SALT LAKE CITY — Days after President Russell M. Nelson announced a historic policy change enabling women to serve as official witnesses for two saving ordinances, he is expected to announce new temples this weekend and focus the attention of the world on Jesus Christ at the 189th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President Nelson said in Brazil at the end of his last ministry tour that he would announce more temples at this conference, which will draw about 100,000 people to the Conference Center across the street from historic Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.
Millions of the global faith’s 16.3 million members will attend or watch and listen to broadcasts to hear spiritual counsel, guidance and announcements from leaders they consider prophets, seers and revelators or general officers of the church.
Another highlight of the fall conference is the annual women’s session on Saturday night. All sessions of the conference will stream live on deseret.com or on the Deseret News app.
Temple construction has accelerated since President Nelson’s administration began. In the five years before he was sustained as the church’s president, the church announced 12 new temples.
In the first year of his administration, he announced 19 more. This past April, he announced another eight.
That means that he has visited 27 countries and announced 27 new temples in 21 months.
The church has thousands of meetinghouses around the world for the Sunday worship of its 30,536 congregations. Temples are scarcer, with 166 in operation, 14 under construction and 29 more announced.
So far this year, church leaders have dedicated five temples, in Rome, Italy; Fortaleza, Brazil; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Lisbon, Portugal, and Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Arequipa Peru Temple will be dedicated in December.
Also this year, leaders have broken ground on nine additional temples, with two more groundbreakings scheduled.
Each temple is considered a holy, literal House of the Lord where church members perform sacred ordinances throughout the week.
Saturday’s and Sunday’s general conference sessions begin at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. The women’s session for all girls 8 years of age and older begins at 6 on Saturday evening.
The women’s session arrives three days after President Nelson announced a policy change enabling women, young women and girls to serve as official witnesses at baptisms. Women also now will serve as witnesses for temple sealings.
The announcement came after President Nelson has spent more than a year traveling around the world with a specific message about unity.
The history of the women’s session began in 1986 with an annual Relief Society meeting held a week before conference. In 1994, the church added an annual Young Women meeting the week before April general conference, with the Relief Society meeting the week before October general conference.
In November 2013, the church announced it would consolidate the Young Women and Relief Society meetings and add Primary girls to semiannual women’s meetings held a week before conference.
The church designated women’s meetings as conference sessions in fall 2014.
Two years ago, the church’s First Presidency said the women’s session and the priesthood session each would be held once a year, alternating between the spring and fall conferences. The priesthood session is held on the Saturday night of general conference in the spring, and the women’s session takes that place in the fall.
All sessions of this weekend’s conference can be seen in 31 languages on ChurchofJesusChrist.org or viewed on the Latter-day Saints Channel, through the Deseret News on deseret.com or on the Deseret News app, through KSL on ksl.com or on the KSL app and on BYUtv at byutv.org/watch or on the BYUtv app.
General conference talks will be available in 86 languages on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and the Gospel Library app after the conference.