Hello again, everyone! With the Sunday Morning Session of the October 2022 General Conference a little over an hour from now, I am pleased to bring you all a post honoring Elder Ulisses Soares, who is celebrating his 64th birthday today. As I've mentioned previously, Elder Soares has a most unique life story and background, and I am grateful to share some thoughts about him with you all. Ulisses Soares was born on this day in 1958 in São Paulo Brazil to Apparecido Soares and Mercedes Carecho Soares. He has European and Amerindian ancestry. When an aunt joined the Church, that was how the Soares' family first learned of the gospel. His parents, after being taught by the missionaries, were baptized when young Ulisses was five years old.
Regarding his experience with worshipping in the Church during his growing-up years, his small branch would meet in a tiny rental place that was located above a bakery. He served a full-time mission in Rio de Janeiro, Upon his return, he connected with;Rosana Fernandes Morgado, who had served in the same mission at around the same time, but whom he had not met until after they both had returned. The two were married in the Sao Paulo Temple, and together they raised three children
His academic experience involved studying at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, from which, in 1985, he received a bachelor's degree in economics and accounting. He then continued his studies at the;National Institute of Postgraduate Study, where he earned a Master's Degree in Business Administration. He spent his professional career working for several multinational companies (one of which was Pirelli Tire Company) as an accountant and an auditor. Donald L. Clark, who at that time was serving as director of temporal affairs for the Church in Brazil, convinced him to take a job with the Church as a senior auditor.
When Brother Clark was asked to serve as a mission president, Brother Soares took over for him as director of temporal affairs. He went on to fill a special assignment for the Church's Presiding Bishopric. Within the Church, Elder Soares has served as an elder's quorum president, counselor in a bishopric, stake high councilman, and as a regional welfare agent.
When the;São Paulo Brazil Cotia Stake was created in 1995, Elder Soares was called as the first president thereof. 5 years later, he served a three-year term as president of the Porto Portugal Mission. Less than two years after his return (during the April 2005 General Conference), he was called as a General Authority Seventy.
As a General Authority Seventy, he served as First Counselor in the Brazil South Area.from 2005-2007, as First Counselor in the Brazil Area from 2007-2009, and as President of that area from 2009-2011. He served from August 2011-January 2013 as First Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency, at which point he was called to serve in the Presidency of the Seventy, with responsibility for the North America Southeast Area; Then, in November 2015, Elder Soares was reassigned to oversee the Idaho and North America Central Areas of the Church. He still had oversight of both of those areas in 2018.
On March 31, 2018, Elder Soares was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and he was ordained an apostle on Thursday April 5, 2018. He thus became both the first Latter-day Saint apostle from Brazil and the first one from Latin America. Elder Soares has had many opportunities to grow into his new assignment. In the last 1.5 decades in which has has served as a general authority, he has given a total of;14 General Conference addresses, with the first 2 given as a General Authority Seventy, 3 more as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, and the remaining 9 given since his call to the apostleship, not counting his address given this General Conference weekend.
At this point, I wanted to mention one additional thing: Both the Deseret News and the Church News published articles about the recently-released biography of President Dallin H. Oaks. One of the elements featured in those articles about President Oaks’ biography detailed the conditions under which President Nelson called Presidents Oaks and Eyring as his counselors: Those callings were only made after President Nelson had personally met individually with each of his other 12 apostles. President Nelson requested these interviews with each of his fellow apostles with a desire to have his Brethren’s best thoughts about which two of them should serve as his counselors and who should be called to fill the vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
While we don’t know specifically how Presidents Oaks and Eyring were selected, iit seems to be a safe conclusion that most of the apostles felt those two should be his counselors. And with that being the apparent outcome there, I am reasonably certain that a high percentage of those 12 apostles recommended that Elders Gong and Soares be called to fill the resulting vacancies in the apostleship.
In any case, if nothing else, we know that the Lord inspired the calls of Elders Gong and Soares. I gratefully and wholeheartedly sustain all 15 “special witnesses of Christ” in their divinely-inspired and doctrinally-supported roles prophets, seers, and revelators in their roles and responsibilities as special witnesses of Christ, and am grateful to have been able to provide this birthday tribute to him today. I continue to monitor all Church news and temple updates and will be sure to bring you all word of the major developments as I learn thereof, particularly those that will occur during this weekend of the October 2022 General Coferece.
In the meantime, that does it for now. Thank you for the privilege of your time. All comments are, as always, welcome and appreciated, on any post at any time, as long as the offered feedback is made per the established guidelines. I hope any of you who would like to share anything will take your opportunity to “sound off” in the comments below. 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.
Hello again, everyone! On this concluding day of General Conference, the Church News has published an article honoring Elder Soares on his birthday:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/2/23378596/elder-soares-64th-birthday-9-quotes-from-past-year
The latest Church News edition of "Week in Review" has been shared as well:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders/2022/10/2/23378999/week-in-review-elder-holland-maypole-video-ten-years-since-missionary-age-change
And in just about 10 minutes, when the weekly "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast begins, Brother Lloyd Newell will deliver the text of the following message:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/living-faith/2022/10/2/23382124/music-the-spoken-word-daily-devotion-spiritual-habits
There may be temple updates, and if there are, I will pass those along later today. In the meantime, unless any other Church News or Newsroom reports unrelated to General Conference are published, or major news is announced between now and then, if nothing else, I fully anticipate hearing President Nelson announce new temples in the closing minutes of the Sunday Afternoon Session. I have a report all but ready to go on that (the only thing I am missing is the locations that will be announced and how they compare with the lists I have provided, since that information will not be publicized for the next 7.5 hours. Enjoy General Conference Sunday, everyone! My thanks once again to you all.
