A ‘weight’ and solemnity: Sister Oaks describes President Oaks’ transition to prophet

Though it was always possible that her husband, being at the time the second senior apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, could become the next prophet president of the church, Sister Kristen Oaks recently recounted the shock and solemnity that fell upon her and her husband, President Dallin H. Oaks, when they received news of then church President Russell M. Nelson’s death.

“I never thought my husband would be the prophet,” Sister Oaks told Sheri Dew, executive vice president and chief content officer of Deseret Management Corporation, in a recent interview for the Church News podcast .

“He’d been such a devout counselor,” she explained. In fact, President Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles “told me that he’d never seen anyone who was so lo