President M. Russell Ballard home after hospital stay for respiratory issues

Tad Walch
·2 min read
President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, waves at attendees at the Conference Center in April 2023. President Ballard was recently released from the hospital.
President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, waves at attendees at the Conference Center in April 2023. President Ballard was recently released from the hospital. | Ryan Sun, Deseret News
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President M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is home after spending time in the hospital with respiratory issues.

President Ballard, 95, posted the information about his hospital stay on his social media accounts.

“Following a wonderful and inspiring general conference, last week I suddenly found myself in the hospital with respiratory issues,” he wrote. “However, I have since been released from the hospital and returned home where I am attending to duties as I am able.”

President Ballard spoke extemporaneously at the church’s international general conference on Oct. 1 because of poor eyesight, for which he gave a self-deprecating explanation.

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“My eyes aren’t what they used to be,” he said. “I went and saw the eye doctor, and I said, ‘I can’t see the teleprompter.’ And she said, “Well, your eyes are old. They’re not going to change.”

“So I’ll do the best I can,” he said.

He bore a tender testimony of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon and the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The text and video of his talk are available on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. In all, he has spoken in general conference 88 times.

President Ballard was a businessman before he was called as president of the Canada Toronto Mission in 1974. During that mission, he was called to be a General Authority Seventy in 1976.

He was serving in the Presidency of the Seventy when he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1985 after the death of Elder Bruce R. McConkie.

President Ballard became the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve in January 2018 after the death of church President Thomas S. Monson, who was succeeded by the most senior apostle, President Russell M. Nelson.

The next most senior apostle, President Dallin H. Oaks, became the president of the Quorum of the Twelve, but was called into the reorganized First Presidency as President Nelson’s first counselor.

As the third most senior apostle, President Ballard was called as the acting president of the quorum.

President Ballard is the great-great-grandson of the late Assistant President of the Church Hyrum Smith, brother of church founder Joseph Smith. He also is the great-grandson of President Joseph F. Smith, the church’s sixth president and the grandson of two apostles, Melvin J. Ballard and Hyrum M. Smith.