President Russell M. Nelson: Prophet and Apostle

Faith at a Young Age

Russell Marion Nelson was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, on September 9, 1924, to Marion C. and Edna Anderson Nelson. President Nelson said of his parents: “They made love the prevailing influence in their home. … We read together, sang together, played together, and worked together.”

The Nelson home was a happy, loving, supportive place. Education was very important to Marion and Edna. President Nelson said: “They were willing to make whatever sacrifices would be required to help us children to achieve that which we wished to make of ourselves. … Without their encouragement and absolute assurance of the validity of education and service, my life as it exists could never have been.”

Although Russell’s parents supported his activity in the Church, they were more active in the community than in the Church. Young Russell worried that his family might never be sealed together. However, he had confidence that the Lord would answer his prayers for his family. And after many years, they were answered. On March 26, 1977, Marion and Edna and their children were sealed in the Provo Utah Temple. President Nelson said this was the greatest gift his parents ever gave their family.

When Russell was still young, he decided to study medicine. He wanted to research the unknown, and he wanted to serve people. Looking back on this decision, he said: “I reasoned that the finest career that would be available to a human being would be that of mother. … The second occupation would be medicine. There I could help people every day and teach them.”

So after graduating from high school in 1941, Russell began premedical studies at the University of Utah. Because of the uncertainty surrounding World War II, Russell crammed four years of studying into three. He was very busy with school but still took time to be involved in plays and other social events. It was through one of these plays that he met the young woman who later became his wife. When he first saw Dantzel White practicing on stage, he asked, “Who is that beautiful girl singing up there?”

On August 31, 1945, Russell and Dantzel were married in the Salt Lake Temple. “It’s clearly the single most important thing I have ever done,” he reflected in 1982. “She has given me companionship, ten beautiful children, and all those wonderful intangible things a wife gives to a husband to help him strive for fulfillment and selflessness.”

By the time he received his bachelor’s degree in June 1945, Russell was already well into his first year of medical school, and he completed the four-year medical course in three years. In August 1947, at age 22, he earned a medical degree with highest honors.

Obeying Divine Laws

Following Dr. Nelson’s graduation from medical school, he and Dantzel moved to Minnesota, USA. There he joined a research team to develop an artificial heart-lung machine. The team designed and built every part of it themselves.

Throughout his research Dr. Nelson was encouraged by his understanding of obedience to divine law. He knew that “all kingdoms have a law given” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:36) and that this included “even the blessing of the heartbeat.” If his team could understand those laws, they could use them to bless those who were sick.

“To me this meant that if we would work, study, and ask the proper questions in our scientific experiments, we could learn the laws that govern the heartbeat. Now, having learned some of those laws, we know that we can turn the heartbeat off, perform delicate repairs on damaged valves or vessels, and then let the heart beat again.”

After his work on the heart-lung machine, Dr. Nelson continued researching ways to improve open-heart surgery. In 1955 he performed the first successful open-heart surgery using a heart-lung machine in Utah.

Despite this success, open-heart surgery was still uncharted territory. Dr. Nelson learned of a family who had lost their first son to congenital heart disease. Now a daughter had the same condition. Her situation was grave, but he promised to do everything he could for her. Sadly, after the operation, the child died. Later, another daughter from the same family was brought to him, also born with a malformed heart. Again he performed an operation, but this child also died. Dr. Nelson was overwhelmed with grief. He vowed to never operate on the human heart again.

Although she shared his grief, Dantzel wisely told him that if he quit, someone else would have to learn what he already knew. “Isn’t it better to keep trying than to quit now and require others to go through the same grief of learning what you already know?”

So Dr. Nelson returned to the laboratory and operating table and worked even harder than before. Eventually he became one of the premier heart surgeons in the country. In 1983 alone—the year before he was called as an Apostle—he performed 360 operations.

Dr. Nelson dedicated his talents to research, teaching, and surgery. He served in many influential local, national, and international professional capacities. He was certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and then served for six years on the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Dr. Nelson served as president of the Thoracic Surgical Directors Association, the Society for Vascular Surgery, and the Utah State Medical Association. He also served as a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

At LDS Hospital he served as chairman of the Division of Thoracic Surgery and vice-chairman of the board of governors. He received many honors, including the “Citation for International Service” from the American Heart Association, and the “Golden Plate Award” from the American Academy of Achievement. He was also awarded three honorary professorships from universities in the People’s Republic of China.

