Neil Linden Andersen

Brother Andersen was born in Logan, Utah, on 9 August 1951, and was raised in Pocatello, Idaho. As a young man, he served a mission in France. After his mission, he graduated from Brigham Young University and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brother Andersen then moved to Tampa, Florida, with his family. He lived and worked in Tampa, Florida, where he was the vice president of the Mortan Plant Health System. As far as church service, Andersen was member of a high council, counselor in a stake presidency, and a stake president in Tampa.

Between 1989 and 1992, Anderson was president of the France Bordeaux Mission. In 1993, he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. As a general authority, he has been the executive director of the Church’s Audio-visual Department and assistant executive director of the Priesthood Department. He has also been in the presidencies of the Utah North, Utah South, North America Southwest, North America Northeast, and Europe West Areas of the Church. From 1997 to 2001, Andersen was a member of the general presidency of the church’s Sunday School.

In 2005, Andersen became a member of the seven-member Presidency of the Seventy. In this capacity, he has acted as president of the Idaho Area of the Church, where in 2006 he broke ground for the construction of the Twin Falls Idaho Temple. In 2007, Andersen was transferred to preside over the North America Southwest Area. In this capacity, he oversees the activities of the area seventies in this area.

Andersen married Kathy Sue Williams in 1975. The Andersens are the parents of four children.

Gale

Gale is a former fibro and CMP sufferer. She hopes this information will help other sufferers on their journey to good health.

When Elder Christofferson was thirteen years old, his mother developed cancer. Elder Christofferson gathered his brothers for a family prayer on her behalf. Because she was unable to continue many of her regular responsibilities, including making the family bread, he learned how to make bread and continued to make it until he went away to college.

When he was fifteen, his family moved from their small Utah town of Lindon to Somerset, New Jersey, a large and populated town that was very different from his Utah home. Suddenly he was the only member of the church in a school that was diverse in every way. This helped him develop an appreciation for those who were different from him, and also to begin to appreciate his own faith in a new way.

It was during this time he decided to gain a sure testimony of his faith. He was participating in a Mormon church pageant held in New York each year, which re-enacted the beginnings of the church in modern times. Because it was held right where Joseph Smith first saw God and later an angel, he felt this would be a good place to gain his own testimony. He went to the same grove where Joseph Smith had gone to ask God which church to join, and Elder Christofferson began to pray. However, he didn’t receive an answer to his prayers, which left him confused and discouraged. It was a month later that he received his answer, and he wasn’t even searching for it then. He was simply reading the Book of Mormon in his bedroom. He learned from this experience that you needn’t be in a special place to receive personal revelation—you can receive God’s word anywhere at all, and always on God’s own time.

Elder Christofferson was accepted into Brigham Young University, a Church-owned school, after his high school graduation. However, at the end of his first year, he took a leave of absence to serve a two-year volunteer mission for the church in Argentina. This began a life-long love for South America.

After his mission, he returned to Brigham Young University to study English. There he met his future wife, Cathy Jacob. Although he first saw her near the end of his first semester there, he didn’t meet her until the following fall. However, their relationship grew quickly, and they were married on May 28, 1968. After the two graduated in 1969, Elder Christofferson transferred to Duke University to obtain his law degree. When he graduated, he accepted a position clerking for federal judge John J. Sirica, which he planned to do for one year before moving to a new position. However, Judge Sirica was called on to preside over the Watergate Hearings, and asked Elder Christofferson to stay on through the course of the trials, because he felt Elder Christofferson was the only person he could talk to. Elder Christofferson was later asked to speak at Judge Sirica’s funeral mass.

When this position ended, Elder Christofferson met his military service requirements. Then he went to work for Dow Lohnes PLLC, followed by a position as associate general counsel of NationsBank Corp. He was an active participant in community and interfaith groups and also had a busy church life. The Mormon Church is a lay church, so members hold positions, even high-level ones, without pay while caring for families and managing careers. During this busy time in his life, he held several demanding church positions and raised five children. His work led him to live in several places: Tennessee,  Washington D.C., and North Carolina.

He was called to be an apostle of the Lord, the highest ranking body of the church, on April 5, 2008.

While home during the summer of his sophomore year of college, he met Mary Crandall. Both were college students in Utah, but at different schools. They spent the summer doing things together and then returned to school. The following summer, they were married. Elder Hales completed his senior year while working at a television station. He graduated in 1954 and then went into active duty in the air force as a jet fighter pilot. The motto on his plane was “Return with Honor.” Elder Hales holds to that motto today as a reminder to be honest and to live with integrity.

His family lived in Florida while he was in the military. At the end of his service, he was accepted into Harvard University, where he graduated with a degree in business. He immediately began to have the international experiences he had hoped for, as his work led him to live in England, Germany, and Spain, as well as throughout the United States.

Throughout this time, his church work also increased. The Mormons have a lay clergy, which means all church work is unpaid and done while carrying out secular employment and family life. In 1975, he received a telephone call from a high ranking church official asking him to serve as a mission president in England. This would be a volunteer job for several years, full-time, requiring a leave of absence from his secular employment. He promptly accepted, but soon another call came, this time from the president of the church, who said they were changing his mission and extending the time. He was invited to become a general authority, a lifelong position as a high-ranking Mormon church leader. Although he was disappointed not to be going to England, he accepted, and years later, actually was sent to England as a mission president, a place he learned to love. This was followed by assignments that led his family to live in Europe for quite some time.

