Visual Scriptures: Conference by the Numbers: April 2020

In the October 2019 General Conference, President Nelson promised that "General conference next April will be different from any previous conference. In the next six months, I hope that every member and every family will prepare for a unique conference that will commemorate the very foundations of the restored gospel." Little did we know that COVID-19 would strike and make April 2020 General Conference very unique and memorable!

However, despite the big focus on the coronavirus pandemic in our everyday lives and throughout the world, general conference was focused on the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the impact it can have in our lives. The virus pandemic will pass. The message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, however, will fill the earth and never be taken away.

The infographic below indicates some of the words emphasized during conference. Restoration-related words were certainly emphasized. Virus-related words showed up, but definitely were not the spotlight. While COVID-19 came up several times, coronavirus didn't even make a debut.

In addition to the infographic, I also looked at trends over time for some of the words and phrases used in this conference. First Vision, Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and Second Coming were heavily emphasized. You can also see the trends for some individual words to get a sense of how much the word restoration or hosanna were emphasized. And for perspective, I also put in a few graphs for words related to pandemic, virus, etc.

See links at end of post for past Conference by the Numbers and for a post explaining how the word comparisons work.