is a testament to the faith of those in the area, because even though it’s close to another temple, this house of the Lord is needed.

“They’re so faithful and so deserving of this house of the Lord,” he said. “The Saints that live here, they understand that happiness comes through serving others.”

Read what Church leaders had to say about the Ephraim Utah Temple and open house here.

Read more about the beginning of the Ephraim Utah Temple open house here.

President Dallin H. Oaks dedicates the Burley Idaho Temple, a place of ‘much significance to him’

8. Temple news: Groundbreaking scheduled in Peru, site announced in Arizona and rendering released in North Carolina

An Oct. 10 groundbreaking was announced for the Iquitos Peru Temple, to be presided over by Elder Sandino Roman, a General Authority Seventy and member of the Church’s South America Northwest Area presidency.

The location of the future Queen Creek Arizona Temple was announced.

An exterior rendering for the Charlotte North Carolina Temple was released.

Read more about the upcoming Iquitos Peru Temple groundbreaking here.

Read more about the future site of the Queen Creek Arizona Temple here.

Read more about the rendering of the Charlotte North Carolina Temple here.

Read more coverage of temples in the Church News

9. Episode 310: Sunday youth curriculum has changed. Now what?

Starting this week, youth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will shift from rotating each Sunday between their Young Women or Aaronic Priesthood classes and Sunday School classes to participating in both every week.

President Farnes and President Freeman join Church News editor Jon Ryan Jensen for this episode of the Church News podcast to talk about the way youth can develop into stronger disciples of Jesus Christ through these adjustments.

“It’s not just learning, it’s about living and becoming lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ,” President Farnes says in the podcast. Hear how he hopes the Sunday change will also bring about positive changes in the lives of the rising generation.

Listen to the podcast episode here.

5 ways to prepare for the new youth Sunday experience

Episode 296: New Sunday schedule to help build disciples of Jesus Christ

Church releases instructional videos for September Sunday schedule changes

“Look unto [Him] in every thought; doubt not, fear not,” he said, quoting Doctrine and Covenants 6:36. “As we center our lives on Jesus Christ and allow Him to be the most powerful influence in our decisions, our discipleship is strengthened and our hearts become more fully united with Him.”

The special stake conference was part of Elder Soares’ ministry in Mexico from Aug. 27-30, during which he also met with missionaries, journalists, religious leaders and government officials in a series of events centered on dialogue, shared values, service and the gospel of Jesus Christ, reported the Church’s Mexico Newsroom.

Elder Soares was accompanied by his wife, Sister Rosana Soares, and Elder Moisés Villanueva, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Mexico Area, and other local leaders at various times.

‘Learn of Him’

On Aug. 28, Elder and Sister Soares spoke at a devotional at the Mexico Missionary Training Center that was broadcast to thousands of youth across Mexico, inviting them to focus their preparation and future missionary service on the ministry of Jesus Christ.

“Learn of Him and gain a testimony of His divinity,” Elder Soares said. “Centering your life on Jesus Christ provides the foundation needed to become a successful missionary, just as He was, because His life was the perfect example of how to minister to others.”

Said Sister Soares: “You will never regret serving as a missionary.”

Elder Soares invited the youth to make the scriptures part of their daily lives and to actively seek holiness. True change, he taught, requires personal effort and commitment — not simply waiting for parents or leaders to provide direction.

“We must do everything possible to draw closer to the Savior, to know Him better and to avoid worldly influences that cause the Holy Spirit to withdraw,” the Apostle said. “Serving the Lord as a missionary is a sacred honor and privilege.”

A sacred calling

On Aug. 29, Elder and Sister Soares met with missionaries from the México México City Northwest Mission.

As part of his message, Elder Soares invited the missionaries to reflect on the sacred nature of their calling.

“To the extent that you fully grasp its importance, you will be successful in your missionary service,” he said, pointing to the Savior as the perfect example — one who not only understood His mission but embraced it and fulfilled it.

The Apostle continued: “As we come to understand this fundamental principle and apply it faithfully while striving to achieve our goal, the Lord will magnify our efforts and bless us beyond our capacity.”

Building bridges in Mexico

Elder Soares and Elder Villanueva met with several members of the Mexico Senate on Aug. 28 at the Mexico MTC, including incoming Senate President Higinio Martínez. Their conversations focused on religious freedom, civic engagement and ways the Church and government leaders can work together to address social challenges.

The lawmakers acknowledged the positive contributions of religious organizations — including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — in strengthening communities and improving lives.

The government leaders toured the Mexico MTC, where they learned about the preparation young missionaries receive before serving around the world. They interacted with missionaries and praised their commitment to serving others.

The delegation toured the site of the future Mexico City Benemérito Mexico Temple, adjacent to the MTC. Elder Villanueva explained the purpose of temples and shared the temple’s architectural rendering. The temple was announced during April 2022 general conference.

Elder Soares met with Bishop Ramón Castro Castro, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference and bishop of Cuernavaca. The two leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to strengthening families and caring for the needy throughout Mexico.

Elder Soares also met with members of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies to discuss religious freedom, civic engagement and ways to address social challenges together.

While at the Mexico MTC, Elder Soares recorded a commemorative message marking 150 years of the Church’s missionary work in Mexico.

Meeting the press

On Aug. 27, Elder Soares met with journalists and broadcasters from various news media organizations at the Mexico City Mexico Temple Visitors’ Center.

During the gathering, Elder Soares shared personal experiences and discussed the importance of faith, family and service. He emphasized the positive role religious organizations play in strengthening communities through moral values and civic engagement.

Elder Soares testifies in the Philippines that the Savior’s ‘arms are extended to all of us’

Establish ‘divine patterns’ for a lifetime of discipleship, Elder Soares teaches missionaries

Mission leadership councils are a sacred opportunity, says Elder Soares

During an earlier event organized by the Church to recognize two key media figures, Elder Corbitt — a member of the Church’s Caribbean Area presidency — met with TeleOnce TV Vice President Eduardo Cancela, one of the award recipients, who arranged a tour through the station’s production, broadcasting and operations.

The two discussed the media’s role in informing and strengthening communities — a purpose Elder Corbitt said aligns with the Church’s mission to bring people closer to Jesus Christ.

Elder Corbitt and the Church delegation he led thanked the TeleOnce TV team for the tour. The meeting was part of the Church’s ongoing effort to build relationships with media and civic leaders through dialogue and collaboration.

Small groups of Latter-day Saint American servicemen stationed in Puerto Rico began holding Church meetings in the 1940s.

Today there are nearly 27,000 Church members in Puerto Rico, attending 38 congregations, according to ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

The San Juan Puerto Rico Temple was dedicated in 2023.

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Members of Caribbean Area presidency meet with presiding Catholic leader in Dominican Republic

Church donates equipment to support healthcare in Jamaica

How singing a Hebrew psalm in the Taylorsville Utah Temple led to a powerful interfaith moment for Jewish, Latter-day Saint friends

‘In Him, we are one’: Church hosts interfaith Easter musical devotional in Dominican Republic

After discussing the matter, the brothers felt the decision should depend on three questions — questions Elder Cook would later call “keystones of faith”:

• Is Jesus Christ divine?
• Is the Book of Mormon the word of God?
• Is Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration?

