A natural diplomat President Russell M. Nelson’s global ministry took a notable turn toward diplomacy in 2019, as he met with a king, prime ministers, a pope and presidents.
“President Nelson is a natural diplomat,” said Elder Gerrit W. Gong, who traveled to seven nations in 2019 with the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
As I wrote in October, President Nelson spent the year calling for unity, starting at the Vatican where his meeting with Pope Francis capped decades of détente between Catholics and Latter-day Saints.
“(Pope Francis and President Nelson) gave each other a hug as we left that said everything,” said President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
President Nelson’s diplomatic mission continued through the Pacific Islands, South America and Asia. The fulcrum was a landmark speech in Detroit in the middle of the year at the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“Simply stated, we strive to build bridges of cooperation rather than walls of segregation,” he told the convention, adding that he hoped the church and the NAACP could go forward arm in arm and shoulder to shoulder and “increasingly call each other dear friends.”
In New Zealand, he met with a rising star among world leaders, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. In Ecuador, he spoke with President Lenín Moreno at Carondelet Palace. In Colombia, President Iván Duque flew into Bogotá from a conference to meet with President Nelson just before the church leader’s flight out of the country.
After one of those meetings he explained why he wanted to meet with world leaders.
"It’s important for us to be able to thank leaders for the privilege of religious freedom in their country," he said. “It’s a really precious aspect of governmental relations to allow the people to have the ability to practice the religion of their choice.” | 
