Special thanks to the NFL for scheduling a game at 7:30 am local time (it was played in London, Vikings vs. Browns) so I could get well into the third quarter before switching over to Conference on the big screen. Oh the sacrifices I make for this job. Below, quick blurbs for each speaker based on my sketchy notes, followed by some commentary. Lots to talk about. I try to walk on the sunny side of the street.
Sunday Morning
Pres. Oaks conducting.
- Jeffrey R. Holland, of the Twelve — John 9: Spit + dirt = miracle. He calls the account of the blind man healed “evidence” on which to base a testimony.
- James E. Evenson, a Seventy — on service missionaries. He says there are 4000 serving. Ammon (visiting King Lamoni) was a service missionary.
- Ulysses Soares, of the Twelve — Reinforce your spiritual foundation (like they are presently reinforcing the Salt Lake Temple foundation) to avoid spiritual erosion. He praises temperance, which boosts other virtues.
- —> BEST OF SESSION — Peter M. Johnson, a Seventy — Find Jesus in the temple. Johnson, a Black member of the Church, was shocked and dismayed when, while serving as a missionary after his conversion at age 18, he learned about the previous temple and priesthood ban.
- D. Todd Christofferson, of the Twelve — Look to God and live. Plus five minutes on the FSOY chastity chapter (although they don’t call it that anymore).
- Andrea Munoz Spannaus, 2C in the Young Women — Make a room for Elijah, perhaps he will visit and stay the night.
- Pres. Eyring — He struggled with math and physics in college (God was proving him, but he made it through). God can strengthen you in your times of trial.
Commentary: Honorable mentions: Elder Soares, for highlighting temperance, one of the four classical virtues (prudence, justice, courage, temperance or moderation). He’s telling us to go read some Plato or Cicero. I’ve seen online chatter praising Elder Evenson for highlighting service missionaries and the good work they do. Finally, Elder Holland for spit + dirt = miracle (his thought, my formulation), showing God can use whatever mundane materials are at hand to accomplish his purposes. Which makes me think of the Immanual Kant quotation, “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” We’re all crooked timber, yet we can accomplish a few good things with the tools and talents we have.
But I’ll reserve my Best of Session award for Elder Johnson, in recognition of the brick wall he hit on his mission when only then learning about the pre-1978 temple and priesthood ban. That’s an indictment of teaching in the Church, both what the missionaries *didn’t* teach this African-American convert and what the LDS curriculum didn’t teach him in the year or two before he left on a mission. He worked his way through that gut punch.
Here’s the thing. We (most members of the Church; most readers of this blog) rarely reflect on how tough it is from time to time (for some, almost all the time) to be an active, church-attending Mormon when you aren’t a white male doing pretty well in the world. I don’t blame any Black or gay member who steps back from the Church or does a complete exit. But those who roll with the punches and remain active members deserve an award or two for the occasional crap they take from insensitive or clumsy members and for having to explain to other people why they are Mormons. So Peter M. Johnson gets my Best of Session award.
Here’s an additional comment for MAGA Mormons who might be reading this. Did you notice how diverse the speakers have been? Did you notice the multicultural choir on Saturday? LDS senior leadership can’t quite come out and explicitly say “don’t be a White Christian Nationalist,” but what you saw at the podium and in the choirs ought to be a big hint that’s what they’re thinking, at least the ones who aren’t Trumpers themselves. You may think differently; that’s what I think.
Sunday Afternoon
Elder Stevenson conducting.
- David A. Bednar, of the Twelve — A lot on “moral agency” (you are free to choose, but if you choose wrongly you will certainly be punished). He dwelt on Moroni’s statement at 10:34, where resurrected beings appear “before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah,” to emphasize it ought to be pleasing, not terrible or scary.
- B. Corey Cuvelier, a Seventy — We are Christians, called by Christ’s name.
- Matthew S. Holland, a Seventy — Be like Jonah, who after the whale incident turned back to God and did his appointed duty, preaching repentance to those in Nineveh.
- Carlos A. Godoy, a Seventy — Stories of the humble circumstances of some African Saints.
- Dale G. Renlund, of the Twelve — Delivered a long discussion about the Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel W. Nelson Presidential Chair in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Utah and Dr. Craig H. Selzman, the first holder of the Chair. This was an unusual Conference talk, focused on Dr. Nelson’s career and character, rather than on his Church service.
