Elder Neal A. Maxwell, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been diagnosed as having a pre-leukemic condition.
Elder Maxwell, 70, "is receiving excellent medical help, is responding to medical treatment and is going about his duties," according to church spokesman Bruce L. Olsen.The illness has not diminished the church general authority's schedule. He gave sermons at three different sessions of the weeklong dedication of the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork, participated last week in a two-day area training meeting in Seattle and participated in a two-day mission president's seminar, also in Seattle. Elder Maxwell also spoke at the Oct. 5 afternoon session of the church's general conference.
Elder Maxwell was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve in 1981, serving the church before that as a member of the presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy, Assistant to the Twelve and church commissioner of education. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Utah and has received four honorary doctorates.