Stokes Sounds Off: Tribute to Elder Gary E. Stevenson on His 64th Birthday

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Tuesday, August 6, 2019

Tribute to Elder Gary E. Stevenson on His 64th Birthday

Hello again, everyone! As we are now just over an hour into August 6, I wanted to go ahead and post a tribute to Elder Gary E. Stevenson, who is marking his 64th birthday today. Let's dive right into that. Gary Evan Stevenson was born in Ogden, Utah in 1955 to Evan and Jean Stevenson. He grew up in the Cache Valley. He served full-time in the Japan Fukuoka Mission, after which he continued his secondary education at Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. During the course of his studies there, he met Lesa Jean Higley, whom he later married in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple, and with whom he would raise four sons. He spent his professional career working as the COO of ICON Health & Fitness, and served on both the Marriott School of Management Advisory Council and also the USU Foundation Board.

In the Church, he has served as a bishop and a stake president's counselor. He went on to serve between 2004 and 2007 as the president of the Japan Nagoya Mission. Less than a year after his return, he was among the first general authority seventies called during President Thomas S. Monson's prophetic administration in April 2008. In August of that same year, he was called to serve as First Counselor in the Asia North Area Presidency. The following year, he became the president of that same area, and he served in that assignment until April 2012, at which point, he was released as a General Authority Seventy and sustained as the Church's 14th Presiding Bishop.

In October 2015, with three vacancies in the apostleship due to the deaths of President Boyd K. Packer and Elders L. Tom Perry and Richard G. Scott, Elder Stevenson was unexpectedly summoned to meet with the First Presidency. He related that he felt sure that he was being notified that one of his counselors (Bishops Gerald Causse or Dean M. Davies) were being called to the apostleship. He was stunned when the apostolic call was instead extended to him. He was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 3, 2015, and was ordained an apostle on October 8, then released as Presiding Bishop one day later. Elders Ronald A. Rasband and Dale G. Renlund, whom he sits between, were called to fill the other two apostolic vacancies, and shared the same sustaining and ordination dates. Although he was the youngest of the three at that time, in a somewhat unusual move, he was called, sustained, and ordained as the senior apostle to Elder Renlund, who is just shy of 3 years older than Elder Stevenson is. Typically, when more than one apostle is ordained at the same time, the oldest one is ordained first. But the last time 3 apostles were called simulatenously was in 1906, at which point, the order in which the 3 (George F. Richards, Orson F. Whitney, and David O. McKay) were called differed from their chronological age order (Orson F. Whitney, George F. Richards, and David O. McKay).

At the age of 60, Elder Stevenson was the youngest man called to the apostleship since Elder David A. Bednar (who was 52 at the time of his October 2004 apostolic call). He would retain his status as the youngest currently-serving apostle until the April 2018 call of Elder Ulisses Soares, who was 59 at the time of his call.

With the apostolic calls of Elders Gerrit W. Gong and Ulisses Soares in April 2018, Elder Stevenson is now the 9th in seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the 12th in seniority among all current apostles. In terms of his age, he is the second-youngest among both the Quorum of the Twelve and the apostles overall. In his 11 years of service as a general authority, he has given 11 addresses in General Conference (1 as a General Authority Seventy, 2 as Presiding Bishop, and 8 since his call to the apostleship). All of these addresses, covering a wide variety of topics, are well worthy of your time, attention and review.

I gratefully sustain Elder Stevenson as a prophet, seer, and revelator, and appreciate this opportunity to post this tribute to him for his birthday. I similarly greatly admire and sustain each and every one of the other apostles in their God-given roles and responsibilities, and I am grateful to them for giving their time and talents to build up the kingdom of God, and to go wherever they are sent, bearing witness of the Savior at all times and in all circumstances. I share my witness that these men are called of God, and that we will be blessed as we give heed to their words. That does it for now. Any and all comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as such comments are made in accordance with the established guidelines. Thank you for the privilege of your time. If you enjoyed what you read here and would like to stay informed of newly added content, please feel free to subscribe. 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.
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7 comments:

  1. James G. StokesAugust 6, 2019 at 1:34 PM

    Hello again, everyone! Two major temple updates have crossed my radar. First of all, with the time in Port-au-Prince Haiti now being past 3:00 PM, the press conference for that temple has likely now been held. And although I have no direct information on that press conference, what I do have is a news release, complete with video and photographs, for that temple:

    https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/open-house-begins-for-haiti-temple

    Again, the temple will officially open to the public on Thursday of this week (August 8), with open house tours set to be offered through Saturday August 17. And if that was the only temple news I had to report, that would be significant enough.

