Latest from Saturday’s LDS General Conference: Global tensions abound as leaders take stage

Against the backdrop of the planned reopening of the majestic Salt Lake Temple across the street and with millions of members tuning in from around the world, top leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will command the pulpit of the Conference Center for General Conference this weekend.

President Dallin H. Oaks, the 94-year-old leader of the nearly 18 million-member global faith, will preside over the Saturday and Sunday sessions and is expected to deliver a keynote address.

The gathering comes amid increased tensions and divisions in the United States and across the globe — continued fighting in the Middle East, Ukraine and parts of Africa; a perilously warming planet; persistent inflation and affordability challenges for families and individuals; heightened worries about artificial intelligence; next month’s pivotal and polarizing midterm elections in the U.S.; and contested ballot questions on abortion in a couple of Western states.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) People look at a painting of Jesus Christ before a session of General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026.

Whether church authorities address these issues and other emerging topics this weekend will show.

Here are latest announcements and sermons from Saturday’s sessions:

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) General authority Seventy Kevin J. Hathaway speaks during the Saturday morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Oct. 3, 2026.

General authority Seventy Kevin J. Hathaway spelled out a pattern on which those who turn to Jesus during difficult times can count:

• Opposition and heartrending questions.

• Enabled enduring through Jesus’ grace.

“To all who continue to face the pain, fear and loneliness of life, I echo the Savior’s words, ‘Be not afraid, only believe,’” Hathaway instructed. “In his time and way, Jesus Christ will deliver you. Some miracles are immediate, some come after long waiting, and some await the resurrection.”

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) General authority Seventy Vaiangina Sikahema speaks during the Saturday morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Oct. 3, 2026.

In 1947, a young couple, Sione Tufui and Salote Tongi Wolfgramm, were serving a full-time church mission in Tonga and took an arduous trip to a nearby island with their three children.

During their journey, their 10-month old son died. For them, though, it had been crucial to make the trip to see a Latter-day Saint apostle, Matthew Cowley, who was coming to their mission.

For members “scattered across the Pacific, having an apostle of the Lord among them was the chance of a lifetime,” said general authority Seventy Vaiangina “Vai” Sikahema, a Tongan native and a former football star at church-owned Brigham Young University, who is their grandchild.

“Even in their despair and while mourning the tragic loss of their only son, their handsome, cheerful little boy, they solemnly buried him and made the herculean effort to sail just to listen to an apostle of the Lord,” Sikahema said. “What a blessing it is to live in a time when apostles and prophets are on the earth.”

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle Gérald Caussé speaks during the Saturday morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Oct. 3, 2026.

The sacred responsibility to bear witness of Jesus Christ is not limited to the church’s prophets, said apostle Gérald Caussé. All members share the obligation to share their personal and spiritual testimonies.

In the church, testimonies are deeply personal experiences accumulated through a relationship with God and Jesus Christ, he taught. And all Latter-day Saints have covenanted to share their own — no matter how eloquent or small.

Caussé shared the story of one of his nieces when she bore her testimony at a Young Women camp. The other girls shared long and heartfelt messages about their beliefs. She managed to say only two simple sentences: “I know that God loves me,” and “I know that God has a plan for me.”

Later, her mother told her that it didn’t matter how dramatic or eloquent her testimony was— it only had to be true.

“Your testimony may be different from mine or that of other family members or fellow Saints,” Caussé said. “Please trust it, nurture it and bear it, because it is uniquely yours.”

The French apostle invited members to look for opportunities to bear witness of Jesus Christ. Imagine what would happen, Caussé said, if all of us “consistently shared our testimonies.”

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Tamara W. Runia, first counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, speaks during a session of General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2026.

Growing up, Tamara Runia, first counselor in the Young Women General Presidency, absorbed the message that she would be blessed if she kept God’s commandments.

Because of this, she said, “the gospel felt like a big umbrella I could hold over my head to keep the rain from falling on me.”

Life has since taught her otherwise.

More than a decade ago, Runia’s son died, leaving behind a widow and four young children.

“We’re all going to get rained on,” she said. “And sometimes we’re going to get pelted.”

This, Runia explained, is by design, a necessary part of a mortal journey meant to shape and grow each person into what God alone can envision.

Nowadays, she envisions a different metaphor for understanding faith.

“The gospel isn’t the umbrella,” Runia taught. “It’s the solid rock we’re standing on during the storm — the sure ‘foundation whereon if men build, they cannot fall.’”

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle Gerrit W. Gong speaks during the Saturday morning session of General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Oct. 3, 2026.

Latter-day Saint temples are places of “spiritual safety, harmony and holiness — the House of the Lord,” apostle Gerrit W. Gong said in the opening session Saturday morning.

It is where couples are united for eternity, he said, and where modern members do proxy work for their deceased ancestors.

“We find hope and healing,” Gong said, “when we perform temple ordinances for family members with whom we may earlier have had difficult relationships.”

As temples sprout across the world, the apostle encouraged members wherever they live “to always be grateful for the gifts of eternity sacred temples bring. Look for the miracles. New converts sometimes testify that family on the other side of the veil led the missionaries to find and baptize family on this side of the veil so their family could be united.”

Gong noted that some members compare the sizes and ornamentations in the faith’s various temples.

“I once heard, ‘Elder Gong, we are happy to have a temple, but sorry it is a small temple.’ I said, ‘Dear brother, dear sister, ordinances are not big or small. Covenants are not big or small.’ Please let us never speak of a temple as big or small, elaborate or plain. Let us always only speak with love and gratitude for ‘Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord.’”

Gong urged members to “come worship and rejoice with the Lord in the House of the Lord, in temple doctrine and in your personal temple culture.”