Ulisses Soares

On March 31, 2018, Soares was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He and Gerrit W. Gong were sustained to fill the vacancies created from the deaths of Thomas S. Monson and Robert D. Hales. He was widely reported as one of the first two "non-white" members of the church's Quorum of the Twelve. The call of Soares and Gong was called the church leadership's "most significant nod to global diversity since the 1978 revelation on the priesthood" by LDS studies scholar Patrick Q. Mason. Marcus Martins, an LDS expert in sociology and a native of Brazil, said that the call of Soares showcases the potential for international service of many Brazilian members of the LDS Church.

As of April 2018, Soares has given six talks in general conference, and five other talks at church universities or young adult devotionals.

The first major tour Soares did as an apostle was to multiple countries in western Africa. He traveled with Neil L. Anderson, and their wives, to Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and the Ivory Coast. As of June 2018, he is assigned to serve on the church's missionary executive council. He is also serving as a member of the church's human resources committee and as the member of the Quorum of the Twelve with responsibility for the church's Africa West and Central America areas.

In 2005, Soares became a member of the LDS Church's First Quorum of the Seventy. In his first talk at a general conference in October 2005 he emphasized that the gospel is about people not programs. He has served as a counselor and as president of the church's Brazil South Area and as a counselor in the Africa Southeast Area. On January 6, 2013, Soares became a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, replacing Walter F. González. In that capacity, Soares had responsibility for the church's North America Southeast Area, along with the Idaho and North America Central areas.

Soares has served in the LDS Church as an elders quorum president, counselor in a bishopric, member of a stake high council and regional welfare agent. In 1995, Soares was appointed the first president of the São Paulo Brazil Cotia Stake. Soares served as president of the Porto Portugal Mission from 2000 to 2003.

Soares was educated in Brazil, receiving a bachelor's degree in accounting and economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo in 1985. He also received an MBA from the National Institute of Postgraduate Study.

Soares married Rosana Fernandes Morgado in the Sao Paulo Brazil Temple in October, 1982. They served as missionaries in the Brazil Rio de Janeiro Mission at the same time, however they did not actually meet until later when they were both at a stake dance in Sao Paulo. They have three children.

Ulisses Soares (born 2 October 1958) is a Brazilian religious leader and former businessman who serves as 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 2005 and served as a member of the church's Presidency of the Seventy from January 2013 until his calling to the Quorum of the Twelve in March 2018. He is the LDS Church's first apostle from South America, being from Brazil. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Soares is accepted by the LDS Church as a prophet, seer, and revelator. Currently, he is the junior and fifteenth most senior apostle in the church.