Love at Home

Over the years, the Nelson family grew to include nine daughters and one son. With his busy schedule and many responsibilities, Russell couldn’t always be home with his family. But his wife, Dantzel, said of him, “When he’s home, he’s home!” The family never questioned his love for them.

The Nelson home was full of music, laughter, and service. They made sure to study the scriptures and have family home evening together. They went on family road trips and watched ball games together.

Russell and Dantzel raised their family with love and patience. On rare occasions, Russell would call down the stairs to his daughters, “Could you girls please keep it down; there are people whose lives depend upon your father getting a good night’s sleep!”

Because he frequently traveled to medical meetings, he usually took at least one family member with him, to make sure he could stay close with all his children. A Church leader once told him that such a practice was “a wise investment.” As President Nelson said: “Throughout my life, I have answered to many titles, including doctor, captain, professor, and elder. But the titles I revere most are those of husband, father, and grandfather.”

As the family grew and children moved away, they found ways to keep close. They started the Nelson News, a monthly paper with an article from each family member and a calendar of important family events. And each month they had a family dinner and party to celebrate all the birthdays and anniversaries during the month. Those who couldn’t be present always knew they were remembered.

Despite his demanding schedule as a highly regarded surgeon, Dr. Nelson put his family and Church service first. Before being called as an Apostle, he served as a stake president, a regional representative, and Sunday School General President.

When Elder Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) called and set Dr. Nelson apart as a stake president in 1964, Elder Kimball joked, “Everybody we’ve interviewed around here says you might be all right, but you don’t have the time. Do you have the time?”

“I don’t know about that,” Russell replied, “but I have the faith!”

Russell confided in Elder Kimball that one of his greatest pressures was the challenge of performing operations to replace aortic valves. Mortality rates for the operation were high, and each patient required many hours and even days of personalized care.

“In the blessing that he pronounced upon my head that day,” President Nelson recalled, “he specifically blessed me that our mortality rates with aortic valve surgery in particular would be reduced, and that no longer would the procedure be the drain on my time and energy that it had been in the past. The following year, the time demands of the operation did decrease, and I’ve had the time necessary to serve in that and other callings. In fact, our mortality rates went down to where they are today—at a very low and acceptable, tolerable range. Interestingly enough, that’s the very operation I did for President Kimball eight years later.”

While President Kimball was serving as Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, he suffered severe heart problems and knew that he might die. In 1972 President Kimball and the First Presidency met with Dr. Nelson for medical advice. Because of President Kimball’s age, Dr. Nelson could not recommend the required operation.

President Kimball agreed, saying, “I’m an old man and ready to die.”

At this point, President Harold B. Lee (1899–1973) stood up, pounded the desk, and said, “Spencer, you have been called! You are not to die! You are to do everything that you need to do in order to care for yourself and continue to live.” So President Kimball decided to have the operation.

Before the procedure, the First Presidency gave Dr. Nelson a blessing, assuring him that the operation would go well and that he need not fear his own inadequacies, for he “had been raised up by the Lord to perform this operation.”

The operation went flawlessly, and Dr. Nelson knew that he owed the success to the Lord. As the operation came to a close, he received a powerful impression that the man he had just operated on would become President of the Church.

When President Kimball was ordained as the new President of the Church in 1973, Dr. Nelson wrote a letter assuring him as his surgeon that health would not hold him back in his new calling. This was just one of many times that he was able to bless members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles with his expertise as a physician.

On April 7, 1984, Dr. Nelson became Elder Nelson when President Spencer W. Kimball called him to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His calling was such a shock to his family that one daughter, who was pregnant at the time, went into labor. Elder Nelson credited the announcement of the calling with “an assist” in delivering the Nelsons’ 22nd grandchild.

Regardless of his extensive training and experience as a physician, Elder Nelson knew that the greatest power came from God and that the greatest work was in service to Him.

“Men can do very little of themselves to heal sick or broken bodies,” Elder Nelson said. “With an education they can do a little more; with advanced medical degrees and training, a little more yet can be done. The real power to heal, however, is a gift from God.”

Shortly after Elder Nelson was called as an Apostle, a report was given at a professional meeting that Dr. Nelson would no longer be practicing cardiac surgery “because his church had made him ‘a saint.’”

When Elder Nelson told this story, he explained that “some mistakenly think that [the term saint] implies beatification or perfection. Not so! A saint is a believer in Christ and knows of His perfect love. … A saint serves others, knowing that the more one serves, the greater the opportunity for the Spirit to sanctify and purify.”

