70 Fun Facts About LDS Prophets

With Dallin H. Oaks's ordination in October 2025, how many men have been LDS Church president?

Oaks was set apart on October 14, 2025, following the death of Russell M. Nelson, and was introduced by Gary E. Stevenson in a broadcast from the Conference Center.

In which state was church founder Joseph Smith born?

He was born in Sharon, Vermont, in 1805; the family moved to western New York after a run of crop failures in 1816.

In what year was Joseph Smith killed by a mob while jailed in Carthage, Illinois?

His brother Hyrum, his presumed successor, was killed in the same attack, which set off a succession crisis with several claimants.

Which political office was Joseph Smith campaigning for at the time of his death?

His 1844 platform proposed gradually ending slavery, shrinking Congress, reforming prisons and annexing Texas, California and Oregon.

After Joseph Smith's death, who argued there could be no successor and that he should be 'Protector'?

Rigdon was the senior surviving member of the First Presidency; the crowd instead backed Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve.

In which year was Brigham Young ordained church president, three and a half years after Joseph Smith's death?

He led the church as president of the Quorum of the Twelve in the meantime; the ordination came on December 27, 1847.

Utah marks July 24, 1847, Brigham Young's entry to the Salt Lake Valley, as what holiday?

It is an official Utah state holiday, celebrated with parades and fireworks every July 24.

How many wives did Brigham Young have?

He had 57 children, and built the Lion House and Beehive House in Salt Lake City to accommodate his enormous family.

Besides leading the church, what government post did Brigham Young hold from 1851 to 1858?

President Millard Fillmore appointed him; he resigned in 1858 to end the Utah War in exchange for a pardon from President Buchanan.

Before becoming a full-time church leader in 1835, Brigham Young earned his living in which trades?

He was born in Whitingham, Vermont, in 1801 and raised in upstate New York before converting.

Which future church president was severely wounded in Carthage Jail with Joseph and Hyrum Smith in 1844?

Willard Richards was also in the room and escaped almost unharmed; Taylor recovered and became the third president in 1880.

The only president of the LDS Church born outside the United States came from which country?

The third president, John Taylor, was born in Milnthorpe in Westmorland (now Cumbria) in 1808.

Which hymn was sung twice in Carthage Jail shortly before the Smiths were killed?

The singer was John Taylor; Taylor was badly wounded minutes later when the mob stormed the jail.

Wilford Woodruff's 1890 Manifesto officially ended the church's support of which practice?

It followed federal disenfranchisement of polygamists and seizure of church property that threatened to extend to the temples.

Woodruff's 1847 journal holds the earliest account west of the Mississippi of which pastime?

He learned the sport in England as a missionary and cast on the East Fork River during the trek west.

Wilford Woodruff helped found which organization to help members complete generational sealings?

That society is the ancestor of today's FamilySearch, one of the largest genealogy operations in the world.

Which president is credited with the couplet "As man now is, God once was: As God now is, man may be"?

His teachings were the church's 2013 course of study for Relief Society and Melchizedek priesthood classes.

Which principle became a hallmark of LDS membership under the fifth church president (1898-1901)?

He preached it in sermon after sermon for the rest of his tenure, interpreting it as ten percent of income.

The sixth president (1901-1918) was the son of which of the founder's brothers?

His mother, Mary Fielding, was a British convert; he was orphaned at 13 and was the last president to have personally known Joseph Smith.

The 1918 'Vision of the Redemption of the Dead' is which Doctrine and Covenants section?

Joseph F. Smith's 1918 vision was first added to the Pearl of Great Price in 1976 before being moved to the Doctrine and Covenants in 1981.

The sixth president was born in Far West, a church settlement in which state?

He was born in November 1838, weeks after Missouri's governor issued the extermination order against the Latter-day Saints.

Which initiative, launched in 1936, is counted among Heber J. Grant's greatest legacies as president?

Grant said its purpose was to do away with idleness and the dole and restore industry, thrift and self-respect.

