Review
Title: Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson
Author: Sheri Dew
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Genre: Non-fiction/Biography
Year Published: 2019
Number of Pages: 452
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN13: 978-1-62972-591-8
Price: $34.99
Reviewed by Sherry Ann Miller for the Association for Mormon Letters
Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson “offers a candid view of President Russell M. Nelson, the seventeenth President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, from childhood to the current day. More than a biography, this landmark volume invites readers to experience President Nelson‘s life through dozens of brief vignettes and hundreds of photographs. Each episode highlights an important lesson; taken together they weave a captivating story of a man prepared in a unique way to lead the Church in our day.” So reads part of the cover of this book that I have read and reviewed for the Association for Mormon Letters.
The book contains four parts, identified by a number of years beginning in 1924, then leading up to and concluding with the short time that President Nelson has been ordained as the Prophet, Seer and Revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Part One, Laying a Foundation for Service, covers the life of Russell Marion Nelson from 1924 to 1955. During those first thirty years, he “seems to have done almost everything early. He graduated from high school early, went to the University early, graduated from medical school early, and so on. The one thing he did late was get baptized,” writes author Sheri Dew, which he accomplished at the age of sixteen, when he was also a senior in high school. The photos are as touching as the stories of a little boy who grew to manhood, married a beautiful young woman, Dantzel White, for time and all eternity (she would marry nowhere other than in a temple), studied practically non-stop to become a heart surgeon and fathered his first four daughters.
Part Two, Healing Hearts and Building a Home, begins in 1955 and concludes in 1984, when Russell M. Nelson received his call to serve the Lord as one of the Twelve Apostles for the Church. As it was during the latter eleven years of Part Two that I first became acquainted with Dr. Russell M. Nelson, I paid particular attention to the words Sheri Dew chose to present brief sketches of his life at that time. His residency had, by 1955, been completed at the University of Minnesota, with stints at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC, the front lines of the Korean War, and at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
With his PhD now in hand, along with his beloved wife, Dantzel, and their daughters, Dr. Nelson turned toward home, back to Salt Lake City, Utah. I will be eternally grateful that he did.
While Sheri Dew has chosen to show us President Nelson’s life in captivating vignettes, these are accompanied with fascinating photos, documenting his life, career and church service with little-known details that make him seem a perfectly normal human. Yet, he is not an ordinary man. As Ms. Dew points out, “He is exceptional in so many ways.”
You absolutely must read Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson, if you would truly understand what molded President Nelson into the man he is today. He was a great pioneer of cardio-thoracic surgery, and also taught many others in this same field. In addition, he fathered several more daughters, and last, but not least, a son. And, if that was not enough, he was also anxiously engaged in service to the Lord. These were busy times for him.
Rather than recount many of Sheri Dew’s beautifully written vignettes, which you really must read for yourselves, I will share one of my own. I first met Russell M. Nelson as my mama’s heart surgeon in 1974. During the next eight years he operated on Mama’s heart on four separate occasions. Apparently, Mama grew scar tissue so well that within a few years with a new valve, she would completely gum it up, occluding its effectiveness. During those years, Dr. Nelson tried a number of different valves, hoping one of them might help her overcome this issue. Little did he realize that he had enabled her to be of service to the Lord in her own small circle as she remained upon the earth far longer than any of us thought she would. Also, during the time her surgeries were sustaining her life, she was able to be sealed to Dad in the Ogden Temple, and eventually went on a mission with Dad. On the day Dr. Nelson was called as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, she was serving that mission in Washington DC. She telephoned me that same Sunday to tell me the news, that an Apostle of the Lord had held her heart in his hands four times. “Yes, Mama, I watched the session and sustained him, as well,” I assured her.
When she finally passed after her fifth open-heart surgery, I wrote to Apostle Nelson to give him the news. He wrote back, expressing his condolences and asked that I continue to update him on our large family, as he had grown fond of us. I did as he asked and we corresponded. It was Apostle Nelson’s assertion in one of his letters, that I am “an excellent writer,” that turned me back to my writing, and which led to my becoming published.
Part Three, The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, continues Elder Nelson’s life from 1984 to 2015. On page 164, Sheri Dew quotes from the funeral services for Elder Richard L. Evans. In speaking of the Twelve, “… these men are united in heart and hand and soul. They move as one. They work as one. They feel as one. The Twelve know what it is to be devoted completely to the cause of Christ.“ I believe the Twelve do just that…and so much more.
