Elder Per Gösta Malm, General Authority Seventy, died of cancer at his home in home in Göteborg, Sweden, on July 26. He was 67.
Elder Malm was sustained as a General Authority Seventy at general conference in April 2010, making history as the first such leader to be called from Sweden.
“We are deeply saddened by Elder Malm’s passing. He was a man of tremendous spirituality and strength. His example as a husband, father, friend and disciple has been priceless. He faced cancer with his characteristic calm and courage. He was loved and respected and will be greatly missed. We pray for his dear wife, Agneta, and their marvelous family at this time of tender feelings,” said Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy.
Born in Jönköping, Sweden, and reared by Latter-day Saint parents, he enjoyed in his youth working with full-time missionaries. At age 16, he was called on a Church-service mission to assist in the construction of meetinghouses, and, as part of a bricklayer crew, worked on buildings in Stockholm and in Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.
He had met his future wife, Agneta Karlsson, years earlier at a campground while both their families were traveling to Bern, Switzerland, to do ordinance work in the temple. They were sealed in October 1969 in the Swiss Temple.
The Malms raised eight children while he was involved in a family business at first and then later worked for the Presiding Bishop’s Office, at the same time earning law degrees from the University of Göteborg and the University of Lund, both in Sweden. Eventally, he was employed as director of temporal affairs for the Church in Europe.
Prior to his call as a General Authority, Elder Malm was an Area Seventy, president of the Norway Oslo Mission from 2003 to 2006, and public affairs director for the Church in Sweden.
While Paul Oscarson, husband of Sister Bonnie Oscarson, current Young Women general president, presided over the newly created Sweden Göteborg Mission beginning in 1976, Elder Malm was a counselor to him.
“They had a big family with many small children, and we had a big family with many small children,” Elder Malm recalled in a Church News interview published May 29, 2010. “As we went to the different branches in the mission, we often brought our complete families in our vans and helped increase the attendance of children in those mission branches. It was a great time!”
Much of Elder Malm’s ministry as a General Authority focused on missionary work. At a January 2015 Seminar for New MTC Presidents and Visitors’ Center Directors held at the Provo, Utah, Missionary Training Center, he spoke on the role of the Spirit in conversion.
“We must understand and recognize the Spirit of Christ has an impact that we perceive from the beginning of conversion,” he said.
Noting the scriptural doctrine that the light of Christ is given to everyone, he said there are two key reasons why the light begins to dim in the hearts of some people: The evil one comes to take away the light, and disobedience and traditions diminish the light.
“And because this happens and is so common in the lives of individuals, missionaries and teachers are sent to rekindle the recognition of the Light of Christ,” he said.
At October 2010 general conference, Elder Malm spoke on the topic “Rest unto Your Souls.”
He told of a tree on a boulevard in downtown Göteborg that has a trunk that is completely hollow. It is supported by a steel belt with cables fastened and anchored to nearby buildings.
“Many years earlier something had started the process of weakening the trunk a little bit here and a little bit there,” he said. “It did not happen overnight. However, just like a young tree grows bit by bit into a sturdy tree, so we can grow step by step in our capacity to be solid and filled from the inside out, in contrast to the hollow tree.
“It is through the healing Atonement of Jesus Christ that we may have the strength to stand tall and strong and to have our souls be filled — with light, understanding, joy and love.”
Elder Malm is survived by his wife, their eight children and 25 grandchildren.