How old was Heber J. Grant when he was called as an apostle in 1882?

He was working as a bookkeeper and cashier at the time, and had earlier taught himself to throw a baseball by hurling it against his barn for hours.

In 1901, Heber J. Grant was sent to open the church's mission in which country?

His wife Augusta went with him; the mission was a slow, difficult one and Grant returned home in 1903.

Heber J. Grant was the last church president to have practiced what?

He had three wives, though only Augusta Winters was still living when he became president in 1918.

George Albert Smith died on his own birthday in 1951. What was the date?

He was one of nineteen children of apostle John Henry Smith, and his eyesight was permanently damaged by sun glare while surveying for a railroad.

George Albert Smith helped bring the church into which youth organization in 1912?

In the 1920s he personally phoned Salt Lake City businessmen to squeeze donations out of them for scouting.

The ninth president, who served from 1951 to 1970, first used which slogan to promote outreach?

He was an educator by training and served as an active general authority for nearly 64 years, longer than anyone else.

Which president is credited with the saying "No other success can compensate for failure in the home"?

The line is still quoted in church manuals as a foundational principle on family life.

How old was Joseph Fielding Smith when he became church president in 1970?

He had led the Quorum of the Twelve for the entire 19-year presidency of his predecessor before finally taking office.

Which relative was church president when Joseph Fielding Smith joined the Twelve in 1910?

He was the son of Joseph F. Smith and the great-nephew of church founder Joseph Smith, and later spent years as Church Historian.

Harold B. Lee led which Salt Lake City stake when he built the Depression-era relief system the church adopted?

More than half of the stake's members were jobless; in 1936 Lee became managing director of the church-wide effort built on his plan.

The 12th president's tenure was noted for the 1978 announcement ending which restriction?

Spencer W. Kimball wrote the statement out in longhand on May 30, 1978, saying he had a good, warm feeling about it.

Which president spoke in a hoarse whisper after 1957 surgery removed one and a half vocal cords?

He had never used tobacco; a biopsy showed borderline malignancy and his surgeon recommended operating immediately.

Which 1969 book by the future 12th president dealt with repentance?

It grew out of years of counseling members as an apostle and stayed in print for decades.

Which cabinet post did Ezra Taft Benson hold for all eight years of the Eisenhower administration?

He had backed Robert Taft for the 1952 nomination and did not know Eisenhower, who appointed him anyway; he grew up the oldest of eleven children on an Idaho farm.

As president, Ezra Taft Benson challenged members to "flood the earth" with what?

The church sold a record six million copies to members that year for distribution.

Which organization tried to draft Ezra Taft Benson for president in 1968?

Benson sought and got permission from church president David O. McKay before considering it.

Whose nine-month tenure in 1994-95 is the shortest presidency in church history?

He was a lawyer by profession, the first president born in the 20th century and the last to die in it.

The 14th president's youthful dance band, the Croonaders, played a cruise to which region?

He played piano, violin, drums, saxophone, clarinet and trumpet, and kept playing sax at dances while working in banking.

As an apostle, the future 14th president negotiated the land for and dedicated which BYU facility in 1989?

The center on Mount Scopus overlooks the Old City and was fiercely opposed by some Israeli groups during construction.

Gordon B. Hinckley oversaw the reconstruction of the church's historic temple in which Illinois city?

The original was abandoned and destroyed after the exodus of 1846; more than half of all temples standing at Hinckley's death were built during his presidency.

Which document did Gordon B. Hinckley release on September 23, 1995?

It was prepared by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and is now framed in countless Latter-day Saint homes.

Which US president awarded Gordon B. Hinckley the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004?

Hinckley also collected ten honorary doctorates and the Boy Scouts' Silver Buffalo.

The Conference Center built under Gordon B. Hinckley seats roughly how many people?

It replaced the far smaller Salt Lake Tabernacle as the venue for general conference in 2000.

How old was Thomas S. Monson when he became a bishop in 1950?

