Chapter 49

Stake Conference

Final plans for the temples are received, and the temple complexes at both locations are
completed—Changes to stake meetings are announced in a special general conference talk—A stake is
the outer shell of Zion, containing individuals, families, and wards in the pursuit of gospel excellence—A
vision of an extended family picture being taken on temple grounds is shared, symbolizing eternal
families, eternal wards, and eternal stakes of Zion.

After a delay of one year, and after much prayer and fasting for guidance from the Lord
as to how the main construction work was to be done, it was announced that design plans for the
temples had been finalized and the work could recommence. Architectural sketches for both
locations were released to the public; the Springville and North Ogden designs were quite similar
with only a few minor differences––like the symmetry of construction shared by the Ogden and
Provo temples dedicated in 1972. The new twin-temple designs were amazingly beautiful,
satisfying local and national media alike, who gave the announcement favorable press coverage.

Two years later, the construction at both temple sites was completed. Time was granted
for interested members of the public to tour the new facilities, and then the temples were
dedicated and made ready for use.

In the general conference that immediately followed their dedication, a series of other
important announcements was made. Strategically speaking, the new announcements were built
around the concept of Zion and, in particular, they reaffirmed the importance of the stake as a
key organizational unit of the Church.

The new announcements were presented in a conference talk by a member of the Quorum
of the Twelve Apostles.

“My beloved brothers and sisters, it is with great joy that I come before you this day to
share an experience I had last month while attending the dedication ceremony of the new
Springville temples in Mapleton, Utah. The First Presidency has asked that I share this
experience with you as well as to announce several new changes that we will be implementing
soon throughout the Church worldwide.

“The day before the dedication, I had the opportunity to spend time with President Mark
Chandler of the Springville East Stake. Rather than meet with him in his office at their local
stake center, I asked that I might spend the day with him at work to see firsthand the goings-on in
this very special stake of the Church.

“After only a few hours there, I could see that all I had been told in regard to this stake
was true. There was great momentum in the gospel present, and it was exciting to behold! In our
travels on foot that day, we visited with many members in their homes. Most striking to me,
though, was the humility seen in all those whom I met. The analogy from the scriptures that
came to mind was the people of Ammon, the Anti-Nephi-Lehis. These good people of
Springville looked upon Brother Chandler with almost the same level of love and appreciation
that the converted Lamanites looked upon Ammon during that wonderful time of the Book of
Mormon. These were members of the Church who already had strong testimonies of the Church
beforehand; but where Brother Chandler, like Ammon before him, had dedicated his life to them,
they had come to enjoy a much greater measure of the Spirit in their lives. The gospel of Jesus
Christ was alive in them––in their eyes and in their hearts. It seemed to me almost like time had
stopped when we entered their homes. There was great peace there. The Spirit made everything
feel very special.

“Outside in the streets of Springville, I noticed the same traffic noise and the same hustle
and bustle of people in motion that you might typically see in other small towns of Utah. There
were still the common problems of life for them to contend with every day as they assisted their
stake president in this great work. Nevertheless, inside their homes, there was peace. The
beautiful new temples in Mapleton are highly representative of the great faith exhibited by these
members of the Church in the Springville area.

“As the day concluded, Brother Chandler and I sat down together to a fine meal in his
home prepared by his wife Kathleen. There, I listened as he shared with me a few of the many
marvelous experiences in the gospel he had enjoyed in recent months. As part of my talk today, I
would like to share one of these experiences with you.

“Brother Chandler told me of a dream that he had just a few weeks before our meeting
together.