    But additionally, the Hong Kong edition of the Newsroom shared additional specific details about the renovation plans for the Hong Kong China Temple. In addition to bringing all relevant interior systems up-to-date, and refreshing the exterior, furnishings, decor, and art glass, at least one of the floors once used for other Church purposes will be reclaimed as temple space. You can find those details at the following web address:

    https://www.mormonnewsroom.hk/eng/article/church-releases-hong-kong-china-temple-renovation-details

    Having noted these developments, I should also note that I am hoping the Church News will, at some point today, feature some kind of tribute to Elder Stevenson, as it is his 64th birthday, but I have not seen anything yet in that respect. As soon as I do, I will be sure to pass that along to you all here. In the meantime, thanks again, everyone!

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  2. ScottSAugust 6, 2019 at 3:36 PM

    I was surprised that they are removing the Moroni statue from the Hong Kong Temple.

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    Replies
    1. Omar Valenzuela EAugust 7, 2019 at 12:14 AM

      Nor do I understand that having had the angel Moroni, apparently they take it away.

      Is it a widespread change?

      Delete
    2. James G. StokesAugust 7, 2019 at 2:15 AM

      Omar, as I mentioned in my reply to Scott below, I am not convinced the angel Moroni is being permanently removed. The Newsroom release only notes that the "current" steeple is being removed.

      With usual temple renovations, the angel Moroni is removed as part of cleaning the exterior of the temple, then put back towards the end of that process. For example, if you go back and look at the updates provided for the Tokyo Japan Temple, the angel on that temple was removed before the end of 2017. And if you look at the current status of the Tokyo Temple, you'll find that a new angel Moroni was installed atop that temple a few months ago.

      I'd also encourage you to look back at the recent history for the Hong Kong China Temple. If you do so, you'll see that that temple received a new angel Moroni a few years ago. The Church would not have replaced the angel at that time if it was going to be subsequently and permanently removed during a renovation a few years later. The Church would never waste resources in such a manner.

      With that in mind, the answer to your final question is that this is not the start of a new trend. The angel Moroni statues being temporarily removed is a routine part of each temple's renovation. Hope this information is useful, and thank you, Omar, for taking time to comment.

      Delete
  3. James G. StokesAugust 6, 2019 at 4:00 PM

    Hello, Scott. Thanks for taking time to comment. The wording of the Church News article on the Hong Kong renovation appears to imply a full removal of the steeple (including the angel Moroni). But a more careful reading of the Newsroom release reveals that the "existing" steeple will be removed, which to me indicates the Angel Moroni may still be a part of the temple, even if the statue is no longer directly attached to it.

    That noted, I seem to recall you mentioning that you maintain a database with information on the Church's seventies. You wouldn't happen to have any information on how the composition of the Fifth and Sixth Quorums of the Seventy has changed as a result of the consolidation of the 10 North American Areas down to 6, would you? Just thought I'd ask. Thanks again for taking time to comment.

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    Replies
    1. ScottSAugust 7, 2019 at 1:53 PM

      I just got off the phone with the office of the Seventy at Church Headquarters and verified that the Seventies in Idaho have been reassigned to the 6th Quorum

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    2. James G. StokesAugust 7, 2019 at 2:53 PM

      Hey, Scott. Thanks for that clarification. I assume that means that the Fifth Quorum is now only comprised of those serving in the North America West and Utah Areas, with the other 4 areas belonging to the Sixth Quorum, unless the North America Southwest Area Seventies have been transferred from the Sixth to the Fifth Quorum, which would enable the geographical divisions of each Quorum to be a little more even. But I suppose it's also possible that, given the larger size of the North America West and Utah Areas, only those serving in Idaho would have been transferred. Either way, it's nice to have an answer on this for now. Thanks, Scott, for doing the legwork here and for taking time to comment.

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