The brothers decided if all three answers were yes, a mission couldn’t wait — not even for medical school.

That night, young Quentin prayed “fervently and with real intent,” and the Holy Ghost confirmed each truth in an “undeniably powerful way.” It was a “seminal” testimony-strengthening experience that has shaped every major decision of his life, the Apostle recalled.

Speaking to missionaries at a Sept. 1 devotional at the Provo Missionary Training Center, Elder Cook taught that “true conversion is the result of the conscious acceptance of the will of God, and we can be guided in our actions by the Holy Ghost.”

He encouraged the missionaries to nurture and cultivate those three keystones of faith and testify of them throughout their service.

Elder Cook was accompanied by his wife, Sister Mary Cook. His remarks were broadcast to MTCs around the world.

Lessons from Wilford Woodruff

Elder Cook called Wilford Woodruff, the Church’s fourth president, one of the most successful missionaries of this dispensation. “It is significant that you know more about his service,” he told the missionaries.

Elder Cook noted that 10 of Woodruff’s first 15 years in the Church were spent on missions in the United States and Great Britain, during which he baptized more than 2,000 people, most notably those among the United Brethren at John Benbow’s farm in Herefordshire, England.

Elder Cook said some of Woodruff’s counsel to missionaries is still applicable today. Wrote Woodruff: “Never proceed to do anything until you go and labor in prayer and get the Holy Spirit. Wherever the Spirit dictates you to go or to do, that will be right.”

Woodruff wrote that following the Holy Spirit leads to conversion: “We preach the same gospel in all its simplicity and plainness that Jesus preached, and the Holy Ghost rests upon those who receive it.”

Elder Cook played a historic 1897 Edison phonograph recording of 90-year-old President Woodruff testifying, “Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God, ordained of God to lay the foundation of His Church and Kingdom in the last dispensation and fullness of times.”

Elder Cook invited Provo MTC President Stephen W. Owen — a direct descendant of Wilford Woodruff, whose middle name he carries — to share his testimony.

Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon

One of Elder Cook’s memorable apostolic assignments in recent years was to read and review the Joseph Smith Papers documents and research that led to the publication of the multivolume “Saints” series.

“My testimony and admiration of the Prophet Joseph Smith has been greatly strengthened and enhanced after reading the inspiring details of his life and foreordained prophetic ministry,” he said. “Joseph’s translation of the Book of Mormon by the gift and power of God was foundational to the Restoration.”

With the help of Church History Department archivist Brandon Metcalf, Elder Cook showed missionaries pages from both the original and printer’s manuscripts of the Book of Mormon, as well as a first edition — one of 5,000 printed in Palmyra, New York, in 1830. Metcalf was also invited to share his testimony.

Said Elder Cook: “I testify that Joseph Smith was righteous, full of faith and an instrument in the Lord’s hands in bringing forth the Book of Mormon.”

4 loves of missionary work

Elder Cook concluded by sharing what he calls “the four loves of missionary work,” illustrating each one with personal stories and examples.

1. Love your companions.
2. Love the people where you are called to serve.
3. Love your mission president and his companion wife.
4. Love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ending with his testimony, Elder Cook said: “I testify that Jesus Christ lives and that through missionary work, we can bring light and hope to a world that is in great need. May we all strive to be true disciples of Jesus Christ, sharing His gospel with all those with whom we come in contact and bringing the blessings of His love and grace to all the world.”

What missionaries learned

Afterward, missionaries shared what they had learned from the Spirit during the devotional.

Sister Allison Wright, of Layton, Utah, assigned to the Ohio Columbus Mission, appreciated Elder Cook’s four loves of missionary work with the keyword being “love.”

“That’s what Christ is, and that’s what He does. He atoned for our sins because He loves us,” she said. “We’re doing His work because we love everyone, we love Jesus, and we want to spread His gospel.”

Her companion, Sister Scarlett Brock, of Coalville, Utah, also going to the Ohio Columbus Mission, learned about listening to and acting upon the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

“Whatever the Spirit invites us to do, that’s what we should follow,” she said.

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In a recent Church News podcast interview, Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman and Young Men General President Timothy L. Farnes discussed the new resources and how to navigate the transition.

President Freeman hopes these changes can “equip” and “empower” youth to live and share the gospel as they help prepare the world for Jesus Christ’s Second Coming.

“We have the greatest missionary force that has ever served in this dispensation serving right now,” she said. “This curriculum was partly designed to help them be able to live in the world that we live in but also teach this gospel and have strong testimonies as they talk about Jesus Christ.”

President Farnes said the resources have one purpose. “It’s not just learning, it’s about living and becoming lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.”

Here are five ways youth, leaders and parents can prepare for the Sunday changes.

Episode 310: Sunday youth curriculum has changed. Now what?

1. ‘A guide for strength’

President Freeman and President Farnes said the new youth curriculum is built on the 12 chapters of the FSY guide — doctrine and eternal truths — with an enhanced purpose and both strategies and counterstrategies needed to combat today’s challenges.

“We would refer to it as a guide for strength — a guide for finding strength in Jesus Christ — because that’s what the youth today need to face everything that they’re up against,” President Freeman said. “It’s not a rule book. It’s a principle-based guide.”

2. Resources to use each Sunday

What resources should youth bring to Church?

President Farnes suggested youth have their scriptures, the FSY guide, the For the Strength of Youth magazine and “a heart ready to learn.”

“The most important thing they bring is the desire to learn to be a lifelong disciple,” President Farnes said.

The FSY guide provides the curriculum for fast Sundays, while the last eight pages of the monthly youth magazine contain discussion outlines for the second, third and last Sundays of the month.

Each family receives free one mailed subscription to the magazine. Families with multiple youth can ask ministering brothers or sisters to order magazines, print the PDF of the curriculum pages or access the digital version online.

3. Doctrine within five minutes

President Freeman said the key for 25-minute meetings is getting into the scriptures within the first five minutes.

“Each of these discussion outlines is built for that,” she said. “Over time, I think we will realize that relationships will deepen in our classes and in our quorums — and testimonies will strengthen — because what becomes the priority of those 25 minutes is Jesus Christ. We’re going to see lives change because of that.”

Added President Farnes: “Rather than maybe worrying about what am I going to teach in that 25 minutes, maybe it’s how am I going to inspire, lift, encourage and help them have a greater aspiration to live like a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ.”

4. Adult leaders should mentor

President Farnes and President Freeman said adult leaders should not hand off teaching entirely to youth. Like a parent running alongside a child learning to ride a bike, adult leaders should model, mentor and ensure doctrine is taught correctly.

“It’s important as we prepare these young men and young women for missions and also leadership in the Church that we take this time to do that training, running beside and helping them,” President Freeman said.

The new curriculum uses three discussion questions per class. Presidencies and advisers can counsel together about who leads each of the three questions — such as an adult leader for one, a youth for another, even a Relief Society or elders quorum member for a third.

The goal is whole-class engagement, where youth can ask any questions.

“Engagement invites the Holy Ghost,” President Farnes said.

Added President Freeman, “This is not a class as much as it is a conversation about relevant things that are tied to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

5. Make discipleship daily — not weekly

Both leaders emphasized that Sunday discussion should be the culmination of a week of living the gospel — not the only encounter with it.

