As directed by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “General Handbook: Serving in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” continues to be updated as needed. Along with the most recent content updates, a new search assistant feature has been added to the General Handbook on the Gospel Library (app version 7.2) and ChurchofJesusChrist.org to help Church leaders and members find answers to their questions.
This search assistant can analyze users’ questions and summarize potentially relevant information found in the handbook. Because the assistant is powered by artificial intelligence (AI), users should verify responses using the links provided by the assistant.
| The “General Handbook” now features a search assistant to help Church leaders and members find answers to their questions. The search assistant button is located at the bottom right of the screen when viewing “General Handbook” content. By using the provided links to confirm the summarized answers, leaders can gain a deeper understanding of Church principles and policies. 2025 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. |
This feature is available to all users signed in with their Church account in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. The search assistant button is located at the bottom right of the screen when viewing “General Handbook” content.
Content Updates
Significant content updates are listed in the “Summary of Recent Updates” at the beginning of the handbook.
- Updated instructions for elders quorum and Relief Society secretaries (see 8.3.4 and 9.3.3).
- Added examples of assignments for Relief Society sisters (see 9.3.4).
- Changed the name of the CTR 7 class to Valiant 7 (see 12.1.4).
- Added a suggested schedule for nursery (see 12.2.1.2).
- Added information about Primary activities for all children, including a yearly service activity, and Valiant activities for children in the Valiant 7–10 classes (see 12.2.1.3).
- Clarified information about attendance at institute classes (see 15.2).
- Added references to the new resource “In the Lord’s Way: Caring for Members Who Have Temporal or Emotional Needs” (see chapter 22).
- Added language allowing Relief Society and elders quorum presidents to initiate referrals to Family Services (see 22.3.4 and 22.13).
- Added information about organizing a missionary preparation course (see 24.3.5).
- Added a new section about members who have misused personal data to the “Repentance and Church Membership Councils” chapter (see 32.6.3.4).
- Clarified policies about validating or ratifying ordinances (see 38.2.6).
These revisions have been published in Bislama, Cambodian, Cebuano, Chinese, Chinese (Simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Fijian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Kiribati, Korean, Malagasy, Marshallese, Mongolian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Thai, Tongan, and Ukrainian on ChurchofJesusChrist.org and in the Gospel Library app. They will be translated into additional languages in the coming months.