Russell M. Nelson
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50 free Russell M. Nelson trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Russell M. Nelson had a career most people would call complete before his second one began. For nearly three decades he was a heart surgeon who helped move open-heart surgery from the laboratory to the operating room. Then, in 1984, he set medicine aside to become an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and in 2018, at an age when most people are long retired, he became its president. He led the church until his death in 2025 at the age of 101. This quiz follows the whole story: a Depression-era childhood in Salt Lake City, medical school and Army service, landmark operations, a large family, travels across the world as an apostle, and the changes he made to worship, study and youth programs as president. You will also meet the people around him, from the leaders who shaped his path to those he called to serve beside him. It is written for Latter-day Saint youth and families, seminary and church classes, and anyone curious about the surgeon who became a prophet to millions. The opening questions cover what most members remember, and later ones reward readers of his biography. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which church leader had open-heart surgery by Dr. Russell M. Nelson right after April 1972's general conference?
Spencer W. Kimball
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.
Q 02Which pope met Russell M. Nelson at the Vatican, the first meeting of a pope and a Latter-day Saint president?
Francis
Francis welcomed him in March 2019, when the 94-year-old church president had been in office for just over a year.
Q 03During which conflict did Russell M. Nelson serve as an Army doctor on a research team that drew enemy artillery fire?
Korean War
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.
Q 04Which language did Russell M. Nelson take up after a church president urged a congregation to learn it?
Mandarin
Mandarin let him lecture and operate in China, where three universities later made him an honorary professor.
Q 05Which mix describes the ten children Russell M. Nelson raised with his first wife, whom he married in 1945?
Nine daughters, one son
Nine daughters, one son: Russell Jr., the youngest of the family, arrived in 1972 after nine girls in a row.
Q 06Which winter sport was Russell M. Nelson still enjoying frequently at age 93, when he became church president?
Skiing
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.
Q 07Whose death in January 2018, after a decade as church president, made Russell M. Nelson the next leader?
Thomas S. Monson
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.
Q 08At a 2018 worldwide youth devotional, Russell M. Nelson invited teenagers to fast from social media for how long?
Seven days
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.
Q 09About how many operations had surgeon Russell M. Nelson performed by the time he was called as an apostle in 1984?
7,000
Nearly 7,000 operations filled his 29 years as a surgeon, including 360 in 1983 alone, his last full year in the operating room.
Q 10Which former Utah Supreme Court justice joined the Twelve alongside Russell M. Nelson in 1984 and later succeeded him?
Dallin H. Oaks
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.
Q 11Which program did Russell M. Nelson introduce in April 2018 to replace home teaching and visiting teaching?
Ministering
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.
Q 12Which home study program, announced under Russell M. Nelson in 2018, replaced several older lesson manuals?
Come, Follow Me
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.
Q 13Russell M. Nelson announced in October 2018 that weekly Sunday church meetings would be shortened to what length?
Two hours
Q 21Where did Russell M. Nelson earn a PhD in 1954 for his work on an early heart-lung machine research team?
University of Minnesota
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.
Q 22Which apostle served as second counselor to Russell M. Nelson for his entire time as church president?
Henry B. Eyring
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.
Q 23Russell M. Nelson was general president of which church organization from 1971 to 1979, while still a busy surgeon?
Two hours replaced a three-hour block, and families were asked to spend the time saved studying the gospel together at home.
Q 14Which Canadian-born professor of family therapy did Russell M. Nelson marry in the Salt Lake Temple in 2006?
Wendy Watson
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.
Q 15Whose mark as the oldest president in church history did Russell M. Nelson pass in April 2022, aged 97?
Gordon B. Hinckley
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.
Q 16For which temple's 2019 dedication did Russell M. Nelson gather every apostle, a first outside the United States?
Rome Italy
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.
Q 17Which statue sits at the center of the church symbol that Russell M. Nelson introduced in April 2020?
The Christus
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.
Q 18Under Russell M. Nelson, the church ended a partnership dating to 1913 with which youth organization?
Boy Scouts of America
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.
Q 19As a boy, before his baptism at 16, Russell M. Nelson preferred playing which sport with friends to attending church?
Football
Football held his attention until he was 16, when he was baptized together with his siblings. Their parents returned to church activity years later.
Q 20Which fellow University of Utah student, the lead soprano in a campus musical, became Russell M. Nelson's first wife?
Dantzel White
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.
Sunday School
Sunday School lessons under his leadership moved to a single cycle that worked through all of the church's scriptures over eight years.
Q 24In an October 2020 sermon, Russell M. Nelson taught that one Hebrew meaning of the name Israel is what?
Let God prevail
Let God prevail became the title of the talk, which retold how Jacob received the name Israel after a night of wrestling.
Q 25In April 2020 Russell M. Nelson invited people of every faith to fast for pandemic relief on which Christian holy day?
Good Friday
Good Friday, April 10, was the second worldwide fast he had called in two weeks, asking that the pandemic be controlled and caregivers protected.
Q 26Which book of scripture, in a passage about every kingdom having a law, inspired Russell M. Nelson's heart research?
Doctrine and Covenants
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.
Q 27Which church president counseled Russell M. Nelson in 1965 to turn down a University of Chicago post and stay in Utah?
David O. McKay
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.
Q 28Growing up in the Great Depression, Russell M. Nelson recalled asking permission to eat which costly fruit?
Banana
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.
Q 29About how many new temples did Russell M. Nelson announce between 2018 and 2025 as president of the church?
200
About 200 temples were announced on his watch, among them the first planned for Russia, Nicaragua and Cambodia.
Q 30Which Brazilian leader, the first apostle from South America, did Russell M. Nelson call to the Twelve in April 2018?
Ulisses Soares
Ulisses Soares, a former businessman from São Paulo, was one of two apostles named at the first general conference of the new presidency.