2020. 03.11 - CONFERENCE WILL BE "ADJUSTED" AND "ALTERED"

From the mass email sent to all Church members:

Temporary Adjustments to General Conference:

As global concerns over the spread of COVID-19 continue to grow, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are taking additional measures to help reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

These measures include altering the format of the April 2020 general conference,

We plan to conduct all five sessions of that conference at the Conference Center. General authorities, general officers and their spouses, musicians, choirs, technicians, and others will participate as assigned. But, proceedings of the conference will be distributed throughout the world via technology only. The public will not be admitted in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, or in stake centers or meetinghouses in areas where contagion is a concern.

Provo MTC will close temporarily to missionaries

Beginning March 16, 2020, all missionaries scheduled to enter missionary training centers in Provo, Utah, or Preston, England, will be trained remotely by video conference.

Each missionary will receive specific information regarding the length of training, schedules, and other logistics as his or her starting date approaches. Once missionaries complete their online training, they will travel directly to their mission assignments

Stake conferences canceled throughout the world

The Chuch announced that they will postpone stake and leadership conferences and other large gatherings in Church Areas where illness caused by COVID-19 is a challenge, including,

• Asia
• Asia North
• Europe
• Europe East
• All Areas in the United States and Canada

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Many will remember President Nelson's closing remarks in October 2019:

"General conference next April will be different from any previous conference...."

...general conference next April will be not only memorable; it will be unforgettable."

I am sure many will say that President Nelson is truly a prophet because of his remarks in last conference that the April conference would be different than any other previous conference. I have a hard time believing that canceling the World Wide Leadership Meetings as well canceling the plans for over 100,000 people who have tickets to attend conference is what he had in mind.

The Church announced today that no one will be allowed to attend conference at the Conference Center. All those Conference tickets are now void.

If President Nelson announced last October that next year's April conference would only be "via technology only".. than that would truly have been revelatory..... but this announcement by the Church seems reactionary. I am sure this is a disappointment for all those who wanted to attend.

After the announcement came out, a member of the Tabernacle choir said 'apparently this year they will be preaching to the choir!'