President M. Russell Ballard dies at age 95

President M. Russell Ballard — a trustworthy witness of Jesus Christ, devoted husband, beloved father and the Performing President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — died Sunday, Nov. 12, at dwelling surrounded by family members. He was 95 years previous.

President Ballard served for 47 years as a common Church chief and on the time of his dying was the Church’s longest-serving dwelling common authority. He was referred to as in 1976 to the First Quorum of the Seventy after which served as an Apostle for greater than a 3rd of a century.

Funeral companies for President Ballard will probably be held within the Tabernacle on Temple Sq. on Friday, Nov. 17, from 11 a.m. to midday MST. The funeral companies will probably be streamed stay on the Church’s Broadcasts web page and Inspiration and Occasions YouTube channel (out there in Cantonese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish), in addition to BYUtv.

A personal burial service will happen on the Salt Lake Metropolis Cemetery instantly following the funeral.

“President Ballard was by no means indecisive,” President Russell M. Nelson mentioned. “He knew precisely what the Lord taught and the way it could possibly be utilized in a single’s private life and produce pleasure and happiness.”

“We labored collectively intently, and I all the time liked his heat method,” mentioned President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor within the First Presidency, who sat beside President Ballard within the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for greater than three a long time. “He was a person to be trusted. And he was a person who trusted you.”

President Ballard is survived by his seven kids, 43 grandchildren, 105 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

In October 2021, simply weeks after his 93rd birthday, the veteran Church chief returned to the brick-and-stone walkways and inexperienced farmland of Nice Britain, the place he had served as a full-time missionary a long time earlier than.

In a missionary assembly, he acknowledged that he could need to account for his life quickly. “What is going to the Lord be most within the lifetime of M. Russell Ballard?” he requested. “As I’ve contemplated that, I feel will probably be two main issues.”

The primary: “What sort of life did I stay? What sort of disciple or believer am I actually?”

And the second: “Who did you assist alongside the way in which? All of us will probably be requested, ‘Who did you convey unto me throughout your sojourn in mortality?’” he mentioned.

As an lively, diligent disciple of Jesus Christ, President Ballard and his life replicate favorably on each counts.

A grandson of the Apostle Melvin J. Ballard by means of his father and a descendant of Church President Joseph F. Smith and Hyrum Smith, brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith, by means of his mom, President Ballard usually acknowledged the affect of his sturdy Latter-day Saint lineage. 

“Understanding I used to be born right into a goodly household and realizing the sacrifices my forefathers made for the gospel gave me a better need to do what is correct and settle for callings,” he mentioned when he was referred to as to the Quorum of the Seventy. 

All through his tenure as a common Church chief, he prominently displayed the sculpted busts of Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith and Joseph F. Smith in his workplace at Church headquarters. 

President M. Russell Ballard, Performing President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, smiles throughout an interview in Salt Lake Metropolis on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information

“They’re me on a regular basis, and generally I feel I hear them say: ‘Get with it, boy, don’t simply sit there. Get one thing accomplished,’” President Ballard advised the Church Information in an interview in 2018.

And though he referred to himself as “fairly widespread and abnormal,” that drive to “get one thing accomplished” pushed him to perform rather a lot: for his household, in his enterprise, for the Church and on this planet. 

His duties as a common authority took him to the far corners of the earth — “There usually are not very many locations I haven’t been,” he said. He devoted two temples as homes of the Lord. He visited with Syrian refugees in Europe, shook palms with U.S. presidents, represented the Church in entrance of nationwide and worldwide media, spearheaded tasks that will remodel the operations of the Church, provided counsel to multitudes and ministered one-on-one to members and missionaries — all whereas fulfilling his favourite function as husband, father and grandfather.

Having spoken greater than 80 instances normally convention, his sermons have been replete with the sage, loving recommendation of a grandfather, his sturdy conviction of the Restoration of the Church within the latter days and his love for the Savior Jesus Christ.

President M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, walks into his workplace in Salt Lake Metropolis on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information

President Ballard’s household

A photograph of 1-year-old M. Russell Ballard in 1929.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. was born Oct. 8, 1928, to Melvin R. and Geraldine Smith Ballard, the one son amongst their 4 kids. 

President Ballard described his father as a “sensible” man, strong-willed, who instilled in him the worth of laborious work. “A repairman was by no means referred to as to our dwelling as a result of Father fastened all the pieces.” His mom was a “very mushy, candy, tender-hearted individual. … Throughout my growing-up years, she was most likely my greatest pal” (Buddy, February 1983).

The drive to work laborious manifested early in his life, and he persistently had a job, beginning as a younger boy mowing lawns or sweeping flooring at his father’s vehicle company.

