A future call to serve as a modern apostle of Jesus Christ was inconceivable to a 26-year-old Londoner as he stepped into the waters of baptism in 1987 to become a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“Impossible. Utterly impossible. Utterly just beyond the realms of possibility,” Elder Patrick Kearon said Tuesday, six weeks after he became the first adult convert to join the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 119 years.

Elder Kearon, 62, said the call to be a modern apostle of Jesus Christ suddenly swept him up like a tornado six weeks ago. Those swirling winds continue to knock him about in ways he still struggles to describe, he said Tuesday in an exclusive interview with the Deseret News.

Tackling issues from homelessness to digital currencies, Utah’s youngest lawmaker is ‘shooting big’

With hardly one year in public office under his belt, the 26-year-old Rep. Tyler Clancy, R-Provo, has his eyes set on some of Utah’s, and the nation’s, most intractable problems.

Air quality, homelessness, civil commitment, sexual assault, centralized digital currencies.

“Utah taxpayers are asked to foot bills for a lot of different challenges. I want to make sure that the governance behind those systems and the implementation is serving the taxpayers well, and it’s implemented effectively,” Clancy said.

Read more about Utah's youngest lawmaker.

More in Politics:

• ‘A bunch of malarkey’: New Hampshire AG investigating AI-generated robocalls in Biden’s voice (Deseret News)
• Donald Trump wins New Hampshire primary as Nikki Haley vows to fight on (Deseret News)
• No ‘legal personhood’ for the Great Salt Lake, Utah legislative committee decides (Deseret News)
• Randy Shumway: Are we unintentionally making things worse for the homeless? (Deseret News)

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