President Farnes pointed to 3 Nephi 17:3, where the Savior told the people to go home, ponder, pray and prepare their hearts to return and share.

“Imagine the class or quorum when they’re coming ready to share how they’ve lived the gospel,” he said. “Lifelong discipleship begins with daily discipleship. That’s what it’s all about.”

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The two leaders discussed ways the Church and the Sierra Leonean government can work together to strengthen education in the country, the Church’s Africa Newsroom reported on Aug. 27.

“We love your people, and we are here for the long term,” Elder Gilbert told the vice president. “We have friends of all faiths and are invested in your country. We expect God to bless this country, and we will do our best to help in that.”

Elder Gilbert was accompanied in the meeting by his wife, Sister Christine Gilbert; Elder Adeyinka A. Ojediran, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Africa West Area; Elder Kenneth Pambu, an Area Seventy from Sierra Leone; Haja Ramatulai Wurie, Sierra Leone’s minister of technical and higher education; and Sia Fasuluku, the country’s deputy chief technical and higher education officer.

Jalloh thanked the Church for bringing BYU–Pathway Worldwide and Succeed in School — an after-school program for youth — to Sierra Leone.

“The Church is not new to us, and we see the added value of the Church. It fits squarely in the vision for this country,” the vice president said. “We believe that if you provide opportunities to young people, they will be the engine to transform the country.”

Jalloh said Succeed in School reminded him of a program he attended as a boy — one he credits with setting him on the path to higher education. He thanked the Church for giving today’s youth the same opportunity and offered to visit the Succeed in School program to share his story with students.

Wurie, who attended the Church’s Strengthening Families Conference last year, said the Church’s education projects have provided more than 67,000 students with better learning environments and supplies. These efforts have also aligned with the government’s national development agenda.

“The Church has been a valuable partner,” Wurie said. “The population of Sierra Leone is very young, and we want to provide education and remote jobs for them that will be fulfilling and dignified.”

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President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles met with Latter-day Saints from multiple stakes on Sunday, Aug. 23. About 1,300 gathered at the Spokane Washington North Stake Center, and others joining by broadcast. The Apostles offered messages of hope, covenant assurance and God’s abiding presence. They also surveyed burned neighborhoods and spent time with families who lost their homes.

President Uchtdorf said: “My dear brothers and sisters, it’s indeed a great honor to be in your presence. We’re all friends in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We’re all brothers and sisters. When we heard about your suffering, your losses, your pain, your uncertainties, our hearts reached out to you.”

Elder Andersen said: “We grieve with you at what you have lost, especially your personal possessions. ... But we rejoice that lives were saved. That is a miracle.”

President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen were joined by their wives, Sister Harriet Uchtdorf and Sister Kathy Andersen; and Elder Takashi Wada, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s United States West Area, and his wife, Sister Naomi Wada. Elder Jared M. Spataro, an Area Seventy, and other local leaders also attended.

Aaronic Priesthood holders blessed and passed the sacrament in each building where the meeting was received.

The gathering took place just days after the 27th anniversary of the dedication of the Spokane Washington Temple.

President Ronald D. Hardy of the Spokane Washington North Stake said the apostolic visit carried a simple message: God knows and loves His people.

“To have Him send two of His Apostles and others of His great leaders — that’s just a message that He knows about little Spokane,” he said. “So we’re very blessed.”

‘We weren’t alone:’ Spokane Latter-day Saints find faith, blessings in wildfire ashes

Apostolic messages

On Aug. 1, three wildfires raged through north Spokane, burning roughly 10,000 acres, forcing the evacuation of some 67,000 residents and destroying or damaging an estimated 900 homes and structures.

More than half the members of the Spokane Washington North Stake were displaced during the evacuations. Of the roughly 600 primary residences destroyed in the fires, 27 belonged to Latter-day Saint families; 12 other member homes sustained varying degrees of damage.

Both Apostles testified of Jesus Christ and His hand in the Spokane residents’ lives. They also honored the residents — Church members and neighbors alike — who stopped to help others even while fleeing the fires themselves. President Uchtdorf said such compassion reflects the deepest meaning of the two great commandments — to love God and to love one’s neighbor (see Matthew 22:37-39).

“Regardless of who they are, what language they speak, how they look, whether we know them or not,” he said, “that is the deep sense of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Elder Andersen echoed the point, pointing to the community’s response as proof.

“We rejoice in the goodness of your lives and what we’ve seen of people taking care of people — independent of whether you’re a member of the Church,” he said before sharing the parable of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:30-37).

President Uchtdorf spoke of the spiritual strength that comes from keeping covenants — something fire cannot destroy. Recalling a story from his wife, who as a child in wartime Germany would climb the stairs after a World War II bombing raid and call back to her mother, “It’s still there,” he said the same is true even when a home is gone: “What is still there are the covenants we make with the Lord.”

He connected the congregation’s experience of taking the sacrament together to the Last Supper, noting that before the Savior went to Gethsemane — “about to take on the heaviest burden there is for anyone” — He sat with the Twelve, broke bread and sang.

“So for us, as we come together, this can bring us strength,” he said.

Recalling his October 2011 general conference address, President Uchtdorf said he had pinned a small forget-me-not flower to his lapel that morning.

“We should not forget Him, but also that we can be sure that He will not forget us,” he said, inviting members to remember their neighbors even after the immediate crisis passes and to sustain one another through the longer road of recovery.

Elder Andersen made a similar promise.

“I pledge to you that the Church will not forget you, that the Church will be with you as you find your way and as you are strengthened,” he said.

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Finding hope in Christ

Before President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen spoke, the congregation received messages from local members.

President Hardy said ward leaders began tracking members within hours of the fires — some texting about those in their care while fleeing the flames themselves. Within 24 hours, all nine bishops in the stake had reports on the statuses of their members.

“The Church as an organization has a mighty reach, but Christ’s work is done one phone call, one conversation, one prayer and one relationship at a time,” he said.

Angela Pederson, the Spokane Washington North Stake Relief Society president, said that every time she picked up her phone to coordinate relief — texting, calling, responding — she could feel something beyond the logistics.

“I could sense Jesus Christ’s sustaining strength, His concern and awareness, and His guiding assistance wrapped around me in an embrace,” she said. “It’s like my phone somehow became a conduit of their love and of His love, letting me feel prayers being offered on your behalf.”

Ben Barclay, the local welfare and self-reliance manager, recalled watching a mother and daughter stop hesitantly in the doorway of a meetinghouse that had been turned into a donation center. They had never been to the church before. A friend had told them supplies were available. They had just lost everything — having moved into a new home and hadn’t even had time to unpack.

Barclay’s wife greeted them, helped them find what they needed and carried a case of water to their car.

“No more a stranger nor a guest, but like a child at home,” Barclay said, referencing the hymn “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” No. 1014 in “Hymns for Home and Church.”

Brielle Schaber, a youth in the Shadle Park Ward of the Spokane Washington North Stake whose neighborhood was devastated by the fires, said she found hope in an unlikely place — the ground itself.