During this time, he often found himself in the middle of violence or war. He worked with the Polish government to organize church affairs while military tanks rolled down the street controlling violence.

In 1994, Elder Hales was selected to become an apostle of the Lord.

Unlike many Mormon apostles, Elder Scott didn’t grow up in a strong Mormon family. His father was not a member of the church, and although his mother was, she didn’t attend. Elder Scott did attend church, at the urging of caring leaders, but not always enthusiastically. This half-hearted attention to religion left him feeling something was missing in every corner of his life.

He was born in Pocatello, Idaho, but grew up in Washington, D.C. His father was an assistant Secretary of Agriculture under Ezra Taft Benson, who later became a Mormon prophet. Eventually, President Benson would play an important role in his father’s conversion, through his personal example.

Elder Scott wanted to earn his own way to college and spent summers working hard, working on an oyster boat, cutting trees, and repairing railway cars. During these hard-working summers, he began to study the Book of Mormon and gained a real testimony of his religion.

Elder Scott studied mechanical engineering at George Washington University, while playing in a jazz band. In his senior year, he met Jeanene Watkins, the daughter of a senator. When he discovered she refused to marry anyone who had not served a two-year mission for the church, he began to pray to God about this and decided to serve his mission. He was sent to Uruguay, and while he was gone, Jeanene also served a mission in the United States. They were married two weeks after he ended his mission. (Women’s missions are somewhat shorter than men’s, so she returned home first.) At the same time, he was interviewed by Hyman G. Rickover for a secret military job with the Atomic Energy Commission. Rickover seemed to dislike him, making disparaging remarks about his religion, but Elder Scott was determined to keep his Mormon religion in the interview, mentioning his mission, and listing the Book of Mormon as the last book he’d read. Just when Elder Scott was certain he wouldn’t be hired, Captain Rickover admitted he’d been testing Elder Scott, because he needed men with the confidence to stand up for what they believed no matter what. He got the job and worked for this man for twelve years.

When Richard G. Scott was thirty-seven years old, he was asked to serve as a mission president for the LDS Church in Argentina. In this unpaid position, he oversaw the missionary work of a large area for several years. This was an important time in his secular career, but he accepted the call, despite Captain Rickover’s objection. During this time in Argentina, he also worked in Bolivia with the Quechua Indians. Two of his three supervisors in this job went on to become prophets, providing him with amazing training for the future.

At the end of this service, he returned to Washington, D.C. and joined a private consulting firm that focused on nuclear engineering. During this time, his church service increased in responsibility. Eight years after his mission service in Argentina, he was invited to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy for the Church, a high-level position. He and his family lived in Mexico City for three years of that service, as he was assigned to oversee Mexico and Central America. Elder Scott speaks fluent Spanish.

Another church position he held was Executive Director of the Family History Department. During this time, many changes were made in the church’s genealogy program, including the change of the name from genealogy to family history and the improvements in technology and the use of computers for family history.

The Scotts have known hardship among the joy. They lost two children just six weeks apart, one just prior to birth and the other during heart surgery. They draw on their faith to cope with sorrow. They have five children still living.

Richard G. Scott became an apostle of the Lord in 1988.

Elder Perry was born August 5, 1922, in Logan, Utah. From the moment of his birth, he was immersed into a family life that centered around the Church. His father was a bishop, similar to a pastor. However, the Mormon Church is a lay church, meaning all positions are held by volunteers. His father served as bishop while raising a family and managing his secular career. At the same time, his mother served as a counselor in the Relief Society. The Relief Society is the women’s auxiliary, and oversees many critical aspects of a congregation, including compassionate service and the needs of all the adult women. Both parents took their children with them as they went about their church work, and the children grew up serving the church as they helped their parents. They mowed the church lawn, cleaned the building, and did chores for older or ill people in their congregations who needed help. As a result, he grew up seeing a life of service as perfectly normal. As the oldest son, he also had many chores at home and a paper route. He grew up knowing how to work hard.

After a year of college, he served a two-year volunteer mission for the Mormon Church in the United States. Elder Perry’s sense of humor and love for a good story shows in a tale he loves to share about his first days as a missionary.

He explains that although he’d always had a testimony, it had not really been tested prior to his missionary service. When he went door to door, he encountered people who knew their scriptures far better than he did, and he found himself swayed by their arguments, since nearly anything can be proved by scripture if you know enough of it and show only your side of the argument. He decided he needed to get this under control, so he set out a plan to stay awake after his companion (missionaries serve in two-person companionships) had gone to bed and to write a speech on one aspect of the church. He went into the basement to practice his first speech and coaxed a mouse out of the wall with a cracker to be his audience. The mouse stayed only long enough to get the cracker and left, but each day, the mouse stayed a bit longer, and when he delivered his speech on baptism by immersion, the mouse stayed the entire time, apparently listening. Elder Perry was pleased by his growing ability to reach his “audience.” The next morning he found the mouse at the bottom of a dishpan of water, apparently having decided, due to the force of the speech on baptism, to baptize himself by immersion.

