Latter-day Saint leaders gathered Friday to celebrate the life of President M. Russell Ballard at his funeral on Friday.

President Dallin H. Oaks, the first counselor in the First Presidency, read a letter from the First Presidency. The letter called President Ballard an “extraordinary example of a covenant-keeping disciple of Jesus Christ.”

“As a young missionary to Great Britain, as a mission president in Toronto and as a general authority, he has traversed the globe many times, teaching and testifying of Jesus Christ and the restoration of his gospel,” the First Presidency said in its letter. “He has been a courageous warrior for truth.”

President Jeffrey R. Holland, who succeeded President Ballard as acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve, told those in attendance that President Ballard visited him every day of his five-week hospital stay. He tried to repay that favor by calling and visiting President Ballard often in the last weeks of his life.

“How do you thank a man for that?” President Holland said.

Who will be Utah’s next congresswoman?

Read more about the two candidates and their campaigns ahead of the election.

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