“There is hope found through Jesus Christ,” she said, “just like the hope we see in the green grass and plants already growing up through the burnt ground.”

‘Bright spot’ in the chaos

Following the meeting, President Uchtdorf, Elder Andersen and others visited burned neighborhoods and spent time with those who lost their homes, an act of kindness that meant everything to the members.

Peter and Ingrid Martin of the Seven Mile Ward in the Spokane Washington North Stake lost the home they had lived in for 32 years. For Peter Martin, the visit from two Apostles carried a clear message.

“It confirmed that our Savior is with us. We have faith in Him,” Peter Martin said. “We’re comforted that we’ll be OK. Everything will work out.”

Elder Andersen listened as Mark and Claudia Anderson, longtime members of the Spokane 3rd Branch (Spanish) in the Spokane Washington West Stake, described losing their home and nearly everything they owned. But the faith and the kindness of others have carried them forward.

“We’ve had family, our Church family, friends and many strangers reach out to us. It’s been so amazing, all the support, love and prayers,” Mark Anderson said. “It just touches our heart. The Spirit is witnessing that God is at work in our lives. We’re going to get through this, and all’s going to be well.”

Mark and Heidi Schaber’s home survived the fires but sustained damage. They credit the efforts of firefighters with saving it — and see the Lord’s hand in that work. Now, as they repair their own home, they feel a responsibility to help neighbors and friends do the same.

“President Uchtdorf talks about ministering to the one, and when you’re with him, you feel that. You feel as though you’re truly what matters to him,” said Mark Schaber, Brielle Schaber’s father and a member of the Shadle Park Ward in the Spokane North Stake.

Heidi Schaber added: “Apostles are a mouthpiece for the Lord, and so I feel like it’s one more way that I feel God’s love for me, my neighbors and my children — strength to overcome a really big trial.”

Cody and Haylee Woodbury lost their home in the fires. While visiting with President Uchtdorf, their 5-year-old son, Cannon, asked the former airline pilot how fast he has flown in a jet.

“Faster than the speed of sound,” President Uchtdorf told him.

“They minister one by one, just how the Savior would,” Cody Woodbury said. “You don’t anticipate that you’re the one that needs to be ministered to, but we all end up there at some point.”

Scott and Geneva Kelley, also members of the Seven Mile Ward, had lived in their north Spokane home for nine years when the wildfire took it from them in minutes. For them, the ministering visit was truly “a bright spot.”

“It was a bright spot in the midst of all the chaos, all the things we have to worry and think about and do, and then to be excited about something was really special. We know that they love us,” Geneva said.

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Since then, the Church has strived to make Activity Sharing technology accessible to more members worldwide.

Some Latter-day Saints can access their ward’s webpage through the Member Tools app, said Rogelio Osuna, who oversees Activity Sharing in the Church’s Missionary Department.

“We all feel the desire to share the gospel, but it can be hard to know how to do it naturally. Activity Sharing gives members a simple, genuine way to invite others to Church activities and Sunday worship — not as a program, but as an expression of love,” he said. “It reflects what the Savior taught us through His earthly ministry: to love, share and invite.”

What is Activity Sharing?

Activity Sharing is a technology that can help members invite friends to ward activities and Sunday worship services. It also allows people who are searching online for local activities to find them and RSVP.

Using the Church calendar, ward leaders can publish activities to their ward’s website — and members can then share those events with friends with links or social media.

Published activities can appear in online search results, making it easy for anyone looking for local worship services, events, activities or service opportunities to find them and tap the “RSVP” button.

Ward leaders can see who has indicated plans to attend an event through a report in Leader and Clerk Resources and the Church calendar, so leaders can be aware of and welcome visitors.

Events posted on ward pages are optimized for sharing and may also appear on platforms like Eventbrite, helping people beyond the congregation discover public activities hosted by local wards and branches.

Members are encouraged to describe ward activities in ways those unfamiliar with Church terminology can understand, such as “Sunday worship services” instead of “sacrament meeting.” Describing the activities as “Christ-centered” is also encouraged.

Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles first introduced Activity Sharing resources during the Thursday leadership session of October 2024 general conference.

“Often, inviting simply means including our family, friends and neighbors in what we are already doing,” it reads in the Church’s General Handbook (23.1.3).

Enabling Activity Sharing

If Activity Sharing is enabled in an area but the tile isn’t visible on a member account home screen, long-press any tile and select “Add Tiles” from the menu that appears.

Select “Activity Sharing” from the menu that appears to add it.

Tapping the “Activity Sharing” tile will open the mobile version of their ward webpage.

Success story

While planning their annual Easter breakfast, leaders of the Apache Park Ward of the Glendale Arizona North Stake used Activity Sharing to invite the broader community. Members helped by sharing the event link on social media.

To their surprise, more than 80 people showed up. One woman who came with her daughter said she felt drawn to the event. Members invited her to Sunday services — she came — and they introduced her to the missionaries.

Using Activity Sharing shifted the ward’s mindset from planning activities for members to planning activities for the community, the bishop said in a Church video.

Another video shows a young boy and his mother using Activity Sharing to invite his neighbor to hear him sing at Church.

For training purposes, leaders and members can watch two videos — the Apache Park Ward story and a how-to guide for Activity Sharing.

Find more information, such as commonly asked questions and training resources, on the Church’s Activity Sharing page or the Share Ward Activities page in Gospel Library under Sharing the Gospel.

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A new website created by the Church History Department offers historical resources and information for those interested in visiting or learning about the Church’s Missouri historic sites.

The website highlights the faith, courage and sacrifice of the early Saints, said Benedicte Caroline Dansie, a curator for historic sites in the Church History Department who helped create content for the website.

“Our new Missouri Historic Sites webpages focus on teaching about the Saints’ time in Missouri as well as the places and people that were part of the story,” she said. “They also provide more detailed trip planning and accessibility information to help visitors prepare to spend time onsite.”

The Missouri Historic Sites website — ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites/missouri — is the fourth in a series of new websites created for Church history sites in recent years.

Church history in Missouri

Latter-day Saints gathered in Missouri from 1831 to 1838, a period marked by faith, momentous events, an outpouring of revelations, betrayal and violence, according to the website’s introduction to Missouri’s Historic Sites.

In the summer of 1831, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation designating Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, as “the center place” of Zion — the promised site for a future temple and holy city (Doctrine and Covenants 57:1–3).

Two years later, more than 1,200 Saints lived in Jackson County. During that time, tensions with other settlers escalated into mob violence; by late 1833, Latter-day Saints were driven from Jackson County.

In 1834, Joseph Smith organized Zion’s Camp — an expedition of roughly 200 Latter-day Saint volunteers who marched from Ohio to Missouri to recover the Saints’ land and property — but without success.

The Saints regrouped in other Missouri counties. They founded the city of Far West in Caldwell County, along with communities in Clay and Daviess counties. But persecution persisted.

In October 1838, Missouri Gov. Lilburn W. Boggs ordered the Latter-day Saints expelled from Missouri. Days later, a militia attacked a settlement at Hawn’s Mill, killing 17 men and boys. Joseph Smith and other Church leaders were arrested and imprisoned in Liberty Jail through the winter of 1838–39.