As Elder Nelson embarked on the next thirty years of his apostleship, Sheri Dew captures his life in momentary sketches that both challenged him and enabled him to become the endearing and forthright man he is today. Always, the vignettes show that the Lord is with him, regardless of any misgivings Elder Nelson may have had about his own ability. He suffered through the death of his beloved Dantzel and opened a new chapter of his life with his bride, Wendy L. Watson. He was well-acquainted with The Gateway We Call Death by the close of Part Three.
Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson, shows us that men do not set out at the beginning of their lives to become Apostles or Prophets. They set out to become good, honest men, honing skills that lead them into a chosen career and family life. They diligently work at their home and career while allowing the Lord to become their central focus and to work through them for the benefit of others. Sheri Dew’s book is true to its name. It gives us insights from one man who followed the Lord throughout his life and, at an advanced age, became the Prophet of the Lord. At no point in his life did Russell Marion Nelson set out to become the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This fact is obvious as Sheri Dew’s book shows the life of Prophet Nelson from its beginning. He set out to raise an eternal family unit and become a heart surgeon, a man who could ease suffering and save lives. And, when he had carved out a fine future for his family and himself, the Lord changed the direction of his focus.
Part Four, President of the Twelve, President of the Church, takes the reader from the year 2015 to the present. By October of 2015, Russell Marion Nelson was already President of the Twelve Apostles.
In General Conference that fall, Elder Nelson spoke directly about the role of women in the Church, saying, “We brethren cannot duplicate your unique influence. Men provide for the present, but women shape the future. I wanted to try to help the sisters of the Church understand how distinctive, how irreplaceable they are in the Lord’s work.“ The inspiration behind President Nelson’s message about and for women must not be mistaken. It was divinely inspired. We women needed to hear that our efforts are worthwhile, and that the brethren recognize our eternal contributions.
Sheri Dew’s vignette on the number of Presidents of the Church that Russell M. Nelson has personally been exposed to is quite impressive. I’m certain that he, himself, is also astonished. I also wonder what it must be like to look at his own face in the mirror when he stands in front of it, and sees the Prophet of the Lord staring back at him. What little I do know of him, personally, whispers that he likely doesn’t notice the Prophet in his mirror at all. More likely, he notices the husband, father, grandfather, and servant of the Lord.
I noticed Ms. Dew devoted an entire vignette to President Nelson’s name correction for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She quotes him, “To remove the Lord’s name from the Lord’s Church is a major victory for Satan. When we discard the Savior’s name, we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us – even His Atonement.” Then President Nelson stated, “I promise you that if we will do our best to restore the correct name of the Lord’s Church, He whose Church this is will pour down His power and blessings upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints, the likes of which we have never seen.“
Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson, by Sheri Dew, kept me quickly turning pages up to the very end where she shared her testimony of the divine calling of Prophets, and in particular, President Russell M. Nelson. Her concluding words are these: “…I testify also that the safest course in life is to listen to and follow the Prophet.”
As we reviewers are meant to give some kind of constructive critique in our reviews, I have searched for anything that did not seem right and appropriate to me, and I am almost at a loss. This book is well-written, beautifully so, with just enough humor and tears to suit any Latter-day reader. Sheri Dew is to be commended for taking on a Herculean task and accomplishing it with great admiration. Reluctantly, therefore, I will add that it might be nice to study the precise meaning of the word “clarion,” for a better word might have been chosen on page 292. In my dictionary, clarion means clear and shrill, while shrill means high-pitched and piercing. I hope she meant that the call was clear and will be treasured in our hearts. Clarion is such a piercing word that it scrapes across my eardrums painfully. I am uncertain that is exactly what Ms. Dew intended. Also, on page xi, I found the word “contempt” in one sentence that surprised me. By definition, this is the feeling with which a person regards anything considered mean, vile or worthless. I find it difficult, in this instance, that Ms. Dew would consider anyone contemptible once she becomes familiar with him or her, because we are all children of our Father in Heaven; even our dear Prophet is a child of God. Perhaps she could have chosen two better words in these examples. In a large book of 452 pages, to find that only two tiny words “might” be amiss is monumental. And, I can be quite critical when I review any book. I am certain there are many who know the sting of my book reviews and are astounded that I could find so little to suggest.
In conclusion, I would recommend Insights From A Prophet’s Life – Russell M. Nelson to anyone. In fact, one of my granddaughters, Joran Drysdale, is currently perusing her own copy. She recently texted me:
“I’ve been reading Insights From A Prophet’s Life: Russell M. Nelson. Because of something I read in that book, I know that we will all be resurrected and made completely whole again.”
Why, yes, dear Joran, President Nelson teaches that message perfectly.
Sheri Dew, thank you so much for the hope, reason and spiritual influence this divinely inspired book gave me…and will give to so many others. Your skills at writing and organization are truly to be treasured.