“In this dream, he was on the grounds in front of the temples taking a picture of his
family. With the camera set up, he leaned forward and looked through the viewfinder. He saw
his wife, children, and grandchildren all assembled before him, ready for the picture to be taken.
A trained photographer, it was natural that he would want to get as much as possible of the
newly completed temples in the background of the shot; he, therefore, moved himself and the
camera equipment back a few yards to get a wider angle. In this new position, he looked for a
second time through the viewfinder. But this time, instead of seeing more of the temples in the
background, the wider shot of the scene now included not just his family, but many members of
his ward as well, perhaps two or three hundred individuals standing in a semicircle. What a great
surprise this was to see both his family and all the members of his ward standing together for a
group picture! But Mark was still not satisfied with the shot, so he moved the camera and tripod
back again to get more of the new temples included in the picture. In this new position, he looked
into the viewfinder for a third time, and once again he was surprised. For not only did he see his
family and the ward members, but also, behind them, many members of the stake in a vast
semicircle, the group comprising some two or three thousand persons in total spread out on the
hill of the temples. The members of his stake were all dressed in white, as though they had been

washed and purified from their sins, and as though they had overcome the world and were saved.
It would be hard to describe a more beautiful scene for a stake president to witness than this.

"As there was now such a great number of people in the family picture, and where Mark
still wanted to get a good shot of the temple buildings right behind them in the scene, instead of
moving the equipment further back again, he decided to take out a wide-angle lens from his
camera bag. Attaching this to the camera, he looked one last time into the viewfinder. This time
everything looked good, and he snapped the picture.

“From this dream, we learn many things. Our families must come first in our lives, but
it’s also true that we want to become one with neighbors and friends in our wards and stakes.
Imagine yourself taking such a picture on the grounds of your local temple with all the members
of your stake present!

“People have been wondering why we in the Church have started building larger temples
all of a sudden. Now you can see why. We have long needed more room on temple grounds for
taking group photos on stake temple day!”

The speaker and audience laughed together.

“A group photo of the members of a stake is like a vision of Zion in a sense—eternal
families, eternal wards, and eternal stakes of Zion all joined together as one in life, and soon in
the hereafter, able to enjoy the same sociality we enjoy here on earth, but coupled with eternal
glory.

“Zion starts with an individual member of the Church, a catalyst, who sees this same
glorious vision in his or her soul.

“From a person so inspired, the inklings of Zion flow out to members of his or her
family.

“From a family so inspired, Zion flows out to other families and individuals in their ward.

“From a ward so inspired, Zion flows out to all the surrounding wards of the stake.

"The stake is the outer shell, the enclosing organizational entity of the Church the Lord
has established to administer the day-to-day operations of Zion.

“The pioneers and the early saints had this same wonderful dream of Zion. It’s our
responsibility today as modern-day pioneers to go forth and bring it to pass in the Church
everywhere around the world that we can. But it’s not just the dream of the pioneers only; it is
also the dream of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Surely, the Savior deserves our best in life!

“To be successful in this effort, we don’t need to be perfect, nor do our wards and stakes
need to be perfect. The pathway to Zion, and the iron rod that stands along its way, are there to
guide us. We should strive to become as one in our homes and in our congregations, building

upon all of the good things in the gospel that we are already doing today. There is no special
magic to Zion. It’s just doing more and more of the good things that we've already been taught to
do as Latter-day Saints. By looking into our personal viewfinders, we can see a vision of the
celestial glory that awaits our earthly homes and neighborhoods.

“As a small step forward towards this goal, we are announcing today a few changes in the
meeting schedules of stakes. These changes will be phased in over the next two months. The
stakes in North Ogden and Springville will be the first to implement these changes, followed
later by all the other stakes of the Church around the world.

“The changes are as follows:

“First, the frequency and nature of stake conferences will change going forward to
become more integrated with the regular Sunday meeting schedule. A two-hour stake conference
will be held every third Sunday of the month in place of the regular meetings normally held in
wards. We will refer to this third Sunday now as 'Stake Conference Sunday.' Stakes will be
encouraged to have high councilmen assigned as the primary speakers in these conferences, with
each of them presenting word for word, and in their entirety, talks from the most recent general
conference. Each of these Stake Conference Sundays will focus on a different session of the last
general conference—Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, Sunday Morning, and Sunday
Afternoon Sessions—with the opportunity over the months between the semiannual general
conferences to present all of the talks again to the membership of the Church.

