The third session of the 196th Semiannual General Conference ran from 10 a.m. to noon on Sunday, October 4, 2026, at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Nine leaders spoke, and President Dallin H. Oaks closed the session with a message that framed everything before it: the gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ are for everyone, including people struggling with doubt.
The rest of the morning turned outward. President Henry B. Eyring explained why life is hard and how ordinary people become the Lord's answer to someone else's prayer, President Rosemary K. Chibota taught a southern African greeting that means "I see you," and Elder Quentin L. Cook and Elder Alfred Kyungu took on the way people talk to each other, online and off.
This recap draws on KSL's time-stamped live coverage of each talk, the Church News summaries and session write-up, and Deseret News coverage of the session. The Church posts the full text and video of every talk on its Sunday morning session page, and those are the words to rely on once they are up.
The Session at a Glance
President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the First Presidency, conducted. Elder Ronald M. Barcellos, a General Authority Seventy, offered the opening prayer, and Sister Theresa A. Collins, second counselor in the Primary general presidency, offered the closing prayer. The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square sang under the direction of Mack Wilberg, including "How Firm a Foundation," which President Eyring took as the starting point for his talk.
The nine speakers, in the order they spoke:
- President Henry B. Eyring, first counselor in the First Presidency: "Fear Not, I Am With Thee"
- President Rosemary K. Chibota, Primary General President: "A Child of God"
- Elder Neil L. Andersen, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "Courage Born of Our Faith in Jesus Christ"
- Elder James G. O. Fantone, General Authority Seventy: "Take Upon Us His Name"
- Elder Edward Dube, Presidency of the Seventy: "Come Unto Christ"
- Elder Quentin L. Cook, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: integrity, virtue and happiness
- Elder Alfred Kyungu, of the Seventy: "Using the Language of Peacemakers"
- Elder Ciro Schmeil, General Authority Seventy: "Consider Your Ways, and From This Day Will I Bless You"
- President Dallin H. Oaks, President of the Church: "The Gospel of Jesus Christ Is for All"
President Oaks: The Gospel Is for All
President Oaks, speaking ten days before the first anniversary of his ordination as the Church's 18th president, closed the session by insisting on the breadth of the Savior's reach. The Book of Mormon, he taught, is a great witness that God loves all people, and its teachings contradict the idea that the grace of God saves only a chosen few. He pointed to evidence that many people around the world are hungry for Jesus Christ and His teachings, and he described this as His Church, named for Him because it carries the restored fulness of His doctrine and authority.
He then spoke straight to members whose faith in Christ is fading. Church leaders love them, he said, and so does the Lord, who never gives up His loving pursuit of each of them. Everyone carries present or future struggles, including questions and doubts, and the way through them is to draw closer to the Savior. Strong faith takes more than desire, he said; it takes daily effort, one step at a time, with prayer and scripture study, along with patience, because spiritual understanding comes over time rather than all at once.
A good part of the talk addressed faith and learning. Scientific knowledge grows through research and experiment, he said, and spiritual knowledge through study, prayer and personal revelation, but there is no ultimate conflict between them, because God knows all truth and expects His children to learn by both methods. Both require humility, and an unanswered question is not a reason to abandon belief. He urged listeners never to let secular learning narrow their spiritual horizons.
He finished with the practical anchors of a faithful life: keep the commandments and covenants, take the sacrament every week, attend the temple regularly, and trust God's timing. All of us are works in progress, he said, and we need one another's prayers; he added that he feels the effect of the prayers offered for him.
For Utah Valley, the faith-and-learning passage carries extra weight. President Oaks was born in Provo in 1932, graduated from BYU in 1954 and served as its president from 1971 to 1980, according to his BYU speaker biography, and his argument that study and faith are partners, not rivals, is one generations of Provo students have heard from him in some form. In a valley built around two large universities, it is the part of the talk many families here will be discussing over Sunday dinner.
The Rest of the Morning, Talk by Talk
President Henry B. Eyring: Fear Not, I Am With Thee
President Eyring began with the hymn the choir had just sung, "How Firm a Foundation," and its promises that God will strengthen and help His children. The hymn never promises that challenges disappear, he noted, but its promises become more precious in the middle of them. As a boy he asked his mother why life was so hard, and she told him it is supposed to be, because life is a test.
A loving and all-powerful God allows the test to be hard, he explained, because His children must grow in spiritual cleanliness and stature to live in His presence, and because trials show whether they will keep His commandments. The Savior has felt every grief. And the Lord often keeps His promise to comfort people by sending faithful disciples to do it, so President Eyring asked members to pray for and reach out to whoever comes to mind. He singled out missionaries: kindness and confidence from members, he said, help them feel that God called them, knows them and is guiding them.
President Rosemary K. Chibota: A Child of God
President Chibota, who grew up in Africa, taught the southern African greeting Sawubona, which means "I see you" and acknowledges another person's worth rather than simply saying hello. Jesus Christ lived that principle, she said, truly seeing the people around Him, especially those who felt invisible. Helping someone feel seen often starts with something as simple as learning their name. At a parent-teacher conference, her daughter's school janitor once thanked her and her husband, telling them that very few students knew his name, but their daughter did.
The world labels and divides people, she said, but disciples see brothers and sisters, because eternal identity matters far more than any worldly label and is inherited, not earned. God sees each person's divine potential whatever their circumstances or mistakes. She invited listeners to learn the name of someone who may feel unseen in the coming week and to pray to see others as Heavenly Father sees them.
