Church News - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Thomas S. Monson

During a Church News interview in 1985, President Thomas S. Monson, then second counselor in the First Presidency, told of having been called at age 22 to serve as bishop of the Sixth-Seventh Ward, in which he had grown up in Salt Lake City.

"Why I was called as bishop, I can't tell you," he said during the interview. "Only the Lord would know that."

On Monday, Feb. 4, 2008, that former bishop was introduced at a news media briefing as the 16th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

No living person is more acquainted with the office of Church president. He has spent the past 22 years in the First Presidency, serving as a counselor to three presidents: second counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson and President Howard W. Hunter and, for nearly 13 years, first counselor to President Gordon B. Hinckley.

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pointStories displayed below are sorted by date, most recent at the top of the list and contain at least one reference to President Monson.

  • Messages of inspiration from President Monson

    No one has described these years as being easy. Indeed, they have become increasingly more difficult. The world seems to have slipped from the moorings of safety and drifted from the harbor of peace. Permissiveness, immorality, pornography and the power of peer pressure cause many to be tossed about on a sea of sin and crushed on the jagged reefs of lost opportunities, forfeited blessings and shattered dreams.
  • Be of good cheer

    The daily headlines rarely fail to deliver their heavy litany of bad news. Staggering economies and job woes. Terrorism and war. Tsunamis and earthquakes. Flu pandemics and health care worries. Broken homes and broken lives.
  • Mormon Church members are joyful over news of temple to be built in Sapporo, Japan

    When the Tokyo Japan Temple was dedicated in October 1980, it was the only Mormon temple in the Orient. As other temples were built in the Far East, Tokyo primarily served members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan. It was centrally located in the island nation on its largest island of Honshu, but still required substantial travel for members from the southern island of Kyushu and the northern island of Hokkaido.
  • Scouting anchored by timeless values

    Want to be the best youth or Scout leader possible? Start by following the example of President Thomas S. Monson.