According to the doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), the term Resurrection means the literal reuniting of the spirit with the physical body after death.
After resurrection, the spirit and body will be united eternally and perfectly. All people who have ever lived on the earth, do now live, or will live, will become immortal through the resurrection. Jesus Christ’s resurrection overcame death for all:
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15: 20-22).
Alma, a Book of Mormon prophet, said the following:
Now, this restoration shall come to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, both the wicked and the righteous; and even there shall not so much as a hair of their heads be lost; but every thing shall be restored to its perfect frame, as it is now, or in the body, and shall be brought and be arraigned before the bar of Christ the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil. (Alma 11: 44)
Mormons celebrate the regional and national holidays of the countries where they live, along with birthdays, anniversaries and similar events.
Worldwide members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints celebrate Christmas and Easter, regarding these two events as the most spiritually significant days in history because of the birth, suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first Latter-day Saint pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. Members of the Church worldwide honor their pioneer heritage on the 24th of July of each year. This celebration is called Pioneer Day.
Additionally, twice a year—usually the first weekend in April and October—the Church holds a general conference for all members. Although this is not considered a holiday, members of the Church take time on these days to be instructed and encouraged by Church leaders.
Members gather for five two-hour sessions to listen to instruction from Church leaders. General conference is broadcast via satellite from the Conference Center at Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Dissemination
Although the conference is actually held in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, the church makes it as widely available as possible. It is shown on screens in various buildings on Temple Square, including the Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The conference usually airs on the LDS-owned media outlets KSL-TV, KSL (AM), KBYU (FM), and KBYU-TV. The conference usually preempts regularly scheduled programming. The conference is broadcast by satellite to church meetinghouses throughout the world, either simultaneously or time delayed to accommodate for differing time zones.
Conferences are also broadcast by some pay television networks such as Dish, DirecTV, and C-band in some markets on the BYU TV station. In recent years, an audio webcast of conference can also be heard via the church’s website. These latter, more public methods usually do not carry the priesthood session.
General Conference can be viewed live on many cable and over-the-air channels that offer the programming as a public service. It can also be viewed live on BYU Television on the Dish Network, Channel 9403 and DirecTV, Channel 374. BYU Television is also available on over 250 cable systems in the U.S. Information on how to get BYU Television can be found at www.byutv.org.
BYU Television also streams conference live on the Interent at www.byu.tv and BYU Television International streams the sessions live in Spanish and Portuguese at www.byutvint.org. Streaming is also available at www.lds.org. Audio streaming is available also at www.byuradio.org.
Using all these methods, the LDS church delivers the broadcast to 83 countries transmitting to over 5700 church facilities and airing over 18 television and 1700 cable stations. Volunteer language professionals translate the sermons into over 80 languages live during the simulcast, meaning that ninety-eight percent of church members can listen to general conference in their native language. The LDS church intends to provide general conference language translation for 100% of its members by 2010.
