Elder M. Russell Ballard is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was born in Salt Lake City, UT, on 8 October 1928. He served a mission for the Church in England and then attended the University of Utah. In 1974, he was called as president of the Canada Toronto Mission, where he was serving when called to the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1976. As a member of the Seventy, he supervised and trained leaders in his assigned geographic regions. He later served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy from February 1980 to October 1985, overseeing the Church’s Quorums of the Seventy. Much of his ministry has been focused on missionary work. He married Barbara Bowen in the Salt Lake Temple on 28 August 1951. They are the parents of two sons and five daughters.