Born: August 21, 1927
Became President: February 3, 2008
Died: January 2, 2018
Thomas S. Monson grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah against the backdrop of the Great Depression and WWII. At 18, rather than waiting for the US Military to draft him, Thomas enlisted with the US Navy Reserve. After the war he earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing. During his childhood he was profoundly impacted by the deep love and compassion his parents, George S. and Gladys Monson, showed to others. Gladys often fed hungry transients that were passing through town “as though each had been an invited guest,” and his father would frequently drive his crippled brother Elias around town.
While at university Thomas met and married Frances Johnson on October7, 1948. After graduation he went to work as an advertising executive for Deseret News. In 1950, at the age of 22, Thomas was called as Bishop over the Temple View Sixth-Seventh Ward, a ward with 85 widows that Thomas visited every Christmas with gifts for their families, he even continued to visit them after being released and later spoke at each one of their funerals.
During his time as a General Authority “while attending a stake leadership meeting, Bishop Monson felt a strong prompting to leave at once to visit an older ward member being treated at the veterans’ hospital. Unfortunately, the stake president was speaking, so the young bishop impatiently waited until he finished before rushing to the hospital. As he ran to the man’s room, a nurse stopped him. She asked, ‘Are you Bishop Monson?’ and proceeded to tell him that ‘the patient was asking for you just before he died.’ Bishop Monson drove home that night vowing to never again fail to act on a prompting from the Holy Ghost, a commitment reflected over and over again in the remainder of his Church service.”
In 1959, at the age of 31, he was called as Mission President for Canada. In 1963, at the age of 36, he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles – the youngest called since Joseph Fielding Smith. He traveled extensively to support the growing global church and during the Cold War he was committed to ministering to saints behind the “iron-curtain” in Germany in person. He was also instrumental in bringing about the building of a temple in East Germany, the first ever in a communist country. In 1979 the church produced “a 2,400-page edition of the King James Version of the Bible that included a Topical Guide, Bible Dictionary, and pioneering footnote system”, this project was led by Thomas who brought all his professional experience in publishing to the table. The project was named the Scriptures Publication Committee and also produced a similarly annotated Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price.
In 2008 Thomas S. Monson was set apart as the President of the Church. Under President Monson creating bridges between members of the church and others was a primary feature. Church leaders regularly met with other religious leaders to support and further common goals, the church produced the “I’m a Mormon” campaign, and church produced content around history, doctrine, and scripture was improved and made more accessible. Material addressing difficult church topics and gay members became available for the first time. There were also significant changes made to the church handbook that stressed listening to the voices of and giving more responsibility to other members of church councils, in addition to providing training to leaders around the world through priesthood leadership conferences.
Missionary opportunities for youth were expanded along with leadership roles for sister missionaries. Encouraging the church to “better involve women in leadership roles, decision making, and ward and stake council participation” and providing increased support for families in raising their children in the gospel and family history work were all revolutionary steps taken under President Monson.
Resources for additional information:
Activities for Families and Individuals
- Caring for Others – Caring for widows, the sick, and veterans was something President Monson did his entire life, even abruptly leaving meetings to go visit someone when prompted. Spend some time as a family visiting and doing service work in retirement homes.
- Listening to the Spirit – Being sensitive to the Spirit and willing to drop everything to follow a prompting was a lesson he learned early in life. Play a game of “telephone” all day where the parents will whisper an instruction to a child when they don’t expect it. Have them run off to do fun, kind, or silly tasks and reward them for following through. Have immediate rewards for the younger children and consider turning it into a competition with a greater reward at the end of the day, like getting to choose the desert and movie that evening, for the older children.
- Family History – Take time to learn about WWII and the Cold War, what family history stories do you have to share about this period in history.
- Paper Birds – There’s a wonderful story about a young Thomas Monson and a pigeon who liked to fly away. Tell the story to your children and then do a pigeon craft. Here are some ideas:
Discovering the Saints 
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