I watched Conference so you don’t have to. Short and relatively unbiased summaries of each speaker. My comments, if any, are in italics and sometimes [in brackets].
Sunday Morning Session
President Eyring conducting, from the seated position. Music by the MoTab, opening with Christ the Lord Is Risen Today (it is Easter Sunday, remember).
President Uchtdorf — An Easter talk. Make your way to the empty tomb. Why seek ye the living among the dead? Feel the love and healing of the risen Lord. [He’s a President again!]
Emily Belle Freeman, YW Pres. — Highs and lows, best days and worst days: Her daughter is getting married, but her husband’s cancer has returned. The cross and the empty tomb.
Pedro X. Larreal of the Seventy — On the sacrament. [He’s from Venezuela. I wonder how he feels about the President of Venezuela sitting in an American jail after having been abducted at gunpoint by the United States military?]
Edward B. Rowe of the Seventy — Hiking through a war zone as a lawyer mediator. Watch out for the mines! Let Jesus be your guide through the minefield of life.
Elder Rasband — Another Easter talk. Atonement and resurrection. He came, was crucified, and was raised again.
Elder Renlund — Pet stories. Really? Put Jesus at the top of your priority list. Repentance and forgiveness are real. “Open up your broken heart and let the Savior in.” [His dog is smarter than some people I know.]
Thierry K. Motumbo of the Seventy — Greeting: “Christ is risen.” Reply: “Truly, he is risen.” [Greeting: Live long and prosper. Reply: Peace and long life.]
Alan R. Walker of the Seventy — You are the Lord’s treasure. He has high hopes for us, His covenant people. Exercise covenant faithfulness. [I think I need to do a future post on the use and abuse of the term “covenant.”]
President Oaks — The resurrection: A pillar of our faith. Our Christian faith should empower us against the ugly emotions and rhetoric of these toxic times. Love your enemies (that is, your adversaries) and pray for those who persecute you. He speaks boldly against bigotry in all its forms. We should love all God’s children.
Best of Session Award goes to President Oaks for his powerful talk decrying all forms of bigotry and harsh rhetoric. This echoes a similar talk by President Hinckley many years ago … which had almost no effect.
Permit me some additional commentary. I wonder if *this* talk today will make any difference? Even more, I wonder if President Oaks really means it? Do you think the average MAGA Mormon is willing to even consider bringing gays, trans people, and those darned liberals into the circle of love President Oaks is proclaiming? Are LDS leaders themselves willing to do this? Or is it wink, wink, you know we weren’t talking about *those* people when we talked about love your neighbor.
President Oaks’ strong words about being a peacemaker are welcome. But he didn’t come right out and apply that principle to the spread of wars and the attendant violence and suffering these entail. Russia’s war against Ukraine and Trump’s war against Iran are both in violation of international law. Just today Trump issued a short and profane post promising to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants. Destroying civilian infrastructure is a war crime, as is the intentional killing of civilians (killing survivors clinging to floating debris after the US Navy bombed their boats). The USA has become a lawless regime, and the US Constitution that LDS leaders proclaim as inspired is, in some areas, a dead letter. I am waiting for just one LDS GA to call this out and object to it. Until they do, MAGA Mormons are going to go along with Pete Hegseth thinking bombing the hell out of Iran is a laudable Christian act. LDS leaders should go read the Old Testament (it is, after all, the course of study this year) and see the blunt criticism that Hebrew prophets declared to their kings. Is there a prophet in the land today?
Sunday Afternoon Session
Elder Renlund conducting, music by the MoTab.
President Christofferson — Emulate the character of Jesus: (1) Charity, including compassion; (2) be meek, be selfless; (3) render glory to God. He essentially endorses virtue ethics. [“Virtue ethics is a normative ethical theory emphasizing character, moral virtues (like courage and honesty), and personal flourishing (eudaimonia) rather than just rules (deontology) or consequences (consequentialism).” — Wikipedia. Consequentialism is the modern name for utilitarianism. Deontology is the fancy name for duty-based ethics following Kant.]
Chi Hong (Sam) Wong of the Seventy — Jesus talk.
Aaron T. Hall of the Seventy — More Jesus talk. [Always a safe topic for a Seventy.]
Susan H. Porter, Pres. of the Primary — Speaking to the young children. Be a good example? [Sorry, I was distracted.]
Elder Anderson — “I’m going to speak to the older children.” (Chuckles.) Something about marriage.
Elder Cook — It’s Easter, but let’s talk about what happened in the Kirtland Temple in 1836. Elijah and the sealing power. (See D&C 110.) [Keys are just a metaphor. It’s a little unclear what Elijah had to do with priesthood or sealing.]
Taniela B. Wakolo of the Seventy — The temple is a symbol of hope. The Gospel does not divide families, it unites them and seals families for eternity. [Elder Wakolo is from Fiji. As Melanesians, the Church would not ordain most native Fijians until the temple and priesthood ban was lifted in 1978. There is now an LDS temple in Suva, Fiji.]
Elder Gong — On the road to Emmaus, two disciples and a stranger. We should walk with him and break bread with him, too.
President Oaks — Tell me the stories of Jesus (just sung by the Choir), an apt summary of this Conference. [Very short closing comments.]
