Funeral speakers say President Russell M. Nelson fulfilled his promise to serve God to his last breath

Mission faithfully accomplished.

President Russell M. Nelson promised he would serve God the Father and Jesus Christ with every remaining breath of his life in January 2018, when he became the 17th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“He did just that,” his son, Russell M. Nelson Jr., said at his father’s funeral Tuesday at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. “President Nelson showed us firsthand that there is no rest in his version of the Restoration.”

President Nelson died on Sept. 27 at age 101.

He was “our beloved prophet” and “my best friend and most effective teacher,” said President Dallin H. Oaks, who conducted and presided at the funeral as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

The quorum is directing the church during an apostolic interregnum until the First Presidency is reorganized with a new president and prophet.

President Nelson was laid to rest in the Salt Lake City Cemetery after a 75-minute funeral that served as a fond “till we meet again” from the Nelson family, the Quorum of the Twelve and 17.5 million Latter-day Saints.

“The death of this remarkable man closes a chapter in church history filled with years of service and devotion to the Lord and to his fellow men,” President Oaks said. “The last 41 years of his life were spent in the holy apostleship.”

President Nelson served for more than seven-and-half years as the 17th president of the church. His church service followed a 37-year career as a doctor and pioneer in cardiothoracic surgery.

He was 93 when he became the church president. He told church members to “eat your vitamin pills and get your rest,” because the pace of his leadership would be “a rush of revelation," as described by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve.

President Oaks noticed a change in his friend when President Nelson became the prophet and called President Oaks to the First Presidency.

President Nelson had been a measured participant in discussions of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1984-2018. His tenure as prophet was immediately marked by the decisiveness of a heart surgeon, President Oaks said.

“Figuratively speaking,” he said with a smile, “I tightened my seat belt a few more notches and said to myself, ‘Being a counselor in this First Presidency is going to be fun.’”

Born on Sept. 9, 1924, President Nelson was like a gentleman from another era who provided timely leadership in an age of divisiveness.

Elder Holland said he once introduced President Nelson as a man for whom the word “gentleman” was created.

“For the rest of his life, he proved me true,” Elder Holland said. “Day in and day out, he was dignified and courteous with every man and woman he met, be they diplomats or other dignitaries, new neighbors or complete strangers.”

Among other accomplishments, President Nelson:

• Announced 200 new temples.
• Remade the image of the church with a logo dominated by an image of Jesus Christ and an emphasis on the church’s full name.
• Became an icon of peacemaking who invited the world to build bridges of understanding rather than walls of separation.
• Circumnavigated the world on one world ministry tour, traveled through South America and the Pacific on two others and emphasized gratitude and hope.
• Launched major renovations of the Salt Lake Temple and other pioneer-era temples.

Elder Holland said during the funeral that President Nelson specifically wanted to visit Jerusalem on his first ministry tour as prophet in 2018.

“He wanted to feel the stones and touch the soil where Jesus, the Savior of the world, the redeemer of all mankind, had walked,” Elder Holland said.

President Nelson performed nearly 7,000 surgeries, including the first open-heart surgery west of the Mississippi in 1955.

“Today,” Elder Holland said, “we all join in saluting Russell Marion Nelson, the holder of hands and the healer of hearts. I bear witness of his calling as apostle, prophet, revelator and seer.”

President Nelson graduated from the University of Utah at age 22 with bachelor’s and medical degrees. He married Dantzel White Nelson, who died in 2005.

The funeral program needed two pages to list all of their posterity — 10 children, 57 grandchildren, 171 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great-grandchild.

Two of his children spoke at the funeral, which was attended by thousands on a sunny fall day under a blue, cloudless sky.

“When I think of our dad, I think of joy,” said one of his daughters, Laurie N. Marsh. “Daddy always chose to be happy, and that made him so fun to be around.”

She said her parents chose to model their marriage and the way they raised their family on Matthew 6:33: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.”

“There are many members in our family, but we had one goal, to be an eternal family,” Marsh said.

