Elder Quentin L. Cook: New leaders voice joy, humility over callings

The newest apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Saturday that he is humbled and overwhelmed by his new responsibilities.

Elder Quentin L. Cook had no idea the calling was coming but said he knows it came from the Lord. The Logan native, who worked as an attorney and business executive in California before being called as an LDS Church general authority more than a decade ago, will fill the vacancy in the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve left by now-President Henry B. Eyring.

"As you know in the church, we neither seek calls or have any expectation ever that a call will come to us, and I certainly had no idea I'd be receiving this call," Elder Cook said Saturday, just hours after he was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. "Neither do we turn down a call, particularly when it comes from a faithful, loving prophet who is so dear to us. And so I accept that call and pledge to do everything that I possibly can to be worthy and accomplish what the Lord would have me accomplish."

Elder Cook, 67, had a "wonderful and sweet and short" meeting with President Gordon B. Hinckley this past week, where the man Latter-day Saints consider to be a prophet extended Elder Cook his new calling.

He said he was glad to hear the news in person, rather than in a phone call.

"I think if somebody would have called me on the phone, I would have been sure that it was a prank of some sort," he said.

Elder Cook had been serving in the Presidency of the Seventy since August, as well as executive director of the church's missionary department.

World traveler

Born and raised in Logan, Elder Cook was the captain of the high school football team, senior class president, all-region in both football and basketball and involved in debate. He graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor's degree in political science.

But don't call him a Utahn, President Eyring said.

"I hope the people of Cache Valley wouldn't be offended, but I don't even think of him as a Utahn," Elder Eyring said. "He's been everywhere."

Elder Cook has traveled around the world as a general authority, living in the Philippines for two years and the Pacific islands for another three while serving as president of the Pacific island area and a counselor in the Philippines/Micronesia Area Presidency. He served as president of the North America Northwest Area.

He has also lived outside the Beehive State for 33 years as he kept his family home in the San Francisco area.