► A very important decision began his life-time of dedicated service. While he was in graduate school at Harvard, married with two small children, he was extended the call to serve as elder’s quorum president. He says he was willing to accept, but also knew how hard it would be because of the intense program he was enrolled in. His professors discouraged outside activities. He explained that he and his wife prayed about it and discussed it together. He thought he very likely might fail in his educational pursuits. His wife then said, “I’d rather have an active priesthood holder than a man who holds a master’s degree from Harvard. We’ll do them both.” When he returned from school the next day, his wife Mary had made a small office in their basement for him so he would have a place to go and study. She had built it with two-by-fours and wallboard. He says of that experience, “I put myself in the Lord’s hands when I made that decision. That decision was much harder to make than when, years later, I accepted the call to serve as Assistant to the Twelve and left my business career behind. Some people may have trouble understanding that, but I believe you really show the Lord who you are and what you are willing to become when you make those hard decisions as a young person.”
►Elder Hales went on to serve in many other capacities in the Church. He has moved often due to his business career, so has served in many different locations. He was a branch president in Albany, Georgia; Weston, Massachusetts, and Frankfurt Germany. He has served as a bishop in Weston, MA; the Wilmette Ward in the Chicago, IL Stake and also Frankfurt, Germany. He has been an early morning seminary teacher in Downey, California. He has served on the high council in the Boston and London stakes, and has served in the Boston stake presidency. Later on he served as a regional representative for the Minnesota and Louisiana regions.
In 1975, he was called by Marion G. Romney to serve as a mission president. He got the assignment soon after to preside over the England London Mission, but just a short time later, President Spencer W. Kimball called him from Salt Lake City and asked him if he would mind going on a different mission. This is how the conversation went…Elder Hales replied, “I don’t mind. Send me wherever you want to send me, President.” President Kimball then asked him, “Do you mind if we ask you to serve longer than three years?” Elder Hales replied, “Okay.” Then President Kimball extended the lifetime calling as a General Authority. President Kimball knew he had wanted to go out on a mission as a mission president, and told him not to worry; he would have “many missions.”
► His first three years as a General Authority he served as an Assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He said that he loved to travel with President Kimball and the Apostles. He said, “Watching prophets, seers, and revelators bearing witness of the truthfulness of the gospel to the Saints in city after city was absolutely wonderful.” He helped plan twenty-seven area conferences for the First Presidency during this time.
►He was then finally called to serve as a mission president of the England London Mission. He and his wife loved the mission, England and the people there. When this mission was complete in 1979, he moved his family to Europe and served as an area supervisor. He worked with leaders of countries where the gospel was not established yet. He worked alongside Thomas S. Monson, who was also in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in furthering the work and strengthening the Saints in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, and Poland. He helped work out the plans for the temple in East Germany. When he was released from this calling, his family moved back to Salt Lake City and Elder Hales served as area president of the North American Southwest Area. He was called to serve as the Presiding Bishop of the Church in 1985 and served in this calling until he was called to the Quorum of the Twelve.
►On April 2, 1994, at 61 years of age, Elder Hales was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. A few days later, on Thursday, April 7, 1994, in the Salt Lake Temple, the First Presidency, President Ezra Taft Benson and his counselors Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson, ordained and set apart Elder Hales as an Apostle. The entire Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were with them there. Elder Hales said of this day, “It was a magnificent experience. It’s a great testimony and witness that President Benson is the Lord’s prophet. When he places his hands on your head, you know he is a prophet.”
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