Elder Caussé testifies in Asia that no one is ‘beyond the reach of the Lord’s infinite blessings’

During his first apostolic ministry in Asia, Elder Gérald Caussé reorganized the stake leadership in Singapore, met with government and religious leaders in Indonesia and Vietnam and also Church members in the three countries and in Hong Kong.

“I would like to simply say that the message I have for this area, like for the whole world, is the message of the Apostle of the Lord — that I know that Jesus lives, that His Church has been restored upon the earth,” he said in an article published May 6 on the Church’s Singapore Newsroom. “It can adapt to any culture, it can adapt to any climate, to any people, because it is destined to enable the exaltation of all the sons and daughters of a loving God.”

Elder Caussé, who was called as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in November, was accompanied by his wife, Sister Valérie Caussé.

Singapore Stake conference

On Saturday, April 18, Elder Caussé and Elder Peter Bushi, an Area Seventy who is from India and lives in Thailand, had 10-minute interviews with 19 priesthood holders from the Singapore Stake — the only stake in the country. Both Elder Caussé and Elder Peter Bushi prayed for revelation on who the stake president should be.

“The reorganization of a stake is a very remarkable process in the Church. It stands as a witness that the Lord is conducting His work through the power of revelation,” Elder Caussé said in a video on his social media platforms explaining the process.

Also during the stake conference on Sunday, April 19, Elder Caussé invited members to “work and prepare ourselves to meet the Savior, for at that time we will feel loved more than we have ever felt before.”

Meeting religious leaders in Indonesia

In Jakarta, Indonesia, Elder Caussé met with religious leaders of a variety of faiths, reported the Church’s Singapore Newsroom on May 2.

Elder and Sister Caussé were accompanied at various times by Elder Kevin R. Duncan of the Presidency of the Seventy and his wife, Sister Nancy Duncan; Elder Benjamin M.Z. Tai, a General Authority Seventy and the Church’s Asia Area president, and his wife, Sister Naomi Tai; and Elder Kelly R. Johnson, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s Asia Area presidency, and his wife, Sister Teressa Johnson.

They met with Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, the Indonesian minister of Religious Affairs and grand imam of the Istiqlal Mosque, the faith’s largest in Southeast Asia, on April 21.

Declaring that “religion should be a bridge,” Imam Umar said that “diversity is not a burden but a treasure” to the largest Muslim-majority country in the world. Imam Umar visited Utah in 2023 when he attended the 30th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young University in Provo.

Elder Caussé and area Church leaders also met with the Rev. Gomar Gultom, the immediate past president of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, seeing the Indonesian Bible Society’s museum and library and meeting with the Communion of Churches in Indonesia leaders.

The Caussés, the Johnsons and local Church leaders on Monday, April 20, were received by Monsignor Antonius Subianto Bunjamin, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Indonesia, and representatives from the Catholic Family and Gender and Women Empowerment Commissions.

The Caussés, Tais and Johnsons also met with Alissa Wahid, the director of the GusDurian Network and the eldest daughter of the late Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Elder Caussé said, “Indonesia is such a country that is showing the way in religious tolerance — we love it, and we want to be part of it.”

In Vietnam, Elder Caussé and Elder Johnson visited with the Government Committee on Religious Affairs Vice Chairman Nguyen Tien Trọng and Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh, head of Department of Ethnic and Religious Affairs at the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

Ministering to members, missionaries

As Elder Caussé met with with missionaries in Indonesia on April 21 and Vietnam on April 24, he said his love for missionaries intensified as he began to do missionary assignments in his calling as an Apostle. He urged the missionaries to use the mission as a chance to transform their own lives.

Elder Caussé ministered to members in Jakarta, Indonesia, on April 21; Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 23; and in Hong Kong on Sunday, April 26, including those working far from home.

He invited them to receive the vision of “your eternal identity, your divine nature and your divine potential” in the temple and how “no one of you is beyond the reach of the Lord’s infinite blessings.”

— Christine Rappleye is a Church News reporter. Ling Goh is the assistant public affairs manager in the Church’s Asia Area.