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Show I :': W Mormons Set 148th General Conference Mormon leaders from throughout the world will gather here the first two days of April for the 148th annual World General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Four general sessions of the conference will be conducted on Saturday and Sunday, April 1 and 2, in the historic Mormon Tabernacle on Temple Tem-ple Square. These sessions are attended by leaders and the general membership. In addition, there will be a special conference session on the Church's unique welfare services system, and another session for those who hold the priesthood. In connection with the conference, con-ference, a day long seminar for regional representatives leaders of the church will be held Friday, March 31. Presiding over the work conference once again will be President Spencer W. Kimball, Kim-ball, world leader of the four million member church. He will be assisted by his counselors coun-selors in the First Presidency, Presidents N. Eldon Tanner and Marion G. Romney. These three men and other General Authorities of the Church including members of DIRECTS CONFERENCE President Spencer W. Kimball, Kim-ball, who heads 3.5 million members of LD.S. Church, will direct annual world conference this coming weekend the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, will be the speakers during the two-day conference. conferen-ce. They are expected to address ad-dress the great moral issues in the world today, as well as general Church doctrine. As has been traditional for many years, the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir will provide music during the conference. Under the baton of director Jerold D. Ottley, the 375 voice choir will perform several numbers. Portions of the conference, including the choir, will be seen and heard over an independent in-dependent network of hundreds hun-dreds of radio and television stations. Annual conferences have been a tradition since the Church was first organized April 6, 1830 in Fayette, New York. The headquarters of the Church shifted from New York to Ohio, Missouri and Illinois during the first 17 years, but since 1847, when Brigham Young led the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake Valley, the conferences have been in Salt Lake City. In recent years, however. Church leaders have periodically traveled to other parts of the world for "area conferences." The Church has expanded far beyond the confines of its Rocky Mountain base. Those four million members are scattered throughout the United States and in more than 80 other countries as well, with recent growth trends most impressive in some of the Latin American Nations. |