President Nelson: Brilliant Mind, Gentle Heart

since the Lord's Church and he directs it by revelation through those that we sustain this profits and then the Lord gave me more and more experiences and then brought me to my husband's side we talked about the Lord is a great physician this is a great physician in his decision-making he's very concerned about the impact on individuals to be on your side an advocate for you I believe he's a total disciple of Jesus Christ I just thought how could that great father not be a disciple of Jesus Christ he has nothing but love and wanting to do what the Lord wants him to do in his heart I joke around often that sharing the same name keeps me good he has that love and personal relationship with the Savior that he wants all of us to have join us now for president Russell M Nelson brilliant mind gentle heart as the new prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints president Russell M Nelson introduced the new First Presidency and recently president and sister Nelson shared with us insights about their life together when I was called to said in the quorum of the twelve there were thirteen men senior to me and three of them were younger than I so I never worried about going all the way to the presidential chair every one of those men I loved and still do love as a brother I've watched them receive revelation and respond to revelation and I know that they will not leave me without it the frequency with which he is awakened during the night with revelation inspiration from the Lord about an idea has just increased exponentially it has been remarkable and I calls her coming with great intensity so I keep a pad of paper by our bed there and I've learned how to write notes to myself in the night without waking up Wendy I know that Jesus Christ Himself leads and guides his church it is important to remember his colleagues say that in 1984 this apostle and his now dear friend president Dallin Oaks were called just as the original twelve had been these two disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ were called right out of their public service really in the case of a Supreme Court justice and a very very engaging global heart surgeon we have saddened side by side in that quorum for 34 years but our friendship began 52 years ago president Oakes was then a law professor at the University of Chicago the Medical School Dean wanted to hire dr. Nelson and ask Dallin Oaks and his wife June to host the Nelsons we did everything we could to persuade him to accept an offer that we knew was being extended they became friends but dr. Nelson consulted with in church president David O McKay but president McKay just said I don't think you ought to go like that Russell Nelson made the decision on the spot he was not going to go sometime later dr.

Nelson was interviewed to be president of BYU instead the job went to Dallin Oaks he would have been a wonderful president of BYU but he lists all the people that he operated on after 1971 they include such names as Richard L Evans and Boyd K Packer and Spencer W Kimball none of which would have had him in the operating room if he had been chosen I'm just under 50 years of relation ship with Russell Nelson 45 plus and I don't think I have ever ever seen him flustered I don't think I've ever I know I've never seen him angry and Elder Holland remembers then elder Nelson's greeting when he became an apostle welcome dear friend and he threw his arms around me and held me and hugged me and I cried and his family members say president Nelson is very down to earth with them we just feel like you know he's in our corner a hundred percent all the time his son Russell Nelson jr. tells of a time on his mission in Russia when they were preparing to welcome an apostle I was doing an interview for a radio station saying we have a big event we have won over the leaders of our church coming and that dawned on me that this is my dad and and so that was really kind of one of the first times that the magnitude of it all kind of came together for me he would sneak us down to conference for a priesthood meeting he said he'd tried to get us in on our good looks and swears that he would be walking with us and then he just disappear and he'd go talk to someone he said she came here for me to talk to him you could tell that the spirit could just work through him and different and more powerful and intense ways as the years went on he really genuinely does love people and he loves to serve and he loves to do what the Lord wants him to do and that really truly brings him a great joy and you know all the traveling that he does and where other people it would just exhaust him he thrives on it he really does you develop faith when you exercise it all the time and and he's always exercised his faith he will take the time to think it through so he is sure let's pray about this brethren and we'll talk about it again next week and because I think his desire will be to be sure that what we do do is what the Lord Jesus Christ would expect his apostle I've watched the Lord placed the mantle on Russell Nelson he will go before the Lord and won't be telling the Lord what to do he'll be listening and responding and stepping forward then to bless the people I think he will really hear people and there is respect from those not of his faith as Elder Holland learned from a mutual friend when it was obvious that what would happen following President Monson's passing and he wrote me and he said and this is a direct quote Russell Nelson is as fine a man as God ever created love of the Lord love a family those are essential parts of President Nelson's personality he is a romantic man it really caught me off guard as well but he writes love poems for me and puts them to music the Nelsons gave us a glimpse into their personal lives we loved playing Scrabble together from time to time we have a jigsaw puzzle set up in our basement he has a great ear actually has to thank you mm-hmm but with this great ear he has perfect pitch and he can play the piano by ear if we go to a symphony and we hear a piece of music that just stirs our soul he can play that piece