Missoula's LDS leader reacts to Thomas Monson's death - KPAX.com | Continuous News | Missoula & Western Montana

Missoula's LDS leader reacts to Thomas Monson's death

MISSOULA - Wednesday was a day of mourning and remembrance for members of the Mormon faith the world over.

Thomas Spencer Monson, the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, died late last Tuesday night.

Called The Private Prophet, Monson is remembered by the leader of Missoula's church as having lived true to the scripture he preached

Christopher Price, Stake President of Missoula's Mormon Church, never met the Thomas Monson.

"I've met several of the other apostles, but didn't have the opportunity to shake his hand." said Price.  "I would've liked to have done that."

But Monson was an inspiration to Price as both a member of the faith and a church leader.

"He was someone that lived what he taught, and didn't teach it but live a different life, he lived it and gave us glimpses into what he did," said Missoula's LDS leader. 

"I'm sure we don't even know most of the things that he did. And that's who he was. He looked for ways to serve others. His daughter paid a little bit of a tribute to him today and she quoted three scriptures from First James. One was to be doers of the word and not hearers," Monson added.

That's perhaps why Monson was known as the Private Prophet.

"And so he would go to rescue the one rather than try to be in front of the cameras. He was a very good speaker, but that wasn't his ministry. His ministry was to serve," said Price.

And serve he did, for most of his life. He became a Bishop at 22; by the age of 36, he was an LDS Apostle.

Price says he never lost sight of what was important and saw the purpose of the church as a vessel to help those in need:

"He said something along the lines of never let a problem to be solved get in the way of serving a person that needs to be loved. And I think that's what the world could use in general."

Although to mourn is human nature, Price says there's more to be found in Monson's passing than grief.

"I personally will mourn a bit because I enjoyed hearing him speak and hearing him teach. And so I will miss that, but we certainly believe that there's an afterlife and that this isn't the end of Thomas S. Monson and so we are rejoicing that in his life and what he has done here."

Traditionally, the senior-most apostle of the LDS Church is selected to become the next president.  Right now, that is Apostle Russell M. Nelson.