How Sister Wendy Nelson embraced her role as President Nelson’s wife

The Lord was their matchmaker, Sister Wendy Nelson would often say

28 Sept 2025, 2:37 a.m. MDT

President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, are interviewed in Salt Lake City on Friday, May 29, 2020. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

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.

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In 2005, after nearly 60 years of marriage, President Russell M. Nelson’s wife, Sister Dantzel Nelson, died unexpectedly from a heart condition. “For a season, my grief was almost immobilizing,” President Nelson recalled in his introductory general conference talk as the new President of the Church (“Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives,” April 2018 general conference).

Then, he said, the Lord brought Wendy L. Watson into his life. The two were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on April 6, 2006, by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel Nelson with their eight daughters. — Russell M. Nelson and Dantzel Nelson with eight daughters. | Russell Nelson Facebook

The Lord was their matchmaker, Sister Wendy Nelson would often say about dating and marrying an Apostle (“Insights From a Prophet’s Life,” p. 240).

Sister Wendy Nelson served alongside him as he ministered to Latter-day Saints around the globe in his role as an Apostle, as the president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and then as President of the Church.

In his first two years as the Prophet, they traveled to 35 countries and 17 states. “After these world tours, my husband comes home and hits the ground running, and I just hit the ground,” Sister Nelson joked about trying to keep up with her husband’s energetic ministry.

Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and with his wife, Sister Patricia Holland, meet with local Church members in Hong Kong on Saturday, April 21, 2018. | Jeffrey D. Allred

In a Church News podcast episode in 2021, then again in 2022, Sister Nelson described some of President Nelson’s characteristics as a husband and father, as well as a leader and Prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“There is a joy that compels him,” Sister Nelson said of her husband, “because he knows it’s true, because he knows the blessings that the Lord has for these people — the promises, the blessings, the unbelievable things that we can’t even imagine.”

She referred to him as a “bridge builder” and as someone who is always focused on what the Lord wants him to do next. “He is always looking forward, and he’s always looking up. Just like in the photo from one of our walks taken where he is looking up. It’s a very natural position for him,” Sister Wendy Nelson said.

One of the sweetest joys of her life, she said, is listening to him pray. “To have him be voice when we are having our family prayer is really something. I can tell you that his prayers are more global. He really does pray for the people of the world.”

She also learned that he is a man of action. “He never delays. ‘What’s wrong with now?’ will always be President Nelson’s response when he knows that an adjustment in policy or procedure is the Lord’s will.”

President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with his wife, Sister Wendy Nelson, waves to attendees of the 189th Annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on Saturday, April 6, 2019. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

If there were one silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sister Nelson said, it was that it allowed the two of them to spend more time together: talking, playing Scrabble or working on a jigsaw puzzle together.

In their home, the voice of the Prophet is “kind and loving and lifting,” she shared. “He’s really easy to love.”