of music the next morning while I'm making breakfast for example we keep that pretty low guarded secret though that's a big secret president Nelson's capacity for kindness and his many gifts his friends and family say were evident from his early years Russel Marian Nelson was born on September 9th 1924 in Salt Lake City to Marian and Edna Anderson Nelson I've heard him talk about the fact that as a little boy he was just curious at 8 or 9 he would ride the streetcar to the public library he said I would just spend hours in the library just pulling books off the shelf and reading them and thumbing through them and sometimes just sitting and really focusing on them checking them out president Nelson has always said his good parents put family first and loved him and his siblings unconditionally they did not attend church but he went to Sunday school they wanted to know more about the church so he walked into a desert bookstore and found a woman working there and just said imagine this little boy saying I need to know more about the about the church and do you have a book what do you have in this store that would teach me about the church he was baptized at 16 but it's my understanding that his desire and drive to be part of the church came much from within that commitment to faith to family and to his profession never wavered when he's at work he's a hundred percent at work when he's home he's a hundred percent at home when he's doing his church duty he's a hundred percent Church duty and so I I think maybe that's how he balances things and long before he was the leader of a worldwide faith he was a world-renowned surgeon that gift came from his natural curiosity about life I have this theory about president Nelson and that is that probably from his birth he's been intrigued with how things tick first of all he won't know how a heart ticked and so he learned how to how to make him tick better president Nelson is a man who gained strength from the past that gives him confidence in the future people ask me what the future holds for them I and I say it can be absolutely fantastic for you if you'll just be careful and keep the commandments of God from time to time out of the blue he will come up to me look at me so lovingly and say go ahead I want to do something really wonderful for you today that devotion is echoed by other members of President Nelson's family as a father he's always been loving and more importantly it's obvious to each one of us as the children and family members that it's not just that he makes time it's that family is a priority if not the priority he loves to be around his family I think it refreshes him and relaxes him in ways that other things can't do it began they say as a love story my dad we always knew that he loved mother what was that quote that he always said he said the greatest gift you can give your children is to love their mother and he said that a lot her welfare was always uppermost in his mind danzel Dwight Nelson's children described their mother as very talented she gave up a scholarship to Julliard to Mary Russell Nelson in 1945 in the Salt Lake Temple when they started their family he was still in medical school and they had little once he was practicing medicine and they were settled in a Salt Lake neighborhood he encouraged danzel to join the Mormon Tabernacle Choir they start very early on a Sunday morning and he would take over and try to curl our little hair and get everybody dressed quite the challenge for a father of nine daughters he you know kept the home fires going so that's the kind of relationship they had it was very sweet and very giving to each other no matter how busy their father was when he came home they say he was with them he taught us how to ski between his legs up and alte taught us how to ride a bike he taught us how to drive he read a lot to us and he was very hands-on he was a great dad and a great provider for all of us for us skiing has always been a very important part of togetherness as a family when I was even in elementary school and junior high occasionally he'd pulled me out of school and we would go skiing together and on a Monday president Nelson has remained an avid skier every month members of the Nelson family gather ten children 57 grandchildren and to date 116 great-grandchildren to celebrate all of the birthdays and anniversaries in that month they meet following each general conference to discuss what they learned at Christmas they sing carols and the little ones participate in a live nativity and on the fourth of July there's the family reunion at their cabin in Midway the kids decorate their bikes for a little parade and we have dinner and then grandfather is carrying on the tradition that my grandmother started where they go off the balcony and tossed a feat all the kids that are down below and and then we finish it off with fireworks the Nelson children say they didn't know until years later that their dad was a world-famous heart surgeon the highlight for us growing up would be to go have dinner with him at the hospital while he was doing his errands you know his rounds we thought wow that is so cool we get to eat at the hospital hospital food when President Nelson's daughters began dating the house was often filled with boyfriends and he'd come out at about curfew time and say like look at me and say did you know you were here and and then if nothing happened after four or five minutes he'd come back again and say did you know you were still here not another occasion that he came out and he hold his hands out like this and he say I have to operate on someone in the morning and I need to get my sleep these hands are going to be are going to be needed so and you know we didn't have to say much more we were out of there the Nelson children grew up with this scripture Matthew 6:33 as their family theme seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you have an eternal perspective and always try to new things that not only are pleasing to our mother and father here but also our Heavenly Father the Nelsons suffered two tragic losses the death of their daughter Emily from cancer in 1995 at age 37 she had