Six weeks after his mission ended, he was drafted, and selected the Marine Corp as his service. When the atomic bomb exploded in Japan, he was sent in there to work. On the island of Saipan, he found himself saddened by the devastation done to their people, and he gathered a group of Marines together, convincing them to help build them a small chapel. He again recruited Marines to help rebuild a Protestant chapel in Nagasaki a short time later. Using what he had learned as a Mormon missionary, he helped teach some of his fellow Marines about his faith, and actually converted twice as many people in the Marines as he had on his mission.

After the military, he returned to college and graduated from Utah State University with a degree in business. During that time, he married Virginia Lee and together they had three children.

He began his career in retail in Idaho. During that time, he was asked to serve as second counselor in the bishopric of his congregation. This was, of course, an unpaid position, and it meant he would serve as an advisor and assistant to the bishop (pastor.) Although he found it challenging to take on heavy volunteer service at the very beginning of his career, he discovered that this church job, as do most callings, improved his career skills as well. Management skills learned at church could also be applied at work.

His career required frequent moves, exposing him to many parts of the country and many different types of people, an important education for one who would later serve as a Mormon Apostle.

In 1974, his wife died, and in 1983, he also lost a daughter. Two grandchildren died as well, and Elder Perry learned how to cope with grief and move on to the next step in life. He remarried in 1976, to Barbara Dayton, who taught at Brigham Young University’s school of nursing.

Elder L. Tom Perry became a Mormon apostle in 1974. One line of his family had been members of the church since 1832, nearly from the beginnings of the religion. Another line joined the church in 1872, after emigrating from Denmark. His own father lived with an earlier church prophet, Joseph F. Smith, as an employee after he graduated from school. Elder Perry has continued the long, distinguished church devotion of his family.

Even as a child, Elder Cook was known for his compassion. His older brother recalls a time when he—the brother—was the school fire drill captain. It appeared the drill evacuation he was leading would set a new school record until it was announced there was still a child in the building. That child was his little brother, Quentin, a first grader who had stayed behind to retrieve the boots of a boy who had slipped out of them and hadn’t stopped to put them back on. He didn’t want his friend to get cold feet in the snow.

As a young boy, he longed to emulate an ancestor who had been sent to rescue Mormon pioneers in the Martin Handcart Company. His grandfather told him that this ancestor was heroic because he had chosen to “follow the prophet,” meaning he would do as the prophet asked him to do. His father explained that today it was equally heroic to follow the His father required the family to set goals and work towards them, a habit which has served Elder Cook well in his lifetime. In high school, he was very involved in school events, playing both basketball and football. He was a quarterback on the football team. He also participated in debate and was chosen, along with another student, to represent the state at a national debate event. There he met five men who were or would become presidents of the United States. His senior year, he served as president of the student council.

At the age of fifteen, he decided to obtain a testimony of the “Mormon Church” for himself after watching his brother convince their father, who no longer attended church, to allow him to serve a mission for the Church. The answer to Elder Cook’s prayer was so strong he had no doubts at all as to its truthfulness.

Elder Cook attended Utah State University and served on the student council there. In 1960, he took a two-year leave to serve a mission for his church, serving in the British Mission.

On November 30, 1962, he married his wife, Mary Gaddie, in a Mormon temple in Logan, Utah. They had known each other since seventh grade. They now have three children. The next year, he graduated from Utah State University with a degree in political science. He then continued his education at Stanford University law school, graduating in 1966. He went to work for law firm of Carr, McClellan, Ingersoll, Thompson and Horn in San Francisco. His offer of employment with them came after a lunch in which he was offered alcohol, which he refused, because Mormons follow a health code called the Word of Wisdom, which prohibits alcohol. He was later told the offer was a test. His résumé had listed his church mission and they wanted to know if he had integrity enough to stay true to his beliefs even when an important job was at stake.

His church work in San Francisco put him into contact with people from many countries and with those both rich and poor. He served as a bishop (similar to a pastor) and then as the president of a stake (a stake is similar to a diocese) Both positions were unpaid, as the church operates as a lay church, and were filled as he also worked in his career. The congregations under his care often served the needs of a variety of immigrants. At the same time his church work was progressing, his professional career was also progressing. He served as the president and CEO of California Healthcare System, and when it merged with Sutter Health, he became Vice-Chairman.

He then served as a regional representative and area authority for the Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”), and next served them as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy and then as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He served as a member of the Philippines/Micronesia Area Presidency and as President of the Pacific Islands and the North America Northwest Areas of the Church. Another critical role he played was as Executive Director of the Church’s Missionary Department. During his time there, he assisted in rolling out a new and revolutionary manual called, Preach My Gospel. This manual changed the way missionary work is done in the church and also provided a valuable tool for families to work together to better understand their religion. This manual taught missionaries to create their own discussions with those who are learning about the church, using inspiration and personal knowledge rather than pre-written lessons.

Elder Cook now serves full-time as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and has retired from his professional career. He assumed this position on October 6, 2007.

One of his current assignments as a general authority is to oversee Public Affairs, a challenging task in a time when the church is receiving a great deal of attention. In this context, he has spoken on such challenging subjects as polygamy, issues related to Mitt Romney’s campaign, and the same-sex marriage debate. He also met with Michelle Obama when she visited Mormon Church headquarters.

