LDS Apostles express humble responses to a sacred calling
President Spencer W. Kimball, shown here with his wife, Sister Kimball walking on an airport tarmac with Elder Boyd K. Packer and Elder and Sister Gordon B. Hinckley, 1980s in Montevideo, Uruguay, admitted that he was openly stunned when he was first called as an apostle for the LDS Church in 1943. It was after deep contemplation that he assured the calling was truly divine.
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency speaks during the Sunday morning session of the 185th Annual General Conference at the LDS Conference Center in Salt Lake City on Sunday, April 5, 2015. When he was first called as an apostle, his wife, Sister Harriet Uchtdorf, recalled a special hour that included "moments of sacred turmoil" as they pondered the weight of the calling. GRANT HINDSLEY, Daily Herald
When he first received the call to serve as an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve, President Spencer. W. Kimball, by his own personal account, was stunned.
President Kimball received the call to the apostleship by Heber J. Grant in October of 1943. Like others before him, the day he accepted the call his life was changed forever.
In a feature in the BYU Studies Quarterly on Spencer W. Kimball, written by Edward L. and Andrew E. Kimball, the article recounts the emotions President Kimball experienced at his calling to be one of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
“When he was called as an apostle. . . he was stunned, uncomprehending, reduced to uncontrolled weeping, even skeptical for the first time of the authorities’ inspiration — until he spent a day on a mountain near Boulder, Colorado, and received a dream-vision of his grandfather, Heber C. Kimball, and an assurance that the call was divine.”
While a calling to be an apostle is sacred and extremely personal, there have been small glimpses shared through personal histories and stories that give readers a greater perspective on the heavy responsibility and importance of a call to the Quorum of the Twelve.
All of these stories can be found through various references on lds.org and through the topics pages at www.mormonnewsroom.org. Some of them are from their own biographies or conference talks.
In his April 1994 conference talk titled “God is at the Helm,” President Gordon B. Hinckley gives insight to the nature of the call of the apostleship and why one called to the Quorum of the Twelve might go through mighty soul searching and self-discovery.
“Now brethren, let it be understood by all that Jesus Christ stands at the head of this church which bears His sacred name,” President Hinckley said. “He is watching over it. He is guiding it. Standing at the right hand of His Father, He directs this work. His is the prerogative, the power, the option to call men in His way to high and sacred offices and to release them according to His will by calling them home.”
President Hinckley continued, “I repeat for emphasis that all who have been ordained to the holy apostleship have had bestowed upon them the keys and the authority of this most high and sacred office. In this authority reside the powers of governance of the church and kingdom of God in the earth. There is order in the exercise of that authority. It is specifically set forth in the revelations of the Lord. It is known to all of the Brethren and is observed by all.”
In a portion of Jeffery R. Holland’s biography on lds.org it tells of how he, too, was caught off guard when the call to the apostleship came.
“The events of 23 June 1994 stunned Elder Holland. There had been no particular sense of foreshadowing in President (Howard W.) Hunter’s invitation to a 7:30 a.m. visit. But by midday, Elder Holland had been called to serve in the Quorum of the Twelve, had been introduced in the quorum by President Hunter, and had been ordained by the President.
“In quieter moments, after the rush of events following his ordination, there came a period of soul searching for Elder Holland. It went on for some time, motivated in part by his ‘unspeakable respect’ for the office to which he has been ordained. The calling, he reflects, requires a member of the Twelve ‘to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He stands for, all that He is, and all that His church represents. There is an overwhelming sense of responsibility in that.’ It brings a deep desire ‘to live up to the standard that the entire Christian world holds for the title “Apostle,” never doing anything that could ever diminish that office in anyone’s sight.'”
At a news conference in 2008 following his call to the apostleship, Elder D. Todd Christofferson said that he felt a degree of incredulity, as well as a deep sense of humility and gratitude for the trust shown in him with respect to his new calling as an apostle in the church.
He said that he felt great desire, anxiety and hope with respect to serving others in the spirit of Christ’s admonition to Peter to “feed my sheep” and “feed my lambs.”
Sister Harriet Uchtdorf recalls the moments following President Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s call. “We spent a very special hour together in our home, sharing our innermost feelings, which included moments of sacred turmoil.”
The words often seem the same and run together as these men recognize and accept the call to be a special witness of Christ.
Those words include; humble, stunned, gratitude, reflection, soul-searching, turmoil, uncertainty, respect, anxiety, hope, overwhelming responsibility and love.
For all that is required, these men with the support of a humble spouse and family, have volunteered to leave their worldly lives behind, and do the will of the Lord for the rest of their mortal life in whatever service they may be called to give.