five young children when my Aunt Emily passed away that was so hard but I remember just watching him scoop up her children at the funeral and carry them out just like he was gonna you know scoop up and carry us you know and help us just come to terms with this we weep and we mourn for our loved ones not only because it's natural but it's a fulfillment of scriptural commandment that thou shalt live together in love and so much said you'll weep for them that die she said it don't worry about me daddy I'll be fine and then in 2005 President Nelson's wife danzel died suddenly at their home at age 78 the family had never seen him sad before I said what can we do for you daddy and he simply said just keep living the gospel just see he said go home sorry he said go home hug your children and keep being a good parent it was a beautiful love story as a grandchild to know that your grandparents just cherished and loved each other I can't think of a better gift that you can get in 2006 President Nelson met and married Wendy Watson trained as a nurse she was a BYU professor of marriage and Family Therapy she brings a unique talent to our family that is really welcomed and loved and appreciated and it's been great to get to know her but it's also been wonderful to see how they love each other sister Wendy Nelson believes in honoring sister Dan --sold Nelson when I think about Dan soul why wouldn't I love her imagine that she and my husband had almost 60 years together to grow and help each other so what did I get I got the dance of white improved version of Russell Marion Nelson right there modified improved also I try to do everything I can to make sure that my husband feels loved adored wanted and needed we call it lawn in our family WN adored wanted well I wasn't present at the church when you married me no so that came as a surprise it was a surprise to me that I was marrying a member of the quorum of the twelve I was looking for my eternal companion all of my life but I had no idea that that's where I would find him well the Lord raised you up to be there and Wendy Nelson says she tries to be sensitive to the family sometimes I look at a situation and think those children not only need they deserve a time alone with their daddy and I'll say to him trust me on this those girls and Russ jr. need their daddy to themselves just trust me and turns out great through President Nelson's many travels he stays connected to his family wherever he is in the world he'll respond to a text he'll respond to an email it doesn't matter where we live or where he's traveling if he's traveling I'll get an email so-and-so just said that they know you and they wanted to come up to me and let me know how much they love you and as a grandparent that just makes my buttons bursts to more than 16 million latter-day saints Russell M Nelson is the man they revere as a prophet to family he is that and more he's just our dad and he's delightful he's talented he's smart he's witty he's he's everything that you want in a dad I know that he patterned his life after the Savior's and that he's tried to teach us focusing on joy correct principles and let us govern ourselves and I hope that that's made him proud as a father of me as a son and as us as children when I entered medical school and I saw how well the body was made and how well it functions so I was enamored with God's great creation and magnificence of the human body when Russell Nelson was graduated medical school first in his class in 1947 operating on a live heart had never been done while earning a PhD at the University of Minnesota he was part of a team that developed the first heart-lung machine to make open-heart surgery possible I said to him one day how do you go from being told you can't touch the heart to saying hey let's build a heart young one machine and he said oh I've always been curious that natural curiosity led to a tremendous legacy both professional and personal further training in the army took him to every mass unit in Korea in 1955 after moving back to Salt Lake City he did the first open-heart surgery in the state of Utah and that might not sound like a big deal but at the time there are only two other states in the country that were doing open-heart surgery president Nelson says he became a doctor to help people and he believed there were more advances to be made in medical research deep scientific study though led him closer to the Lord and I realized the my own heart beats night and day and I'm not plugging it into any source of power but with looking at the electrocardiogram you can see the trace of the electrical energy it goes as it goes through the heart all as a gift from our Heavenly Father he soon gained the reputation as one of the premier heart surgeons in the country receiving patients from all over the world elder Greg Schweitzer now serves as assistant executive director of the missionary department but first became a doctor because of President Nelson in the ninth grade he and some classmates took a field trip to LDS Hospital he held an artificial heart valve in his hand and explained how it worked and I believe in part my decision to choose my life profession was because the influence and the inspiring nature of that first intersection of my life with his doctor Nelson was also a renowned educator so he trained a litany of folks that are now practicing cardiothoracic surgery all across the country but even this physician had failures the suffering of one family in particular stayed with him they had already lost two children to heart disease his operation did not save a third this third heartbreaking loss in one family literally undid me I went home grief-stricken I threw myself upon our living room floor and cried all night long after comforting him his wife danzel encouraged him to go back to the lab and further his research he never forgot that family he worked with them and we as a church witnessed that family coming to conference and then he went down from the stand and they were the first people that he made contact with still caring about his patient in 1972 president Spencer W Kimball had a life-threatening heart condition dr.

