Dale Gunnar Renlund (born November 13, 1952) is an American religious leader and former cardiologist who serves in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He has been a general authority of the church since 2009. Currently, he is the thirteenth most senior apostle in the church. Renlund was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Mats Åke Renlund and Mariana Andersson. Renlund's parents were from Finland and Sweden and emigrated to the United States so they could marry in an LDS Church temple. Since his parents did not yet know English, Renlund's first language was Swedish. For three years while he was a teenager, Renlund lived with his parents in Sweden where his father was a building missionary for the LDS Church. From 1972 to 1974 Renlund returned to Sweden where he served as a full-time missionary for the LDS Church. Medical career He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry and an M.D., both from the University of Utah. He then went on to do a three-year internal medicine residency program and then a three-year cardiology fellowship, both at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. While working at Johns Hopkins, Renlund served as bishop of an LDS ward. During this time his wife, Ruth, was going to law school. In 1986, Renlund became a professor at the University of Utah. As a cardiologist, he specialized in heart transplants. From 1991 to 2009, he was the medical director of the Utah Transplantation Affiliated Hospitals Cardiac Transplant Program. In 2000, he also became director of the Heart Failure Prevention and Treatment Program at Intermountain Health Center in Salt Lake City. LDS Church service In addition to his time as a bishop, Renlund has served in many positions in the LDS Church, including ward Sunday School president and high councilor. In 1992, Renlund succeeded H. David Burton as president of the Salt Lake University 1st Stake. He served as an area seventy in the church's Utah Salt Lake City Area from 2000 to 2009. In April 2009, Renlund became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, a full-time ecclesiastical position. Later in 2009, Renlund and his wife moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where he served first as a counselor and then from 2011 to 2014 as president of the church's Africa Southeast Area. In this position he oversaw the church in