Although his dad and mom didn’t usually attend church throughout his youth — later in life, he witnessed them take part extra absolutely once more within the Church — President Ballard mentioned he had good buddies who inspired him to attend church and seminary and serve a full-time mission.

He was the seminary president his senior yr at East Excessive College in Salt Lake Metropolis and was referred to as in 1948 to serve a mission to the British Isles, the place he had the chance to function a counselor to the mission president for a time.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints preaches in Previous Market Sq. in Nottingham, England, in 1949.

Offered by President M. Russell Ballard

Three days after returning dwelling from his mission, he attended the College of Utah Hi there Day Dance, and one in all his highschool buddies launched him to a “lovely blue-eyed blonde” with a “glowing character” named Barbara Bowen. 

That they had solely danced for 30 seconds earlier than he was tagged out by one other younger man, President Ballard recalled, however he had realized on his mission the significance of following up and shortly referred to as her for a date. After an 11-month courtship, she agreed to marry him, which he later mentioned “was the best ‘gross sales’ job I ever did” (Ensign, March 1986).

They have been married on Aug. 28, 1951, within the Salt Lake Temple. They’re the dad and mom of 5 daughters and two sons.

President Ballard referred to his spouse “some of the Christlike, mild, loving those who anyone would ever meet in mortality” (“A Biography of M. Russell Ballard: Anxiously Engaged,” p. 332). 

A marriage photograph of Barbara Bowen Ballard and M. Russell Ballard taken on Aug. 28, 1951.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Any success they’d as a household, President Ballard attributed to his spouse. “I married the correct lady,” he mentioned. “With out the assistance and route of Barbara, our household relationships wouldn’t have occurred in addition to they did. … I give credit score to Barbara and her common sense” (Ensign, March 1986).

Sister Ballard, in flip, described her husband as organized and hard-driving. “He can juggle extra issues than anybody I do know” (Church Information, March 8, 1980). Their household relied on his nice energy — emotionally and spiritually, she mentioned. 

And, regardless of their incessantly hectic life, he all the time made time for his household. Sister Ballard associated how once they moved to Canada to function mission leaders, their son was in kindergarten and didn’t know one individual. “He was frightened,” she recalled. “My husband took him to the workplace, knelt down with him and prayed that Heavenly Father would assist him discover buddies. That they had that prayer collectively a number of days in a row. He’s helped a number of of our kids that means once they’ve had particular wants. And he made it a behavior to interview every baby usually” (Ensign, March 1986).

Daughter Brynn Huntsman referred to as her childhood a “fairy story” having each as dad and mom. “Dad was a constant supply of energy and knowledge as I grew up — all the time the gentleman towards Mother. It doesn’t get any higher than that” (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 333).

One other daughter, Tammy Brower, recalled sitting along with her mom whereas her father spoke on the Provo Missionary Coaching Heart. “She simply glowed. They adored one another. They have been full companions.”

Sister Ballard died Monday, Oct. 1, 2018, at their dwelling in Salt Lake Metropolis at age 86. Lower than per week after her passing President Ballard spoke normally convention. “How grateful I’m to know the place my valuable Barbara is and that we’ll be collectively once more, with our household, for all eternity,” he mentioned throughout that handle.

Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his spouse, Sister Barbara Ballard, smile at one another previous to Elder Ballard talking to Brigham Younger College college students throughout a campus devotional within the Marriott Heart in Provo, Utah. on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2017.

Scott G Winterton, Deseret Information

President Ballard’s profession

Previous to his full-time Church service, President Ballard was engaged in numerous enterprise endeavors, together with automotive, actual property and investments. He credited his pioneer heritage as giving him a willingness to guide out on ventures. “Consequently, I’ve had some very great successes, and I’ve had some very sad failures,” he mentioned.

These struggles helped him achieve extra empathy and understanding, although, and President Ballard didn’t think about them losses.

A portrait of Elder M. Russell Ballard taken in 1978.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“To me, failure is barely once you stop attempting,” he mentioned (Ensign, March 1986). 

He served as a director of Deseret Guide Co. and on the advisory committee of the David O. McKay Institute of Schooling at BYU. He was president of Valley Music Corridor and a member of the board of administrators of the Deseret Farms and Ranches Corps., The Freedoms Basis at Valley Forge, and Junior Achievement of Salt Lake Metropolis. He has additionally been a member of the Salt Palace Advisory Board.

After having been referred to as into full-time Church service in his 40s, he generally referred to himself as a “businessman-emeritus” and suggested, “Maintain your monetary affairs so as, however by no means turn out to be so concerned in enterprise that you simply really feel unable to just accept a Church calling” (Ensign, Could 1976).