Elder Neil L. Andersen: Courage Born of Faith
Elder Andersen said that real discipleship is not a casual pursuit, especially amid doubt, distraction and deception, and that it often means choosing the right while afraid, uncertain or pressured toward an easier path. Spiritual courage, he taught, is triumphing over obstacles, doubt and fear in choosing the right, and faith and courage build on each other: acting on faith through prayer, service and keeping commandments produces the courage to keep going.
He urged members to make space away from the constant stream of smartphones and social media so they can hear spiritual promptings. He shared examples of people who leaned on faith through painful experiences, noting that faith did not spare them suffering but carried them through it with hope. He closed with his witness that Christ is alive and leads His Church.
Elder James G. O. Fantone: Take Upon Us His Name
Elder Fantone described taking on the Savior's name as an invitation to become more like Him by keeping covenants and serving others. He grew up in a modest three-bedroom bungalow, and more than once his parents gave up one of those rooms, without hesitating, for someone who needed a place to stay. He told of missionaries who felt, when homesick, that time was crawling, kept working anyway, and a few months later felt it was flying. The time had not changed and neither had the work, he said; the missionaries had. The Savior's invitation, he taught, is not to add His name to ours but to serve Him with all our heart, might, mind and strength by lifting and loving the people around us.
Elder Edward Dube: Come Unto Christ
Elder Dube built his talk on three truths in Moroni's closing invitation to "come unto Christ, and be perfected in him" (Moroni 10:32): coming is an action, denying ourselves means letting go of what holds us back, and being perfected is something Christ does for those who come willingly. People do not perfect themselves to come to Christ, he said; they come to Christ to be perfected.
He told of being asked to minister to a man named Randall who was struggling to quit smoking. Having never smoked, Elder Dube did not know what to say, so he prayed, and at their visit he asked Randall and his wife to choose a date to be sealed in the temple. Two months later they were. Randall's wife later explained that her husband had been suffering under the belief that he had to be perfect first. The adversary wants people to believe that addiction, grief, doubt or anything else makes them unworthy to come, Elder Dube said, and he invited everyone to come, and to bring someone with them.
Elder Quentin L. Cook: Integrity, Virtue and Happiness
Elder Cook recalled the motto he adopted as a young missionary in Scotland, the one President David O. McKay made famous: "What e'er thou art, act well thy part." Real happiness, he taught, comes not from getting what we want but from giving our best effort in whatever circumstances we are in, and integrity, virtue and happiness are tied together.
He spoke pointedly about how easy social media makes it to criticize, bully and embarrass, calling any use of the internet to bully, destroy a reputation or put someone in a bad light reprehensible. Disciples cannot control how others behave, he said, but they can choose kindness and respect and strive to be a peaceable people. Scripture study, prayer and reflection keep faith alive, mistakes do not have to keep anyone from God, and integrity, virtue and ongoing repentance are the answer to a coarse culture.
Elder Alfred Kyungu: The Language of Peacemakers
Elder Kyungu said he has pondered President Oaks's April invitation to be peacemakers and sees it as a call to discipleship rather than a suggestion. The Lord has always warned His people against contention, he noted, teaching that people will answer for "every idle word" (Matthew 12:36). Nearly everyone has been hurt by humiliating or discouraging language, he said, and some expressions simply need to go, replaced with words that thank, ask after and lift others. As the Book of Mormon converts buried their weapons for peace, members today can bury the language of contention. He invited members to repent of harsh words and to pray for more peaceful speech, even across differences.
Elder Ciro Schmeil: Consider Your Ways
Elder Schmeil described two divine helps on the path back to God: faith in Jesus Christ, which includes trusting Him without having every answer, and covenants, which bind people to the Savior and lighten their burdens. The weekly sacrament renews the covenants made at baptism, he said, and its prayer is a reminder that partaking does not require perfection, only a willingness to take His name, remember Him and keep His commandments. He pointed to the Israelites in Haggai who neglected rebuilding the temple until they changed course, and to the Lord's promise once they did: "from this day will I bless you" (Haggai 2:19). God is not asking members to build a physical temple, he said, but to build a strong relationship with Him through their covenants.
What Ran Through the Morning
Two threads tied the session together. The first was seeing people: President Eyring's call to notice whoever comes to mind and reach out, President Chibota's Sawubona, and Elder Dube's insistence that no one has to be perfect to come to Christ. The second was how disciples speak and act in public, from Elder Cook's rebuke of online cruelty to Elder Kyungu's language of peacemakers, which picked up directly from President Oaks's April invitation. Elders Fantone and Schmeil grounded both in covenants and the weekly sacrament, and President Oaks gathered it all into one claim: the gospel, and the grace behind it, are for everyone.
Watching the Final Session
The Sunday afternoon session, the last of the conference, is scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. It streams on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, in the Gospel Library app and on the General Conference YouTube channel, and in Utah on KSL-TV, KSL NewsRadio, BYUtv and BYUradio. Every recap from the weekend, including the Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon sessions, lives on our General Conference page, and our conference weekend guide covers the timing and what is open between sessions.
Where to Read the Full Talks
The Church publishes the text, audio and video of each talk on its Sunday morning session page as they are released. Until then, KSL, Church News and Deseret News have summaries of each talk. Where those reports disagree on a detail, this recap either leaves it out or says so.
Related Guides
- October 2026 General Conference: The Saturday Morning Session, Talk by Talk
- October 2026 General Conference: The Saturday Afternoon Session, Talk by Talk
- General Conference Weekend in Utah Valley: A Local's Guide
- Missionary Farewells and Homecomings in Provo: What the Signs at the Airport Mean, and Why the Farewell Officially Ended in 2002
