50 Fun Facts About Russell M. Nelson

Which church leader had open-heart surgery by Dr. Russell M. Nelson right after April 1972's general conference?

Spencer W. Kimball was 77 and struggling to breathe when his surgeon replaced a damaged aortic valve. He recovered, became church president the next year and later called that surgeon as an apostle.

Which pope met Russell M. Nelson at the Vatican, the first meeting of a pope and a Latter-day Saint president?

Francis welcomed him in March 2019, when the 94-year-old church president had been in office for just over a year.

During which conflict did Russell M. Nelson serve as an Army doctor on a research team that drew enemy artillery fire?

The Korean War took his team to all five MASH units in Korea, and at one point they came close enough to the front that enemy artillery fired on them and missed.

Which language did Russell M. Nelson take up after a church president urged a congregation to learn it?

Mandarin let him lecture and operate in China, where three universities later made him an honorary professor.

Which mix describes the ten children Russell M. Nelson raised with his first wife, whom he married in 1945?

Nine daughters, one son: Russell Jr., the youngest of the family, arrived in 1972 after nine girls in a row.

Which winter sport was Russell M. Nelson still enjoying frequently at age 93, when he became church president?

Skiing kept him on the slopes long after most people hang up their boots, and a fellow church leader marvelled that he did it with very little rest.

Whose death in January 2018, after a decade as church president, made Russell M. Nelson the next leader?

Thomas S. Monson died on January 2, 2018, and twelve days later the senior apostle was set apart as his successor in an upper room of the Salt Lake Temple.

At a 2018 worldwide youth devotional, Russell M. Nelson invited teenagers to fast from social media for how long?

Seven days was the first of five invitations he gave teenagers that night, meant to loosen the pull of their feeds so they could notice spiritual promptings.

About how many operations had surgeon Russell M. Nelson performed by the time he was called as an apostle in 1984?

Nearly 7,000 operations filled his 29 years as a surgeon, including 360 in 1983 alone, his last full year in the operating room.

Which former Utah Supreme Court justice joined the Twelve alongside Russell M. Nelson in 1984 and later succeeded him?

Dallin H. Oaks had tried to recruit him to the University of Chicago back in 1965, then served as his first counselor throughout his presidency before leading the church himself.

Which program did Russell M. Nelson introduce in April 2018 to replace home teaching and visiting teaching?

Ministering put less weight on delivering a lesson and more on noticing what people need, and girls aged 14 to 18 could now be given assignments too.

Which home study program, announced under Russell M. Nelson in 2018, replaced several older lesson manuals?

Come, Follow Me was built for families to use at home in the hour freed when church services were shortened, and by 2024 its separate versions had merged into one manual.

Russell M. Nelson announced in October 2018 that weekly Sunday church meetings would be shortened to what length?

Two hours replaced a three-hour block, and families were asked to spend the time saved studying the gospel together at home.

Which Canadian-born professor of family therapy did Russell M. Nelson marry in the Salt Lake Temple in 2006?

Wendy Watson, raised in Raymond, Alberta, had never married before. The wedding came about a year after his first wife of nearly 60 years died unexpectedly.

Whose mark as the oldest president in church history did Russell M. Nelson pass in April 2022, aged 97?

Gordon B. Hinckley had led the church until his death at 97 in 2008. Four months after passing him, Nelson also became the oldest apostle the church has had.

For which temple's 2019 dedication did Russell M. Nelson gather every apostle, a first outside the United States?

Rome Italy drew all 15 apostles for three days of services, and the leaders used the occasion to take their first group photograph in two decades.

Which statue sits at the center of the church symbol that Russell M. Nelson introduced in April 2020?

The Christus, Bertel Thorvaldsen's marble figure of the risen Jesus, stands beneath an arch in the symbol, a reminder of his emergence from the tomb.

Under Russell M. Nelson, the church ended a partnership dating to 1913 with which youth organization?

The Boy Scouts of America lost its largest sponsor when the church left at the end of 2019 to run its own worldwide program for children and youth.

As a boy, before his baptism at 16, Russell M. Nelson preferred playing which sport with friends to attending church?

Football held his attention until he was 16, when he was baptized together with his siblings. Their parents returned to church activity years later.

Which fellow University of Utah student, the lead soprano in a campus musical, became Russell M. Nelson's first wife?

Dantzel White caught his ear when both were cast in the same university show. They dated for three years and married in the Salt Lake Temple in 1945.

Where did Russell M. Nelson earn a PhD in 1954 for his work on an early heart-lung machine research team?

The University of Minnesota team he joined built a heart-lung machine that in April 1951 supported the first human open-heart operation on cardiopulmonary bypass.

Which apostle served as second counselor to Russell M. Nelson for his entire time as church president?

Henry B. Eyring had already been a counselor to the two previous church presidents, giving him an unbroken run in the First Presidency from 2007.

Russell M. Nelson was general president of which church organization from 1971 to 1979, while still a busy surgeon?

Sunday School lessons under his leadership moved to a single cycle that worked through all of the church's scriptures over eight years.

In an October 2020 sermon, Russell M. Nelson taught that one Hebrew meaning of the name Israel is what?

Let God prevail became the title of the talk, which retold how Jacob received the name Israel after a night of wrestling.

In April 2020 Russell M. Nelson invited people of every faith to fast for pandemic relief on which Christian holy day?