Missionary minded

Apart from his household, one in all President Ballard’s best loves was missionary work. “The promise of watching the sunshine of the gospel convert folks from non secular darkness is one in all life’s most lovely experiences,” he mentioned. “The gospel messages are all the time thrilling to share with others” (Church Information, March 1980).

In April 2022 common convention, he testified of how his personal full-time missionary service within the British Isles blessed his life and formed his non secular future.

“My missionary service ready me to be a greater husband and father and to achieve success in enterprise. It additionally ready me for a lifetime of service to the Lord in His Church,” he mentioned.  

He additionally testified “my mission is the place I got here to know that my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ, know and love me.”

President Ballard greets his grandson, Elder Brigham Ballard, who’s serving as assistant to President Jeffrey L. Shields, Canada Toronto Mission President. Elder Ballard’s father, Craig, is the youngest baby of President and Sister Ballard and was with them once they served in Ontario.

In 1974, President Ballard continued his mission service by shifting along with his spouse and kids to Toronto, Ontario, to function president of the Canada Toronto Mission.

President Ballard advised the Church Information that point was “full of laughter, tears and great non secular experiences” and was “some of the refining durations of my life.”

Michael Finnigan, who served as a bishop and stake presidency member in Toronto throughout that point, mentioned: “It was a really participating time. Individuals have been engaged within the work. [President Ballard] was, certainly, out in entrance, main in making missionary work an important a part of the dominion right here. He was consumed by it. He helped others be engaged in it simply by his instance.”

President Ballard utilized lots of the classes he had realized as a missionary, mission president and common authority within the improvement of “Preach My Gospel,” the Church’s missionary useful resource, when he was assigned to function chairman of the Missionary Government Council in 2002. He directed efforts to alter how the missionaries taught classes, recognizing that having the elders and sisters train memorized classes was much less efficient.

President M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, greets New York mission leaders and missionaries on the Washington D.C. Temple guests middle in Kensington, Maryland on Friday, March 10, 2023.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Information

“‘Preach My Gospel’ is without doubt one of the most important issues we’ve got accomplished within the final 20 years,” he mentioned in 2021. 

 He inspired Church members many instances to turn out to be higher “member missionaries.” 

“We have to be extra trustworthy. We have to be extra spiritually in tune. We should put together ourselves to help the missionaries to find these of our Heavenly Father’s kids who will embrace the message of the Restoration,” he declared (April 2003 common convention).

In an interview in 2019, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, who served alongside President Ballard within the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for almost 30 years, noticed: “He lives, thinks and breathes missionary work on a regular basis. … If we have been all as missionary minded as Russell Ballard, we might be including tens of millions to the Church annually, not simply a whole bunch of hundreds” (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 355).

A compassionate chief

Throughout his time as a Normal Authority Seventy, President Ballard served as the chief director of the Curriculum, Correlation and Missionary departments. He was sustained to serve within the Presidency of the Seventy on Feb. 21, 1980.

Whereas serving within the Presidency of the Seventy, then-Elder Ballard traveled with Glenn L. Tempo, then managing director of Church Welfare Providers, to drought-stricken Ethiopia in 1985 to assist consider how greatest to distribute $6 million gathered from a particular quick. Witnessing the scenes of poverty, starvation, despair and human struggling was “by far probably the most heart-wrenching expertise of my life,” he mentioned (Church Information, April 20, 1986, p. 4).

Elder M. Russell Ballard in Ethiopia, March 1985.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Years later, he mirrored: “I’d need to say that that was one of many molding experiences in my ministry. I realized, I feel, about compassion, love and gentleness, and appreciating anguish, nervousness and struggling on that have, which I imagine has blessed me the remainder of the time that I’ve tried to serve the Lord as a common authority” (Church Information podcast).

Sister Ballard famous that her husband was somebody with a deep reservoir of compassion. “I don’t know the way he cares for thus many individuals. … He simply offers and provides and provides” (Ensign, October 1986).

In October 1980 common convention he invited Church members who had an inactive or nonmember pal to make a dedication to assist that individual come to the sunshine of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He advised them: “I wish to assist you to preserve the dedication you’ve simply made. I invite you to jot down to me when your time has come for some extra assist. Ship me the title of the individual you search to rescue, and I’ll write a letter of encouragement to him.”

His secretary on the time, Dorothy Anderson, recalled that he wrote greater than 600 letters of encouragement. “The responses he obtained confirmed that many lives have been touched by his concern,” she mentioned.

“He has a terrific compassion for individuals who endure or are sad,” mentioned Sister Ballard.

President M. Russell Ballard, appearing president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, greets folks after the dedication of the Kids’s Pioneer Memorial at This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake Metropolis on Saturday, July 20, 2019.

Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information

Preserving the previous

President Ballard was additionally identified for his sturdy assist of historic preservation and historical past. The Ensign Peak Park and Nature Path; the restored village at Historic Kirtland, Ohio; the event of This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake Metropolis; the Smith Household Cemetery in Nauvoo, Illinois; the Smith ancestral farm and church at Topsfield, Massachusetts; and commemoration of the Mormon Battalion have been among the key tasks he was concerned with. In 1996-97 he oversaw the Church’s Pioneer Sesquicentennial Celebration of the 1847 pioneer trek to Utah. 

“I really feel very strongly in regards to the youth of this Church not shedding an appreciation for our forefathers, who gave all the pieces to just accept the gospel, to assist the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum to hold the gospel out to those valleys and to determine it after which to hold the gospel out into the world from right here. If we lose that, we’ve got misplaced one thing that’s irreplaceable,” President Ballard mentioned (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 304).

He was honored a number of instances for being a “bridge builder” or somebody with the flexibility to convey various communities collectively in unified efforts to assist folks in want.

On July 23, 2021, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox honored President Ballard for his persevering with assist of This Is the Place Heritage Park; his push to “share the story of the sovereign tribal nations” on the park; his assist in creating the “Stroll of Pioneer Faiths” to notice the contributions of members of the “Catholic, Jewish, Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Greek Orthodox faiths,” together with the Church; and his continuous work as “a bridge builder amongst folks of all faiths and walks of life.”

A exceptional instance of his bridge-building skills would come with President Russell M. Nelson’s go to with Pope Francis in 2019.

President M. Russell Ballard, appearing president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, meets with Pope Francis on the Vatican in Rome, Italy, on Saturday, March 9, 2019.

Because of a number of of his shut private relationships with people from totally different faiths, a gathering was organized between President Ballard and Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the secretary of state for the Vatican and the Pope’s shut affiliate, at Vatican Metropolis in October 2017. 

That assembly served as an essential precursor to President Nelson’s assembly with the pope in 2019. President Ballard recalled of that historic assembly, “The embrace of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Pope of the Holy Roman Apostolic Church was an exquisite second” (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 339).  

His potential to achieve out and befriend a large circle of buddies was one thing that impressed Susan Easton Black, emeritus BYU professor and historian and one in all his biographers. “Generally folks don’t all the time have the most effective issues to say about everyone. However individual for individual … they simply couldn’t say sufficient (good) about President Ballard, the unity, the knowledge. He’s a unifier. He is aware of easy methods to pull folks collectively”  

President Ballard’s legacy

President Ballard was a terrific proponent of the easy truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In a Church Information podcast, he commented that his kids engraved “Maintain it easy” on the again of the gravestone he’ll share along with his expensive spouse, Barbara. 

“I’m a terrific advocate of maintaining it easy, as a result of simplicity is highly effective. Complexity is harmful. I feel Lucifer is the grasp of complexity, and the Lord is the grasp of simplicity. The gospel is straightforward, and it’s merely lovely,” he mentioned.

Elder M. Russell Ballard leaves the October 2010 common convention along with his spouse, Sister Barbara Ballard.

He was additionally a self-proclaimed advocate for the council system and the necessity for Latter-day Saints to counsel collectively in an impressed and provoking means of their properties, wards, stakes and past. “I’m an advocate of the council system. I wrote a e book on it. I’ve preached it. I gave two common convention talks on it, attempting to get the Church membership to grasp it,” he mentioned in a Church Information interview.

A fellow Apostle, Elder D. Todd Christofferson, commented, “President Ballard might be credited with nearly single-handedly reestablishing using councils in Church authorities at each stage.”

Elder David A. Bednar used 4 phrases to explain his senior member of the Twelve: President Ballard is “smart,” “regular,” “sensible” and a ”hyperlink” to the earliest days of the Restoration.

“To me President Ballard is the ‘grandpa of the Church’ in look, demeanor, love and affection for everybody,” Elder Bednar mentioned (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 356).

In considering his 45-plus years as a common authority, President Ballard mentioned probably the most exhilarating moments in his ministry have been attending to bear witness of the Savior. “He does stay, and I do know that, and I like Him” (Church Information podcast).

President M. Russell Ballard and Sister Barbara Bowen Ballard with their kids and grandchildren.

Offered by the Ballard household

Likewise, a very powerful factor he needed his household, kids, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to know was his testimony of Father in Heaven and of the life and ministry of His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “I do know of no present that I may go away to these I like that will be as essential and valuable” (“Anxiously Engaged,” p. 357). 

In October 2023 common convention, President Ballard associated that his eyes have been dim and he was unable to learn the teleprompter. However, in what can be his final common convention speak, President Ballard relayed a message full of affection for the Prophet Joseph Smith and for the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“I go away you my witness and testimony that I do know that Jesus is the Christ. He’s our Savior, our Redeemer. He’s our greatest pal.”