SALT LAKE CITY – After The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saintsnamed three new members to their Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Saturday, those men spoke in a press conference about their new position in the LDS Church’s leadership.
The three men said they learned only on Tuesday of this past week that they were being called to the Quorum of the Twelve.
The three spoke about their experience meeting with the President of the LDS Church as he extended the callings.
“President Monson looked at me and said, ‘Brother Renlund, we extend to you the call to serve as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” Elder Dale G. Renlund said.
Elder Gary E. Stevenson spoke about the unexpected calling.
“This has rather been a knee-buckling experience, really,” he said. “One that was completely unexpected for me.”
Renlund also said his meeting with LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson and the calling came as a surprise.
“I was stunned and speechless,” he said. “I think I murmured an acceptance of the calling.”
Those called to the quorum serve for the duration of their life, which Elder Ronald A. Rasband, the most senior of the three new apostles, said was a responsibility he was willing to take up.
“It would be my great honor and great privilege to serve the Lord, to serve the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve for the rest of my life,” he said.
The three men were appointed as the 98th, 99th and 100th apostles of the LDS Church since its organization in the 1800s.
“None of us knew, until we were sustained in conference today, who the three apostles were going to be,” Rasband said. “We're still taking that in as well.”
All three men are from Utah, and they have already served the LDS Church for decades in various other capacities.
They said they are prepared to offer their service worldwide.
“We're not going to be apostles to our local community or to the state we're from, we're called to bear the name of Christ throughout the world, and, lord willing, we'll go do that as he would have us do it, in a manner that would be pleasing to him,” Rasband said.
Renlund said: “I trust completely in President Monson's statement that, 'Who he calls, he qualifies.'”
The three men will all be speaking in Sunday’s session of General Conference.
For more about the men and their backgrounds, click here.
