Uruguay. Nelson was honored nationally by being elected president of the Society for Vascular Surgery for the year 1975. He was also a director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. Nelson traveled extensively as a medical doctor and addressed conferences in many parts of Latin America and Africa, as well as in India and China. He performed a total of nearly 7,000 operations before his call to be an apostle. In 2015, the University of Utah, along with the American College of Cardiology, created the Russell M. Nelson MD, PhD Visiting Professorship in Cardiothoracic Surgery. LDS Church service In addition to his medical work, Nelson served frequently as a leader in the LDS Church. In Minnesota, he served as what was then known as Sunday School Superintendent in his local congregation. In Washington DC, he was a counselor in the bishopric of the ward Ezra Taft Benson, then an apostle, regularly attended while serving as Secretary of Agriculture to Dwight D. Eisenhower. In Massachusetts, Nelson was the secretary for the adult Aaronic priesthood organization in his Boston-area branch. After returning to Salt Lake City, he was called as priest quorum advisor in the Garden Park Ward, working with over 50 boys ages 16 to 18. He next served as member of the Bonneville Stake YMMIA superintendency (a position roughly equivalent to a modern counselor in the stake young men's presidency) and then as a counselor in the bishopric of the Garden Park Ward. He was set apart as a counselor in the bishopric by Joseph Fielding Smith, whose son-in-law was the bishop. Nelson served in that bishopric for over five years at a time when the ward had over 1,000 members. He then moved to the Yale Second Ward, still in the Bonneville Stake, and was called as a member of the stake high council. He later served as a stake president in Salt Lake City from 1964 to 1971, with fellow future apostle Joseph B. Wirthlin serving as his second counselor. From 1955 to 1965, Nelson served as a missionary on Temple Square every Thursday afternoon for about two hours giving tours to visitors. The call to serve in this position had been extended to Nelson by Richard L. Evans, an apostle and the lead figure over publicity efforts on Temple Square. Nelson also served for eight years as the church's Sunday School General President. During his tenure