Nineteen-year-old Monte Brough was working in a grocery
store in Alaska when his nonmember uncle drove up in a new car. The uncle,
who owned the chain of stores Monte worked in, offered to give him the
car if he would stay in Alaska and work for him instead of going on a mission.
“He offered to make me part of his business and promised me that I would
be financially successful if I remained in Alaska and worked for him,”
Elder Brough recalls.
It wasn't an easy decision. He spent three uncomfortable
days trying to make up his mind—and chose the mission. “I knew that I had
a testimony of the Book of Mormon and that a mission had to be the right
choice,” he says.
Monte James Brough was born on 11 June 1939 in Randolph,
Utah, to Richard Muir Brough and Gwendolyn Kearl Brough. Richard died when
Monte was a baby, leaving Gwen with four young children to support. But
her job paid little, and the children worked at odd jobs to earn extra
money.
Monte gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon while
he was in Alaska working. “I responded to Moroni’s challenge,” he recalls,
“and received my absolute witness.” That experience, his mother's hopes,
and the “missionary tradition” of his Randolph ward led him to decline
his uncle's offer and enter the mission field.
Elder Brough’s mission built his self-confidence.
Until then, he had suffered from a poor self-image—the result of a limp
caused by a birth defect aggravated by a childhood injury. When he was
called to be a special counselor in the mission, he
wanted to decline. But the mission president, Grant Thorn, taught him
a quote from Henry Ford, which profoundly impressed the young elder: “Whether
you think you can or think you can't, you're right.”
After his first mission, in August 1962, Elder Brough
married Lanette Barker from Hilliard, Wyoming, in the Idaho Falls Temple.
In 1965 he graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in math
education. He worked in the computer
department of one large company for some time, and then took a job
recruiting new employees for another large company. That led to positions
in management and sales, and Elder Brough eventually formed his own company,
which sold computer services and systems to transport companies.
From 1978 to 1981, he served as president of the
Minnesota Minneapolis Mission. Those years made a great impression on the
Brough’s seven children. The Brough’s oldest son has served a mission and
married in the temple, and their oldest daughter
was in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, at the time of
her father's recent call.
Sister Brough feels that one strength her husband
brings to his new calling is enthusiasm. “He loves missionary work—not
just in the field, but in everyday life,” she says. He has also served
as a bishop and a member of the Young Men General Board. He was serving
as a Regional Representative at the time of his new call.
Elder Brough is currently finishing a Ph.D. in business
management—which he has found to be a challenge. “At times I’d say to myself,
‘Why are you doing this?’ ” he says. “I think I now know why—because it
required me to discipline myself again, in
both my use of time and my study habits.”
He is determined to be a good father. “My children
are my hobby,” he says. The Broughs enjoy traveling, the outdoors, boating,
and waterskiing. Of his other “hobby”—church work—he says, “My testimony
is absolute, without doubt. I have a
strong, fervent witness that Jesus Christ is he who he claimed to be.
With every year and every experience, it grows in depth and in perspective.”
==========================
Elder Brough’s call to the First Quorum had been for
a period of five years. Then in April 1989, the Second Quorum of Seventy
was organized, to be filled with those who had received such calls. With
the organization of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Brough was
sustained thereto on April 1, 1989.
Then on April 6, 1991 Elder Brough was called again
to the First Quorum, this time with the call to extend as long as factors
of age and health allow him to serve. At the time of this call to the First
Quorum, he was serving as Second Counselor in the Asian Area Presidency.
With his call to the First Quorum, Elder Brough was called to preside over
the Asian Area. But the Lord was still not through with Elder Brough. On
August 15, 1993, he was called to the Presidency of the Seventy. President
Brough served as a President of the Seventy until released August 15, 1998.
On the 6th of October 2007 at the 177th Semiannual General Conference, Elder Brough was released from the First Quorum and named General Authority Emeritus.