- John D. Amos, a Seventy — Follow the “Good News” scriptural recipe.
- Ozani Farias, a Seventy — Study the Book of Mormon.
- —> BEST OF SESSION — Pres. Oaks — The talk we were all waiting for. It came in two parts: (1) The first two minutes, stating it was time to slow down the temple building spree. No new temples to be announced this Conference. (2) The last twenty minutes, focused entirely on families and the Family Proclamation. You’ve heard this talk before, which was a little disappointing because I think most of us were hoping for something more direct and personal from the (99.99% likely) new leader of the Church.
Commentary: This session felt like it went three and a half hours. President Oaks gets the Best of Session award, not because his talk closing the Conference was upbeat or new or moving as much as because it was the first extended public statement of the leader who will become the new President of the Church sometime next week. On the downside, it’s not like most of us need to hear yet another talk on the Family Proclamation. The title of this talk might be “I Wish It Were 1950 again.” But it’s not, it’s 2025, as most readers are painfully aware. I don’t care if this is the talk he submitted two weeks ago, before the passing of Pres. Nelson — I wish he had written a different talk that met the moment more directly and more positively.
On the upside (and I know some readers won’t agree with this), this talk and an earlier one by Elder Rasband also on the Family Proclamation did not go overboard. Pres. Oaks stressed traditional “one man and one woman” marriage, with an added plea to young members to get married and have more kids. But absent from both talks was any denunciation of homosexuality or gay marriage. There was no endorsement of the trendy MAGA anti-trans rhetoric in either talk as well. It’s almost like someone behind the scenes put out a message on the GA email list, “stop dissing gay marriage; do some positive messaging.” I understand that “it could have been worse” is not a ringing endorsement. But it could have been worse.
Conclusion: Sorry about the long commentaries, but there was a lot to talk about. See you again in six months!
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Wheat & Tares 
Gotta admit I was rather happy that no new temples were announced. We have too many announced to handle now as it stands. Sounds like retrenchment is going to be the order of the day under President Oaks. When he started talking about the fall in LDS birth rates, I really thought he was going to direct members to have more babies. He certainly got right up to that line. It also sounds like he fully intends to have the Proclamation on the Family canonized as soon as next general conference.
Seeing President Oaks tear up about losing his father at the tender age of 7 and being raised by a single mother greatly humanized him IMHO. It showed that even though he still upholds “the standard family unit”, he has firsthand experience with being raised in an alternative family structure. IDK if that will lead to more compassion for others who don’t fit the traditional family “mold”, but at least we caught a glimpse of his vulnerability.
I think John D Amos’ deserves a highlight. His delivery was so much better and livelier than most conference speakers. He sounds like a great mission president.
I also enjoyed Elder Renlund’s talk. For me it showed how principles and values, especially caring for others, carry beyond church members, as Dr. Selzman is not a member of the church. Elder Renlund highlighted other values for living a Christ like life, but I found those used in the cardio thoracic department -discovery, rigor, compassion – useful for my life.
While President Oaks’ talk did show another side of him. I see it already being used online as cannon fodder for members to have more kids. If someone is questioning his talk, based on their circumstances, they are being told they don’t have enough faith, you need to follow church leaders, etc. As a woman we are back to everything I heard repeatedly growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It gets old. Especially when you can see even church leaders vary in their family circumstances (spouses who worked, number of kids).
Things we’ll never know, but I’m really curious about: would Nelson have announced more temples if he’d lived a couple of weeks longer? I get the impression that he would have, that building so many temples is something of a personal mission that had gone far enough that the rest of the apostles have been privately raising eyebrows over it for some time. I’ve been predicting a pause on new temple announcements on Nelson’s death, but the fact that the pause comes mere days after his death confirms my suspicions that Nelson may have been acting unilaterally on this to a degree.
Though I did not watch any conference sessions over the weekend, I made some time this morning to watch your Best in Session talks by Elder Peter M. Johnson and President Dallin H. Oaks from Sunday. They played out for me pretty much as the OP describes. In part, because it’s similar to a kick I’m on these days, I enjoyed Elder Johnson’s use of scripture references. In addition to obligatory RMN quotes, he also included references from the Gospel According to John, Acts of the Apostles, and Doctrine & Covenants. Definitely a talk which held my attention, though it was interrupted by a YouTube ad break. Wow, that was weird!
