Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gathered in Salt Lake City this weekend for the church’s semiannual General Conference, leaning on messages of faith, kindness and unity after a difficult week marked by the death of their longtime president and a deadly church shooting in Michigan.

Friends of the man accused of killing four people after opening fire in a Michigan church say he long harbored animosity toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but never made any threats against its members.