Hello again, everyone! As some of you may be aware, when Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund were called as apostles in 2015, there was quite a bit of backlash from the general public about the fact that all of them were born within the US. But many blogs and newspaper articles pointed out (quite correctly) that Elder Renlund's father was born in Finland, his mother was born in Sweden, and he grew up speaking Swedish in his home, although he spoke English everywhere else he went. From those who wrote about that, the general consensus was that Elder Renlund's bilingual experiences qualified him as an apostle with international appeal.
My purpose in mentioning all of this is to note this inspiring story from the Church News, which shares how Elder Renlund recently returned to very familiar territory. On assignment to Italy to speak at a conference on the subject of religion and health, he found he had an unassigned Sunday. So he checked with Elder Paul V. Johnson, Europe Area President, to see if he could be of use somewhere.
Quick sidenote here: The fact that Elder Renlund reached out to the area president to know where he might be needed is another in the series of examples we see of how general Church leaders cooperate with and defer to other general or local leaders in their travels. Elder Renlund could easily have opted to determine for himself where to go, but he recognized that Elder Johnson would be in a better position to know where he might be needed on that day, and he took the opportunity to ask. That was awesome to hear.
Since Elder Johnson knew of Elder Renlund's connection to Sweden (born of his familial ties in addition to his missionary service in Sweden), his suggestion was that Elder Renlund should visit the Saints in that nation. Not only did this enable Elder Renlund to speak to those members of the Church in their native language, but it also gave him the opportunity to reconnect with many members of his extended family, who still reside in that nation.
It was awesome to hear of this opportunity Elder Renlund had. His willingness to seek out and defer to the suggestion of the area president was inspiring, and enabled him to have a very personal experience in a place to which he had such a strong familial connection.
I continue to monitor all Church news and will pass those developments along to you all as I receive word of them. That does it for this post. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Until my next post, I wish each one of you all the best and pray that the Lord will bless you all in everything you do.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Church News Report: Elder Dale G. Renlund Returns to Sweden
I have had a lifelong love for Church history, which has extended to ongoing reports of the ministry of our apostles and prophets, General Conference, and all temple developments. This blog enables me to share that love with all who read my thoughts on these developments, which are sometimes reported multiple times per day as needed.
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