Jeffrey R. Holland - LDS Church Leadership

LDS Church Leadership

Holland was called as a general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 1, 1989, bringing an end to his term as president of Brigham Young University. As a member of the Seventy, Holland was a counselor in the general presidency of the church's Young Men organization from 1989 to 1990. Prior to his call as a general authority, Holland served as a bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, and regional representative.

Holland was ordained an apostle of the LDS Church on June 23, 1994 by Howard W. Hunter, following the death of Church President Ezra Taft Benson, and was sustained a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on October 1, 1994.

Holland lived in Santiago and served as president of the church's Chile Area from 2002 to 2004.

In church general conferences in the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008, Holland gave sermons that directly answered accusations that Latter-day Saints are not within the accepted realm of Christianity. At the spring 2009 general conference, Holland gave a sermon about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the importance of Christ's statement, "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me". This talk was later reformatted with music and put on an LDS Church website, where by August 2009 it had been viewed well over 500,000 times.

As of 2012, Holland is the member of the Twelve with responsibility for the affairs of the LDS Church in Africa. In early 2012 he went to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana to meet with members and missionaries. He also met with the Vice President of Sierra Leone, Samuel Sam-Sumana.