Nelson did not recommend a surgery but president Kimball said let's do it both men received blessings it's the only perfect operation I've ever done he said it was perfect everything was perfect I didn't break a stitch nothing went wrong it was perfect and it did keep him alive many more years to hear what they did in the 50s it still boggles my mind you know when when I go to the operating room success is almost assured when they went to the operating room that was not the case dr. mckellar is a cardiac surgeon at the University of Utah following in his grandfather's footsteps specializing in heart transplant and artificial hearts when I finished my training he kind of pulled me aside and he gave me a briefcase and said here to start your training your career on your own and it was a real emotional exchange actually he said if I could relive some of those highlights just by giving you a bag I would dr. nelson was at the height of his surgical career with an international reputation when he was called as an apostle a year later he was asked to fly to China to perform a risky operation on an opera star that was the last surgery he ever did there are Chinese doctors today that a few would say the name of Russel and Nelson they would be because something that they have there today was influenced by him his desire to learn to research to help has spread down the generations of his own family we have nurses and pharmacists and other physicians in the family so I think a lot of the enthusiasm he shared for what he did and the way he was able to serve other people was very contagious to a lot of us my husband made it very clear from the very beginning that he wanted me to be a true and active partner with him well I believe in the scripture this is man is not without the woman or the woman without the man in the Lord and if you're going to do the Lord's work you do it as partners equal partners not identical partners but equal partners yoked equally together no one's the boss it's wonderful President Nelson's 2015 address to the women of the faith sent a powerful message of his belief in their influence we your brethren need your strength your conversion your conviction your ability to lead your wisdom and your voices he gets women and as a champion for women a couple of months before he delivered that talk he was on his 20th draft when he asked sister Burton's advice and so he read me every word of this conference talk and I just sat there and wept I wept knowing that this was what was needed for the sisters of the church and he gave me a draft and he says I'd like you to think some more about this and get back to me if there's something that I I need to change in this two weeks later she and sister Bonnie Oscarson then young women general president took that talk to Europe and read it to a group of about 70 sister missionaries serving in Milan Italy this is from the present of the quorum of the twelve to you and it was one of those special experiences where the Spirit is so strong you almost dare not breathe because we knew that this was going to resonate and then it was resonating with these sisters who were in the trenches teaching the gospel the kingdom of God is not and cannot be complete without women women who can speak with the power and authority of God I think he will be exceptional in his view and consideration of women president Nelson is grateful for the love and support of strong women dance we'll brought ten precious children into our family and she sustained me through our many many years of privation and dedication I would never been called to the twelve without her partnership with me so when Wendy came alone she not only learned to love me but she is my constant partner companion and teacher I never would have lived long enough to sit in this chair that I occupy now if it hadn't been for Wendy's partnership at this time of life Russ Nelson says he had a unique view of women within his family he watched his father treat his mother and his nine sisters with respect I get the impression too that it wouldn't have been any different had there been ten sons we would have all been taught the same thing that there's nothing more sacred than the woman's role in the family and in the world and it's very special Ardeth cap became young women general president in 1984 at the same time that President Nelson became an apostle he was a great supporter it was a glorious time because we had an advocate for women particularly for young women she told us how she and her presidency were inspired to create the young women personal progress with its seven values theme so we made the presentation and elder Nelson was in the gathering and when we finished he spoke up and he said sisters we've had the diagnosis but now we have the prescription it was not simply they agreed a new idea for that time it was a vision for the future I believe that he has been prepared from the beginning and a very crucial exciting and troublesome time when the women of the church will have more opportunity more responsibilities more