Church Members Prepare for General Conference

Members and guests of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will gather on the weekend of 6-7 April in Salt Lake City, United States for the faith's general conference.

The conference includes five sessions over two days and is held in the Church's 21,000-seat Conference Center. 

Members and other interested persons around the world will also tune in via the internet, satellite, radio and television.  Shortly after the conference, proceedings will be made available in print, audio and video formats on LDS.org, iTunes and other media.

"This is an exciting time to be alive and to hear Church leaders speak on ways that we can be a little better than we were yesterday,"says Fiji Latter-day Saint Sulueti C. Bale Kama. 

In addition to Latter-day Saints attending conference in Salt Lake City, and in other parts of the world, members of other faiths, government officials, and news media from around the world will also attend.,

Members of the Church's First Presidency — President Thomas S. Monson, President Henry B. Eyring, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf — and other Church leaders will speak during the five conference sessions.

Music will be provided by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and other choirs.

New Zealanders Rick and Ra Chadderton say that they prepare for conference by reading previous conference talks.  "We feel it helps us by reading the conference talks many times,"Rick said. 

Another New Zealand Latter-day Saint, Joy Fitisemanu, says that she, her husband and daughters look forward to conference and love to hear the counsel of prophets and apostles,  "Conference is a time of spiritual growth for each of us," she said.

Those not able to attend the sessions in Salt Lake City are able to watch the meeting via satellite at their local church facilities, either live, or within a few days of the conference. 

The meetings will be broadcast via satellite in over 7,000 Latter-day Saint houses of worship in over 100 countries, and  aired over 20 television and 2,000 cable stations worldwide.

Volunteer language professionals translate the sermons into over 92 languages.  98% of Church members can listen to general conference in their native language.  American Sign Language interpretation and closed captioning are also available.

After the conference, the talks are published on the LDS.org website and reprinted in the Church's Ensign and Liahona magazines. 

The first general conference of the newly-fomed Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held on 9 June 1830 in Fayette, New York, presided over by Joseph Smith.  Thirty members attended the first conference of the two-month-old church.