His ward had over 1,000 members, and he kept visiting its widows long after he was released.

Thomas S. Monson spent his early career as an executive at which newspaper?

The paper is owned by the church; Monson rose to be its general manager before full-time church service.

How many widows lived in Thomas S. Monson's ward when he was its bishop, all of whom he visited regularly?

He famously kept visiting them for the rest of their lives, often speaking at their funerals.

Before his church service, Russell M. Nelson was internationally known in which profession?

He was on the University of Minnesota team that pioneered open-heart surgery with a heart-lung machine in 1951 and later operated on Spencer W. Kimball.

In 2018, Russell M. Nelson cut Sunday church meetings from three hours to how long?

The same year he announced the home-centered Come, Follow Me curriculum and urged members to drop the nickname "Mormon".

Russell M. Nelson died in 2025 as the oldest president in church history, at what age?

He passed Gordon B. Hinckley's record in 2022 and became the oldest apostle ever that August.

By April 2025, how many new temples had Russell M. Nelson announced during his presidency?

His first year alone brought nineteen, including the first temples in India, Nicaragua, Russia and Cambodia.

Russell M. Nelson and his first wife Dantzel had ten children. How many were daughters?

Their only son, Russell Jr., was the youngest; Dantzel sang in the Tabernacle Choir in the 1950s.

Before his call as an apostle, Dallin H. Oaks was president of which institution from 1971 to 1980?

He succeeded Ernest L. Wilkinson, and left to become a justice of the Utah Supreme Court.

After law school, Dallin H. Oaks clerked for which Chief Justice of the United States?

He had been editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review and went on to Kirkland & Ellis and a Chicago law professorship.

Ronald Reagan considered Dallin H. Oaks for the Supreme Court in 1981 but nominated whom instead?

Gerald Ford had also weighed Oaks in 1975 before choosing John Paul Stevens.

On becoming president in October 2025, whom did Dallin H. Oaks name as his First Counselor?

D. Todd Christofferson became Second Counselor; Eyring had also served alongside Oaks in Nelson's First Presidency.

By longstanding convention, who becomes the next church leader when the sitting president dies?

The First Presidency dissolves, its members rejoin the Twelve, and the senior apostle presides until the presidency is reorganized.

How is seniority among the Twelve Apostles determined?

That is why Ezra Taft Benson kept his place in line despite years away in Eisenhower's cabinet.

At which special general conference session do members formally sustain a new church president?

Since 1898 the surviving apostles have typically met in the Salt Lake Temple the Sunday after the funeral to set the new president apart.

Latter-day Saints sustain the church president as a "prophet, seer, and" what?

The title was originally given to Joseph Smith, and members usually preface the president's name with "President".

In which Vermont town was Brigham Young born in 1801?

He was raised in Upstate New York before joining the church.

In which Canadian city did John Taylor meet Parley P. Pratt and first encounter the church in 1836?

His wife Leonora, from the Isle of Man, joined first and persuaded him to keep investigating.

Lorenzo Snow received his final year of schooling at which Ohio college?

His sister Eliza R. Snow said she fostered his interest in Mormonism while he was there.

At what age was Joseph F. Smith sent on his first mission, to the Sandwich Islands?

The unusually young call came under the direction of apostle Parley P. Pratt.

What permanently impaired George Albert Smith's eyesight as a young man?

He was later diagnosed with lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease.

Which motto seen on a building in Stirling, Scotland, inspired missionary David O. McKay for life?

He had graduated as valedictorian of the University of Utah in 1897 before his call to Great Britain.

In which Idaho town was Harold B. Lee born in 1899?

His mother is said to have saved his life more than once, including neutralising spilled lye with pickled-beet vinegar.

In which Arizona town did Spencer W. Kimball spend most of his early life?

His father Andrew farmed there and served as the area's stake president.

In which city was Howard W. Hunter born in 1907?

His non-member father would not allow him to be baptised until he was 12; he was Idaho's second Eagle Scout.