President Russell M. Nelson walked into the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton hotel to a capacity crowd of 1,765 members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Thursday evening, November 21.
Reflecting on the 50th anniversary of the Church here in this country of 267 million and looking into the faces of multigenerational members, President Nelson experienced “one of those moments that you never forget.”
“You can’t put words to it very well, but it is the Lord telling you that this is His work and He is directing it and we get to participate,” said President Nelson.
Sitting down for an interview at the conclusion of his Southeast Asia Ministry—after visiting four countries and five cities in seven days from November 15 through November 22—President Nelson again recalled the power of that moment and simply added, “It is pretty exciting, really.”
“President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meets with multigenerational families in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Nov. 21, 2019.” Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—who accompanied President Nelson—also felt the strength of the Church here in that moment and of President Nelson’s ministry. “I have seen more perfectly how it is done, or how it is done more perfectly,” he said.
The meetings in Southeast Asia stood in stark contrast to the stadiums and convention centers filled with tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints in large-scale gatherings that have previously been part of President Nelson’s worldwide ministry. Both President Nelson and Elder Christofferson were accompanied by their wives—Sister Wendy Nelson and Sister Kathy Christofferson—as well as members of the Area Presidency, as they ministered to the “one.”
Watching the prophet travel so far to minister to just a few “is a testimony that every soul is precious,” said Elder Christofferson. “They are remembered.”
To have the President of the Church “come to and speak to a relative handful of people—what could be a more eloquent testament than that?” he added.
“They matter. They are remembered. The Lord cares about them. The leaders of the Church care about them and they are not alone.”
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