LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson created the opening when he chose Apostle Dieter Uchtdorf as his second counselor in the governing First Presidency, leaving only 11 men in the quorum.
This will be Monson's first apostle selection since being named the 16th president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Feb. 4, so his preferences are tough to predict.
Among today's apostles are one lifelong church educator, two Brigham Young University presidents, one BYU-Idaho president, a heart surgeon, a nuclear physicist and five business executives.
Given the preference for educators, Monson could tap Kim Clark, current president of BYU-Idaho, or Steven Wheelwright of BYU-Hawaii.
Monson could look to the First Quorum of Seventy, a kind of farm team for the 12 apostles. Several strong candidates are among that group's leadership, including corporate attorneys Earl Tingey and Todd Christofferson. If he chose Ronald Rasband, it would please Jon Huntsman Sr., Monson's longtime fishing buddy. Rasband was once president of Huntsman Chemical Corp.
He might choose Marlin Jensen, the church's official historian who mediated the recent agreement on the Mountain Meadows Massacre with victim descendants and who was assigned to carry the church's message of compassion on immigration into the public arena. As a Democrat, Jensen would send a strong signal of acceptable diversity.
Acknowledging the church's growing membership outside of the U.S., especially in South America, Monson could choose one of the foreign-born members of the Seventy such as Brazilian Claudio Costa, a financier, or Uruguayan Walter Gonzalez, an LDS Church Educational System administrator.
Because the apostleship is a lifetime position, choosing someone is as serious as finding the perfect spouse.
Mormon apostles are full-time executives who run a billion-dollar enterprise. They oversee vast resources, departments and tasks. Unlike most chief executives, they have to give sermons nearly every week in places as different as Arkansas and Argentina. Twice a year they give speeches that will be considered almost scripture by 12 million eager church members. They make momentous decisions about the church's future, such as when to take one of its rare political positions, build a new temple or establish a new churchwide policy.
They are on an inexorable climb to the top of the church. The man who outlives the apostles named before him will ascend to the church's highest office -- a position Mormons consider "prophet, seer and revelator."
The age of any candidate, then, will matter.
The 80-year-old Monson was only 36 when he became an apostle in 1963, the youngest appointee in the second half of the 20th century. It has taken him more than four decades to reach the top. The current apostles range in age from 90 to 55.
The new man - and there are no women allowed - doesn't have to come from within church employee ranks. Apostle Dallin H. Oaks was a Utah Supreme Court justice and Russell M. Nelson was a heart surgeon. So how about former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young? He would liven things up, being decades younger than most of the apostles. Young could also help them with those ever-present sports analogies during priesthood meetings.
Mormons won't have to wait long to find out Monson's pick. He will likely be named Saturday morning, during the conference's first session.
