Gerrit W. Gong

On March 31, 2018, Gong was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and Ulisses Soares were sustained to fill the vacancies created from the deaths of Thomas S. Monson and Robert D. Hales.

In May 2018, Gong and his wife spoke at the BYU Women's Conference. As of June 2018, he was serving as chair of the church's Scriptures Committee (which, among other things, oversees the translation of the scriptures) and as a member of the Leadership and Training Committee, the Priesthood and Family Executive Council, and the Outreach Committee. He also has responsibility in the Quorum of the Twelve for the church's Asia and Asia North areas.

In October 2015, Gong was appointed to the Presidency of the Seventy, filling a vacancy created by Ronald A. Rasband's call to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Effective January 4, 2016, Gong transitioned from his role as president of the Asia Area and into the Presidency of the Seventy, with responsibility for the church's North America Northeast Area. Among his assignments while in the Presidency of the Seventy, Gong served on the Church Board of Education and Boards of Trustees, where he also served as a member of the Executive Committee.

Prior to becoming a general authority, Gong served in the church as a stake Sunday School president, high councilor, seminary teacher, bishop, stake president, and area seventy. After his call to the First Quorum of the Seventy, he served as a counselor in the church's Asia Area from 2011 to 2013, then as the area's president beginning in August 2013 and continuing in this position until the end of 2015.

In 1985, Gong became a special assistant for the US secretary of state. Gong was a professor at various times at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University. He later served as a special assistant in the United States State Department, as well as special assistant to the ambassador at the United States Embassy in Beijing, China. He also served as China Chair and Asia Director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He joined this latter institution in 1989.

Gong is married to Susan Lindsay, a daughter of Richard P. Lindsay. They first met when Gong was a BYU student who would give presentations on Taiwan's culture to missionaries about to depart for Taiwan from the Missionary Training Center, among whom was Lindsay. They began dating a few years later, in the summer when Gong had returned from Oxford to spend a few weeks with his parents, during a time his father was a BYU professor. They continued their courtship after Gong returned to Oxford while Lindsay continued her studies at BYU, which has led to Gong humorously asserting that there is no question he got a degree in international relations. The Gongs married in the Salt Lake Temple on January 4, 1980, and are the parents of four sons. Prior to joining the BYU administration, the Gongs had spent most of their married life in Maryland and Virginia.

Gong graduated from Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, in 1971. He served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Taiwan. He received a bachelor's degree from BYU and then was a Rhodes Scholar, receiving both a master's degree and D.Phil. from Oxford University.

Gerrit Walter Gong (born December 23, 1953) is a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He has been a general authority since 2010 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from October 2015 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle of Asian descent. Prior to becoming a general authority, he served as Assistant to the President of Brigham Young University (BYU) for Planning and Assessment. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gong is accepted by the church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the fourteenth most senior apostle in the church.

Gong was born in 1953 in Redwood City, California, to Walter Gong and Jean Char and raised in Palo Alto, California. Gerrit was named after Gerrit de Jong because his mother had lived with de Jong and his family while she was a student at BYU. His mother's family are ethnic Chinese in Hawaii, and his father's family lived in California and other parts of the United States after his ancestors emigrated from China in the late 19th century.