Editor’s note: After a lifetime of dedicated service, President Russell M. Nelson died on Sept. 27, 2025, at age 101. This article is part of a series exploring different facets of President Nelson’s exemplary, faith-filled life.
President Russell M. Nelson had a gift for languages and wanted to speak to people around the world in their own tongue.
President Dallin H. Oaks said this when President Nelson was called as President of the Church: “He is a brilliant writer and speaker, able to communicate in many languages.”
To aid him in teaching, he studied numerous languages, including French, Portuguese, German, Russian and Spanish, so he could better communicate with and teach doctors and researchers in other countries” (“President Russell M. Nelson: Guided, Prepared, Committed”). While serving as Sunday School general president in the late 1970s, President Nelson attended a meeting in which President Spencer W. Kimball, the Prophet at the time, challenged all present to study the Mandarin language.
President Nelson later said: “To me, President Kimball’s challenge seemed like a prophetic mandate. So that very night I asked my late wife, Dantzel, if she would be willing to study Mandarin with me.”
They found the help of a tutor and learned enough Mandarin that allowed him to work closely with the medical community in China, performing lectures and surgeries over a period of several years, even saving the life of one of China’s national heroes (“Stand as True Millennials,” Liahona, October 2016).
President Nelson spent many years on assignment as an Apostle visiting countries throughout Eastern Europe. During a visit in October 2017 to members in the Church’s Europe East Area, President Nelson bore his testimony in the Russian language.
“I love the people of Russia,” said President Nelson. “I love their language. I love their faith.”
On Sept. 1, 2018, President Nelson told members gathered in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, “Con su permiso, quisiera hablar en español” — “With your permission, I would like to speak in Spanish.”
He then spoke to them for several minutes, in what’s believed to be the first time a Church president delivered an extended message in a language other than English.
“It was wonderful listening to the Prophet in our language,” said Santo Domingo resident Michel Acosta, who helped with the security team at the event. “I felt such happiness. … I’ll never forget it.”
President Nelson spoke to more crowds in Spanish throughout his ministry in Central and South America, including in Lima, Peru, on Oct. 20, 2018, where members of the Church called it “a very historic moment.”
In November 2021, President Nelson launched a Spanish-language Instagram account, the first Spanish-only social media account by a senior Church leader.
Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said that as President Nelson spoke in Spanish, “it just touches your heart. There’s a reverence. There’s a silence, and then everyone’s wiping their eyes. Tears are flowing, and it’s just a remarkable thing. It’s an indication that the Latter-day Saints love their Prophet, and the Prophet loves the Latter-day Saints.”