Elder Oaks learned about responsibility at a young age. When Elder Oaks was just eight years old, his father died and at the age of twelve, as the oldest child, he began working to help bring in much-needed income. As a teenager, he taught himself the skills needed to obtain a radio operator’s license and then earned the bus fare to go to the testing site. This hard work paid off. He was accepted into Brigham Young University, where he met and married June Dixon. He graduated with a degree in accounting and then graduated with honors from the Chicago University Law School. It was his father-in-law who suggested a law career. He had initially wandered through several possibilities, including radio and television, linguistics, and medicine.

Elder Oaks’ career progressed rapidly. He served an internship as a clerk Chief Justice Earl Warren of the Supreme Court and then went into private practice in Chicago. He served as counsel to the Bill of Rights Committee of the Illinois Constitutional Convention. Dallin H. Oaks also served as a consultant to the Office of Economic Opportunity during Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty. In 1961 he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago. He served in a variety of increasingly important positions in both his professional career and in his church service, and in 1970, he was chosen to be the president of Brigham Young University. During that time, he also served as president of the American Association of Presidents of Independent Colleges and Universities.

During this time, he worked to fight against the increasing efforts of government to regulate private schools, although he stated that in general, he preferred to be for things, rather than against them.

In 1981, he became a member of the Utah Supreme Court and by 1984 was being discussed as a leading contender for the United States Supreme Court. However, at that time he was called (chosen) by Spencer W. Kimball, then president of the Church, to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and let it be known he was no longer interested in government positions. He considered the Lord’s work to take precedence over government service.

In his service as a church leader, Elder Oaks often tackles difficult topics without apology or hesitation. For instance, he and another church leader participated in an extensive interview on the subject of same-gender attraction. He recently spoke out on the subject of divorce, recognizing the sensitivity of the subject and speaking both to those who are divorced due to the sins of others, and to those contemplating divorce for less serious reasons.

Elder Oaks is known to read as much to study the writer’s style as he is to learn the content, and this attention to writing skill shows in his talks and articles. One recent talk is often quoted by church members who are trying to prioritize busy lives. He pointed out that there were many good and worthy things to do with our time, but not all things were equally good at all times. He taught listeners to divide possibilities into “Good, Better, Best” and then make choices accordingly. The fact that he has accomplished an extraordinary amount in his lifetime, often holding several positions at once, shows he has personally mastered this concept.

Heritage

As the grandson of two former Apostles, Elder Hyrum M. Smith and Elder Melvin J. Ballard; the great-grandson of former Prophet Joseph F. Smith; the great-great-grandson of Hyrum Smith, (the brother of Joseph Smith); and the great-great nephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith; M. Russell Ballard realizes the heritage that has been left to him. It is a heritage that he gladly accepts and strives each day to live up to. When Russell was sustained as an apostle at General Conference, he acknowledged: “I would like to bear witness…[that] the veil between here and the hereafter is rather thin. I acknowledge that it’s been a great blessing in my life to be born of goodly parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who have given everything they have been asked to give to the building of the kingdom of God on the earth.”

Childhood

Melvin Russell Ballard, Jr. was born in Salt Lake City on October 8, 1928, to Melvin Russell and Geraldine Smith Ballard. Russell was the only son born to this couple. Russell, along with his three sisters, lived in the same home in Salt Lake City from the time of their births to the time of their marriages.

Russell’s father was the owner of Ballard Motor Company in Salt Lake City. He instilled in his son the desire to work hard at whatever he did. Just as his father was known for his concern for others, so was Russell known as he encountered others from every walk of life. From the time that Russell was old enough to work, he always had a job. Whatever job he did, he performed it with vigor and commitment. To Russell, his mother was his best friend in his growing years; she was a very compassionate and tender woman.

Mission/Marriage/Family

In 1948, Russell was called by the First Presidency to serve a Mormon mission to England. As a twenty-one-year-old missionary, he was called in 1949 to be the first counselor in the presidency of the British Mission.

Upon returning from his mission, he met Barbara Bowen. While attending a dance at the University of Utah, a friend of Russell’s wanted him to meet Barbara, so he “tagged in” to dance with her. His friend danced over to where Russell was, introduced them, and Russell danced with Barbara for thirty seconds before he was “tagged out.” That was the beginning of a courtship that would last for eleven months. “She was not only beautiful, but had a sparkling personality. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to marry her, but she didn’t share the same feelings. It was a little hard convincing her. I kid her now that getting her to agree to marry me was the greatest sales job I ever did,” declared Russell.

Russell and Barbara were married eternally in 1951 in the Salt Lake Mormon Temple and were blessed with seven children—two sons and five daughters. Family was always his top priority, even with all the responsibilities he had in the Church and in his business. Barbara stated, “He’s extremely devoted to his family, and they’ve always come first. He was a bishop for many years and held lots of Church jobs, but those responsibilities have never been to the detriment of his family. When he was home, he made the time count.”

Russell always gave his wife the credit in helping him fulfill his family responsibilities. “I married the right woman. Without the help and direction of Barbara, our family relationships would not have happened as well as they did. It was hard to be the bishop, the owner of my own business, and at the same time father of these children that came along, but somehow it worked out. I give credit to Barbara and her good judgment.”

