Latest from Mormon Land: Why women’s General Conference talks win the day

The Mormon Land newsletter is The Salt Lake Tribune’s weekly highlight reel of news in and about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Join us on Patreon and receive the full newsletter, podcast transcripts and access to all of our religion content.

Why women’s talks are better

Latter-day Saint women may belong to a patriarchal church, but when they speak at General Conference, they rule.

So argues, Ziff, the pen name for a blogger at the Zelophehad’s Daughters website, who insists that, generally speaking, the handfuls of female church leaders give better talks in those twice-yearly global gatherings than the multitudes of men. Call it quality over quantity.

The writer rattles off a number of reasons, including:

• Women seem more inclined to give counsel, than commands.

• They appear more concerned about connecting with the membership than the leadership.

• They are more likely to acknowledge the unmarried, the widowed, the gay, the lonely, the depressed in the pews.

• Women may put more focus into their sermons, given that they will have fewer opportunities to command the conference pulpit.

• They are nearly always younger than the “Big 15” apostles and have spent substantially more time recently with rank-and-file members, putting them more in touch with issues of the day.

“Of course you might disagree with my premise that women even give better talks,” Ziff concedes. “For every Sharon Eubank or Chieko N. Okazaki I can point to, you can remind me of Julie B. Beck’s ‘Mothers Who Know,’ or Sheri L. Dew’s ‘Are We Not All Mothers?’ or Margaret D. Nadauld reminding [Young Women] that they should be less assertive and more submissive. And, of course, on the men’s side, it’s not all Boyd K. Packer and Dallin H. Oaks. There’s also Dieter F. Uchtdorf and Patrick Kearon.”

More on money

We touched last week on the “substantial” — though not precisely delineated — sums the church spends on chapels, temples, schools and employees.

The faith’s new financial webpage notes other significant expenses as well:

• Humanitarian aid: “In recent years,” the website states, “the church has provided over a billion dollars annually to humanitarian and welfare efforts around the world.” (See our story on last year’s $1.45 billion undertaking.)

• Missionary work: “A significant portion of tithing donations,” it adds, “is used to support over 90,000 full-time teaching missionaries, senior service missionaries, and young service missionaries serving in over 400 missions [it’s officially at 450 now] throughout the world.” (Listen to our recent “Mormon Land” podcast about convert baptisms reaching a 27-year high in 2024.)

• Family history: “The church dedicates substantial resources,” the webpage explains, “to help individuals gather family history information from throughout the world.” (Read our story from earlier this year about apostle Jeffrey Holland’s reflections at the latest RootsTech conference.)

The latest ‘Mormon Land’ podcast: The audacious Joseph Smith

A conversation with historian John Turner, whose new biography, “Joseph Smith: The Rise and Fall of an American Prophet,” reveals the life of a sometimes playful, sometimes reckless, often inspired, always innovative and forever fascinating religious icon.

Listen to the podcast.

World travels

• President Camille Johnson, global head of the Relief Society, met last month with government and faith leaders — along with Latter-day Saint women — in the world’s largest Muslim nation.

“We have to maintain our pluralism because with pluralism we can begin to operate our humanity,” Indonesia’s H. Nasaruddin Umar, grand imam of the biggest mosque in Southeast Asia, said in a news release. “For me, humanity is only one. Yes, you are from the United States. I am from Indonesia. You are a woman. I am a man. But for me, the same, the same.”

Earlier in May, Johnson traveled to Sri Lanka to observe church-supported UNICEF programs that help women and children.

• Besides dedicating the church’s first temple in Ivory Coast last month, apostle Ronald Rasband also dedicated time to meeting with the nation’s prime minister.

Rasband gave Robert Beugré Mambé a copy of the Book of Mormon and a miniature replica of the Christus statue. The West African leader, in turn, thanked the church for promoting peace and empowering members, a news release states, and called the new temple a symbol of hope.

• Meanwhile, some 2,500 miles away, apostle Ulisses Soares huddled with the Republic of Congo’s premier.

With the blessing of Prime Minister Anatole Collinet Makosso, the church is building its first temple in that Central African country.

• The new churchwide hymnbook (titled “Hymns — For Home and Church” and carrying about 375 songs) is now expected to be released in mid-2027, according to a news release.

From The Tribune

• A church that traces its roots back to Joseph Smith ordains its first female prophet-president.

• For Latter-day Saints afraid of getting sick at Sunday services, new church guidelines offer a breath of fresh air.

• Latter-day Saints are becoming less Republican, but they have warmed up to Donald Trump.

• After countless prayers and 18 months of fasting, this church leader’s homeland finally recognized his religion, and now it has its own temple.

• The church is looking to sell a landmark Salt Lake Valley chapel.

• Church President Russell Nelson will attend the Syracuse Temple dedication, but his dedicatory prayer will be prerecorded.

• A Utah teen, who is not a Latter-day Saint, says the culture surrounding the state’s predominant faith leaves her feeling isolated.