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The Young Men General Presidency as of April 1, 2023. From left to right: First Counselor Brother Brad R. Wilcox, President Steven J. Lund and Second Counselor Brother Michael T. Nelson.© 2023 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
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By Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News
Church members sustained a new counselor to the Young Men General Presidency for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Saturday, April 1, as part of the April 2023 General Conference. The change occurred when Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt, previously serving as First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, was sustained as a General Authority Seventy. and Brother Bradley R. Wilcox, previously Second Counselor, was sustained as First Counselor.
The new presidency — along with five new new General Authority Seventies and a new Young Women General Presidency — were part of the sustaining of all Church leaders presented by President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, in the conference’s Saturday afternoon session.
Following is a brief look at each member of the Young Men General Presidency. A more in-depth profile on each leader will appear in coming weeks.
President Steven J. Lund
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President Steven J. Lund and Sister Kalleen Lund. President Lund was sustained as Young Men General President on April 4, 2020, during general conference.© 2020 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
When President Steven J. Lund was sustained as Young Men General President during the April 2020 general conference, he accepted a sacred charge to help guide hundreds of thousands of Aaronic Priesthood-age males in a global Church.
But if it were possible to meet one-on-one with every deacon, teacher and priest in the world, he knows exactly what he would say:
“Being a successful member of the Kingdom of God isn’t complicated — Heavenly Father loves you. You just need to love Him back. And if we do that, we’re going to be safe and happy … Our lives are going to mean something.”
Taking the Church seriously doesn’t simply happen on Sunday. It’s an everyday opportunity, according to the attorney-turned-business-executive. “Reading the scriptures. Going to Church. Repenting as soon as we are off track. Opening our mouths and being an example of the gospel. That’s our Heavenly Father’s plan. This is the doctrine of Christ: to repent and continue and grow.
“And if we do those things, the joys of life have no bounds.”
Steven J. Lund, 67, was born on October 30, 1953, to Jay and Toy Ellen Lund and grew up in both Northern California (Santa Rosa) and Southern California (Long Beach). His service in the U.S. Army took him back to Europe, a continent he had come to love during his missionary service to the Netherlands.
Following his enlistment, he enrolled in Brigham Young University, where he reconnected with a young woman he had become acquainted with while stationed in Germany. Steven and Kalleen Kirk were soon a couple and eventually married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 8, 1980. They are the parents of four children.
After claiming a law degree at BYU, he worked as a lawyer before eventually becoming president and CEO of Nu Skin Enterprises. He is currently the company’s executive chairman of the board of directors and is a regent of the Utah System of Higher Education.
Brother Bradley R. Wilcox
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Brother Bradley S. Wilcox and Sister Debi Wilcox. Brother Wilcox was sustained as First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency on April 1, 2023, during general conference. He was previously serving as Second Counselor.2023 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
Years before serving as a counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, Brother Bradley R. Wilcox and his wife, Debi, sent their reluctant 14-year-old son to Especially for Youth (EFY) at Brigham Young University.
They worried that he “didn’t have a spiritual bone in his body.” The teen came home different — more focused and sensitive to spiritual things. Now, years later, he is serving in a bishopric and mentoring the youth in his own ward.
That is what Brother Wilcox observed repeatedly last summer as Latter-day Saint youth across the globe participated in For the Strength of Youth (FSY) conferences. Over and over again those “who were not sure they wanted to come” went home different and better.
Brother Wilcox — who was released as Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency and sustained as First Counselor during April 2023 general conference — said this has been an exciting time to serve Latter-day Saint youth. The Young Men and Young Women general presidencies are working together regularly, and “the FSY conferences, guide and magazine are reaching more youth than ever.”
Bradley Ray Wilcox, 63, was born in Provo, Utah, in December of 1959, to Ray T. Wilcox and Val C. Wilcox. He grew up in Provo, except for a few childhood years spent in Ethiopia.
After serving a full-time mission in Viña del Mar, Chile, Brother Wilcox married Deborah Gunnell in the Provo Utah Temple on October 7, 1982. They are the parents of four children and live in Provo, Utah.
Brother Wilcox received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Brigham Young University and his doctorate in education from the University of Wyoming. He is currently a professor in the Department of Ancient Scripture at BYU. Since 1985, most of his summers were devoted to BYU’s EFY program.
Before serving in the Young Men General Presidency, Brother Wilcox served as a bishop and in a stake presidency, as president of the Chile Santiago East Mission and on the Sunday School general board.
Brother Michael T. Nelson
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Brother Michael T. Nelson and Sister Barbara Nelson. Brother Nelson was sustained as Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency April 1, 2023, during general conference. Photo by Scott G Winterton, courtesy of Church News. Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.
His time as a mission president confirmed for Brother Michael T. Nelson that teaching the rising generation correct principles and then trusting them produced the best results — both for missionary work and in the lives of individual missionaries.
“It is all about trust. We learned to trust them,” he said of working with full-time missionaries in the California San Bernardino Mission, where the Nelsons were mission leaders from 1998 to 2001.
Brother Nelson said that learning, plus allowing young people the opportunity to lead, has continued in his Church service and will in his new calling as Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency. For the past three years, Brother Nelson has been executive secretary to the general presidency, and for two years before was a member of what is now the Young Men General Advisory Council.
Michael Terry Nelson was born June 10, 1956, in Salt Lake City to Monte Cannon and Viola Eliza Nelson and grew up in the Salt Lake area. He served in the Chile Santiago Mission (1975-77). He studied organizational communications at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah, then married Barbara Fluckiger on September 21, 1982, in the Jordan River Utah Temple.
The Nelsons have nine children, ages 39 to 22. They lived in Sandy, Utah, before moving to Wallsburg, Utah. Brother Nelson is chief financial officer of a commercial and residential real estate and investment company. The family, including two children living at home, also operates a small farm on their home’s property. Being active and in the outdoors should be important for youth of the Church, Brother Nelson said, as it has been for his family.
Brother Nelson has served as a stake president, counselor in a stake presidency, stake executive secretary, bishop, and ward and stake Young Men president. He also helped with fundraising, registration and logistics in 1997 for the sesquicentennial wagon train that reenacted the first company traveling to the Salt Lake Valley.
Copyright 2023 Deseret News Publishing Company.