The two days of the April general conference this year coincided with both the anniversary of the Church and Easter, and speakers gave powerful testimonies of the Resurrection and the Restoration as well as sharing wisdom, counsel and spiritual insights.

The conference was held April 6-7. It was the sixth time since 1980 that the Church's annual general conference coincided with Easter. The conference also marked the 166th anniversary of the Church, which was formally organized at Fayette, N.Y., on April 6, 1830.President Gordon B. Hinckley opened the conference on April 6 in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, and presided over four general sessions, two each on Saturday and Sunday, and the priesthood session Saturday evening. He delivered addresses during the priesthood session and in the two general sessions on Sunday. His first counselor, President Thomas S. Monson, addressed the priesthood and Sunday morning sessions. His second counselor, President James E. Faust, addressed the opening session Saturday morning and the priesthood session. The three members of the First Presidency took turns conducting various sessions of the conference.

Among conference highlights were:

- The announcement that Church architects and engineers are working to design a meeting hall that will hold three to four times more people than the Tabernacle. (See separate article on this page.)

- The sustaining of nine new General Authorities, Elder Bruce C. Hafen to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy, and the other eight to serve in the Second Quorum of the Seventy. They are Elders L. Edward Brown, Sheldon F. Child, Quentin L. Cook, Wm. Rolfe Kerr, Dennis E. Simmons, Jerald L. Taylor, Francisco J. Vinas and Richard B. Wirthlin.

- The sustaining of Elders Dallas N. Archibald and Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who had been serving in the Second Quorum of the Seventy, to the First Quorum of the Seventy.

- The sustaining of Elder Merrill J. Bateman to the First Quorum of the Seventy. His call to the First Quorum was announced last November when he was named president of Brigham Young University.

- The releasing of Bishop Merrill J. Bateman as Presiding Bishop, along with his counselors, Bishop H. David Burton and Bishop Richard C. Edgley.

- The sustaining of Bishop H. David Burton as Presiding Bishop, with Bishop Richard C. Edgley as his first counselor and Bishop Keith B. McMullin as his second counselor. Announcement of their callings to the Presiding Bishopric was made last December. This is the first general conference since the new Presiding Bishopric was annouced.

All sessions of the conference were carried by satellite to more than 3,000 meetinghouses throughout the United States and Canada, and in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The conference was transmitted to more than 1,200 cable television systems in the United States.

The Saturday and Sunday morning sessions, along with the Tabernacle Choir program, "Music and the Spoken Word," were transmitted live to Europe, and the Saturday afternoon and priesthood sessions were carried on a delayed basis on Sunday, April 7, followed by a 27-minute video presentation, "The Lamb of God." All the transmissions to Europe had translations into 11 languages. There are more than 100 stake and ward buildings with satellite downlink equipment in The United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Switzerland.

Church units in areas of the world where the satellite and other transmissions are not available will receive videotapes of conference sessions through Church distribution centers in 14 international areas. Portions of the conference will be provided to commercial television and radio stations and cable networks in the United States on a public service basis.

Conference proceedings were translated into 34 languages: Bulgarian, Cambodian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Haitian-Creole, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Mandarin, Navajo, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Tahitian, Thai, Tongan and Vietnamese.

Language translators and interpreters were virtually all volunteers who donated many hours of their time during the conference, as well as preparing for the conference.

More than 220 volunteers served as ushers on Temple Square during the conference, providing assistance to conference-goers in the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall, which provided overflow seating, and on the grounds. Overflow seating was also provided in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, just east of Temple Square.

Music for the Sunday sessions was provided by the Tabernacle Choir, which received special commendation by President Hinckley during his closing remarks Sunday afternoon. The choir was directed by Jerold Ottley and associate director Craig Jessop, with John Longhurst and Richard Elliott at the organ. The Mormon Youth Chorus, with Robert C. Bowden directing and Linda Margetts at the organ, provided music for the Saturday morning session. The Combined Choirs of Ricks College, with Kevin Brower directing and Bonnie Goodliffe at the organ, provided music for the Saturday afternoon session. Music for the priesthood session was provided by the Brigham Young University Combined Men's Choir, with Mack J. Wilberg and Ronald J. Staheli directing and Clay Christiansen at the organ.

Temple Square was as a palette of color with thousands of flowering plants in full bloom, accented by flowering Japanese cherry trees. Flowers showing their splendor included daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, candy tuft, crocus, arabis, aubrieta, wall flowers and renunuculus.

Sunny days and pleasantly mild temperatures unfolded under blue skies, adding an extra bonus to conference weekend on Temple Square.