My own personal take on the recent apostolic callings

Would I have liked to see non-Utahn, non-American apostles named?

Yes, I would have liked that.

I was delighted with Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s call to the Twelve, for example, and then to the First Presidency.

I’m pleased to see people from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia serving in the Seventy and in the Presiding Bishopric.

I love the increasing internationalization of the Church, and I expect it to continue, even to accelerate.

Do I think it would be wonderful to have a Latin American, Polynesian, Asian, or Black apostle?

Yes, I think it would be wonderful.

And I expect it to happen within my lifetime, and perhaps sooner rather than later.

That said, I believe that Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund were called by God, and I believe them to be true apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I sustain them wholeheartedly, and I expect good things from their ministries.  I was moved and impressed by their testimonies in their press conference on Saturday afternoon and from the pulpit on Sunday morning.  They have a wealth of experience behind them, both in the Church and beyond it, and they’ll bring that experience fruitfully to bear on their assignments.

Moreover, as something of an aside, I take considerable satisfaction from the fact, clearly demonstrated by these apostolic calls, that the Brethren who preside over the Church don’t take dictation from political correctness, from academic commentators, from journalists, or from bloggers.  They were surely aware of the expectations, and the pressures.  They surely anticipated the criticisms.  But they followed what they believed to be the Lord’s will.

Precisely as I hope they’ll do, and as we need them to do.