Rank-and-file members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints shared their remembrances of apostle M. Russell Ballard on news of his death:
“I am grateful for [Ballard’s] strong admonitions to seminary and institute teachers to no longer brush off students’ questions about the church by simply testifying, and instead educate themselves about difficult topics and be prepared to grapple with them in class. I have to think that the church’s education system is becoming much better as a result. I also appreciate his pleas to the Latter-day Saints to not be insular but rather to be more active contributors to the larger communities that we live in. He emphasized that we shouldn’t change our kind attitude toward people when they reject our efforts to get them interested in the church — that we shouldn’t treat people just as potential converts. It was a message we very much needed.”
— Marie Thatcher, Salt Lake City
“He came to stake conference [a regional gathering] in Manhattan in the 1990s. He was addressing the explosion and increased availability of anti-Mormon information. I was struck when he said to us, ‘I’d never tell you what not to read. I just ask that you give the Lord equal time.’ I think his greatest contribution to church governance has been his focus on councils. I believe a case can be made that no one in our lifetimes has had a more positive impact on creating inclusive local leadership than Elder Ballard. The council model, now enshrined in the [church’s] handbook, ... has ... transformed leadership councils into a true collaborative venture where all members, particularly sisters, are heard and can deeply influence what happens at the local level. What emerges is a more feminine-style of consensus building leadership and much less a command and control model.”
— Patrick Perkins, Southern California
“As a young missionary, he visited my mission. We formed a receiving line to meet him and, moments before his arrival, I had to go to the restroom. While there, he walked in and we chatted for a few minutes. We joked that I had to go ‘meet him’ and went back to my place in line. As he came down the line, he stopped at me, perfectly pronounced my name, and said something like, ‘I feel like it’s been [a long time] since we’ve gotten to chat! How are you and the family in New York?’ Made me laugh, stunned my mission president. He was the first apostle I got to meet, and it was awesome we got to share this moment.”
— Brian Robert, Rochester, N.Y.
“I saw him on the very last day of my mission [in Norway, 1991]. My mission president introduced me to him and said I’d done a nice job, etc., and Elder Ballard looked at me and said ‘stay active.’ That was surprisingly direct but has been helpful as I have gone through the vicissitudes of life.”
— Rob Hellebrand, Southern California
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Apostle M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints visits with a young man at a refugee shelter in Berlin, Germany in 2015.
“Few church leaders of his generation have been very progressive about the role of women in the church, but I give him some credit for repeatedly speaking about the importance of councils in the church and the need to listen to women in those councils.”
— Quentin Spencer, Lubbock, Texas
“[Elder Ballard] was going in for open heart surgery and my dad was in great need for the surgery when he came in. The doctors were getting ready to operate on President Ballard. It was really special to our family that they took dad first. Unforgettable kindness.”
— Brenda Klomp, St. George
“He sometimes came off as stodgy in conference talks, but I was fortunate to sit in some stake [regional] meetings with him at a few points, and he was a totally different person. Very warm and jokey, and he knew how to keep the room engaged.”
— Geoff Openshaw, Woodbridge, Va.
“My brother is a stake president. On a random Sunday, my brother was asked to join President Ballard because he was going to be visiting a senior living center for sacrament [service]. No one else was to be invited. My brother joined President Ballard and 12 live-in residents, most of whom experienced a level of dementia, and wouldn’t recognize him. I think that private ministry speaks volumes to his tender heart.”
— Sheldon Martin, West Haven, Utah
“In 1997, there was a last minute landscape project up at This Is the Heritage Place Park just a few days before the wagon train reenactment came through. My husband was in charge of the project and we worked a very long Saturday up there with volunteers laying sod. Elder Ballard showed up with milkshakes for the volunteers. He was very kind and grateful.”
— Tiffany Unwin Sowby, West Bountiful
