President Russell M. Nelson, the Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, passed away at the age of 101 on Sept. 27.
He was born Sept. 9, 1924 to Edna Anderson Nelson and Marion C. Nelson, with two sisters and one brother. He grew up in Salt Lake City, and was baptized into the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints at the age of 16. He married his first wife Dantzel White in the Salt Lake temple on Aug. 31, 1945. After her passing in 2005, Nelson remarried to Wendy L. Watson on April 6, 2006 in the same temple. He is survived by eight of the 1o children he had as well as 57 grandchildren, more than 167 great grandchildren, and one great-great grandchild.
Exploring his passion for medicine, he graduated at the age of 22 and received his BA and MD from the University of Utah. After came both internships and residency in Minnesota and Massachusetts. He served two years of military duty in Washington D.C. as well as abroad. After which he got his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. In 1955 he performed the first open heart surgery in Utah.
“He spent most of his life as a heart surgeon, where he pioneered many well-known methods for open-heart surgery,” Milo Weston (12) said.
Over his career, he performed more than 7,000 operations. One for innovation, Nelson helped develop an artificial heart and lung machine that was small enough to function in an operating room. He was a research professor of surgery, director of the thoracic surgery residency at the same university he graduated from, The University of Utah. He also was a chairman of the Division of Thoracic surgery at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Nelson was called as an apostle of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints on April 7, 1984. After the passing of the previous prophet Thomas S. Monson, Nelson became leader of the Church on Jan. 14, 2018. He visited leaders of religions all over the world. One of the most famous was his meeting of Pope Francis in March 2019. He loved and cared for everyone he met.
Nelson made a ton of changes to the church. One of which was changing the way the members are addressed. The leader recentered the church by changing their members’ identifications from the colloquial “Mormons” to members of the Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day saints, to emphasize the focus around Christ. He modified a policy to make it so that children whose parents were a part of the LGBTQIA+ community would be able to be baptized into the church. He created a new global youth program made for both kids and teenagers. Nelson also announced the building of about 200 temples during his presidency. More than any other prophet.
“He announced lots of temples and lots of temples were built while he was on the earth and he brought lots of people closer to Christ,” Maelyn Sachak (9) said.
President Nelson was a disciple of Christ. He dedicated his life to being prophet of the church. He built and strengthened connections, and taught everyone to change the world through every interaction.
“One of the best things he did for the church was try to help increase not only people’s relationships with God, but also relationships with one another,” Noelle Wise (12) said. Over Nelson’s lifetime, he touched the hearts of people both spiritually and physically. He will be deeply missed. Not just by the members of the church, but also by the people around the globe whose hearts he touched.