Nelson Jr. said more about the tirelessness of his father, who was a skier into his 90s. He once joined his parents on a ministry tour to England, Wales, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

After 10 days, he said, “I was exhausted, and I was only 14 years old at the time. He was in his 60s and carried on with no problem fulfilling all the assignments and sacred duties that were his. He was tireless in his service.”

Nelson Jr. said his father taught that mourning a death is not only normal but a healthy reaction to the sting of physical separation.

“Mourning is one of the the purest expressions of deep love,” President Nelson taught in a 1992 general conference talk. “It is a perfectly natural response in complete accord with divine commandment.”

Elder Holland echoed that talk, too.

“Wendy and girls,” he said after a hymn, “you earned every one of those tears. It’s the price we pay for love in the world.”

Two other Nelson children provided the prayers.

“Father, our hearts are just so full of love and joy and gratitude at this time for this wonderful man,” Marjorie Nelson Lowder said during the opening prayer. “You know he gave his all to honor thy son and point others to him. We pray that we can follow his counsel and his example.”

Gloria Nelson Irion expressed joy for the opportunity the funeral provided to honor the “extraordinary life of our father, grandfather, physician, friend and prophet.”

“We are so grateful for his example of love, integrity, faith, diligence and compassion,” she said. “We pray that we may honor him now by following his counsel and by responding to his invitations.”

Each of the church leaders thanked the Nelsons for supporting President Nelson.

Elder Holland said Sister Nelson and the Nelson family “quite literally gave a husband and a father to the church.”

President Nelson had perfect pitch, his children noted, and a prodigious memory, said Elder Henry B. Eyring of the Quorum of the Twelve.

He remembered every one of the nine surgeries he performed on Elder Eyring’s mother, Mildred Bennion Eyring.

Elder Eyring taught that those who die go home to God, the righteous to Paradise, “a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care and sorrow. I bear testimony that such has been the experience of President Nelson following his release from this mortal life.”

He testified that Christ’s resurrection and the ordinances of the temple provide hope and assurance “of a reunion in the spirit world with our loved ones who preceded us in death and a glorious resurrection when our souls and bodies are reunited.”

Several speakers reflected on President Nelson’s ability to tenderly minister one-on-one.

Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson said she was a recipient of that ministering and knew he had done the same for thousands.

President Oaks said he saw President Nelson’s warm and welcoming qualities affect every visitor who met with the First Presidency, including leaders of nations and faiths.

“As they came to meet him, his smile, the warmth of his voice and the power of his presence melted hearts,” President Oaks said.

President Johnson testified that President Nelson’s teachings bring peace and joy, which she experienced by listening daily to one of his talks since being called three years ago.

“I felt like I was walking with Jesus, exercising faith,” she said. “I planted the words of President Nelson in my heart. As I listened over and over again, I became familiar with his words and his prophetic voice. My ability to discern the spirit has been enhanced. My focus is better fixed on the Savior. I am more joyful in challenging circumstances, and I am better prepared to be a peacemaker.”

She also expressed gratitude for President Nelson’s teachings about women.

“President Nelson said the heavens are just as open to women who are endowed with God’s power flowing from their priesthood covenants,” President Johnson said, “as they are to men who bear the priesthood. I pray that truth will register upon each of your hearts, because I believe it will change your life.”

President Johnson worked in councils with President Nelson and shared her testimony of his calling as a prophet.

“No one can ever take away the witness born to my heart and mind,” she said, “that Russell M. Nelson is a mighty prophet of God who served as the Lord’s mouthpiece on the earth during a glorious season in the ongoing restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, with women in white dresses and men in black suits with red ties, performed four songs.

The lyrics for one was written by President Nelson, “Our Prayer to Thee.”

The other hymns were “Peace Like a River,” “Let Us All Press On,” “It Is Well With My Soul.”

The casket, Sister Wendy Nelson, the Nelson children and their spouses exited the Conference Center through an honor guard made up of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the Presidency of the Seventy and the Presiding Bishopric.

The family prayer before the funeral was provided by David R. Webster, a son-in-law. Elder Michael T. Ringwood, another son-in-law and a General Authority Seventy, dedicated the grave.

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