The late President Jeffrey R. Holland, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, called Joseph Smith’s time in Liberty Jail “one of the most trying times in the history of the Church.” While imprisoned, Joseph Smith received revelations that became sections 121, 122 and 123 of the Doctrine and Covenants.

By spring 1839, the Saints had fled Missouri to seek refuge and a new start in Illinois.

Website features

The Missouri Historic Sites website offers the following features:

• Information and photos regarding sites in and around Missouri: Adam-ondi-Ahman, David Whitmer gravesite, David Whitmer Homesite, Far West, Flournoy House, Gilbert Whitney & Co. Store, Hawn’s Mill, Hawn’s Mill Millstone Monument, Hiram Page gravesite, Independence Visitors’ Center, Independence Temple Lot, John Whitmer gravesite, Liberty Jail, monument to the Eight Witnesses, Independence Printing Office Site, Richmond Jail Site, Richmond Pioneer Cemetery and statue of Alexander Doniphan.
• An interactive map showing the region.

• Information on the early Church in Missouri with links to “Saints” (Vol. 1, chapters 9-23), a multi-volume narrative history of the Church, and the “Saints” Vol. 1 podcast (episodes 9-23).
• Articles describing Missouri’s role as the “Center Place of Zion” and the events and revelations received by the Prophet Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail.
• Information on how to visit the historic sites with tips for “What to Expect,” travel information, sample itineraries, accessibility, tours and other resources. Visitors can plan for a family visit or group visit.
• Virtual tours are also available.

Other historic sites websites

The Missouri Historic Sites website is the latest addition to a series of four Church historic sites websites.

The Historic Nauvoo website (at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites/historic-nauvoo) was launched in December 2024.

A second website, featuring historic sites in New York and Pennsylvania (at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites/new-york-and-pennsylvania), was created in January 2025.

A third website spotlighted the historic sites in Ohio (at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites/ohio) was created in April 2025.

Each website is available in multiple languages.

A fifth website, featuring historic sites in Nebraska and Iowa, is expected to launch later this year.

Learn more at ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites.

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The new Sunday youth curriculum, weekly activities, and habits of daily personal scripture and gospel study can help youth carry that FSY momentum into lifelong discipleship of Jesus Christ, the Young Men general president said in an Aug. 11 livestream shared on the Young Men Worldwide social media accounts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“It’s not FSY that has changed you. It’s Jesus Christ that has helped transform who you are. ... That’s powerful to feel His love, His sustaining influence, and that is available to you every single day,” said Young Men General President Timothy L. Farnes.

“Today we want to talk to you about how this new youth curriculum, the 25-minute lessons, the activities and all the elements we have that are part of the youth program can help you feel His love and His light and walk with Him today and every day.”

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Sunday learning

Brother Sean R. Dixon, second counselor in the Young Men general presidency, described how the new second hour of Sunday services pairs two 25-minute discussion-based sessions. The first is a sequential study of the scriptures with “Come, Follow Me” curriculum. The second focuses on doctrines from the “For the Strength of Youth” guide.

Both are accessible in the Gospel Library app. Supplemental lesson materials will be found in each month’s For the Strength of Youth magazine, in the Gospel Library online and in the app or in print. Each household can receive the printed magazine for free.

Brother Dixon emphasized both sessions are meant to be discussions — not lectures — and together they enable youth to gain deeper doctrinal understanding and invite “a wonderful spirit to your week.”

“To be a lifelong disciple of Jesus Christ, we need to have soft hearts,” he said. “We’re all going to have our hearts softened and drawn to the Savior so that we’ll want to follow Him and be His disciples.”

Weekly activities

Brother David J. Wunderli, first counselor in the Young Men general presidency, described weekly and monthly activities as the “belonging” pillar of lifelong discipleship — the complement to the “believing” that Sunday lessons and daily worship provide.

Just as FSY conferences foster an immediate sense of brotherhood and sisterhood, weekly and monthly ward activities are designed to sustain that unity and connection year-round.

Resources include monthly activity suggestions tied to each FSY guide topic in the For the Strength of Youth magazine, weekly ideas shared on social media and a library of more than 100 activities being developed for the Gospel Library app — all aimed at helping youth feel welcomed and engaged in the body of Christ, Brother Wunderli said.

“These resources are pointing them to Jesus Christ,” he said.

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Personal daily worship

President Farnes invited youth to continue the daily habits they practiced at FSY conferences — morning prayer, scripture study, quiet reflection and journaling — into everyday life.

Those routines, he said, “open the windows of heaven to you for revelation” and are essential to maintaining the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.

“It’s important that every day, the first thing you do is turn to God, seek Him, seek His counsel, let Him know that you’re here for Him,” he said.

President Farnes encouraged youth to study the Book of Mormon each day, not only for doctrinal learning but to receive personal guidance and impressions for “who to help and how to help.”

The daily habits formed at FSY, he said, should become the foundation of lifelong discipleship.

“As you connect with God daily, you’ll receive those answers to prayers and the strength you need, because Jesus Christ is our strength,” President Farnes said.

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Members who had lost their homes were invited to sit near the pulpit.

Andrea “Ann” Abeyta, an Eastern Shoshone woman from the Wind River reservation in Wyoming and a member of the Seven Mile Ward in the Spokane Washington North Stake, was sitting on the end of the front row and received warm handshakes from both Apostles as they entered the chapel.

Abeyta had returned from a mission three years earlier to care for her father after he suffered a stroke. The home — in which she saw him accept the gospel and cared for him before his death in 2025 — was destroyed in the fire.

Attending Sunday’s meeting, Abeyta said, was a powerful reminder of God’s love, and the inspired messages of hope and faith in Jesus Christ gave her “energy.”

“We were together — we weren’t alone,” she said. “After losing my dad and now the home he cherished, I have witnessed so many miracles. Being there was one of the greatest miracles.”

Abeyta continued: “I felt their Christlike love and peace. I was uplifted and strengthened and honestly felt my dad and ancestors present.”

Abeyta was one of several Spokane-area Latter-day Saints who shared stories of homes lost, homes spared and neighbors serving one another.

President Uchtdorf and Elder Andersen minister in Spokane after devastating wildfires

Learning resilience

Abeyta was on her way to the Spokane Washington Temple when a friend called to say she better return home and pack some belongings — “It’s coming your way,” she said.

Abeyta only had 10 minutes to grab what she could. She reached for her Native American regalia, her documents — and a photograph of her father as a little boy that she had only discovered a week before he died.

The lessons that carried her through that moment came from the other side of the world. As a senior missionary in Vanuatu three years ago, Abeyta had helped members clean up after a devastating cyclone. She wept at the destruction. They did not.

“Sister Abeyta, don’t trouble your heart,” they told her. “Our kingdom is with Papa God.”

A week later, a second cyclone leveled what remained. Their response was the same: “Papa God knew that we needed to clean our island even better.”

After the wildfire evacuation, Abeyta spent the night in the stake meetinghouse. The next morning, she attended Sunday services. As she walked out, a young mother noticed her struggling.

“You look like you’re having a hard time,” the mother said. “Would you like to hold my baby?”