Elder Soares is multi-lingual and in addition to Portuguese and English, speaks Spanish and French. Patzicia.
ReplyDeletePatzicia, great to hear from you again. You are, of course, correct about the other languages Elder Soares speaks. The really amazing thing is that, in contrast to around 20 years ago, we now have more apostles fluent in more than one language than we have ever had in the history of the Church. At a quick count, that would include a minimum 9 of our current 15 apostles. It's something I keep forgetting to mention, but that is a vitally important point about Elder Soares. Thanks for bringing that up here. I always appreciate hearing from you.
DeleteWe are, of course, very happy for an additional temple in Guatemala. It is a long distance for the members in Huehuetenango to travel to Quetzaltenango and many have limited means to travel. What a blessing for five temples in Guatemala now --- three of them ranging from recently announced to some stage of progress.
DeletePatzicia, thanks for this additional comment. I too was glad of a new temple in Guatemala. I am hopeful that the Church might soon announce a groundbreaking for the Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple. Have you heard anything on your end about when that might occur? Also, I believe it was you who previously mentioned seeing information about the Coban Guatemala, San Pedro Sula Honduras, and Managua Nicaragua Temples. If that is correct, have you heard anything recently on what might be causing any delays on getting construction started for the Nicaraguan temple? Have you heard anything recently on whether construction could be underway on that temple soon? Just thought I'd ask, since I know you mentioned that temple in the past. Thanks, Patzicia, for this additional comment. I always appreciate hearing from you.
DeleteJames, you mentioned there are at least nine apostles who speak more than one language. I am curious as to what they are. Off the top of my head, in addition to the 4 spoken by Elder Soares (and some of the other apostles, such as Elder Christofferson, also speak Spanish, while Elder Andersen also speaks French) I can think of German (Elders Uchtdorf and Bednar), Chinese (President Nelson and Elder Gong, I believe both speak Mandarin, not Cantonese), Swedish (Elder Renlund), and Japanese (Elder Stevenson). Are there others? Does Elder Uchtdorf speak Czech?
ReplyDelete--Felix
Felix, thank you for that question. President Nelson has mentioned becoming fluent in Mandarin Chinese as the result of a prophetic invitation from President Kimball. He is also somewhat fluent in Spanish, which we know from when he was ministering in Spanish-speaking nations in 2019 and dismissed his interpreter to personally speak to the Saints there in their native Spanish. Courtesy of President Oaks' two-year assignment in the Philippines in the early 2000s, he is somewhat fluent in at least two of the top languages spoken in the Philippines. President Eyring has some fluency in French, since his then-fiancee stuided in France during their courtship and he came to visit her frequently. He may also be fluent in other languages, depending on how many areas he served in during 3 years as a GA seventy between 1992-1995 (when he was called to the apostleship).
DeleteElder Holland speaks Spanish thanks to his 2-year assignment as president of the Chile Area of the Church in the early 2000s, and likely one or two other languages depending on his area assignments between his 1989 call as a GA Seventy and his 1994 call as an apostle. Elder Uchtdorf is fluent in at least two of the Germanic/Czech based languages. Elder Bednar served as a missionary in Germany, and both Elders Christofferson and Andersen know Spanish, with Elder Andersen being fluent in Portuguese and French as well.
Elder Rasband may have gained some fluency in some languages thanks to 5 years in area presidencies prior to his call to the Presidency of the Seventy. Elder Stevenson is fluent in Japanese. Elder Renlund is fluent in Swedish and Finnish thanks to his parents. Elder Gong is fluent in Chinese and possibly other Asian-based dialects. And Elder Soares is of course fluent in French, Spanish, and Portuguese as well.
So the only question marks here in terms of apostles who speak other languages are Presidents Oaks and Ballard, and Elders Holland and Rasband, which would actually bring the total number of apostles who have confirmed fluency in at least one other language aside from English to a minimum 11 of the current 15 apostles.
As President Nelson reminded us in January 2018 when he spoke to us before the press conference introducing him as Church President: "Now, each day of an Apostle's service is a day of learning and preparing for more responsibility in the future. It takes decades of service for an Apostle to move from the junior chair to the senior chair in the circle. During that time, he gains firsthand experience in each facet of the work of the Church. He also becomes well acquainted with the peoples of the earth, including their histories, cultures, and
languages, as assignments take him repeatedly across the globe."
Becoming acquainted with languages may be seen by some as a far cry from being fluent in such languages, but hopefully what I have set out here demonstrates the proof of what I said about the majority of the apostles speaking other languages. If you have any further questions or comments on this or other content here, I will always appreciate such contributions from you. For now, Felix, thanks for taking time to inquire about this. I hope my answer was helpul and gave you the information you needed.
Thanks for the reply, James. I wouldn't be surprised if there are additional languages (or additional apostles who know some of the above languages) that may not be publicized. A multilingual leadership, to be sure.
DeleteIt wouldn't shock me either, Felix. Based on what President Nelson stated in early 2018, the global ministry of the Apostles by its' very nature would require some basic understanding of most languages. And I've read several accounts in my 3.5 decades of life indicating that the gift of tongues can often come into play for all general leaders as they minister worldwide. Each of them truly are the right leaders for our time. Thanks again, Felix.
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