Church News
'Great honor and responsibility' have come to him
By Sarah Jane WeaverChurch News staff writer
Published: Saturday, April 4, 2009
On a humbling and overwhelming day, Elder Neil L. Andersen stood before reporters and spoke about being sustained as the Church's newest apostle April 4.
"I'm very humbled by this day, very overwhelmed at what is ahead of me, and the great honor and responsibility that has come to me," he said. "I would express my appreciation to the members of the Church who voted to sustain me, and I pray that I may become what I must become in the years ahead."
Elder Andersen's call was announced by President Thomas S. Monson to 21,000 people seated in the Conference Center, and millions more across the globe, during the opening session of the of the Church's 179th Annual General Conference. Elder Andersen — who was serving as the senior member of the Presidency of the Seventy prior to his call — will fill the vacancy left in the Quorum of Twelve by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, who died last December.
"In one way it's no different from any other calling in the Church," he told local media gathered in the Church Office Building lobby after the Saturday morning session. "We neither seek callings nor do we refuse them. As members of the Church throughout our lives we receive callings that are unexpected; we're shocked and don't know quite know how to react to them.…. In this case it is far more daunting and you feel a heaviness, a weightiness, a humbleness as you contemplate what you're expected to be."
Elder Andersen, 57, was named to the First Quorum of the Seventy in 1993 at the age of 41. Since then his Church assignments have given him responsibilities in Brazil, Western Europe, Mexico and Central America. Before his call to the Seventy he served as president of the France Bordeaux Mission.
He and his wife, Kathy, have spent 10 of the last 20 years living abroad. Elder Andersen speaks French, Portuguese and Spanish, in addition to English.
"We've come to love people around the world and to seek the Lord's hand in the work of the spreading of the restored gospel among every nation, kindred tongue and people," he said. "We love people everywhere and are grateful for our family and those who have influenced us so much."
Elder Andersen then took question from reporters on various subjects. Following are excerpts from his answers:
Experience with the international Church and Church growth:
"No one who has a perspective like I have been able to have could not see the hand of the Lord at work. It's amazing to behold. I spent four years in Brazil. Last year in Brazil there were more than 40,000 convert baptisms. There are new stakes nearly each month created in Brazil. There is a desire in the Brazilians to accept the gospel.
"My experience in Europe is somewhat different in that the Church doesn't grow as quickly there but ... [look at] the devotion of the members, that they would put the Church — in a society that is principally a secular society — above all else. We see this across the world, in every country."
Lessons learned from growing up on a farm:
"I learned how to work hard. There is something about people whose hands are in the soil. There's a common touch, a thing we can learn. I spent part of my life trying to get off the farm, and the second half trying to get back on the farm. We learned how to live with very little and appreciate the things that we had."
Discussions with his wife about the new calling:
"Kathy and I have known of this call since late Wednesday afternoon and so it's been a little time where we have not been able to share that with anyone else. In that time, for some reason, we haven't been able to go to sleep until midnight and haven't been able to sleep after 4 am. We've had a lot of time to talk about this experience and what it means. We don't have any answers. We just move ahead and try to be responsive to President Monson and the Twelve.
"I hope I can serve in the spirit of Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. He was always seeking just to go where they wanted him to go, do what they wanted him to do, not be in the limelight, not seek any personal attention.
"I'm not sure how it will change our lives, except that it will make us more contemplative and ponderous. Our own spiritual development must increase, which we are hoping it can do."
Church in the national spotlight during last six months:
"The church is going to be larger, better known, more influential everywhere. It's something that's going to happen. Our family grew up in Tampa, Fla., [a place] where 50 years ago the Church was hardly anything. Now there are buildings in all the neighborhoods.
"We are going to always be looked to as a group that believes very deeply in God, the Savior and our principles and there are going to be times when those things must be quietly or more openly expressed.
"I hope we will always been seen as thoughtful, tolerant, people of good will, people of nice expressions, peace. Certainly, our feelings will be strong at times — and they will be expressed — but that does not mean that we should not respect everyone. Hopefully, [we can] be a voice of strength in a community.
" I would say to the members of the Church simply that we need to be at peace and know that the Lord will bless us and He will be with us. These are great times to live in and great times to be members of the Church and there are happy times ahead."
What the titles apostle, prophet, seer, revelator mean to him after having been called to the Twelve:
"In the Church, we honor, we revere those 15 men we sustain a prophets, seers and revelators. Those terms are terms that fall off our lips easily. Almost since we were children we say them. But as the term becomes ingrained into our very soul, our DNA, then it lifts the purposes and lifts the feelings of those words. First of all, it means that I know that Jesus is the Christ with a sure and certain witness. This I do. I had that solace that perhaps in that one category that must be fulfilled, I can say that I fulfill that part.
"I know that He lives, that He is resurrected. It also means so much more, that we must live in such a way that He and His Father communicate with us, that we know Their will, that we are able to speak Their will to the people who seek to listen to Them, that we see beyond what is seen and that we understand what is not understood....
"I'm hopeful that by way of ordination that certain things will come to me that I anxiously await.
"An apostle must gain these things in the very same way that anyone in the Church does, through prayer, through supplication, through studying the scriptures, through deep pondering, and through obedience and living a life that makes it such that the Lord can communicate with him. I take it as a very heavy responsibility to live up to what those words mean, more so than I have every thought of it before."
Challenges for the Church as it grows rapidly:
"Rapid growth. It's a great challenge.… In the quorums of the Seventy, in the eight quorums across the world, it is a marvelous thing to see what is happening. In the First Quorum of the Seventy five years ago there were nine men who were born outside the United States. Today, in the First Quorum of the Seventy there are 25. The nature of the governance of the Church is expanding as the needs are expanding. The greatest challenges are, of course, to remain righteous in a secular society, to be obedient to our Heavenly Father's commandments and to help with the governance and growth of the Church as it goes across to nations that we hardly know the name of at this time.
Treatment of people who will look to him in the new call:
"One thing we learn from President Monson is that the individual, the child, the person who feels lonely, the person who is without what many of us have surrounding us, is the person we are to look for. 'If ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). 'Suffer the little children to come unto me' (Mark 10:14). I pray that ... children will always feel, that they want to come close to me. I know that that's the example of President Monson."
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