The baby wrapped his arms around Abeyta like a grown man — like her father. Abeyta said the baby looked like her father. He was even wearing a little Hawaiian palm tree shirt, just like one in a photograph of her father as a little boy that she had grabbed from the burning house.

“Did you know my dad?” she asked the baby. “Did my dad tell you, ‘Find my daughter when she needs me the most?’ That baby was kicking and smiling.”

Only Abeyta’s father’s tractor survived the fire unscathed.

“I’m certain my dad and Heavenly Father were sending me a message to get busy, clean up and move on, like my people in Vanuatu,” she said with a smile.

While still determining her next steps, Abeyta is applying the lessons and perspective she has gained to a doctoral dissertation on resilience at Montana State University.

‘Earthly angels and heavenly angels’

All 19 acres of the Rogers’ property burned — except the one acre where their house stood.

Todd and Debbie Rogers, members of the Colbert Ward in the Spokane North Stake, said flames were closing in from every direction on the night of Aug. 2. They went to bed not knowing whether their home would still be standing by morning.

What they didn’t know was that their daughter had prayed for angels to surround the house — or that three or four Golden Eagle Hotshot firefighters from California would park in their driveway and defend it through the night.

“When we realized it was those hotshots that saved our home, those were our angels,” Debbie Rogers said, also acknowledging Heavenly Father. “Earthly angels and heavenly angels.”

But the blessing has not come without complicated feelings. The Rogers’ daughter married into family of Peter and Ingrid Martin, fellow members who lost their home before an evacuation order was even issued.

The couple doesn’t know why their home was spared when others weren’t. But they are deeply grateful — and they see the Lord’s hand in it.

“If it were about righteousness, the other family would have had their home stand and we would have lost ours,” Debbie said before referencing 1 Nephi 11:17. “Like Nephi, I don’t know the meaning of all things, but I know that God loves His children.”

She continued: “We don’t know when or why miracles come. We’re just grateful when they do.”

The couple also expressed appreciation for the Church leaders’ visit.

“We feel so seen, so cared about,” Debbie Rogers said. “We’re very overwhelmed and grateful.”

‘Thou art not yet as Job’

The night before the fire, Julia Larsen was on her bathroom floor, sick with a stomach bug that had swept through the family for days. Between bouts of nausea, she prayed.

“I can’t do this anymore,” she told Heavenly Father.

Tyler and Julia Larsen — both 31, married nine years, with four children ages 7, 5, 3 and 18 months — had already weathered a difficult stretch with Julia Larsen fighting thyroid cancer during her third pregnancy, along with other emotional challenges over several years. That night on the floor, she said, an impression came that stopped her: “Thou art not yet as Job” (Doctrine and Covenants 121:10).

“I was scared,” she told the Church News in a video call from Las Vegas, where they were visiting family. “What do you mean I’m not like Job yet? What does that mean? What else are you going to take away from me?”

The next day, Aug. 1, their north Spokane home burned to the ground.

Tyler Larsen was away on a birthday golf trip in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Julia Larsen, still recovering, loaded four young children, luggage and other items into the family van. When she manually cranked open the garage door — the power was already out — she could see flames consuming the neighborhood. She grabbed scrapbooks off the coffee table and left. She didn’t even have time to change one child’s stinky diaper.

Hours later, the family reunited and eventually made it to relatives in Great Falls, Montana.

When they learned the house was gone, Julia Larsen said she felt peace — not grief. She was ready for a fresh start. The Larsens, members of the Seven Mile Ward in the Spokane North Stake, plan to rebuild on the same lot.

“Once we had hit rock bottom, I wasn’t afraid of hitting rock bottom anymore,” she said. “Now being on the other side, I can see how much God has helped us. It will work out.”

Ministering with meals

Lindsey Coons, who serves as Primary secretary in the Country Homes Ward of the Spokane North stake, had planned a fun end-of-summer bash for her Activity Day girls. Then the wildfires came, and a party felt wrong.

“There’s got to be some way we can help,” she thought.

Coons called stake and ward Relief Society leaders and asked if any displaced families would like a home-cooked meal? Six said yes.

So one evening, Coons and a group of 9- and 10-year-old girls assembled six baked zitis with garlic bread, Caesar salad and brownies. The girls wrote cards for each family. The next day, Coons delivered the meals to people who had been living on takeout in hotel rooms and vacation rental homes.

The families were grateful, and Coons said it proved to be a wonderful ministering experience for the girls.

“I learned that sometimes we feel like if we can’t make a big impact, there’s no point,” she said. “But impacts are made up of tiny little acts. ... Six dinners — that’s it? But every little thing counts.”

Coons has since offered to cook more meals as families return to the area.

“Serving others, that’s why we’re all here,” she said, “to be God’s hands.”

‘Everything’s going to be OK’

The night their Spokane home burned, Brent Tolman, 78, lay awake asking himself what he would miss most from nearly 40 years under that roof.

Despite losing some valuable possessions, the answer surprised him — his missionary Bible. Inside its blank pages he had written a personal history of his 1969–70 Latter-day Saint mission to Southern California — with a record of the people he baptized, the companions he served with, areas where he served, the addresses where he lived and more. He titled it, “A People I Have Known and Loved.”

Then came a quiet impression: “It’s all written in the book of life.”

“I don’t need it written in my Bible to remind me,” he said. “Everything’s going to be OK.”

He shared that thought with his 12-year-old granddaughter in Virginia, who called to check on them. While still on the phone, she looked up the scripture — Revelation 20:12 — and read it back to him.

“She was making Grandpa feel better, and she was getting to feel better herself at the same time,” said Cherie Tolman, his wife.

As the family historian, Cherie mourned the loss of irreplaceable photos and documents — some dating to the 1800s. But she and her husband got out safely with their cats and their temple bags. Their neighbors also survived.

“Nothing important was lost,” Cherie Tolman said. “It’s just stuff.”

The Tolmans, members of the Seven Mile Ward in the Spokane North stake, said studying the book of Job in “Come, Follow Me” curriculum also gave them comfort — especially a familiar promise from Doctrine and Covenants 121:9 — “Thy friends do stand by thee.” That scripture, Brent said, became real as Church members, neighbors and others helped them in various ways.

The couple went home from the Aug. 23 meeting feeling “overwhelmed” — not by the fires, but by the love in the room.

“We belong to the best church in the world — the Savior’s Church,” Cherie Tolman said. “This most amazing Being is cognizant of us on a daily basis and offers daily tender mercies.”

Added Brent Tolman: “It was powerful to know that Church leaders are praying for us.”

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Following the example of Church President Dallin H. Oaks, who has spoken on religious freedom for decades, Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, a General Authority Seventy from Fiji and president of the Church’s Pacific Area, addressed the topic on July 27, according to the Church’s Pacific Newsroom.

Elder Wakolo said religious freedom is one of the most important rights protected in any democratic society.

“Religious freedom is not just a right for people of faith. It is a right for every citizen.”

Elder Taniela B. Wakolo

“Religious freedom is not just a right for people of faith,” he said. “It is a right for every citizen. It includes the freedom to worship, the freedom not to worship and the freedom for people of different beliefs to live together with mutual respect and dignity.”

Elder Wakolo said Fiji’s tradition of religious diversity has strengthened the nation, fostering social harmony and community service for generations.

