Difference between revisions of "Dale G. Renlund"

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Elder Dale E. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

Dale G. Renlund was named to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 3, 2015. His call was a milestone for the Church: 100 apostles have now served since the Church was organized in 1830. Renlund was serving as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy at the time of his call to the apostleship. He had previously served as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy.

Renlund earned his MD degree from the University of Utah and further medical and research training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was a professor of medicine at the University of Utah, and from 1991 to 2009, he was the Medical Director of the Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals (UTAH) Cardiac Transplant Program. He became the director of the Heart Failure Prevention and Treatment Program at Intermountain Health Center in Salt Lake City in 2000.

He was born on November 13, 1952, in Salt Lake City. His Swedish parents, Mats Ake Renlund and Mariana Andersson immigrated to the United States so they could marry in a church temple. Later while Renlund was in his teens, he lived in Sweden with his family while his father served as a building missionary for the Church. He returned again to Sweden to serve as a full-time missionary (1972–1974). He has also served as a Sunday School president, bishop, stake president, and Area Seventy.

Renlund and his wife, Ruth Lybbert (a daughter of former General Authority Merlin R. Lybbert), are the parents of one daughter. Ruth Renlund survived ovarian cancer after the birth of their daughter. She was an attorney and partner in the Salt Lake law firm Dewsnup, King, and Olsen. She also set aside her career when her husband was assigned to serve in the presidency of the Africa Southeast Area.

Apostleship

Elder Renlund visited Sweden on April 28 and 29, 2018, accompanied by his wife, Ruth Lybbert Renlund. He spoke to Church leaders, missionaries, and Church members at a meeting in Stockholm which was broadcast by webcast to an estimated 1,500 people. With a Swedish mother and Finnish father, Elder Renlund is the first Church Apostle to have grown up speaking Swedish in his home.[1] On August 1, 2024, Elder and Sister Renlund visited the Festinord Young Single Adult conference in Göteborg, Sweden, greeting each of the 500 attendees before speaking at a devotional. Festinord is an annual conference for young single adults created for the Nordic and Baltic countries, with the location rotating between Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. For five days each year, young adults gather together to strengthen their faith, forge new friendships and enjoy wholesome activities. Now in its 50th year, with the 2024 theme “Rejoice in the Lord – always,” the conference gathered attendees from 28 different countries. “I feel like I have come home,” said Elder Renlund, who as a teenager lived with his family in Göteborg. It was during that time he began his journey to becoming a true convert and follower of Jesus Christ, he said. After the devotional, Elder and Sister Renlund participated in a Q&A session where they answered questions from young single adults.[2]

Temples dedicated by Elder Renlund

Kinshasa Democratic Republic of Congo Temple  · Belém Brazil Temple  · Coban Guatemala Temple  ·

Books

• The Gift of Knowing Him (2022)
• The Melchizedek Priesthood: Understanding the Doctrine, Living the Principles (2018)

Quotes from Elder Renlund

“God cares a lot more about who we are and about who we are becoming, than about who we once were.”April 2015

“Without the Redeemer, . . . repentance becomes simply miserable behavior modification.”[3]

Videos with Elder Renlund

More on Elder Dale G. Renlund

• Dale G. Renlund
• "Elder Dale G. Renlund: An Obedient Servant," by Elder Quentin L. Cook
• Special Witnesses of Christ, How can we receive God's greatest gift?
• All General Conference Talks by Dale G. Renlund
• All Talks by Dale G. Renlund