I agree with Southern Saint that President Oaks’s closing remarks went a long way to humanizing him, perhaps even a bit more gracefully acknowledging than he has in the past, the difficulties facing single mothers and other home dynamics other than his preferred Mother & Father paradigm. The announcement of no new temples until further notice, also quite interesting. Thanks for these conference posts!
Oaks seemed pretty clear that the “no new temples” decision came after Nelson’s death, which strongly implies that Nelson was prepared to announce more. The fact that Oaks would not give Nelson one last hurrah is an indication of just how far overboard Nelson went.
I am glad the Oaks refused to announce whatever new temples that Nelson planned to announce. Let temple building be Nelson’s legacy by ending the spree. And I hope Oaks put an end to other things Nelson pushed like God’s love is conditioned on obedience, and don’t use the perfectly good term Mormon to describe members of the Mormon church.
And over all, it was a pretty bland conference with no really horrendous talks that will give us internet Mormons food for discussion for weeks.
I felt bad for young Johnson as a missionary but was pleased that he is willing to be open about it. That is a difficult time to have a faith crisis. As for stories about things members *should* have been taught, but didn’t hear about until… my son in Brazil in 90s worked with a bishop of black/hispanic origins who had just found out about the black ban and polygamy. When the church buries its own bad behavior it is very difficult for those who do not speak English and who can’t afford internet and computers to find out this ugly history. As a young missionary my son really struggled to help this man keep his testimony. He was really shattered and angry that he had been “lied” to. He had been a member for about 30 years at that point.
As far as I am concerned, the church really ought to have one missionary discussion on “what to do with things that threaten your testimony” and use polygamy and the black/priesthood ban as examples with stories about people who figured out how to stay in a church that is not perfect. Mostly it needs to stop pretending to be perfect and teach that prophets are human and make mistakes and use examples, not just use it as a theoretical remote possibility that could really never happen. But honestly state that it does happen and that if you think your priesthood leader is wrong, you do not have to follow them off a cliff. Actually teach that our leaders are human men and make mistakes and then show us examples of those human men repenting. The church is so afraid that if it doesn’t project the image of it being perfect that it will lose members. Yet the truth is that it loses more members by lying to them about stuff when it covers up its ugly mistakes. Just admit, “the priesthood ban was a mistake an imperfect prophet.” They need to stop blaming God for their human mistakes. Do they not realize that makes God look like a racist, sexist jerk. Personally, I would rather a God who loves me as a woman than the Mormon God I was taught about who treats his daughters like human chattel who talks to his perfect male prophets and runs this perfect church. Why do they need to make God into a monster to preserve their own image of being perfect? I mean, they lead the church astray from God by teaching that they can never lead the church astray.
From a distance, I was okay with Conference. I listened to two talks. Read about some others. Will read most eventually. I had a couple of opportunities to meet then-Elder Oaks in the 90s and aughts. He struck me as incredibly no-nonsense and a bit tightly wound.
Though it seems common sense to say, I have no problem with the message heterosexual monogamous marriage is good. At the population level, that seems incontrovertible. What I hate are the implied corollaries: any other kind of relationship/marriage is bad; straight mono marriage is always good. But I suppose not saying the quiet part out loud is a step in the right direction?
As for the birth rate: do they have any idea? It’ll probably be one of the sadnesses of my life when it’s all done that we didn’t have one or two more kids. But. It. Was. Not. Possible. Notice I said sadness—not regret. It would’ve been ruinous for us to have more than our two. Financially. Physically. Emotionally. And not just for me or my husband, but for the two we have. You want me to have another child? What are you going to do to help? Because the institution of the Church and the culture it perpetuates is… not helping.
Looked up the Peter Johnson talk on your recommendation. Wow. Powerful not only in content but in delivery: if every conference talk were delivered with such emotion and passion, I’d have been more inclined to watch conference all these years.
Thanks for highlighting that talk, I really enjoyed it. Deeply personal and moving.
PS — I’ve been unable to leave comments on my iPhone’s mobile browser, not sure why.
Regarding temple announcements, it simply couldn’t continue at that pace so I’m glad they admitted it before adding to the backlog. Only 45% of the 200 temples announced by RMN in the past 7.5 years have reached the point of groundbreaking. Some of those may never be built, but most probably will but it will take another 7.5 years I expect…
Here is the link I forgot from the Church News: https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2025/09/29/temples-current-status-200-announced-president-nelson/
I wonder if announcing all temples was an ego thing for RMN.