“Members will have the opportunity to reexperience these inspired talks, as well as
benefit by having them delivered to them in person by their local leaders live in a conference
setting. Hearing them a second time (like hearing a musical piece live, and for a second time), we
can more easily keep the words of the prophets, apostles, and other general authorities fresh in
our minds all year long. Too often, our busy lives take over on the Monday that follows
conference weekend, and the world steals away from our minds the important messages of these
talks. We may remember key words, phrases, or important news items in the weeks that follow,
but, quite often, we forget much of what we were taught and what we felt in our hearts at the
time. This new Stake Conference Sunday format will help keep the conference messages in our
minds all year round.

"Along with this, the Ensign magazine will devote the majority of pages in each issue
spotlighting the featured session of conference of the month delivered on Stake Conference
Sunday. It will provide a broader discussion of the principles mentioned in the talks and more
background on the stories and any persons or events mentioned by the speakers, as well as on the
speakers themselves. Selected comments from members of the Church on how the talks have
impacted their lives since the last conference will also be shared.

“We should note, however, that even with this change, a problem still remains––the vast
inventory of inspired talks already given over the past fifty years of general conferences that go
largely ignored by us year after year. These great discourses of prophets and Church leaders of
the past sit idly by on the sidelines of life, mostly invisible to members and Church leaders alike.

If you are able, listening to one each day on the Church website is a great way to bring these
prior years' conference messages back into your life on a regular basis.

“Second, a one-hour stake fireside will be held once a month on the Saturday nights that
precede Stake Conference Sundays. This new meeting will be divided into two thirty-minute
segments.

“In the first segment, the stake president or another member of the stake presidency will
present, word for word, the First Presidency message of the month shortly before it's released
and mailed out to the members in the Ensign. This completed, he can then take the remaining
time to bear his testimony and share other thoughts he has on that occasion with the members of
the stake in attendance. The second thirty-minute segment of the meeting will be reserved for a
live broadcast of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performing selected performances of its
weekly Sunday program from the prior month. The musical performances each week by the
Choir, the Orchestra At Temple Square, and the Bells On Temple Square are world-class
entertainment, and an important means by which the Spirit can regularly lift our souls. Members
will now be able to enjoy many of these performances as part of the Church’s regular meeting
schedule.

“Third, many new stake centers built by the Church in the future will be much larger than
the ones of today, and significantly larger than traditional ward meetinghouses. The increases in
size will be to accommodate the more frequent and larger gatherings of members on Stake
Conference Sundays and to provide more flexibility in the stage area like we have enjoyed in this
beautiful conference center here in Salt Lake City. Existing stake centers will be renovated
where possible or torn down and replaced with new and larger meeting halls with improved stage
designs. Stakes will consolidate ward choirs, creating from them a single, stake-level choir (with
small orchestras where possible) to make use of these new stages, allowing members to enjoy
both listening to and participating in larger and higher-quality choir and music performances.
Beautiful, sacred music will be given a higher priority than ever before in the history of the
Church. Choirs in local stake conference centers will be seated on stage in the likeness of the
Tabernacle Choir when it performs in the Salt Lake Conference Center.

“Fourth, in those stakes where members have a temple in their area that they can
regularly attend, we want to emphasize again the importance of stake temple day. This should be
a monthly activity where all the members of the stake join together for a temple session.

“The optimal model for this is found in the Springville and North Ogden areas. The new
twin-temple complexes provide the opportunity for greater temple participation together as a
stake. Half of the wards may attend sessions in one temple, while the other half attend sessions in
the other, all at the same time. In addition, all of the wards in the stake will then be able to come
together in the large celestial room located between them. In this way, all members of the stake
can come together once a month for stake conference and once a month again in simultaneous
sessions on stake temple day.

“I bear testimony that the work of Zion in the Church is here to stay. This work is
important now, and it will continue to increase in importance as the Church grows and the Lord
reveals new and exciting things pertaining to the kingdom of God.

“I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”