President M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles speaks at the memorial service of Latter-day Saint and former United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Saturday, January 8, 2022, at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas, Nevada.
President M. Russell Ballard of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints joined President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and others on Saturday to honor the life of former United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was also a member of the Church.
Ballard, who is President of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said while Sen. Reid, a native of Searchlight, Nevada, was at times “all business,” he was also “a man of faith — in word and in deed.”
Sen. Reid and his wife, Landra, joined the Church soon after their marriage at age 19.
From the Reid’s beginning, Ballard said, “they have been faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, with a firm belief that we are all brothers and sisters, children of a loving Father in Heaven.”
Ballard shared some of his personal interactions with the former Democratic senator from Nevada, describing how each of them partially lost their eyesight.
“In more recent years, we shared a similar plight,” the 93-year-old Church leader said. “We each lost sight in one eye at about the same time — he in his right eye and me in my left. We used to remind each other that we could walk down the street, arm in arm. He could help me see things on the ‘left,’ and I could help him see things on the ‘right!’”
Ballard said, “Even during his years as one of the nation’s most powerful political leaders, [Harry] always made time to minister ‘to the least of these,’ and he did it one by one.”
President Ballard also shared with the Reid family the love of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The First Presidency first extended condolences on December 28, 2021, the day of the senator’s death.
will@cvradio.com