Elder Adhemar Damiani, who served in the Second Quorum of the Seventy, died on June 16, 2013, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was 73.
Sustained at age 59 to the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 3, 1999, Elder Damiani served in that capacity for six years until his release on Oct. 1, 2005.
In 1961, Adhemar Damiani was a young man with a sincere interest in religion, serving as a pastor's assistant in Sao Paulo. About that time, Odette Bronze, a member of their congregation, began receiving lessons from missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That contact dramatically changed the life of the pastor's young assistant, who was courting Walkyria Bronze, a daughter of Odette and Marcos Broze.
Odette gained a testimony of the gospel and shared her new convictions with her family, all of whom were baptized, except Walkyria, who was afraid of what her boyfriend would think. After the pastor learned of the Bronzes' interest in the Church, he began circulating anti-Mormon literature to the members of his congregation.
Despite these obstacles, Walkyria was baptized. Then she told the good tidings to her boyfriend. Instead of berating her, Adhedmar Damiani accepted missionary lessons and was baptized.
He served in many callings over the years. He presided over the Brazil Curitiba Mission from 1995-1998; served as an Area Seventy in the Brazil Area in 1998 and served in a Missionary Training Center presidency from 1994-95. He also served as a regional welfare agent, in a stake presidency, as stake clerk, high councilor, bishop and Sunday School teacher.
Prior to his call to the Second Quorum he had been serving as an Area Seventy in the Brazil South Area. In August of 1998 he was called to serve as second counselor in the Brazil South Area presidency; in August of 2002 he began his assignment as president of the Brazil North Area. He served in that capacity until he was assigned in August of 2004 to serve in the Brazil South Area presidency again, this time as first counselor until his release.
After being released on Oct. 1, 2005, from the Second Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Damiani served as president of the Campinas Brazil Temple from 2005-2007, where his wife, Sister Walkyria Bronze Damiani, served as temple matron.
Elder Damiani studied economics, administration and enterprise in school and attended the University of Economic Sciences and Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil. He spent his professional career as an owner and partner at DESA Tecnologia, director of Automatic Data Processing Systems, a systems analyst at Sandoz, Brazil S.A., and as chief of personnel at Heluma S.A. Industrial and Commercial and Real Credit Bank of Minas Gerais.
He is survived by his wife, their two children and five grandchildren.
A funeral was held June 17, in Brazil. Members of the Brazil Area Presidency — Elder Claudio R.M. Costa, Elder Jairo Mazzagardi and Elder Eduardo Gavarret — and their wives were in attendance.
