Spencer W. Kimball - Called To Quorum of The Twelve

Called To Quorum of The Twelve

The deaths of Sylvester Q. Cannon and Rudger Clawson created two vacancies in the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in mid-1943. On July 8, 1943, while having lunch at home, Kimball received a telephone call from J. Reuben Clark, then the first counselor to Church President Heber J. Grant, notifying him that he had been called to fill one of the vacancies in the Quorum. Kimball was initially so shocked by the call that he asked Clark's permission to ponder it for several days before coming to Salt Lake City to meet with him in person as part of a previously scheduled family trip. After the phone call, Kimball's desire to accept the calling was overwhelmed by feelings of self-doubt and incompetence. Kimball's wife recounted that Kimball, who was not prone to tears, afterward lay on the floor of their home and wept uncontrollably as she tried to comfort him.

The following week, Kimball and his wife went as planned to Boulder, Colorado, to visit their oldest son, Spencer LeVan, and his family. Unable to sleep and having begun to fast, Kimball around midnight began climbing a nearby mountain to seek solace from his intense emotional struggle with his own feelings of inadequacy and doubt. He later wrote of the experience, "How I prayed! How I suffered! How I wept! How I struggled!" After falling asleep on the mountain shortly after sunrise, Kimball recorded dreaming of his grandfather Heber C. Kimball and his life, and found that it had brought peace to his worries. He later wrote: "My tears were dry, my soul was at peace. A calm feeling of assurance came over me, doubt and questionings subdued...and I felt nearer my Lord than ever at any time in my life."

Kimball traveled to Salt Lake City, where he met with David O. McKay, then second counselor to Heber J. Grant. McKay assured Kimball of his call to the Apostleship, and Kimball formally accepted. The news was released immediately, and Kimball was sustained by the LDS membership at the October 1943 General Conference. He was ordained an Apostle and added to the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the Salt Lake Temple on October 7, 1943, by Heber J. Grant. Grant had chosen Ezra Taft Benson to fill the other vacancy in the Quorum, and he and Kimball were ordained on the same day. Being four years older than Benson, Kimball was ordained first, which put him ahead of Benson in the Quorum's seniority.