Report of the 164th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sermons and proceedings of April 2–3, 1994, from the Tabernacle on Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah

“Today is observed as the anniversary of the greatest miracle in human history,” said President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, in the Easter Sunday morning session of the April general conference. “It is the miracle that encompasses all who have lived upon the earth, all who now live upon the earth, and all who will yet live upon the earth. Nothing done before or since has so affected mankind as the atonement wrought by Jesus of Nazareth, who died on Calvary’s cross, was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathaea, and on the third day arose from the grave as the Living Son of the Living God—the Savior and Redeemer of the world.”

Said President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, in his Sunday afternoon remarks closing the conference, “I like the thought, ‘Before Easter, there must be a cross.’ And many have heavy crosses to bear. With the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem, there emerged a great endowment—a power stronger than weapons. … He commands, and to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings that they shall pass through in His fellowship. … May we praise His name, follow His example, and incorporate His truths into our lives, and then this conference will have been successful.”

President Hinckley and President Monson conducted the sessions of conference in the absence of President Ezra Taft Benson, who, due to conditions of age and illness, did not attend the conference and who watched the sessions on television in his apartment.

Major administrative action occurred in the April 2 Saturday afternoon session. Presiding Bishop Robert D. Hales was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, filling the vacancy created by the death this February of Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Twelve (see pages 22, 105). Elder Cree-L Kofford of the Second Quorum of the Seventy was sustained a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy (see page 106). Five Brethren were sustained as new members of the Second Quorum of the Seventy: Elders Claudio Roberto Mendes Costa of Sao Paulo, Brazil; W. Don Ladd of Potomac, Maryland; James O. Mason of Farmington, Utah; Dieter F. Uchtdorf of Mannheim, Germany; and Lance B. Wickman of Poway, California (see pages 22, 107–9). Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Second Quorum of the Seventy was sustained as Presiding Bishop, and the two Counselors in the previous Presiding Bishopric—Bishops H. David Burton and Richard C. Edgley—were retained and sustained as First and Second Counselors respectively to Bishop Bateman (see pages 22, 106–7).

Sessions of conference were beamed via satellite to thousands of locations in the Northern Hemisphere in English and in many other languages. Videotapes of conference are sent to Church units where transmission of conference is not available.—The Editors