Anxiously Engaged: A biography of M. Russell Ballard

 

I recently finished reading this book and I really enjoyed it. I imagine that biographies of Church leaders are pretty difficult to write well. These leaders have accomplished so much and have so many good qualities that it can be difficult to portray them as actual humans while still preserving some of their privacy in a world where they have very little. In addition, there are less interesting moments in everyone's life that need to be included in a biography without losing the audience.  While not perfect, this book generally does a good job of dealing with those issues.

Here are some things I learned about him:

1.  Elder Ballard's parents were less active while he was growing up--even though both his mother and father had apostles for fathers.  They just got distracted by the less important things of life. There are a surprising number of current apostles whose fathers were less active or not members:  Pres. Nelson, Elders Ballard, Holland, Cook, and Bednar. That is probably an incomplete list.

2.  He was always a go-getter.  Elder Ballard worked hard throughout his life. He was a leader from high school on.  He actually didn't finish his college degree because he was already doing well as a car salesman. He went on to become a successful entrepreneur although he had some setbacks as well. He invested in the Edsel automobile which was quite a dud. He continues to throw himself into every assignment with all his enthusiasm.

3.  When he first became a mission president, he gave the missionaries a pretty hard-hitting talk. Afterwards, his wife told him, If you're going to talk like that to the missionaries, I don't want to go to those meetings with you. He decided he needed to tone it down.

4. He's had some miraculous experiences that I wish I could have heard more about. In particular, I enjoyed reading about his trip to Ethiopia in 1985 when the country was experiencing a horrific famine. The church held a fast to donate money and ask the Lord to bless this poor country. At the time they didn't have a humanitarian arm, so they sent Elder Ballard, a Seventy at the time, to distribute the funds they collected. He and Elder Glen Pace arrived in Ethiopia and while they were still in the airport, immediately started trying to find the one member of the church that they knew about in the country. Fortunately this man worked at the airport so they found him quickly. On Sunday they held a sacrament meeting with just the three of them which was very meaningful to this man who was very lonely and had not been able to take sacrament for months. At the end of the meeting, Elder Ballard offered a sacred prayer and blessing on Ethiopia. He called upon the power and authority of the holy Melchizedek Priesthood and commanded the elements to gather together to bring rain upon the land. It hadn’t rained in over a year, and the prayer was offered on a clear and sunny Sunday morning. 

They had some other meetings and that afternoon Elders Ballard and Pace returned to their hotel rooms to rest. In his room, Elder Pace heard a clap of thunder and went to the patio just in time to see the beginning of a torrential downpour. People came out shouting and crying as the heavy downpour continued for some time. He began to weep as he recognized this answer to their prayer. He went to Elder Ballard’s room and could tell he had also been overwhelmed by emotion and they offered a prayer of thanksgiving. He said, from that day forward, wherever they traveled, it rained.

Elder Ballard was greatly affected by the deep suffering, distress, and poverty they saw there and said he and the church will never be the same. Shortly after that, the church set up a humanitarian division and have done a lot of service throughout the world.

5. The stories were the best part of the book. In 1980, Elder Ballard was sent to Nigeria to meet with members there. Nigeria had a lot of political instability (and probably still does.) He was introduced to Anthony Obinna who had a remarkable story of conversion involving having dreams about the Salt Lake temple and then seeing the temple in a Reader's Digest soon after. He wrote to the church for information and soon the missionaries were visiting him. He was baptized and became the branch president soon after. While Elder Ballard was there, Bro. Obinna was excited to show him a piece of land that his tribal chief had given him to use however he wanted. It was covered with jungle foliage taller than a man's head. He told Elder Ballard he wanted to put a meetinghouse on it. Elder Ballard felt something as he said that but didn't say anything. Very early the next morning, Elder Ballard told his companion Elder Cuthbert that he thought they should break ground for a chapel even though they had no authorization to build or any funds to do so. He felt strongly that that was what the Lord wanted them to do. So a few hours later, they were at Bro. Obinna's house asking him if he could get the land cleared in two days so they could have a groundbreaking ceremony. It was a monumental task but in about 2 days they cleared half an acre and had the ceremony. And they built the chapel.

And there are many more inspirational stories I enjoyed. I recommend reading the book if you can find a copy!