Education/Military/Career

When Russell attended East High School in Salt Lake, his friends looked to him as their leader. Russell attended the University of Utah and was known as the “bishop” to his fraternity brothers. His friends knew that whatever situation Russell was in, he would remain true to his faith and be an example of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all.

Russell’s education was a lot of hands-on work. With his father owning Ballard Motor Company, Russell had the opportunity to work with his father and learn the importance of hard work. He learned how to set goals and have objectives in business, church, and family affairs.

Professionally, Russell became involved in several enterprises, including automotive, real estate, and investment businesses. Russell was the top-selling salesman for his father’s Nash car dealership when he left it in the 1950s. In 1956, Russell returned and took over the Ballard Motor Company from his father. During that time, he also served in the United States Army Reserve. In 1957, when he left the reserves, Russell held the rank of first lieutenant.

In the late 1950s, upon returning from a business trip, Russell won the right to be the Edsel car dealer for Salt Lake. His dealership became the most successful in the country; the Ford Motor Company invited him and his associates to Detroit to explain to the other dealers how they did it. In the end, the Edsel was a failure and the motor company and dealers around the country, including Russell’s business, lost hundreds of millions of dollars. Recovery took years, but with his hard work and integrity intact over the next years, Russell was able to recover and still have the confidence of the financial institutions. He said, “To me, failure is only when you quit trying. If you keep working at a task and try to do what’s right and honest, ultimately it works out.”

A business venture that Russell was most proud of was his responsibility as president of the Valley Music Hall in Bountiful, Utah. The theater offered high-quality family entertainment for many years. Russell was able to work with numerous people in the entertainment business who offered their expertise and advice. Even though the Music Hall failed financially, Russell made sure that all investors had opportunities to recover the money they had put into it.

Russell continued over the years in various business projects. His time was also spent in various leadership positions in professional organizations and in the Chamber of Commerce. He has served on numerous board of directors such as Deseret Book Company and the Salt Palace Advisory Board.

Church Service

Shortly after Russell and Barbara were married, Russell was called into a bishopric and has served in numerous Church positions ever since. In 1974, Russell was called as the president of the Canada Toronto Mission, where he served for two years. In 1976, his call to full-time Church service became permanent when he was sustained as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. And in 1980, he was called to the presidency of that Quorum.

Along the way, he fulfilled callings as the Executive Director of the Mormon Church’s Missionary Department, he directed the curriculum and correlation departments, and served as the president of the International Mission.

October 1985 brought a change to the Ballard family, one that came unexpectedly. Barbara recalls, “It came as such a surprise. We were just ready to leave the house to go to conference. The phone rang, and it was President Hinckley who asked my husband to come to the office. He thought he would perhaps be called on to speak in conference, since one of the speakers was ill. We were relaxed on the way to President Hinckley’s office and discussed what Russell might talk about if called to speak. When we got to the office, President Hinckley called my husband to be an Apostle. I almost thought, please say that again. I don’t know if I heard correctly. Russell looked at me with tears in his eyes. It was a sobering experience.” With that, M. Russell Ballard was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in October 1985 at General Conference.

With his calling as an Apostle, Elder Ballard is now a witness and testifier of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As he sits in his office with pictures and statues of his forebearers surrounding him, Elder Ballard is humbled by the responsibility the Lord has placed on him. Speaking at General Conference in 1985 he meekly said: “I am deeply humbled at the confidence the Lord and my brethren have, and pledge to you that I will do the very best I know how… I understand the source of [this] call. This is our Heavenly Father’s Church. …I know, as I now stand before you, that Jesus is the Christ that he lives. He is very close to this work, and very close to all of us who are asked to perform the work throughout the earth in his name.”

Childhood

Dieter F. Uchtdorf was born in Mahrisch Ostrau, Czechoslovakia, on November 6, 1940.  He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and was called to be second counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. on February 3, 2008.

Dieter’s father, Karl Albert Uchtdorf, was drafted into the German Army during World War II and immediately taken from his wife and small children. Dieter was the youngest in the family and didn’t understand where his father was going, only that his father was taken away from him. Dieter’s mother Hildegard knew then that she would have to care for her family alone during a time when the war in Europe was endangering them at every turn.

With the Allies in the west and Stalin’s forces in the east, Hildegard wanted to get as close as possible to the western front. She took her children and left for Zwickau, Germany. Fortunately, her husband survived the war and joined his family in Zwickau; however, Karl had become a bitter opponent for both the Nazi and Communist regimes. The Nazis were now destroyed, and Stalin now controlled the lives of the Germans as a result of the postwar division of Germany. Karl’s political position put the family’s lives in danger, so for the second time in seven years, the family left everything they owned and, in spite of the danger, made their way to Frankfurt, West Germany.

Dieter remembers this period: “We were refugees with an uncertain future…I played in bombed-out houses and grew up with the ever-present consequences of a lost war and the awareness that my own country had inflicted terrible pain on many nations during the horrific World War II” (“The Global Church Blessed by the Voice of the Prophets,” Ensign, Nov 2002, p.10).