“People of many faith traditions have helped build Fiji,” he said. “They serve their neighbors, strengthen families, care for the vulnerable and contribute to the well-being of our nation. Constitutional protections that allow people to live according to their sincerely held beliefs should be carefully preserved.”

Elder Wakolo noted that constitutional protections for religious liberty allow individuals and communities to contribute freely to the common good — benefiting not only religious organizations but society as a whole.

“The measure of religious freedom is not how well it protects the majority,” he said. “It is how well it protects everyone. A just and peaceful society ensures that people of every faith, and those of no faith, are treated equally under the law.”

Elder Wakolo said religious freedom creates space for respectful dialogue, cooperation and peaceful coexistence, principles that have served Fiji well and should continue to guide its future.

“Religious freedom flourishes when people protect the rights of others as carefully as they protect their own,” he said. “That principle is essential to the future of Fiji and to the well-being of all its people.”

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The main purpose of the website is to serve as a companion resource for Latter-day Saints studying Doctrine and Covenants with the “Come, Follow Me” curriculum throughout 2025, said Marshall Tapp, a product manager in the Church History Department.

“When you can see it and visualize where things happened, the scriptures begin to come to life,” he said. “That is the backbone that is formed around this website — it is focused on helping people learn.”

The new website (ChurchofJesusChrist.org/learn/history/sites/historic-nauvoo) which has been under construction for more than a year, provides an interactive map and detailed information on historic buildings and locations, and is designed to help visitors, both in person and virtual, better understand the places where key events in Church history occurred.

A variety of Church history resources, including the Joseph Smith Papers and the “Saints” series, have been incorporated into the website.

Recognizing there are more members living outside the United States, the website will soon be available in 14 languages.

“Knowing the story and where it happened is an important part of maintaining the record of our Church,” said Ryan Saltzgiver, a curator for historic sites in the Church History Department who helped create content for the website.

Nauvoo receives approximately 75,000 visitors a year. For those who wish to visit the area, the website offers information and resources for trip planning and addresses the challenges of visiting Nauvoo, which is in a remote area with limited dining and accommodation options.

“People need to figure out what their itinerary is, or where to eat, where to stay, what to do, how to get there. All of those things we brought into this website,” Tapp said. “Hopefully it’s a useful resource, especially for someone who has never been there before.”

The website also offers service opportunities in Nauvoo.

Latter-day Saints began gathering in Nauvoo when it was little more than a swamp in 1839. Within six years, they built a thriving city of more than 10,000 residents that included a house of the Lord.

During the early 1840s, Joseph Smith received several revelations, taught foundational doctrines, organized the Relief Society and established temple ordinances.

In June 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith and and his brother Hyrum Smith were martyred at Carthage Jail.

In March, the Church acquired historic properties in Nauvoo from Community of Christ, including the Smith Family Homestead, the Mansion House, the Nauvoo House and the Red Brick Store.

The Nauvoo and Carthage website is the first in a series of similar websites the Church plans to roll out in the near future for other historic locations, including New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Missouri.

“There will be maps that help you understand the locations. ... We are including links to places that are lesser known,” Saltzgiver said. “The purpose is to build around the relationship between where Joseph Smith is living, the people he is interacting with, and the revelations he is receiving.”

Those creating the websites hope the information and resources provided will enlighten understanding, strengthen faith and deepen testimonies.

“When I went and visited these sites, it changed the Doctrine and Covenants for me,” Tapp said. “It became definitely one of my favorite books of scriptures because I can visualize where these things happen now, and it really came alive. We recognize that not everybody is going to visit them, maybe not even in their lifetime. So my hope is to give a little bit of that same experience of being on the ground as much as we can to anybody who is visiting the website.”

Learn more at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

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When starting their family, the couple first adopted a daughter named Isabel. Three months later, Ann Reid gave birth to their second daughter, Elizabeth, who goes by Elle. A year later, they welcomed twin boys, Eli and Isaac. The family also has three younger children, for a total of seven.

All four older siblings — the girls are both 18, and the twin boys turn 18 in July — have desires to serve the Lord.

Isabel Reid, who prayed she would remain in the United States and speak English, was “thrilled” to be assigned to the Missouri Independence Mission, where her aunt also served. She enters the Provo Missionary Training Center on May 20.

Her sister, Elle Reid, prayed to serve in Germany, and her prayer was answered. She was assigned to labor in the Germany Frankfurt Mission, the homeland of her mother’s ancestors. She also enters the Provo MTC on May 20.

Twin brothers Eli and Isaac Reid both opened their mission calls on the deck of a cruise ship during a family vacation. Eli will serve in the Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission. Isaac was assigned to the neighboring Guatemala Antigua Mission. Both brothers enter the Mexico Missionary Training Center on Sept. 3.

Said Isabel, “I know we will have very different experiences as we serve in different parts of the world, but I love the idea of having the same common purpose of sharing the gospel of Christ.”

The idea of serving simultaneously with his three siblings is exciting to Isaac.

“Although we have each been called to labor in different missions, the knowledge that we will all be wearing the name tag of Jesus Christ and sharing His gospel simultaneously is deeply meaningful to me,” he said. “We grew up together in one home, and now we will be serving in different parts of the world with the same purpose. I look forward to hearing through letters and emails how the Savior is changing lives in four different places at once.”

Ann Reid, their mother, acknowledges that although the family will miss their missionaries, she knows they will touch and positively impact many lives. She understands that making and keeping temple covenants can strengthen individuals, helping them to overcome challenging circumstances — a compelling reason for allowing her children to serve.

“They are excited to serve. I’m willing to let my children go, to let them have this experience, to support them, to miss them, to sacrifice so that people’s situations can improve, families can become stronger, their economic situations can develop for the better, so that they can have the Light of Christ in their lives. In the grand scheme of things, it’s such a small sacrifice,” she said.

“It’s not going be easy financially to have four missionaries out. But the idea that my children could help somebody else’s situation change by developing a relationship with Christ and having access to temple covenants is worth the cost.”

As they grew up, the children often talked about serving missions. Christopher Reid, their father, served in the Colorado Denver North Mission. The siblings competed together on the high school swim team, attended seminary and participated in various missionary activities with the full-time missionaries in the Idaho Pocatello Mission.

“My siblings and I do just about everything together,” Elle said. “It’s reassuring to know I’ll have someone close to me experiencing mission life at the same time. I know they will be waking up when I do, studying the same scriptures and facing similar challenges. Serving a mission together will help us build a lifelong spiritual foundation.”

Added Eli, “I’m nervous to be away from my siblings, but knowing we will reunite after our missions gives me peace.”

As a college student, Ann Reid studied Spanish and spent a semester in the Dominican Republic. Her ability to speak the language influenced the family’s decision to begin attending the Spanish-speaking Centennial Ward in the Twin Falls Idaho Stake five years ago.

“It was right after COVID, and we felt we needed a change of pace,” said Ann Reid, who added that she and her husband attended a Spanish ward when they were first married and had a good experience. “We felt inspired to do it.”

The experience wasn’t overwhelming for the children because most of the youth speak English, Ann Reid said. But her sons have only ever said the sacrament prayers in Spanish, and her daughters have learned to be door-greeters in Spanish.

