November 19, 2025, 10:06 AM MST
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Wednesday, Nov. 19, that it will cancel Saturday night sessions in favor of the morning and afternoon general conference sessions.
“The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has decided to no longer hold a Saturday night session in general conference beginning in April 2026.”
The decision by the First Presidency (President Dallin H. Oaks and his counselors President Henry B. Eyring and President D. Todd Christofferson) was announced at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
General Conference, which originates from the Conference Center on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, is held twice a year, on the first weekend of April and October, and is an opportunity for the general authorities and officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to testify of the Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel.
Conferences began about 200 years ago with the organization of the church. Chapter 20 of the Latter-day Saint Doctrine and Covenants records that the Lord instructed the Prophet Joseph Smith that “some of the elders of this church of Christ…gather together in council from time to time.”
As a result, the church’s first general conference was held on June 9, 1830, at Peter Whitmer’s home in Fayette, New York. 27 people participated.
“Many exhortations and instructions were given, and the Holy Ghost was poured out upon us in a miraculous manner. Many of us prophesied while the heavens were open to others,” the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in the first general conference (Church History 1:84–85).
In the decades since the first General Conference, technology has driven proceedings around the world.
Meeting minutes were first shared via radio broadcast in 1923, television broadcast in 1949, satellite broadcast in 1975, and the Internet in 1999.
In contrast to the 27 people who attended the first general conference, today millions of people watch the proceedings via the Internet, commercial television, and social media. Meeting messages are translated into 98 languages.
President Jeffrey R. Holland, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “There are three things that this twice-yearly gathering proclaims to the entire world.”
First, “They declare fervently and clearly that there is once again a living prophet on earth speaking in the name of the Lord.”
Second, “Each of these conferences is a call to action, not only on behalf of our own lives, but on behalf of those around us, our families, those of our faith and those of our faith.”
And third, “The general conference of the Church proclaims to the whole world that Jesus is the Christ, and that He and His Father, the God and Father of us all, appeared to the boy prophet Joseph Smith in fulfillment of the ancient promise that the risen Jesus of Nazareth would once again restore the Church to the earth.”
Elder Brooke P. Hales, a General Authority Seventy and secretary of the First Presidency, said in an interview on the Church News podcast that general conference is a “heavenly guidance.”
“The Lord is the executive producer. This is His event. He wants it to happen, and He will help it happen,” said Elder Hales, who has been involved in general conference preparation since 1997.
During that time, he said he learned important things about planning and organizing this huge event. “This is an opportunity for the Lord to speak to His people a word that is unique in every way possible,” he said. “I can completely trust God and my Savior.”
