The three words Sister Kristen M. Oaks used to describe her husband are “wise, kind and energetic.”
President Dallin H. Oaks, the recently called prophet-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is “so wise,” she said. “He’s careful about what he says, what he doesn’t say, … and he sees danger from afar.”
But he is also “like the Energizer Bunny,” she added during a recent interview for the Church News podcast. “I see it in his children. They have enormous energy.”
Sister Oaks then asked her interviewer Sheri Dew — executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corporation — for permission to add a few more words, and said President Oaks is also very patient and devoted.
“He’s very devoted to me, … to his family and to people that he loves,” she said.
Dew then followed Sister Oaks’ list of attributes with her own observations. She noted that President Oaks had just become president of Brigham Young University when she was a freshman at the school in 1971, and said he has always projected wisdom.
“When he’s at the pulpit, he’s just telling you point by point, and you can follow it, and it’s important,” she said.
But she added, “One of the things that I’ve always thought you can’t always see at the pulpit is this incredible sense of humor and warmth.… Can you shed some light on that aspect of him?”
Sister Oaks then answered Dew’s question by stating that President Oaks is “very funny” and “loves to laugh.”
“If we think something is funny, he joins right in,” she said. “He’s a happy person.”
Still, she explained that early in his apostleship her husband received divine instruction to retain a more reverent tone in his conduct and addresses.
“He was in New Zealand giving a talk at the very beginning of being an apostle,” she said, then explaining that after he spoke and left listeners “laughing hysterically,” the Spirit told him: “Never do that again.”
“And so you see my husband, he is so serious and so directed, but he feels like he was given that instruction,” Sister Oaks said.
This kind of reverence has enabled him to discuss some of the most “critical” and “complicated” topics in the last decades, Dew noted.
And Sister Oaks agreed, adding that her husband has “such a respect” for the law and the doctrine, and that his warmth and integrity make him a great counselor.
“He is not judgmental,” she said. And “if you were coming to someone and you wanted someone to advise you or help you, I’d go to him always. Because when he gives his talks, you know exactly where he stands, but when you’re with him in private, he’d be so compassionate and so caring. He’s a very special man.”
Dew illustrated Sister Oaks’ words with a personal example. She shared that when she was a new member of the church’s Relief Society general presidency, a difficult thing happened in her professional life, prompting her to seek counsel from then-Elder Oaks, who she reported to about her service in the presidency.
“I remember walking over to his office being nervous about needing to talk about this sensitive topic,” Dew said. But “his kindness to me was astonishing, and then his counsel, I’ve never forgotten it. …
“I felt like I’d been lifted 20 feet high. So it was the combination of kindness and wisdom. And I left knowing what to do.”
Sister Oaks then affirmed that if people “really spent time with him, they would be amazed, they would befriend him, and they would run to him for help.”
President Oaks “always tries to do what’s right,” she said. He doesn’t ever “cut a corner,” he’s “really judicious,” he “really loves people,” and “he never says anything that he doesn’t think Heavenly Father has inspired him to say.”
To see more of what Sister Oaks discussed with Dew, click here. Or, click here to see the full episode on the Church News podcast.