SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren and Navajo Nation First Lady Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren were invited to a private audience with the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
On Thursday, the President and First Lady had a 30-minute conversation with the church’s leader, President Russell M. Nelson, and his counselors President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring.
“Overall, it was a momentous occasion. It really felt very welcoming,” President Nygren said. “It was such a huge honor to meet (President Nelson) and express to him on behalf of the many thousands of Navajos who are LDS that we appreciate the work that he’s doing and the work that the church does on Navajo.”
The First Lady said the three church leaders were especially interested in hearing President Nygren speak the Navajo language so he repeated his initial greeting to them in Navajo.
“You could really see their interest in everything he was saying,” she said. “They were almost sitting on the edge of their seats as he was speaking in Navajo.”
President Nygren said he was invited back to tour the Missionary Training Center, widely recognized as one of the best language-instruction institutes in the world.
He said he would like to learn what he can to promote his priority of having more Navajo young people learn, speak and use the Navajo language daily to truly perpetuate its use into the future.
“I look forward to touring their language academy so that we can preserve our language, as well,” President Nygren said.
He noted it was especially rewarding to meet a highly-respected and world-renowned leader of a church with 17 million members.
“Not very many people meet President Nelson,” he said. “Tthere are people who have been members of the church for so long and for so many generations. I thanked him for the church’s generous donations to the Navajo people over the decades, whether it’s been water lines, food, shelter, clothing or even helping our Navajo children.”
The President called it “inspirational” to see President Nelson, 99, as vigorous and interested in his family and Navajo culture as he was.
“It really felt very welcoming,” he said. “The president is almost 100 years old. For him to stand straight up and really showcase a good, healthy lifestyle, having prayer, eating well, and to have your mind just as sharp.”
The First Lady said the three church presidents expressed great interest in the Nygrens’ young family.
“They’re really strong in the family unit,” she said. “They asked about our family, our two little ones.”
She said they told President Nygren and her that among the LDS church teachings is to love thy neighbor.
“President Nelson told us, ‘You, the Navajo people, the Navajo Nation, are our neighbors,’” she said. “’ And, so, we love you, and we love the people of the Navajo Nation, and we’re very happy that you came to visit today.’”
The Nygrens were presented with a specially-embossed Book of Mormon signed by each of the three presidents. She said they also presented them with coins for their two children.
“I feel like it was a once in a lifetime experience,” the First Lady said. “It definitely felt that way.”
Beside his lifelong church responsibilities, President Nelson was a celebrated heart surgeon who spent 29 years working in cardiothoracic surgery. He was a member of the research team that developed the heart-lung machine.
Besides his medical degree from the University of Utah, he earned a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, and was a professor of medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
A noted heart surgeon, President Nelson served as president of the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Utah Medical Association.
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