Having served for 31 years as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Nelson was set apart as President of the quorum in July 2015, following the death of President Boyd K. Packer.

In a conference address, President Nelson once said that “life isn’t meant to be easy. … Victory comes only to those who muster the faith to stay on the track—the strait and narrow way.”

In his life, President Nelson certainly had his share of challenges. In 1991 his daughter Emily was diagnosed with cancer. Soon after, his wife was diagnosed with lymphoma. While Dantzel eventually recovered, Emily passed away after a long struggle with the disease.

Then, in 2005 Dantzel quickly and unexpectedly passed away. At the general conference following her death, President Nelson said: “Dantzel was not only a loved and loving companion. She was a teacher: by her noble example, she taught faith, virtue, obedience, and mercy. She taught me how to listen and to love. Because of her, I know all the blessings that can come to a husband, father, and grandfather.”

Another sad event occurred in early 2019, when the life of a second daughter, Wendy, was lost to cancer. “Our tears of sorrow will turn to tears of anticipation as we gain an eternal perspective,” President Nelson said at her funeral.

President Nelson regularly shared his testimony on the harmony between the sciences he knew so well and the Creation and heavenly plan he affirmed. When speaking about the marvels of the human body, he said: “Some people erroneously think that these marvelous physical attributes happened by chance or resulted from a big bang somewhere. Ask yourself, ‘Could an explosion in a printing shop produce a dictionary?’” His educational and professional experiences only supported his spiritual beliefs in the balance of these ideas.

He consistently spoke about his respect for womanhood and the strength of women in the gospel. He shared what he learned from Eve about the priesthood and the partnership of both husband and wife. He encouraged members to understand how “men and women receive the highest ordinance in the house of the Lord together and equally.” In an October 2015 conference address, he asked women of the Church “to step forward! Take your rightful and needful place in your home, in your community, and in the kingdom of God—more than you ever have before.”

In 2006 President Nelson married Wendy L. Watson, a professor and clinician in marriage and family therapy. At the 2009 World Congress of Families, where both he and Wendy spoke, he said, “I also know what it is to be blessed again by my Heavenly Father in marrying a second time, also to a woman of compassion and generosity of spirit, who has once again completed my family circle.” Together President and Sister Nelson traveled the world in dedicated service.

His was truly a global ministry. He dedicated the Sapporo Japan Temple, the Concepción Chile Temple, and the Rome Italy Temple and participated in other temple dedications worldwide, including the Payson Utah Temple, the Kyiv Ukraine Temple, and the Accra Ghana Temple. He also dedicated the Life Sciences Building at Brigham Young University in April 2015. He dedicated 31 countries for the preaching of the gospel. He helped bring the gospel to the Eastern European nations and during his ministry saw at least 30 countries officially recognize the Church.

Wherever he traveled, President Nelson devoted special attention to children. While speaking to a congregation of over 4,000 Church members gathered in British Columbia, Canada, he was eager to see the children seated among their families. During his talk, he asked the children to stand up on their chairs and wave their arms. President Nelson smiled as children popped up among the crowd of people and waved excitedly. “Oh yes,” he said. “Now I can see you.” His kindness and light reached millions of God’s children around the world—both old and young.

The way President Nelson lived his life was the greatest witness and testament of the Savior he could give.

One of these moments came when his fellow Apostle Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin (1917–2008) gave one of his final conference addresses. Elder Wirthlin spoke about charity and love for others as the trait that should define us as Latter-day Saints. As he spoke, he began to shake uncontrollably, and Elder Nelson quietly came and put his arm around him and supported him through the rest of his talk. It was a powerful, silent sermon of the love we should show others.

“I learned long ago to be obedient to those marvelous, sweet whisperings of the Spirit—those strong promptings to follow counsel,” President Nelson said. “Especially sobering it is to know that, while we may be content with the status quo in life, the Lord would be making something of us beyond our fondest imagination. All he requires of us is to prepare ourselves—to try to iron out our imperfections and to stretch each day to be something more than we otherwise would be.”

President Nelson always paid attention to those strong promptings. The two little girls he’d operated on but failed to save, early in his career, had weighed heavily on his mind for years, especially when he learned that the family remained bitter toward him and toward the Church. For nearly 60 years he grieved over the memory of such a loss and sorrowed for the family. He tried several times to get in touch with them, without success.

