With a steady voice, President Gordon B. Hinckley "put the record straight" about his health during the morning session of the 176th Semiannual General Conference of the LDS Church on Sunday, and also urged members to develop greater faith.

"I feel well," the 96-year-old leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said, adding, "my health is reasonably good."

He acknowledged that, as with any church president, his life is "not his own. His mission is to serve."

For months, Latter-day Saints worldwide have wondered about the well-being of the man they revere as God's prophet, particularly since he gave what many considered a farewell talk during the church's last conference in April. In January, President Hinckley had surgery to remove a cancerous growth in his colon. He was hospitalized six days and then underwent further treatment.

"My doctors have called the results miraculous," he said Sunday. "I know that the favorable results come from your many prayers in my behalf."

Following his final remarks at the close of the conference Sunday, some 21,000 members gathered in the Conference Center paid tribute to President Hinckley, standing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to sing the last verse of the hymn, "We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet." They remained standing during the benediction, and many in the crowd were teary as he briskly walked out, waving his cane in what has become a signature farewell.

Postlude for the conference included the hymns "God Bless Our Prophet Dear" and "God Be with You Till We Meet Again." During a Tabernacle Choir broadcast before the Sunday morning session, choir members closed with a hymn that President Hinckley had penned: "My Redeemer Lives."

The last verse of that hymn reads: "Oh give me thy sweet Spirit still, The peace that comes alone from thee, The faith to walk the lonely road, That leads to thine eternity."

While positive about his health, President Hinckley did touch on the inevitability of his death, saying he will "carry on as long as the Lord wishes," and "when it is time for a successor, the transition will be smooth and according to the will of him whose church this is."