With President Thomas S. Monson newly sustained as the church's leader and a First Presidency at the helm, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened its 178th Annual General Conference Saturday, adding Elder D. Todd Christofferson as a new apostle and installing dozens of other new leaders, including a new Young Women general presidency.

The three Saturday sessions featured sermons by top leaders on a variety of topics, including a frank discourse on the evils of verbal, emotional, physical and sexual abuse. President Monson spoke only during the evening priesthood session for male members, counseling them to live worthy of the priesthood they hold.

"The face of sin today often wears the Halloween mask of tolerance," he said. "Do not be deceived; behind that facade is heartache, unhappiness and pain. You know what is right and what is wrong, and no disguise, however appealing, can change that," President Monson counseled.

Thousands packed the Conference Center and other church meeting halls on Temple Square during the sessions, joined by additional millions who participated through electronic media. The proceedings, which continued today with sessions at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., are being translated into 92 languages and broadcast in 96 countries via the Internet.

The First Presidency also reported on the growth of the church's wards, stakes and missions, announcing that membership now exceeds 13.1 million around the world.

Saturday morning's solemn assembly to sustain President Monson, 16th president of the church, and his counselors, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, was the first order of business. Elder Christofferson, formerly of the presidency of the Quorums of the Seventy, was named to the Quorum of the Twelve, filling the vacancy created when President Uchtdorf was called as a counselor in the First Presidency.

President Uchtdorf conducted the assembly, which provided church members their first opportunity to express support for the new presidency. The three were named in a press conference on Feb. 4, slightly more than a week after the death of President Gordon B. Hinckley on Jan. 27.

Throughout the history of the church, the succession of presidents has followed the same pattern: The president of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles has been elevated to the presidency of the church. The practice of sustaining the new president in a solemn assembly has been an important part of the process.