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Tad Talk


Among the travels of the apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this weekend were three newsmaking trips. I covered one of them, reporting on Elder Ronald A. Rasband’s visit to the Phoenix area. It provides a good glimpse into how busy the church’s leaders are ministering, preaching, leading and presiding over and managing a global church of more than 16.3 million members.

Here’s what Elder Rasband’s weekend looked like.

• On Friday, his day began with a 9:15 a.m. meeting with U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Arizona. At 11, he had a long lunch with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey. At 1 p.m., he met with the editorial board of the Arizona Republic. That went long, until 2:30 p.m. Afterward, he met with representatives from numerous charities and faiths for a tour of the Ann Ott School, which has been refurbished as a welcome center for asylum seekers and has been the recipient of humanitarian aid from the church. Following that, he did multiple media interviews.

• On Saturday, he had two leadership meetings in the morning, then spoke at a meeting with the 200 missionaries of the Arizona Tempe Mission. That evening, he presided over meetings for a stake conference.

• On Sunday, he again presided over the rest of that stake conference and then spoke at night to more than 2,000 people at a devotional at the Tempe Institute of Religion.

One of the other two apostolic trips I'll mention was undertaken by Elder Ulisses Soares, who visited the Texas capital of Austin and made multiple visits with the church’s humanitarian partners.

I don’t know if either has another weekend assignment, but most apostles and general authorities travel about 40 weekends a year. That would mean they would leave again on Friday for their next assignment.

Take for example the other trip this past weekend that I'll mention, that of President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

He’s made news the past two weekends.

On Oct. 13, he rededicated the Raleigh North Carolina Temple. Seven days later, he was with Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Twelve in Massachusetts, where they spoke to 12,000 people and President Ballard called on church members to “join a new movement” to pray for the United States, its leaders and families.
My Recent Stories

What a conservative New York Times columnist had to say to BYU students
(Oct. 23, 2019)

Latter-day Saint leaders lend support in humanitarian effort and meet government leaders in Texas and Arizona (Oct. 19, 2019)
 

What I’m Reading ...

As I boy, it never crossed my mind that a woman would coach in the NBA. As a teenager coaching my sisters, our friends and my future wife on our ward girls basketball team, I learned to love the women’s game. As a sportswriter, I had the great opportunity to learn more about basketball from a number of female coaches. Today, women are serving in important NBA roles and some predict a woman could be a head coach as soon as next year. I enjoyed this Associated Press article that surveyed how women are entering and impacting the NBA today.

Politics are, um, complicated these days. I hope you’ll read my story about conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks and his solution for fixing the tear in America’s social fabric. I found this opinion column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution fascinating because the real core of it is about the relationship between Latter-day Saints and evangelicals, which is a compelling story.

Of course, after being back at the Frankfurt Temple last month for the first time in three decades, I had to read my friend Scott Taylor’s piece on the temple’s re-dedication!

Behind the Scenes
Elder Rasband told a story on his trip to Arizona about how the late Elder Richard G. Scott shook the hand of every person when he attended a meeting. Elder Rasband tries to follow that example, but when nearly 1,700 people attended the devotional Sunday night at the Tempe Institute of Religion in Arizona, he stood up after the meeting ended and gave them all a virtual handshake.
He told that story during a meeting of the Arizona Tempe Mission a day earlier in the same building. On that occasion, he did shake the hand of every one of the 200 missionaries prior to the meeting. He told them he had "a micro message" from President Nelson for them and had just come from shaking President Nelson's hand in the temple on Thursday. "You're all one handshake away from the prophet of the Lord," he said.

Your Weekly TadPoll


I want to hear from you! Each week I’ll ask a question. Simply reply to this email to share your thoughts. Provide your name and hometown, and I’ll include some of the most thoughtful answers in next week’s newsletter.

Question: Have you ever had the opportunity to shake the hand of a senior church leader? How did it happen and what did it mean to you?
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