Medical career
Renlund graduated from the University of Utah in 1976 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He then attended the University of Utah School of Medicine, graduating in 1980 with a Doctor of Medicine. He then went on to do a three-year internal medicine residency program and then a three-year cardiology fellowship, both at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. [2] While working at Johns Hopkins, Renlund served as bishop of an LDS ward, and his wife, Ruth, earned a law degree from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. [6]
In 1986, Renlund became a professor of medicine at the University of Utah. As a cardiologist, he specialized in heart transplants. [8] From 1991 to 2009, he was the medical director of the Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals Cardiac Transplant Program. In 2000, he also became director of the Heart Failure Prevention and Treatment Program at Intermountain Health Center in Salt Lake City.
LDS Church service
In addition to his time as a bishop, Renlund has served in many positions in the LDS Church, including ward Sunday School president and high councilor. In 1992, Renlund succeeded H. David Burton as president of the Salt Lake University 1st Stake. [9] He served as an area seventy in the church's Utah Salt Lake City Area from 2000 to 2009.
In April 2009, Renlund became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, a full-time ecclesiastical position. Later in 2009, Renlund and his wife moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where he served first as a counselor and then from 2011 to 2014 as president of the church's Africa Southeast Area. [10] In this position he oversaw the church in about 20 countries, making trips to many of them, including a total of nearly 40 trips to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [11]
In October 2015, he was sustained as an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve. [12] As an apostle, he is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer and revelator. He was sustained to the Quorum of the Twelve along with Ronald A. Rasband and Gary E. Stevenson, filling vacancies created by the 2015 deaths of L. Tom Perry, Boyd K. Packer and Richard G. Scott. This was the first time since 1906 that three new apostles were sustained. [10] They are the 98th, 99th and 100th members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the church's history. [8] [13]
In June 2017, Renlund and his wife spoke at an international forum on religious freedom in Costa Rica and advocated, "Religious beliefs, teachings and practices bring needed medicine to a society that would otherwise be aggressive and sick." [14] In June 2018, Renlund was featured in a series of suicide awareness videos published by the church. The series was aimed at understanding suicide and taking measures to prevent it. [15] Renlund also spoke at a medical conference held in Vatican City in April 2018, describing the church's views on religion improving the health of individuals. [16] In August 2017, Renlund participated in a "Face-to-Face" online event with youth members of the LDS Church in Africa. [17]
In April 2019, Renlund dedicated the Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple. [18]
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