Then in 2015, he was awakened in the night to feel the presence of the two little girls reaching out to him. He described it this way: “Though I did not see or hear them with my physical senses, I felt their presence. Spiritually, I heard their pleadings. Their message was brief and clear: ‘Brother Nelson, we are not sealed to anyone! Can you help us?’”

President Nelson tried once again to contact the surviving father and younger brother, and this time he was successful. He humbly knelt before the father, spoke of the daughters’ pleadings, and offered to perform the sealing ordinances. He indicated that time and effort would be required, since the father and brother were not yet endowed. With the Spirit enveloping the room, the father and brother agreed to make the necessary preparations. President Nelson later wept with joy when he was able to perform the sealings for the family in the Payson Utah Temple.

When President Thomas S. Monson (1927–2018) passed away early in January 2018, the Quorum of the Twelve met prayerfully to receive direction from the Lord for calling a new prophet. Russell M. Nelson was set apart on January 14, 2018, as the prophet and 17th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He made his first public statement as President from the annex of the Salt Lake Temple, where he encouraged members of the Church to “keep on the covenant path” and delivered this powerful promise: “Your commitment to follow the Savior by making covenants with Him and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing and privilege available to men, women, and children everywhere.”

He declared that the new First Presidency wanted “to begin with the end in mind,” explaining that “the end for which each of us strives is to be endowed with power in a house of the Lord, sealed as families, faithful to covenants made in a temple that qualify us for the greatest gift of God—that of eternal life.”

Referring again to the covenant path, he invited those who had stepped off to come back, assuring them that “there is a place for you in this, the Lord’s Church.”

Members of the Church will long remember the excitement of the first general conference President Nelson presided over as prophet and President. In this conference, President Nelson announced that the high priests and elders in each ward would be combined into one quorum “to accomplish the work of the Lord more effectively.” He also announced the end of home and visiting teaching and the establishment of “a newer, holier approach to caring for and ministering to others,” a change that would begin a “new chapter in the history of the Church.” And to end the conference, President Nelson announced seven new temples.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles seemed to speak for all when he followed President Nelson’s second announcement: “The most memorable moments in life are those in which we feel the rush of revelation. President Nelson, I don’t know how many more ‘rushes’ we can handle this weekend.”

Ongoing revelation continued to define President Nelson’s ministry as prophet, seer, and revelator. After that first conference, President Nelson and his wife, Wendy, traveled around the world meeting and teaching members of the Church, including those in areas where temples he had just announced would be built.

In a worldwide devotional, he and Sister Nelson called upon the youth of the Church to participate in “the greatest challenge, the greatest cause, and the greatest work on earth,” the gathering of Israel.

Soon after, he issued a statement about the importance of using the correct name of the Church, an emphasis, he said, that “the Lord has impressed upon my mind.”

In the October 2018 general conference, President Nelson further emphasized the importance of using the full name of the Church. He also announced a renewed focus on gospel teaching and learning in the home, declaring that “it is time for a home-centered Church, supported by what takes place inside our branch, ward, and stake buildings.” This home-centered, Church-supported plan shortened the three-hour Sunday schedule to two hours and introduced new curriculum for individuals and families to study at home. At the conclusion of the conference, President Nelson announced 12 more temples—the most temples to ever be announced at one time.

As prophet, President Nelson showed us what it means to seek the Lord’s will and quickly act on revelation, and he encouraged all Church members to do the same:

“I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation. …

“… There is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know. …

“… I promise that as you continue to be obedient, … you will be given the knowledge and understanding you seek. Every blessing the Lord has for you—even miracles—will follow.”

In his first conference address as an Apostle, Elder Nelson referred to the covenants he had made in the temple, saying: “I reaffirm that promise, to give all I have to the building of the kingdom of God on the earth. In accepting this call, knowing that challenges, charges, and keys will be conferred and that buffetings will likewise come, I commit my effort, my energy, and my all.”

Years later and two days after being set apart as the prophet, President Nelson gave a similar promise, saying: “I declare my devotion to God our Eternal Father and to His Son, Jesus Christ. I know Them, love Them, and pledge to serve Them—and you—with every remaining breath of my life.”

President Nelson kept this sacred promise to the end. It was clear to all who knew him or heard him speak that he was completely confident that obedience to the Lord secures the Lord’s blessings. President Nelson was a truly exemplary covenant keeper. He kept his “covenants with precision.”

In general conference President Nelson once said, “As you walk in the Lord’s path of righteousness, you will be blessed to continue in His goodness and be a light and a savior unto His people.”

The life of President Russell M. Nelson has been and will continue to be such a light.