Vacancies in the Twelve are Filled

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 118. It is a very short section of only 6 verses were vacancies in the Quorum of the Twelve were filled. The men that were chosen to fill these vacancies were John Taylor, John E. Page, Wilford Woodruff and Willard Richards. Two of which of course went on to be called as prophets.

There's not much in this section that strikes me as I read it and re-read it today. There is nothing unique about it really except for the calling of new Apostles, which I have always imagined to be kind of like calling someone to other positions. The only difference I would think would be that with calling a new apostle, you don't have a working knowledge of all the potential people. When a bishop or branch president needs to extend a calling to someone in their ward or branch, they pretty much know their members well enough to know who might be well suited for the service and have an idea in their mind and thus they are only taking it to the Lord for confirmation.

But I will freely admit my ignorance of calling a new general authority, be they Apostle, Quorum of the Seventy, or General Relief Society Presidency. I have no idea how they are called and it would seem to me that anyone could truly be called to serve in those capacities. I imagine that it is much like in this section that the Lord tells the Prophet who He wants to have serve in those capacities and then the Prophet extends the call to serve.

So, there is not much this section adds by way of doctrine, but from a historical point of view, this section is invaluable as this is where the Twelve are called to serve their missions in Europe and millions of members over in Europe can trace their membership in the church directly back to the mission of the early Apostles to England and other European countries. It is also really neat to see 2 of the future prophets being called to the Quorum of the Twelve, but nothing else about this section really jumps out at me. Until tomorrow.