At the age of 101, President Russell M.
Nelson passes away yesterday, September
27th, 2025.
Uh, few thoughts on his life, especially
his time as president of the church, uh,
that I've gotten from him that I think
are important and have made an impact on
my life. First of all, I met President
Nelson in 1985.
He had recently, I believe in 1984, been
called to be an apostle uh along with
President Oaks same day with uh
President Nelson being ordained first
and and President Oaks second, which was
I believe the instruction of Spencer W.
Kimble at the time. had a very short
conversation with him where he gave a
talk along with Elder Packer at a
conference just you know amiable I
didn't get don't know him in any way uh
but uh had a chance at least to meet
with him secondly as a heart
uh surgeon he helped develop in fact was
extremely influential in developing the
artificial
uh lung for heart surgery
uh Many of you know that I had a triple
bypass several years ago that was used.
That machine was used. There's no way
that I could have had this done without
that machine being produced. Uh and and
so in some ways he saved my life, right?
um a difficult surgery obviously cutting
open your chest and ripping it open
and then having the artificial lung uh
work with the blood and the oxygen to um
allow the surgeons to work and operate
on your heart as they sever completely
three of my arteries. remove portions of
that and and put in bypass arteries in
their place. Another influential part of
my life from President Nelson, but most
importantly, I want to talk just a
little bit about his personality and the
way that he led. I I appreciate the way
that he works. And and this is what I
mean by that. He
he does not operate off of biases. And I
think that's really important. That
doesn't mean I've agreed with everything
he's chosen. Some of you may have had an
issue with the COVID response or or
whatever temple issue, you know,
whatever. I I don't know. But I
appreciate a man
that works directly off of what he
believes is what the Lord is revealing
to him and what he needs to change and
what he needs to work on for the church.
And he does it without how is this going
to look. He does it without uh worrying
about biases or political issues or you
know he is focused on making certain
changes in the church has been based on
what he believes is right and I fully
believe that that is true. So I really
appreciate that. I I think that that is
when you are someone that tries
desperately to follow truth regardless
of your friends, family,
uh you know, and and
tries to look for things that are, for
example, the NAACP. I know so many
people have a problem with that. Is the
church moving liberal because of this?
is, you know, I no he he's creating a
relationship that I think is very
important.
That doesn't mean that he agrees with
them politically,
right? You you can do that. You can walk
that edge of the sword and create
relationships
and uh be influential in those
relationships. even though those are
organizations, they may have very little
in common with you, people that may have
very little in common with you, but he
finds those commonalities
and creates those relationships. And I
think that's been a very positive thing
uh with for example the the NAACP.
Uh the other thing I think is that in in
the same vein where he has
looked for revelation directly from the
Lord
regardless of pressure
is that he wants us to do the same
thing.
And and so the the comments of of
looking to work by the spirit of of
separating us in many ways from a
dependency on the church in so many ways
for checklists like with the for
strength of youth pamphlet
or uh home study with come follow me.
It's obvious to me that what he's saying
is look we need to prepare ourselves. We
need to become more and stop leaning so
much on the church
to direct your life. Take control of it.
build a relationship with the Father
through prayer, through through the
Savior in the atonement and through the
Spirit, through revelation
in order to become who you need to
become and actually step out of the
shadow to some degree of the church
and be a leader. Be a leader of your
surrounding. Be a leader of your
community. Be a leader of your family.
Be a leader within the church.
And that's a really hard thing to do.
That's a really hard thing to do because
we have been so dependent upon the
church in the past. It's like taking the
training wheels off and saying, "Here
you go."
And you might crash a couple times, but
you have to develop the home and it
can't be us instructing you every day
what to do.
So, I really appreciate that from
President Nelson. The the last thing I'm
going to say is his urgency for the
second coming
and preparing for that. Now, I I don't
know that, you know, there are a lot of
channels that'll go out there and that's
what they focus on and um you know, kind
of this hype deal of, you know, is is
the second coming coming on Thursday?
you know is it but
president Nelson is putting a principle
in place
saying we need to hasten the work
and whether it's temple building and
temple work
whether it is becoming
independent of dependency on the church
I think that those are very strong
principles that and and necessary
principles even though it is going to
cause growing pains for us. I think that
it is inspired and I think it's
incredibly brave and courageous for him
to to put those things out to the church
for us to follow. I love President
Nelson. Uh love hearing his words. Uh I
have been able to listen to him for what
84 so for what 41 years
in uh in his council again. Here's also
a guy who was never in the first
presidency and then boom all of a sudden
was prophet.
I think that's interesting. Yeah. I
think that that in some ways gave him
some certain perspective
on on what he wanted to change. And so
when he goes in and he makes all of
these changes,
I also think it's important to see how
he is creating actually a stronger
identity in some ways. I think there are
other ways where maybe that cultural
identity is not as strong. I'll be
honest, but in some ways, especially in
terms of principles and doctrine, the
name of the church,
right, is is is right up there. He's
going in and he's tweaking all of these
little policies
and and to to to move us to a point
where we can stand on our own two feet
and be empowered by the spirit and by
our faith and testimony and covenants
instead of trying to say that all of
that power is coming from the church
instead of directly with our
relationship with God.
I think that's crucial. And so I I am
forever grateful for that message from
President Nelson. Of course, lastly, his
testimony of Jesus Christ of being a
disciple of Christ, right? His identity
hierarchy is so crucial. It is
uh child of God, child of the covenant,
disciple of Christ. Put a line below
that and everything else is below it.
And in a time when identity politics has
been so strong in the west and race and
gender and sexual orientation and class,
all of these different identities, even
nationality
are are being brought up to the top and
it's throwing everything off. It it is
definitely coming from the adversary. He
is putting things straight there.
So very much appreciate all that he has
done in his seven and a half plus years
as a prophet and I have no doubt that he
was called of God and that he was the
right man for his time.
Thanks for listening.