Good Friday, April 10, was the second worldwide fast he had called in two weeks, asking that the pandemic be controlled and caregivers protected.

Which book of scripture, in a passage about every kingdom having a law, inspired Russell M. Nelson's heart research?

The Doctrine and Covenants convinced him that the beating heart must obey laws that could be learned, though he had been taught that a heart would stop if touched.

Which church president counseled Russell M. Nelson in 1965 to turn down a University of Chicago post and stay in Utah?

David O. McKay prayed and answered no, telling him that people would come to Salt Lake City from all over the world because he was there.

Growing up in the Great Depression, Russell M. Nelson recalled asking permission to eat which costly fruit?

A banana strained the family budget in the 1930s, so he asked first, a memory he was still sharing eight decades later as church president.

About how many new temples did Russell M. Nelson announce between 2018 and 2025 as president of the church?

About 200 temples were announced on his watch, among them the first planned for Russia, Nicaragua and Cambodia.

Which Brazilian leader, the first apostle from South America, did Russell M. Nelson call to the Twelve in April 2018?

Ulisses Soares, a former businessman from São Paulo, was one of two apostles named at the first general conference of the new presidency.

Where did surgeon Russell M. Nelson volunteer as a missionary guide every Thursday afternoon from 1955 to 1965?

Temple Square visitors got their tour from a heart surgeon in one of his busiest stretches, when early aortic valve replacements could keep him at a patient's side for hours or even days.

Which region was apostle Russell M. Nelson assigned to open to the church from 1985, a task needing 27 trips?

Eastern Europe took him to first meetings with officials in Bulgaria, Romania and the Soviet Union, and he later reported the church established in every country there.

Which apostle travelled with Russell M. Nelson on his first world tour as president, from London to Hawaii, in 2018?

Jeffrey R. Holland and his wife joined the Nelsons for stops in Jerusalem, Nairobi, Harare, Bangkok and Hong Kong along the way.

Russell M. Nelson said he was told the night before a 2018 conference to announce a temple for which country?

India had not been in his plans for that weekend, he told church members in Bengaluru later that month; it was the first temple announced for the country.

In 2018 Russell M. Nelson gave an entire sermon in which language, thought to be a first for a church president?

Spanish was the language of his full address in the Dominican Republic, and weeks later he gave another major talk in it in Peru.

At age 10, Russell M. Nelson became an errand boy for which kind of business run by his father?

The advertising agency was Gillham Advertising, the earliest in Utah, which his father managed after working as a newspaper reporter.

Russell M. Nelson's first wife, a soprano, sang for 20 years with which famous Salt Lake City ensemble?

The Tabernacle Choir counted her among its singers for 20 years. Early in the marriage she taught school by day and clerked in a music store at night while he studied medicine.

The proclamation Russell M. Nelson read to the church in April 2020 marked the bicentennial of which event?

Joseph Smith's First Vision was dated to spring 1820, and the proclamation was recorded in the grove in upstate New York where Smith said it took place.

Whose death in July 2015 made Russell M. Nelson president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles?

Boyd K. Packer had once been his heart patient, and his death left the 90-year-old former surgeon as the longest-serving apostle in the quorum.

Which counselor from the previous First Presidency did Russell M. Nelson return to the Twelve in January 2018?

Dieter F. Uchtdorf went back to the Twelve with new assignments. No incoming church president had replaced a serving counselor since 1985.

In which African country were apostle Russell M. Nelson, his wife and others attacked during a 2009 church visit?

Mozambique lay within the continent he supervised for the church as an apostle, and he kept returning to Africa, visiting Kenya two years later.

At which Army medical center was Dr. Russell M. Nelson stationed in the early 1950s, forming a surgical research unit?

Walter Reed, in Washington, D.C., was his base for 20 months of active duty with a team sent to improve the treatment of wounded soldiers.

Which former Rhodes Scholar became the first apostle of Asian descent when Russell M. Nelson called him in 2018?

Gerrit W. Gong studied international relations at Oxford and worked at the U.S. State Department before entering full-time church leadership.

In 2003 Russell M. Nelson became the first member of the Twelve to visit which Central Asian country?

Kazakhstan was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel on that trip, one of 27 nations he dedicated during his years as an apostle.

Which surgeon led the research team Russell M. Nelson joined that first used a heart-lung machine on a patient in 1951?

Clarence Dennis had begun building his pump-oxygenator in 1946. The 1951 patient did not survive, but the machine itself ran well for 40 minutes.

Which Army rank did Dr. Russell M. Nelson hold when he left active duty after 20 months of service?

Captain was his rank in the Army Medical Corps, and he followed his service with a year of surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Which title did Russell M. Nelson give his October 2023 conference message, delivered seated after a back injury?

Think Celestial urged listeners to weigh each choice against eternity, and it came only weeks after he had turned 99.

Which board game does the church's 2018 profile of Russell M. Nelson say that he loves to play?

Scrabble suited a man who studied half a dozen languages and whose colleagues praised his careful editing of their sermons.

At 93, Russell M. Nelson still cleared his own and his neighbors' driveways using which machine?

A snowblower was part of a routine that left younger colleagues struggling to keep up; he also hurried down the temple stairs while others took the elevator.

In 2019, during Russell M. Nelson's presidency, women were first authorized to fill which role at baptisms?

Witness had been a ceremonial role reserved for men holding the priesthood until church leaders opened it to women that year.