President M. Russell Ballard, who served as a Latter-day Saint missionary in England and Scotland for nearly 2 1⁄2 years starting in 1948, made a courtesy visit to the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday as part of a weeklong visit to the British Isles, according to an article in Deseret News.
Stephen Kerr, a Latter-day Saint and Scottish Parliament member, said he and President Ballard met with other members of Scottish Parliament, speaking about “issues facing Scotland at the moment.”
President Ballard also spoke about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its potential “to unify and heal” a divisive world, said Kerr.
The pair were joined by Elder Massimo De Feo, a General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Europe Area.
Before meeting with Kerr, President Ballard visited a historic churchyard and cemetery in Tranent, Scotland, where his great-great-great grandparents are buried. “The footings of my foundations are here,” he said.
Returning to their ‘spiritual home,’ 3 senior Apostles reflect on lives ‘anchored in the British Isles’ as full-time missionaries
President Ballard was accompanied on his journey through the British Isles by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland and Elder Quentin L. Cook, both of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and themselves former missionaries in Great Britain.
Read more about Church leaders’ visit to parliament here.
