LDS Church adds 2 new apostles
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sustain the new president of the church, Russell M. Nelson, during the first session of the 188th Annual General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, on Saturday, March 31, 2018.
Ulisses Soares, left, of Brazil and Gerrit W. Gong, who is Chinese-American, join a panel called the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at the start of a twice-annual conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Saturday, March 31, 2018, in Salt Lake City.
The Sunday morning session of General Conference takes place April 5, 2015, at the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Conference Center in Salt Lake City.?
Elder Gerrit W. Gong
Elder Ulisses Soares
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints attend the first session of the 188th Annual General Conference at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, on Saturday, March 31, 2018.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information about the new apostles.
SALT LAKE CITY — Two new men were added the LDS Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — the faith’s second highest governing body — during the Saturday morning session of the church’s General Conference.
The new apostles are Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares.
Gong is the church’s first Asian-American apostle and Soares is first apostle from Latin America.
They join a panel that before Saturday was made up entirely of white men from the U.S. with the exception of one German, Dieter Uchtdorf.
The all-male panel sits below church President Russell M. Nelson and his two counselors and helps set church policy and oversees the faith’s business interests.
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The selections of Soares and Gong are likely to trigger applause from a contingent of Mormons who were anxious to see the faith’s global footprint represented in leadership. Soares and Gong were serving in a lower-level leadership panel for the church.
More than half of the religion’s 16 million members live outside the United States.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe the 12 apostles and the three members of the church’s First Presidency are prophets, seers and revelators who speak for God.
The announcement came as part of a solemn assembly, where members of the church were asked to sustain — raising their hands to show their support or opposition — to the church’s leaders.
The solemn assembly was held to confirm the appointment of Nelson as the 17th president of the church.
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The two vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve are due to the deaths of former LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson and Elder Robert D. Hales.
Nelson, 93, is a former heart surgeon who was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve from April 7, 1984, until his calling as president.
Nelson’s counselors in the First Presidency are Dallin H. Oaks as first counselor and Henry B. Eyring as second counselor. They were also sustained Saturday.
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Supplied/LDS Church
Elder Gerrit W. Gong, left, and Elder Ulisses Soares were called as apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Saturday, March 31, 2018.
Gong has served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since Oct. 6, 2015. Prior to that calling, he was a member of the the Asia Area Presidency, headquartered in Hong Kong.
He was born in Redwood City, California, on Dec. 23, 1953 and married Susan Lindsay in January 1980, according to a biography provided by the church. They have four children and three grandchildren.
Gong received a bachelor’s of arts degree in Asian and university studies from Brigham Young University in 1977. In 1979, he received a master’s of philosophy degree and in 1981 a doctorate in in international relations from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
In the 1980s, he was a special assistant to the undersecretary of state at the U.S. State Department and a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador in Beijing, China, and worked for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.
Soares has been a member of the Presidency of the Seventy since Jan. 6, 2013. He previously worked in the Africa Southeast Area, Brazil Area and Brazil South Area.
Soares was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on Oct. 2, 1958 and married Rosana Fernandes in October 1982, according to a biography from the church. They have three children and three grandchildren.
He received a bachelor’s of arts degree in accounting and economics from the São Paulo Pontifical Catholic University, School of Economic Science in 1985 and later received a master’s of business administration degree. He was an accountant and auditor for corporations in Brazil and director for temporal affairs in the Church area office in São Paulo, Brazil.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact news editor Kyle Hansen at khansen@standard.net or 801-625-4212. Follow him on Twitter @kylebhansen or like him at Facebook.com/journalistkylebhansen.
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