,,Here’s an additional comment for MAGA Mormons who might be reading this. Did you notice how diverse the speakers have been? Did you notice the multicultural choir on Saturday? LDS senior leadership can’t quite come out and explicitly say “don’t be a White Christian Nationalist,” but what you saw at the podium and in the choirs ought to be a big hint that’s what they’re thinking, at least the ones who aren’t Trumpers themselves. You may think differently; that’s what I think.”
First of all, we are not Mormons, we are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Why doesn’t ProgMo pay attention to the church’s teaching about the true name of the church? Also, MAGA is not a racist movement. We are not against black people or people of other races. We are simply against illegal immigration, but we suport the right to immigrate legally. Maybe the percentage of racists among MAGA is higher than the general population in the US, but it is still a minority.
@Republican,
It will be interesting to see how the Church handles the use of the term Mormon now that the key proponent of burying the term has passed. Remember, his two predecessors (and many before them) were very content with the term. The “I’m a Mormon” campaign was not very long ago at all.
Catholics, Lutherans, Presyterians, Anglicans, Baptists, etc. don’t have any problem with their nicknames. That’s largely because they are globally much larger and more significant (and more respected) Christian denominations than Mormons (yes, I’m going to use the term Mormon here because the full name of the Church is simply too long!). Mormons, prior to RMN didn’t have any problem with their nickname, either. Hinckley and Monson both worked hard to try to make the term Mormon something that people had a positive feeling about. The Church spent millions and millions on the “I’m a Mormon” campaign not very long ago. Was Monson a false prophet for going all in on the term “Mormon”?
“Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” is a mouthful. Maybe some journalists will use the term out of respect, but the general public is not going to remember the term. They’re just not. A shorter name is needed.
RMN leaned on D&C 115:4 to claim that “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” was the one and only way to refer to the Church or its members. Using the scripture that way is a stretch. D&C 115:4 doesn’t forbid that the Church have nicknames for itself or its members. No, it simply defines an official (and very long) name for the Church. Only referring to the Church by its full name–and not using nicknames–is an interpretation that RMN came up with. Was this a revelation from God to RMN? Again, were Hinckley and Monson false prophets for going all in on the nickname “Mormon”? That’s actually a serious question. Just before RMN became president of the Church, Monson chose to go all in on the “I’m a Mormon” campaign. It doesn’t seem plausible that both Monson’s and Nelson’s choices can both reflect the will of God. I simply don’t buy that using Mormon was the will of God during the “I’m a Mormon” days of Monson, and then it totally wasn’t the will of God when RMN took the reigns just a few years later. One of them must have been wrong. Why does it have to be that Monson was wrong? Could it not be Nelson that was wrong?
I could support a shorter name and/or nickname for the Church and its members. I could more easily support such a request if I wasn’t told that previous use of the Mormon term was a “victory for Satan”, but that it was simply a practical change to help outsiders understand our church more easily. A new nickname, something besides Mormon, might be a good idea. Most outsiders don’t know what Mormons believe, so a name that includes “Christ” could help outsiders understand that we are a Christian denomination. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now called the “Community of Christ”. That seems like a pretty good choice. Perhaps our church could do something similar.
I don’t know that “MAGA” has a precise definition. You seem to want to define MAGA as not racist–just opposed to illegal immigration. I’m not sure all of your MAGA buddies, including Trump himself (the number of horribly racist comments that have come out of that man’s mouth that are most definitely *not* simply opposition to illegal immigration is quite a large and ugly body of work), would agree with your definition. Even you acknowledge that MAGA supporters tend to be more racist than the general population. I think there is some truth to what Michael Cohen wrote in his book “Revenge”, “Not all MAGA Trump supporters are racists…but all racists are MAGA Trump supporters.” If you are only opposed to illegal immigration, that’s great. You might be surprised to learn that a lot of people on the left are also opposed to illegal immigration.
