Fifteen Thousand Attend Las Vegas Regional Conference

More than fifteen thousand members met in Las Vegas, Nevada’s, Thomas and Mack Center January 25 for the first multiregion conference ever held in that state. President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, addressed a near-capacity crowd from the fifteen stakes in the Las Vegas Temple district.

Also speaking at the conference were Elder L. Tom Perry, of the Council of the Twelve, and Elder Charles Didier, of the First Quorum of the Seventy.

The theme of the conference centered around the Las Vegas Temple, currently under construction. A record nine thousand members attended the groundbreaking assembly on 30 November 1985.

“I want to make you a promise,” President Hinckley told the audience. “As the years pass, you will never miss a dollar you have contributed to the construction of the temple. And, as the years pass, there will grow in your heart a sense of gratitude you were able to do so.

“A temple is a part of eternity,” he added. “It is a declaration of the truth of eternity.”

President Hinckley issued a challenge for area members ten years of age or older. “The temple will be built in two years,” he said. “You start now, if you’re not already there, to get yourself prepared to go to the house of the Lord when that temple is complete.”

Elder Perry spoke on the importance of building on “the sacrifices of those who have gone before us.” He pointed out that “unless we’re uniting families together with being sealed in the temple, there would be no reason for the Savior to return. Without the family,” Elder Perry added, “there would be not that linkage necessary for His kingdom to be established here.”

He also advised parents to be sure to teach their children to learn how to work. “Do not let them grow up without learning responsibility in the home,” he said.

In his talk, Elder Didier noted: “The world’s definition of happiness can be summarized with four words: ‘My will be done.’ The true purpose of life can also be summarized in four words: ‘Thy will be done.’”

He concluded by advising area members that they could take pride in the sacrifices they had made in helping to build the Las Vegas Temple.

Members from fifteen stakes crowd the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 25 at the state’s first multiregional conference. (Photo by Matthew Freeman, Beehive Sentinel.)