Oaks speaks; temple announcements expected

New temples are expected to be announced Sunday on the last day of the 195th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

If tradition holds, church President Russell M. Nelson, the most prolific temple builder in the faith’s history, will do the honors in closing remarks — either in person or via videotape — at the Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City.

The 100-year-old Nelson viewed Sunday morning’s meeting and all three of Saturday’s sessions from home.

Nelson’s first counselor, 92-year-old President Dallin H. Oaks, next in line to lead the global church, delivered his conference address Sunday morning to the faith’s 17.5 million members. His second counselor, 91-year-old Henry B. Eyring, conducted Sunday’s first session from his chair on the rostrum.

Here are the latest speeches and announcements from the final two sessions:

Sunday morning

President Dallin Oaks: Divine aids for mortality

God considered the most important requirement for mortality to be the ability to “choose between good and evil,” President Dallin H. Oaks of the governing First Presidency said in concluding Sunday morning’s session. “Those who choose good would progress toward their eternal destiny. Those who chose evil — as all would do in the various temptations of mortality — would need saving help, which a loving God designed to provide.”

The first “help” is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Oaks said, “who would suffer to pay the price and provide forgiveness for repented sins.”

Other divine guidance for humanity, he said, include the “light of Christ,” scriptural directions (commandments, ordinances and covenant), and “manifestations of the Holy Ghost.”

With so many “powerful helps to guide us in our mortal journeys,” Oaks said, “it is disappointing that so many remain unprepared for their appointed meeting with our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.”

The antidote, the Latter-day Saint leader said, is to trust in the Lord and to value “the teachings of his prophets against the latest findings and wisdom of man.”

Seventy John McCune: Covenants unlock resilient joy

Happiness is possible regardless of life’s circumstances for those who have entered into a “covenantal relationship” with God, taught general authority Seventy John A. McCune.

“As we bind ourselves to act as covenant disciples, in whatever our level of capacity, our relationship with the Father and the Son is enriched, our joy is enhanced and our eternal perspective expanded,” McCune explained. “We then are endowed with power and can feel joy in a measure reserved for God’s true covenant disciples.”

To this hopeful message, he paired a warning.

“Our ability to sense a full measure of God’s love,” McCune added, “or to continue in his love, is contingent upon our righteous desires and actions.”

Apostle Gerrit Gong: Jesus ‘wipes away our tears’

Jesus Christ “answers the longings of our hearts and the questions of our souls. He wipes away our tears,” said apostle Gerrit W. Gong, “except our tears of joy.”

Like other conference speakers, the first Asian American Latter-day Saint apostle condemned perfectionism.

Easter “lets us feel God’s approbation,” Gong said. “This world tells us we are too tall, too short, too wide, too narrow, not smart, pretty, or spiritual enough. Through spiritual transformation in Jesus Christ, we can escape debilitating perfectionism.”

Christ’s resurrection “frees us from death, from time’s frailties and physicality’s imperfections,” he said. “Jesus Christ’s Atonement also restores us spiritually. He bled from every pore, weeping blood, as it were, to provide us escape from sin and separation. He reunites us, whole and holy, with each other and God. In all good things, Jesus Christ restores abundantly — not only what was but also what can be.”

The Easter season “testifies spiritual sequence and convergence are both part of the divine pattern of Atonement, resurrection and restoration through Jesus Christ,” Gong said. “This sacred and symbolic convergence comes not by accident or coincidence. Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter celebrate Christ’s Atonement and resurrection. As today, every April 6th we commemorate the establishment and organization of [the church.] This restoration is a reason we gather the first Sunday each April in General Conference.”

He invited members to “find in Jesus Christ Atonement, resurrection and restoration — peace, becoming and belonging — that which is enduringly real and joyful, happy and forever.”

Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé: ‘God loves each of us perfectly’

Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé, the ecclesiastical leader who oversees the faith’s vast real estate, financial, investment and charitable operations, stressed that God knows our efforts often fall short of the ideal — and that’s OK.

“God,” the Frenchman said, “loves each of us perfectly,” which means “he will not hold us accountable for things beyond our control.”

Through the Atonement, Caussé taught, all can access strength beyond their own to “ultimately overcome all of life’s challenges.”

Nonetheless, all will be lacking. When that happens, he said, “the Lord may still accept the desires of our hearts as a worthy offering.”

Young Women first counselor Tamara Runia: Heaven isn’t for ‘perfect’ people

Heaven isn’t for people “who’ve been perfect,” said Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the global Young Women organization. “It’s for people who’ve been forgiven, who choose Christ again and again.”

Runia acknowledged that she once “measured her relationship with the Savior by how perfectly I was living,” she said. “I thought an obedient life meant I would never need to repent. And when I made mistakes, which was every single day, I distanced myself from God, thinking, ‘He must be so disappointed in me.’ That’s just not true. I’ve learned that if you wait until you’re clean enough or perfect enough to go to the Savior, you’ve missed the whole point.”

Repentance doesn’t “burden Jesus Christ; it brightens his joy,” Runia said. “Let’s teach that because repentance is our best news. We don’t stay on the covenant path by never making a mistake. We stay on the path by repenting every day. And when we’re repenting, God forgives without shaming us, comparing us to anyone else, or scolding us because this is the same thing we were repenting of last week.”

She assured her listeners that their “worth isn’t tied to obedience. Your worth is constant; it never changes. It was given to you by God, and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to change it.”

Seventy Steven Shumway on the redemptive power of service

God calls individuals to his work not because he “needs us, but because we need God and his blessings,” general authority Seventy Steven D. Shumway taught.

Accepting new responsibilities at church can be daunting, he acknowledged, citing his own feelings of inadequacy when he became a general authority.

The good news: God does not expect a flawless performance. After all, during the creation period, he never declared his own work “finished or perfect.”

“But each day there was progress,” Shumway observed, “and in God’s eyes, that is good!”

Apostle David Bednar: Celebrating the ‘momentous’ and ‘joyous’ founding of the church

Sunday marked the 195th anniversary of the April 6, 1830, establishment of the church, an occasion that apostle David A. Bednar called “momentous” and “joyous.”

At that first gathering, Bednar said, “a great outpouring of the spirit blessed all in attendance as the ordinance of the sacrament [or Communion] was administered, the gift of the Holy Ghost was conferred, priesthood ordinations were performed, and truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ were preached.”

The apostle then recounted all that predated and followed that meeting, including founder Joseph Smith’s “First Vision,” his translation of the faith’s unique scripture, the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the priesthood at the hands of angels.

“I have attempted to summarize basic elements of the most important and glorious ‘good news’ any person anywhere in the world can ever receive,” Bednar said, “the message that the Lord Jesus Christ has restored his gospel and church in the latter days.”