President Oaks expressed great concern about the birthrate and the idea that the LDS Church was a pro-family church. We all know what encourages a higher birthrate in modern industrialized nations. The list includes paid maternity and paternity leave, subsidized childcare, affordable healthcare, flexible work schedules, favorable immigration policies (immigrants have more children and often arrive in their child-bearing years) and economic confidence. What lowers the birthrate? Expensive housing, education, medical insurance and childcare. We can include long work hours, limited vacation, and stigma toward parental leave. Don’t forget unequal domestic expectations which make women shoulder most household duties. Countries that combine economic prosperity with robust family policies and gender equality tend to have the healthiest fertility levels. The politics of most church members does NOT align with an overall the goal of increasing the birthrate, nor do some church policies and LDS cultural norms. If President Oaks was serious about the LDS Church being a pro-family church, he has his work cut out for him.
@Republican: I am not ProgMo. I am ProgMemChuJeChriLatDaSa. Please pay attention to the church’s teachings about the true name for it’s members.
The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now called the “Community of Christ”. That seems like a pretty good choice. Perhaps our church could do something similar.
I hear “Reorganized Community of Christ” is available.
“We are simply against illegal immigration, but we support the right to immigrate legally”
Not true. The current administration is trying to curb legal immigration. Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil was legal immigrants on student visas who were detained for speech. Many in the administration have called for naturalized citizens to “go home.” I’ve seen many MAGA audiences rabidly say that they want no immigrants to the US. Mehdi Hasan recently “debated” a number of right-wingers on Jubilee who told him to his face to get out of the US. Hasan is a naturalized citizen who was born in the UK. Free speech-loving Saint Charlie Kirk called for the deportation of Hasan in response to things he said about COVID that his holiness disagreed with. Wake up.
Oh and one more, MAGA propagandist Tomi Lahren on Faux News recently objected to Bad Bunny performing at the Superbowl because he wasn’t American. He was born in Puerto Rico. If you’re going to try to convince that MAGA isn’t racist to its core you’re going to have to try a lot harder.
“Why doesn’t ProgMo pay attention to the church’s teaching about the true name of the church?” Cuz bruh lost me at the victory for Satan rhetoric. Let that sink in. The thing that is a victory for Satan is a nickname. Not child trafficking. Not hoarding wealth. Not lying about hoarding wealth. Not racism. Not the lack of housing or food or healthy security. A nickname.
“We are not against black people or people of other races. We are simply against illegal immigration, but we suport the right to immigrate legally.” Well that’s funny because in all these ICE videos I never see them stopping white people from Denmark to see if they overstayed their visas or staging an event outside an HSBC branch run by UK expats. But I have seen footage of them outside a Hyundai facility and body slamming brown people and targeting farm workers. YMMV.
I found it disheartening that our Conference machine is now so big and pre-packaged that we can’t pivot in response to current events or speak in the moment with the Saints. At the very least, speakers should be able to amend their talks at the last minute.
You can’t tell me the translation team in the Church Office Building couldn’t have handled that. If President Oaks had said, “Hey, I rewrote my talk last night to address Grand Blanc, can you help with a last-minute translation?” they would’ve delivered. Heck, they could translate on the fly like UN translators if need be. And if Conference ended early or ran long so what? TV networks flex all the time for sports. Why are we so rigid?
Why does it matter? Because the purpose of having Prophets, Seers, and Revelators is to offer guidance for the here and now, not for six or twelve months ago.
One other thought re: Oaks’ talk and the subtle guilting of the rank and file for not having babies like in the good old days.
This isn’t some mysterious “moral decline”. It’s the direct result of political choices, many of which HE HAS stamped since 1984 when he became an apostle through the Church’s sponsored amicus briefs, lobbyists, and behind-the-scenes influence. You can’t favor “religious liberty” over women’s healthcare and policies for working families then bemoan the fact that working families can’t have large families.
For decades, senior leaders have backed the GOP with dog whistles and culture. We know Oaks was a registered republican for decades (only recently have the brethren pulled their public affiliations). He was R during the presidential, state and local elections as ACA and other issues were on the ballot. Now, with healthcare gutted and families struggling to survive in an economy that is not family-friendly, I have to ask, quoting Dr. Phil: “How’s that workin’ out for ya?” Listen, I doubt he has gone grocery shopping since 1971 when he became president of BYU. He’s not in the every-day life of working class families, and this comment pretty much confirmed it.
Imagine standing at the pulpit lamenting the loss of family values when your own politics helped undermine them.
Your MAGA thinking demonstrates very shallow thoughts and is a lame effort to say, “look at me, aren’t I cool and righteous and better that those people.”
– from a non MAGA Mormon.