As a young teenager, Dieter would ride his bicycle to the Frankfurt Airport and gaze at the planes. As he watched the planes and was allowed by the airport staff to look into the cockpit, his love of flying grew. He dreamt of one day feeling the freedom of flying in the skies.

Conversion

Through the clouds of turmoil that engulfed their lives, still the silver lining shined through. It was while the family was in Zwickau that they found the Mormon Church. “After World War II, my grandmother was standing in line for food when an elderly single sister with no family of her own invited her to sacrament meeting. . . . My grandmother and my parents accepted the invitation. They went to church, felt the Spirit, were uplifted by the kindness of the members, and were edified by the hymns of the Restoration. . . . How grateful I am for a spiritually sensitive grandmother, teachable parents, and a wise, white-haired, elderly single sister who had the sweet boldness to reach out and follow the Savior’s example by inviting us to ‘come and see’ (“The Opportunity to Testify,” Ensign, Nov 2004, p.74).

Education

At the age of 18, Dieter was educated in engineering, followed by six years in the German Air Force. Then, because of a mutual relationship between the German and United States governments, Dieter entered fighter pilot training school in Big Spring, Texas, where he earned wings in the American and German Air Forces. The most considerable achievement at the school for Dieter was winning the coveted Commander’s Trophy, this for being the outstanding student pilot in his class.

Marriage/Family

Harriet Reich had been four years old and living in Frankfurt near the end of World War II. She remembers a handsome American serviceman who passed her on the street and kindly offered her a stick of gum. She took it tentatively and never forgot the young man’s face and his friendly gesture. Ten years later, two Mormon missionaries knocked on the Reich’s door. Harriet opened the door as her mother forbade the missionaries to enter. Seeing the same kind of look on the face of the missionaries as she did on that of the serviceman, Harriet begged her mother to please let them in.

The missionaries left a copy of the Book of Mormon ( a companion book of scripture to the Bible) with certain passages marked for importance. That night Harriet’s mother read the Book of Mormon. Harriet recalled how her mother’s countenance changed almost immediately. Since the war had ended, Harriet’s mother, newly widowed and the mother of two little girls, was depressed and unhappy. But as her mother read from the Book of Mormon, Harriet saw light return to her eyes. When the missionaries returned they asked, “Did you read the marked scriptures?” “I read it all,” Sister Reich said, “Come in. I have questions I want you to answer.” Harriet, her mother, and her sister were baptized into the Mormon Church four weeks later. “Life changed for us that day. Once again we laughed and ran and found happiness in our home. I owe it all to the gospel of Jesus Christ,” explained Harriet.

It was while attending a youth activity at thirteen years old that Dieter first met Harriet. Dieter recalls, “I always loved her. I fell for her from the very beginning. . . . She was a very beautiful girl. She still is.” It was love at first sight for Dieter, but not for Harriet. It was not until Dieter had completed his military duty and had returned to Germany that she began to appreciate Dieter. They began dating and were married December 14, 1962, in the Swiss Temple. Two children blessed this family–Guido and Antje.

Even with his busy professional schedule and with church callings, Dieter’s first priority was always his family. Antje recalls, “When [dad] was home, he was totally devoted to Mom and to us. Of course, everything is exciting to Mom, and Dad makes things exciting. He made everything an adventure–even going to the grocery store. They took us on some of the most exciting family vacations a child could imagine. So as children we were pretty much in a state of excitement one way or the other all the time!” Guido says, “I don’t remember any sermons. I just remember [dad] always being interested in me. We had visits, which were often walks in the evening and, on more special occasions, hikes in the mountains. I loved those times to talk. And in all such situations he taught by example.”

Career

In 1970, at the age of 29, Dieter was made captain with Lufthansa Airlines, a rank he was once told he could never achieve until late in his career. In 1972, he was made manager of the 737 fleet. In 1975, he became director of the pilot training school in Goodyear, Arizona—the principal and most-honored training post offered in the Lufthansa organization. Later his responsibilities would be as chief pilot and head of cockpit crews in 1980, and as senior vice president of flight operations in 1982.

In December of 1973, the president of Lufthansa German Airlines received distressing news:

Five terrorists had hijacked a Lufthansa 737 jet in Rome, Italy, and were making their way to Athens, Greece, with hostages on board. As they did so, 32 people lay dead in Rome, and one of the hostages now in flight was soon to be mortally shot and summarily dumped onto the airport runway in Athens. With guns to the heads of the pilot and copilot and with hostages trembling in terror, the unstable hijackers directed a bizarre path from Rome to Beirut to Athens to Damascus to Kuwait.

In an instant, the president of Lufthansa ordered into the air his chief pilot for the 737 fleet. Thirty-three-year-old Dieter was to take a small group of emergency personnel and follow the hijacked plane wherever the guerrillas took it. In every setting possible he was to negotiate for the release of the plane, the pilots, and the hostages. Then, when all of this had been accomplished, he was to fly the hijacked 737 back to headquarters in Frankfurt.

Fortunately, there was no more bloodshed and the mission was successfully accomplished.

Church Service

While attending fighter pilot training school in Texas, Dieter helped to build a meetinghouse for the local branch of the Mormon Church. Despite all the awards and promotions he received, he always felt that this was much more significant.