influence in having a powerful impact with their insides their vision I just hope and pray that the sisters will know how much we value them and their participation the president kimball had very strong feelings about this he said that they will come when the strength of the church will be largely dependent upon the sisters of the church the Lord loves his daughters and we believe that he wants his daughters really totally thoroughly completely engaged in moving the work of the church ahead whatever your calling whatever your circumstances we need your impressions your insights and your inspiration we need you to speak up and speak out I have participated in the dedication of 31 countries thus far I've learned that the Lord honors the prayers of his servants and I've also learned that he expects our efforts in his 34 years as a church leader president Russell M Nelson has traveled the globe we even got you a new country this last year we don't even need to say what it was but we got you a new country we got three did we get three three for you me for me huh as he opens nations for the preaching of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ he finds people of tremendous faith he's really a lot like the pioneers of Brigham Young's time strong testimonies devout people willing to leave their country and their families just because they knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet the book of was true one thing that I have learned for sure is that length of membership in the church has zero to do with how much people love the Lord how deep their testimony is how deep their understanding of the doctrine is his colleagues and family members say president Nelson possesses natural gifts of diplomacy since his call to the twelve he opened doors in Eastern Europe and he has visited a hundred and twenty nine different nations as the Lord servant in 2011 elder and sister Nelson visited Kenya and met with a thousand latter-day saints in a state conference the children saying I'm a child of God for him in another African nation they faced a dangerous situation they had a fairly terrifying experience in Mozambique in 2009 president and sister Nelson were having dinner with two other Church couples at the mission home when several armed men walked in they basically throw then elder Nelson down kick him in the face with a boot take his wallet take his phone the men tried to grab sister Nelson and injured the mission president's wife when she ran for help one of the most powerful parts of this is that in the middle of terror Wendy said I felt peaceful president Nelson shared that peaceful feeling ultimately they were all able to get to safety in 2005 not long after the loss of danzel president Nelson traveled to dedicate the site for a new temple in Curitiba Brazil David and Sylvia Webster were serving there he was the mission president we came alone and he stayed with us and you know it was clear he was he was very saddened it was it was a difficult time for all of us people could feel his love for them and they loved him all the more because he made that effort to be with them in 1997 President Nelson dedicated the MTC in Brazil he stood with a translator his side and then said if you have faith sufficient and I do I'm going to excuse my counselor and we'll dedicate this building in a language that everyone understands perfect Portuguese not a note and I thought how could he and everyone understood it there was not a mistake made elders Wieck showed us that dedicatory prayer in both Portuguese and English which has a special place in his home president Nelson has visited countries in Eastern Europe many times it was at this amphitheater called lalalala in Tallinn Estonia in 1990 that elder Nelson dedicated the nation Estonians believe the soul of their country resides here he faced many difficulties before that he and elder Hans ringer travelled to Russia in 1987 and met with the head of Religious Affairs he asked rather bluntly what do you want the church needed 20 members to apply for recognition but without missionaries there were no converts elder Rinker and I then went over to the Kremlin sat on the park bench for a long time we prayed we talked we thought how in the world can we do that they couldn't but within a few years Russians were baptized in other countries the Lord went to work he brought through various means converts into the church and we got 20 adult members who are willing to sign that they were members of the church in the city of Leningrad the nation of Russia was blessed at the summer garden in st.

Petersburg twice once in 1903 by elder France Liman then in 1990 elder Nelson with a small group of saints chose the same spot then they came here amid the statues of Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and elder Nelson offered a dedicatory prayer for the people and the land in 1988 elder Nelson and elder ringer went to Bulgaria to meet with an official in Sofia he was obviously very put out about us Nelson Rinker Mormon Church never heard of you and I said well mr.