In this panel from a ca. 350 AD Roman sarcophagus, the “Chi-Ro” — a conjoined form of the first two Greek letters of the word Khristos — symbolizes the Resurrection, surmounting the cross of Christ’s crucifixion and towering above two Roman soldiers (presumably from the guard that had been assigned to guard his tomb). (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
Χριστός ἀνέστη!
Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
In Greek, which is the original language of the New Testament — and in equivalent phrases in other languages influenced by Greek Orthodox usage — it is customary to greet one another on Easter Sunday with the phrase Khristos anesti! To which the traditional response is Alithos anesti!
Christ is risen!
Truly, he is risen!
Явление Христа Марии Магдалене после Воскресения (“Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection”), by Alexander Ivanov (1835) (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
I offer, yet again, part of an Easter reflection that I wrote back in 2012 (just a week or so after the entirely unexpected death of my beloved only brother, my only sibling, the last surviving member, besides myself, of my nuclear family, which devastated me). In this passage from that brief article (“The gospel truly brings joyful news”), I offer a re-reading — in my judgment, a very important one — of the story of Mary Magdalene’s encounter on that first Easter morning with the Risen Lord at the tomb:
The Gospel of John records Mary Magdalene’s meeting with the newly risen Savior near his garden tomb: “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (20:17).
I’ve heard lessons, sermons and class comments seeking to explain why Mary was forbidden to touch the resurrected Lord.
But she wasn’t.
The King James Bible misrepresents the original Greek, which actually has Christ telling Mary, “Don’t cling to me,” or, as the Joseph Smith Translation puts it, “Hold me not.” And, in fact, the Greek verb implies that she was already clinging to him; in Greek, the Savior doesn’t tell her not to hold on to him but to stop doing so.
Filled with sheer, overwhelming happiness, Mary had thrown her arms around the Master in an exuberant embrace. But he needed to leave. That’s all. Nothing mysterious, but something very wonderful nonetheless: “Weeping may endure for a night,” says the Psalmist (30:5), “but joy cometh in the morning.”
I understand the solemnity of the doctrine of eternal life, and the formality of the language (inaccurate, in this case) of the King James Version of the Bible. But the pure, boundless, humanly unforeseen joy of Christ’s resurrection must be remembered.
And I want to recommend to you this unusual perspective on the meaning of Easter from the prominent Evangelical Protestant leader Russell Moore, who currently serves as an editor-at-large for the magazine Christianity Today: “Easter is Not a Zombie Story”
The Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shown here in a photograph taken by Sayha Hem (for which I hope this constitutes “fair use”), will be dedicated in August by Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
My attention was caught by a Facebook post from Joel David Wright, who, in turn, was passing on a post from one “Gogo Goff” (Jeremy Goff). I hope that they won’t mind my stealing it, with credit just given:
The good, bad, and there is NO UGLY! of the 2026 Church Statistical Report.
I am a nerd and a data analyst. So, one of my favorite things is to review the statistical report each year. Here is my hot take from our 2025 numbers.
The Good!
2024 saw the 5th highest number of converts ever, and the best in over 25 years! And falling a mere 13k away from #1 all time. I cannot stress enough. 2024 was huge! A 23% increase over 2023.
The big question whenever you see such a massive increase is, will it be sustained? Well, 2025 asked 2024 to hold its root beer!
2025 SAW A 25% INCREASE OVER 2024 RECORDS!
You read that right, the really good year we had in 2024 was utterly blown out of the water in 2025. Not only did we sustain the record growth levels, which is what MOST of us had hoped for, but we also sustained the MOMENTUM with a 25% increase!
Convert Baptisms surged to 385,490, up from 308,682. That is a 25% increase year-over-year (YoY)! 308k was the highest number this century! 5th highest of all time, 4 times in the 1990s were higher. 2025 just blew it out of the water with the best year ever, by nearly 20%!! (19.9).
The actual Growth Rate was up MASSIVELY YoY. We had nearly 48% increase in our actual growth rate!!
2024 was AWFUL on the YoY increase in growth rate at merely 1,500 more people.
2025 saw an increase over over 125k more than we saw in 2024. (I’ll explain this a bit more in a second).
The total membership went from 17.5 million to nearly 17.887 million
Death/Apostasy rate. (Calculated by the difference between the Actual Growth Rate and the Total Baptisms. IE, if we baptized 5 converts and 5 children of record, we have 10 new members. But if the Church’s total membership only goes up 8, that means 2 members either died or apostatized.)
In 2024, Death/Apostasy saw its largest spike ever. The 10-year average was about 107k. 2023 was below average, at 92k, but this year it was at 145k. Over a 50% increase YoY. This explains why, despite 57K+ more convert baptisms YoY, we saw only a net YoY increase of 1500 people, almost the entire increase was consumed.
Because we cannot separate death from apostasy, this number is expected to grow YoY due to the aging church, wars, and health issues. But a spike of this size, which is much larger than any mortality rate spike, would indicate that this large of a jump is the effect of apostasy.
In 2025, THE ENTIRE SPIKE WAS WIPED OUT. We came in at just under 100k, below the 10-year average!!! This means we had a 30%+ drop in death/apostasy rates YoY. And as death rates have remained stable around the world, it means that the era of apostasy that ravaged 2024 did not repeat. NOTE: those returning and being rebaptized directly impact measuring this.
In 2024, the number of full-time missionaries serving has STRONGLY rebounded from the post-surge and pandemic lows. With the exception of the ‘surge’ itself, which saw 83k and 85k, it had MORE missionaries serving than ever!!
In 2025, we went from 74,127 to 78,596! That is 6% increase YoY! Over the RECORD number of missionaries in 2024! AND THIS IS NOT including the massive surge expected in 2026 with the lowering of the sisters’ age to serve, aka the surge 2.0 happens.
The convert-to-missionary ratio: Ever since the ‘surge’ the ratio of converts per missionary has been in the 3:1 range. In 2024, we broke out of the 3’s and into the 4:1!! (From 3.71 to 4.16, or a 12% increase YoY).
In 2025, we saw a 18% YoY growth ending at 4.9 baptisms per missionary!
IE: We have more missionaries, more baptisms per missionary, which leads to record convert baptisms!!
Bad:
Child of Record baptisms were flat. Up only marginally. But we are above average on the 4-year average. But that does not say much as it is the 4th worst number in the last 20+ years. Birth rates will massively impact this number.
Ugly: There is NOTHING ugly this year!
TL;DR: The Church is growing, FAST. It is literally the fastest rate of growth ever. The one area we could improve is Children of Record. Let’s help rescue the less active, ensure newlywed couples are followshipped, and follow President Oaks’counsel and have more babies!
Oh, and on that note. I figure now is as good a time as ever to break the news. Baby Cyrus will be joining our family this late summer! That is number 4. #PracticeWhatIPreach
In this icon, the risen Christ stands upon the broken door of the gates of Hades, pulling Adam from his tomb. Please note the shattered lock mechanisms of the door, scattered about the victorious Lord. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
Here are some stories from the Babylon Bee (“Fake News You Can Trust”) that are relevant to the day. They may be inappropriate, but they make some good points.
Two of the supporting actors in Six Days in August pose for a still shot during a pause on the movie set. (Photo probably by Russ Richins) Becoming Brigham is, of course, a sequel to Six Days in August.
You may be interested to know that the teaser or trailer for the eleventh installment of Becoming Brigham, which will be released in full tomorrow (Monday), is available for viewing now. It runs for forty-one seconds: TRAILER—Becoming Brigham series, Episode 11
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