Amidst the changes and responsibilities of his career, Dieter was called to be the president of the Frankfurt Germany Stake and then president of the Mannheim Germany Stake. And then in 1994, he was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy.

Elder Larsen was an Area President for whom Elder Uchtdorf served as a counselor. Elder Larsen says, “Our area in those days covered most of Western and Central Europe, countries that had been affected by World War II. Everyone who knew Dieter loved him instantly, but in those first months he couldn’t have helped but wonder about traveling and presiding in countries where they did not know him and where there were still painful memories about the war. . . . Elder Uchtdorf so genuinely loves people and is so engagingly personable that wherever he went he was embraced literally and figuratively. The gospel works miracles in such situations, and the members of the Church to whom he went were as magnanimous and kind as Dieter was humble, inspiring, and devoted to them” (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf: On to New Horizons”, Ensign, 2005, p.10–15).

A particular situation occurred when the German government was cracking down on some lesser-known religions. Elder Anderson of the Seventy who served with Elder Uchtdorf recalls the situation, “An initial list of ‘sects’ included The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To oppose this serious threat to the work, Church leaders needed the most resolute and reputable German representative they could find to go to Bonn. That was Elder Uchtdorf. . . . His bold, courageous presentation there was so persuasive and articulate and his reputation with Lufthansa so widespread and admired that the German officials giving him audience were somewhat stunned at what they had inadvertently done. They said in effect: ‘If you are a Latter-day Saint, we do not need any more evidence than that. Your church will certainly not be included on any such list of religions in the future.'”

In October 2004, Elder Uchtdorf was called to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He is the first apostle in more than fifty years who was not born in the United States, and the first ever from Germany. He was called to serve as Second Counselor in the First Presidency on February 3, 2008.

Henry Erying’s Early Life

Known as “Hal” to his family and friends, Henry Bennion Eyring was born on May 31, 1933, to Henry and Mildred Bennion Eyring. The first thirteen years of Hal’s life were spent with his family in Princeton, New Jersey, where his father was a professor of chemistry at Princeton University.

Hal’s father was a gifted scientist who was renowned worldwide and who received numerous honorary doctorates and nearly every major award in chemistry, except the Nobel Prize. When there was a limited amount of women pursuing higher education, Hal’s mother Mildred was attending the University of Utah, where she graduated, and went on to become the head of the women’s physical education department there. When she was about to leave the university and pursue her doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin, she met Henry Eyring. They dated and eventually married on August 25, 1928.

The membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (which church is often mistakenly referred to as the “Mormon Church”) on the eastern seaboard was minimal at this time. Church meetings were held in a hotel room until the onset of World War II, when gas rationing restricted travel. The Eyring’s home then became the ‘meetinghouse’ for the members in Princeton. Hal and his two brothers were the only members of the Aaronic Priesthood and were the only youth in the branch at that time.

In 1946, the Eyrings moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where Hal’s father was to head the Graduate School at the University of Utah.

Life in the Eyring home was filled with music, intellectual innovation, and spiritual growth. Because of his great love for science, Hal’s father encouraged his three sons to major in physics to prepare for careers in science.

Education/Military/Mission

While studying physics at the University of Utah, Hal remembers having a significant conversation with his father. He asked his father for help with a complex mathematical problem. “My father was at a blackboard we kept in the basement. Suddenly he stopped. ‘Hal,’ he said. ‘We were working this same kind of problem a week ago. You don’t seem to understand it any better now than you did then. Haven’t you been working on it?’ [A little annoyed, Hal admitted to his father that he had not.] ‘You don’t understand. When you walk down the street, when you’re in the shower, when you don’t have to be thinking about anything else, isn’t this what you think about?’ When I told him no my father paused. It was really a very tender and poignant moment, because I knew how much he loved me and how much he wanted me to be a scientist. Then he said, ‘Hal, I think you’d better get out of physics. You ought to find something that you love so much that when you don’t have to think about anything, that’s what you think about.'”

Hal finished his education at the University of Utah and graduated with his Bachelor’s degree in physics in 1955. At this time, the Korean War had just ended. During the war, the number of Mormon missionaries sent out was greatly restricted. By the time Hal graduated, he had been commissioned by the U.S. Air Force and was not able to serve a mission. Prior to departing, Hal received a priesthood blessing from his bishop. In the blessing, he was promised that his military experience would be his Mormon mission. This promise was fulfilled, in that Hal was sent by the Air Force to the Sandia National Laboratories near Albuquerque, New Mexico, for temporary schooling. Two weeks after his arrival, he was called as a district missionary in the Western States Mission. Circumstances were such that he stayed on there for the full two years of his duty.

With his military service completed, Hal was determined to finish his education, but not in physics. He entered Harvard Graduate School of Business in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he completed his master’s degree in business administration. Upon completion of his degree, while trying to decide what field of business to enter, he realized that there was no type of business that strongly attracted him. He remembered his father’s advice: “Find something that you love so much that when you don’t have to think about anything, that’s what you think about.” That’s when he knew he would be teaching business; helping others understand how to take a complex process and work it through. Hal continued at Harvard and completed his doctoral degree in business administration. Before he had completed his dissertation, he was accepted as an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, California.

Marriage and Family

The decision to complete his education at Harvard proved to have twofold benefits.

