With LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson’s death, Russell M. Nelson, the longest-serving Mormon apostle, is expected to step into the role of the faith’s prophet any day now.
Nelson’s elevation will surprise no one — for more than 170 years, that has been the Mormon sequence of succession.
What is in question, however, is which men the 93-year-old Nelson will choose as his two counselors in the governing First Presidency.
After all, they proved instrumental in running the nearly 16 million-member Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints once Monson became incapacitated by age-related health concerns.