My closing comments: Suddenly everyone is quoting Pres. Oaks from previous talks and speeches. That is to be expected, I suppose, but it’s still a little jarring to see such a complete pivot, as if Pres. Nelson is now gone and forgotten. Church leaders always stress continuity and doctrine that never changes, but in practice it seems the statements of a prior President are in fact downgraded significantly after their death. It suggests discontinuity and temporary doctrine and pronouncements. It encourages the idea that if you don’t like what this President is saying, just wait until the next leader and it can all change.
And: The Constitution is hanging by a thread, and the Elders of Israel … have nothing to say about it. For years, they couldn’t stop talking about the inspired Constitution, and now that we really need it … crickets.
Wheat & Tares 
I agree with David here that President Oaks’ talk was especially meaningful. In many ways, it reminded me of those immortal words of Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln famously stated “Whenever the vicious portion of the population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this government cannot last.”
President Oaks was reflecting this precise idea. A society at severe and seemingly permanent opposition to itself cannot endure.
Sounds like someone didn’t actually get the message.
I love Lincoln quotes but they are words that Lincoln only practiced after he defeated his enemy. For no matter what Lincoln said about grace and dignity he supported the scorched earth military campaigns of Sherman and Sheridan. Yes, Lincoln was conciliatory once the war drew to an end but he not only wanted to crush the Confederacy, he was happy to call on Grant to do it, despite knowing Grant’s tactics elevated the count of casualties for both the North and South. What did Lincoln famously say about Grant? “I can’t spare this man; he fights”.
I’ve always wanted to ask and now I can. Is there any point to Elder Rasband? It seems he rarely speaks with substance and is usually brown nosing to current authorities.
Jen, he’s had some great ties this conference 👔.
I did like Oaks’ talk, though I note his quote listing categories of diversity didn’t mention anything LGBTQ+ related. Also recommend Uchtdorf and Freeman. Others were spoiled somewhat for me by emphasis or repetition on covenants, though the word path wasn’t mentioned so much.
I’m not clear on how the international choir participants joined in. Did they fly in? It sounded more like internet participation when mentioned, but we didn’t get to see them. Did it really add anything to the broadcast?
Thankyou, Disciple- very good point about Lincoln.
Especially since JCS quoted same Lincoln statement in reminiscence regarding BOTH Eyring’s and Oak’s talks, which seems very redundant, and weakens the point.
No one will think these “peace” talks apply to them anyway, therefore no one will be offended, which is the point of a generic talk.
God forbid, that any GA would have the audacity or courage to speak out like Pope Leo has done.
I’m pretty sure Melanesians became ordainable during the McKay administration.
We saw a member of each auxilliary presidency speak this conference, so a woman in each of three sessions. A member of the Sunday school presidency spoke in the other session. We also saw two women pray, so in one session we had two women at the pulpit.
Susan Porter spoke about following the example of Jesus. Doing what he would have you do. Doing your part to bring yourself and others to Jesus.
Thierry K. Motumbo was quoting the Eastern Orthodox Paschal liturgy. The Orthodox Easter (Pascha) service is the most beautiful I have witnessed.
Nothing about the wars. Nothing about state of world. It’s just rehashing the same obey, pray, and pay messages.
Also, I would have given more schrift to Thierry K. Motumbo’s summary – he shared some real personal heartbreak, compounded by culture telling him and his wife to divorce, and getting through that. He didn’t come across as self-righteous, but rather just sharing the tragedies he had been through and how the gospel and his covenants anchored him. He seems like the real deal, and not just performing. I found his talk quite impactful/meaningful.
You know me–I loved the whole thing.
And for the record–I love Elder Rasband’s messages.
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
Just so Jack doesn’t think I am always Mr. Cynical, let me identify five positive talks or themes or phrases that jumped out at me from the Sunday sessions:
Pres. Uchtdorf’s Easter talk. There were several, I liked his best.
Elder Rowe’s experience as a battlefield lawyer. Let Jesus be your guide through the minefield of life (that wasn’t a quote but rather my summary of his overall message).
Pres. Freeman (of the YW): Highs and lows, the cross and the empty tomb. My sad but blunt response (when she noted her husband’s returning cancer), which I didn’t put in the post, was: Mortality can sometimes really kick you in the ass.
Pres. Oaks’ powerful message against bigotry and ugly rhetoric. I hope this gets read by the membership as “we need to be kinder to other people of all races and types” rather than “other people need to be nicer to us persecuted Mormons.”
From the last session (I was getting tired, my notes were even briefer than usual) I’d go with Elder Gong’s talk on two disciples and a stranger on the road to Emmaus. There’s a talk by Pres. Uchtdorf on the same theme from a dozen years ago or so as well.
Pres. Oaks edged maybe as close as he felt he could to actually speak prophetically to the state of the world (see pope leo’s recent statements), but then backed off. . It is what is is, guess. Hedgehog: I noticed that too about Oak’s categories of diversity. It could be that he used a 35 year old direct quote from pres. Benson to kind of sidestep the lgtbq+ category without having to directly leave them out, but who knows. At least we’re not the same old “traditional family” and “Religious freedom” talk of Oaks – so far anyway.
Also, 5 down votes for Jack for simply saying he enjoyed conference? Come on.
Riddle:
How are Sunday morning GC and America’s Funniest Home Videos alike?
•••
Pictures of babies/kids and puppies.
(Very cute intubated NICU baby and him a few years later.)