During the summer of 1961, Kathleen Johnson was attending summer school. After a sunrise service where Hal was attending, Kathleen was coming out of a grove of trees when Hal caught sight of her. Not only was he struck by her beauty, but he recalled the words of Mormon Prophet David O. McKay: “If you meet a girl in whose presence you feel a desire…to do your best…such a young woman is worthy of your love.” Kathleen and Hal were introduced the next Sunday, when their courtship began. They dated throughout the rest of the summer and then by mail and phone after Kathleen returned to California. Hal and Kathleen were married in July, 1962, in the Logan Temple. Over the years, this couple would be blessed with six children—four sons and two daughters.

Family was always first in Hal’s life. Kathleen stated, “Hal has taught the gospel in our home with great clarity and conviction. And, to make it all the clearer for us to understand, he has lived it.” No father was a better example to his wife and children.

Hal modeled his family life after his own childhood. Where his father promoted creative thinking and hard work, Hal did the same with his own children. Every family member was a contributing member and knew that they were important to the family puzzle; whether it was in the family dynamics or in creative thinking.

Hal encouraged intellectual discovery and spiritual growth in each of his children. He never pursued any sport unless he could do it with his children; so he promoted tennis, basketball, and swimming as the family activities. Saturday mornings were spent building bookcases or planting flowers and supplementing family home evenings.

Career

As stated earlier, Hal was accepted as an assistant professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1962, before he finished his doctoral degree in business administration. The nine years spent teaching at Stanford were rewarding in part because he was allowed the freedom to design the classes he taught. Hal returned to Boston for one year, where he served as the Sloan Visiting Faculty Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Hal was now a part of the business world, where he served as an officer and director for Finnigan Instrument Corporation and became the founder and director of System Industries Incorporated, a computer manufacturing company.

Life seemed to be going well for the Eyring family. However, that was to change. Hal remembers, “One night Kathy nudged me and asked, ‘Are you sure you are doing the right things with your life?’ I was surprised. Now remember my situation. I have tenure at Stanford. I am the bishop of the Stanford ward. We are living next to her parents. I love what I’m doing. It’s like the Garden of Eden… And then she asks me that question. ‘Couldn’t you do studies for Neal Maxwell?’ You have to understand something. Neal A. Maxwell was the commissioner of education [for the Mormon Church] at that time. Kathy didn’t even know him. I didn’t know him.”

Kathleen later recalled that she knew there was something more important that Hal should be doing. She knew that he loved teaching at Stanford, but felt there was something he could teach that could truly change lives.

Hal was determined to pray about it. At first he felt he had received no answer—then the phone rang and Commissioner Maxwell was on the line asking if Hal could come to Salt Lake City. Hal did go to Salt Lake, and Commissioner Maxwell asked him, “Hal, I’d like you to be the president of Ricks College.” Hal didn’t even know where Ricks College was or if it was a two- or four-year college. He did know the importance of the call and did not treat it lightly. Upon bended knees, he prayed until the answer came. Quite simply, the Lord answered his prayers, “It’s my school.” Knowing that this was the answer, Hal returned to California and began making plans to leave Stanford and move to the small town of Rexburg, Idaho. On December 10, 1971, Henry B. Eyring was inaugurated as president of Ricks College.

The opportunity to serve as president of Ricks College proved to be a wonderful opportunity for President Eyring and his family. It gave them the opportunity to grow closer to each other. President Eyring was able to teach religion classes with one of the other faculty members, and his dedication to the youth of Ricks College will be remembered for generations to come. President Eyring believed: “The formal education we receive makes up only a small part of what we need to know. Life is more than a career; life is a mission. Life has a purpose, and its purpose requires learning across a wide spectrum. We should be learners throughout our lives.”

Church Service

While at Stanford, Hal served for four years as the bishop of the Stanford First Ward, a student ward in the Palo Alto Stake, and taught early-morning seminary.

Serving as president of Ricks College from 1971–1977 led President Eyring into close association with the General Authorities and other leaders of the “Mormon Church.” Wherever he went and whomever he met, his influence improved lives.

His Church service included time as a regional representative and a member of the Sunday School General Board. He spent eight years with the Church Educational System—three as deputy commissioner and five as commissioner of education. In 1985, President Eyring was called as First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric, and in 1992, was called to serve in the First Quorum of Seventy. As a Seventy, he again served as commissioner of education.

The position as Commissioner of Education provided him the opportunity to travel and meet the seminary teachers and youth of the “Mormon Church.” Elder Eyring said, “It was a wonderful reminder that the strength of the Church lies in the simple faith and dedication of its members.”

In 1995, President Eyring was sustained by the membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As an apostle, he had the opportunity to serve as a special witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. “When you know something to be true, you should act upon that truth. Jesus Christ lives; he has ‘tied himself to us.’ Only we at great effort can break the tie. I pray with my whole heart that we will understand what it means to be bound to a God who loves us, who will let us climb freely—but is ready, should we slip, to break the fall.”

Upon the death of Prophet and President Gordon B. Hinckley in 2008, Thomas S. Monson was made prophet of the Church. He selected Henry Eyring as his first counselor in the First Presidency.

1 “Elder Henry B. Eyring”: Molded by “Defining Influences”, Ensign, Sep 1995, p.10