Bishop Julian Murillo, the previous bishop of the Centennial Ward, a convert from Mexico who does not speak English, has been a righteous example and has significantly influenced the Reid children, especially the twin boys, their mother said.

“He has never let the language stop him from serving as their bishop and being involved in their lives,” Ann Reid said. “As soon as the boys got their calls to Guatemala, the first call they made was to their bishop to say, ‘When we get back, we will never have to use a translator again.’”

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Jacob W. Olmstead, a manager in the Historic Sites Division of the Church History Department, said the answer is connected to the Old Testament story of Joshua crossing the Jordan River to enter the promised land, recorded in Joshua 4.

Joshua memorialized the event by commanding 12 men, one each from the tribes of Israel, to retrieve a stone and build a monument (see Joshua 4:1-9).

Why?

“So that when the children [and] future generations see these stones, they will remember the great things the Lord has done for the Israelites,” he said, adding that the principle is the same for the Historic Sites Division.

Historic sites, he added, “help us remember the great things the Lord has done for us in this dispensation.”

As guests on the Church News podcast, Olmstead and Benedicte Dansie, a curator with the Historic Sites Division in the Church History Department, described how the Church’s historic sites do more than preserve history — they help visitors connect with the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“The ultimate goal is to tie those stories, events and individuals back to the Savior,” Olmstead said. “History is important, and it can strengthen faith. But it is ultimately connecting it to the Savior — that is something we strive for.”

Episode 303: Connecting with Jesus Christ through Church historic sites

Historic sites

People can visit more than 25 Church historic sites in the United States, most hosted by missionaries, with more internationally. These places — free museums, sites, monuments and markers — show the events of the Restoration and the stories of Latter-day Saints who sacrificed to build the kingdom of God.

“Across the globe, there are thousands that document the Lord’s hand in the continuing Restoration,” Olmstead said.

Some of the historic sites in Europe include the Gadfield Elm and Hyde Park chapels in England, Nowy Świat in Poland, and a church in Germany that informs about Helmuth Hübener and his work during World War II.

“So there are sites all over the world that we like to be able to share the history with so that you can see the history that happens here in the U.S. but that the history of the Church continues globally,” Dansie said.

Historic sites pages on ChurchofJesusChrist.org provide information on the Church’s historic sites.

More options

Most Latter-day Saints around the world will not likely have the opportunity to visit the Church’s historic sites in person. Can they still have a historic sites experience in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Illinois?

One option is to schedule a live, virtual tour guided by missionaries or watch a prerecorded video tour. Some sites offer integrated Google walkthroughs with an adjustable map showing different angles.

Missionaries, Dansie said, “take you around using iPhones and different technology to allow you to have almost like a FaceTime experience. You can talk one-on-one with a missionary, and they can guide you through the sites.”

Olmstead said reaching the global audience through a virtual experience is “uncharted territory” for the Historic Sites Division. To make historic sites more accessible, the Church is piloting virtual-tour options, including short documentary-style videos and interactive 360° walkthroughs.

The Church hopes these virtual experiences can help visitors connect with the spirit, geography and message of each site — with plans to offer them in multiple languages.

“They bear witness to the truths of the Restoration in a very tangible and immersive way,” Olmstead said. “Many people come to the historic sites and have a powerful spiritual experience. Their testimony is strengthened or found anew or for the first time by feeling the Spirit in that place.”

Recent projects

Olmstead and Dansie highlighted recent projects at Church historic sites, including:

• The Kanesville Memorial, Council Bluffs, Iowa.
• The Hill Cumorah Historic Site, near Palmyra, New York.
• The Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center and restoration of the Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home, Nauvoo, Illinois.

A multiyear restoration project on the Beehive and Lion houses on Temple Square will be completed in the near future.

Olmstead and Dansie agreed that it’s inspiring to see the Lord’s hand clearly visible in the work of historic sites.

“As we work to develop these historic sites, roadblocks are unblocked, answers come, prayers are answered in knowing how to communicate the messages, and that’s really inspiring to me,” Olmstead said. “But more important is the connection to the Savior and His role in our lives. ... It’s amazing to be a part of that work and see and feel that Spirit and see it impact the lives of others.”

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Chaplain Capt. Jonathan Bleakley and Chaplain Capt. Timothy Farrant became the first two Latter-day Saint chaplains in the British Army after they completed their training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in Berkshire, England, on Saturday, July 18.

Elder Robert F. Schwartz, an Area Seventy in the Church’s Europe North Area, and his wife, Sister Amy Schwartz, attended the commissioning parade.

Todd Linton, director of the Church’s Military Relations, Chaplain Services and Prison Ministries Division of the Priesthood and Family Department, said the two chaplains’ service will bless many lives.

“Latter-day Saint chaplains stepping into the ranks of His Majesty’s Land Forces bring spiritual support into the barracks and battlefields for not only members of our faith but also those of other faiths or no faith at all,” Linton told the Church News. “These two chaplains are opening an important door. Soldiers carrying the quiet weight of service, families waiting at home, young recruits far from everything familiar — they’ll all have someone new to turn to. It’s a small step on paper, but for those who’ll be touched by it, it could mean everything.”

The Church’s application to become an endorsing authority was approved by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence in December 2024.

At that time, Bleakley was serving as president of the Thames East England Stake and teaching chemistry at an all-boys high school in Essex. He had spent 30 years with the Army Cadet Forces, a youth organization sponsored by the U.K.’s Ministry of Defence — first as a cadet, then as an adult officer — but he had always planned on being a teacher, not an active-duty chaplain.

That’s when Bleakley said he felt the Lord close every door to teaching and open one to the chaplaincy. With much prayer, fasting and time in the temple, he followed that path.

Nearly two years later, the 43-year-old is one of the first two Latter-day Saint chaplains in the British Army.

“It feels like a moment where the Lord is opening doors to get the people He needs in the places He needs them, at a time He needs them,” Bleakley told the Church News. “And it feels special that this is where the Lord needs me now. It’s not what I’d expected to do, not what I planned to do, but where I was called.”

Bleakley, who served in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission from 2002 to 2004, will soon deploy with troops on an exercise where he’ll focus on the three pillars of Royal Army chaplaincy: pastoral care, spiritual support and moral guidance. In the British Army, he said, all Christian chaplains are known as “Padres.”

A lifetime of gospel learning and service has prepared Bleakley for this opportunity to minister, he said, quoting several verses from the Book of Mormon and the Bible (see Mosiah 18:8-9, Moroni 6:4, Mosiah 2:17, Matthew 25:40, 1 Corinthians 13, Moroni 7:45-48).

On his first day, Bleakley said, a soldier pulled him aside and unloaded his problems. “My goodness, poor man, his life is so hard and yet he is trying to do his job and look after his family as best as he can — and he is carrying the weight of the world,” he said.

For such individuals, Bleakley is grateful to offer “a little bit of light, relief, guidance and support.”

“Ministering is fundamental and core, and such an essential part of what we covenant to do as members of the Church,” he said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to do that as a job, and you are doing it for people who sacrifice huge amounts of freedom, of family, for something greater than themselves, because they wear a uniform.”

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