From his first day as prophet-president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Russell M. Nelson stunned the man who had been sitting by him for 34 years.

“I was not prepared for what happened in January 2018, when he became our president with the mantle of the prophet settled upon him,” apostle Dallin H. Oaks said Tuesday in an usually during Nelson’s funeral service. In the past, the former judge said, his “best friend,” who died Sept. 27 at 101 , was “never as active” in quorum councils, where others — mostly lawyers, he joked — dominated.

Then came the death of the late President Thomas S. Monson .

“Suddenly,” Oaks, who, at 93 years old, is next in line to lead the global faith , said, “I saw Russell M. Nelson as a decisive church decision-maker.”

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