Six new General Authority Seventies of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were sustained Saturday, April 2, as part of the April 2022 general conference.
The new General Authority Seventies — along with the Church’s new general officers — were part of the sustaining of all Church leaders presented by President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, in the conference’s Saturday afternoon session. New Relief Society and Primary presidencies were also sustained.
Following is a brief look at each new General Authority Seventy. A more in-depth profile on each will appear in coming weeks.
Elder Mark D. Eddy
The summer before Elder Mark D. Eddy’s senior year of high school, a seminary teacher invited him and other members of their seminary student council to read the Book of Mormon.
He had read this standard work many times with his family, but this was his first time reading it by himself. He decided to pray before and after he read each day. He anticipated that a clear answer would come within a week or two.
More than two months later and somewhere in Third Nephi, he had yet to receive his anticipated confirmation and was feeling concerned.
Hours before a “Welcome Back” devotional in which he was asked to bear his testimony, Elder Eddy arrived early to help set up and found a quiet place to read and pray.
“I received that clear and unmistakable feeling that it was true,” he said. “Not only did the answer come just in time for me to stand and bear my testimony that evening, but the process of receiving it took enough work and lasted just long enough for me to never forget. Going back to that foundational experience has allowed me to always remember and know what I learned that afternoon.”
Read more: ‘Deep in my soul’ — How an invitation to read the Book of Mormon blessed Elder Mark D. Eddy’s life and testimony
Mark David Eddy, 49, was born in Long Beach, California, on March 30, 1973, to Richard Cleighton Eddy and Mary Louise Savage Eddy. He grew up in Orem, Utah, and married Annette “Annie” Allen in the Provo Utah Temple on Aug. 13, 1994. They have six children.
Elder Eddy graduated from Brigham Young University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications and received a Juris Doctor from BYU in 2001. He has since worked as an attorney and as a business executive.
Elder Eddy has served in several Church callings, including full-time missionary in the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo East Mission, bishopric counselor, ward Young Men president, bishop, high councilor, stake presidency counselor and Uruguay Montevideo Mission president. At the time of his call as a General Authority Seventy, he was serving as a member of the Twelfth Quorum of the Seventy in the Utah Area.
— Trent Toone
Elder James W. McConkie III
When Elder James W. McConkie III arrived in Czechoslovakia in 1990 as a young missionary, the country was coming out of communism and ready to start exploring religious expression and faith again.
“I was in the right place at the right time with the right people,” he said.
He returned as a young professional, co-founded a foundation and served as president of the Czech/Slovak Mission.
When he was 12 years old, his parents invited him to study books by Church leaders and then discuss what he read each week.
“My dad and my mom believed in the importance of teaching their children the gospel as suggested in the 68th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. It invites parents to teach their children the doctrine of Christ,” said Elder McConkie. “And they took that very, very seriously.”
As a result, his sense for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change people entered deep into his soul. And he saw that happen in Czechoslovakia.
James Wilson McConkie III, 50, was born in Salt Lake City on Aug. 27, 1971, to James Wilson McConkie II and Judith Miller McConkie. He married Laurel Springer on July 18, 1995, in the Salt Lake Temple. They have four children.
Read more: What Elder James W. McConkie III knows about the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change lives
Elder McConkie graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1995 and earned a law degree in 1999 from the National Law Center at George Washington University. He is an attorney at Workman Nydegger and is a founder and director of the Wallace Toronto Foundation.
Elder McConkie was serving as the stake president of the Salt Lake Pioneer YSA Stake at the time of his call and served as a mission president in the Czech/Slovak Mission. He served in the Czechoslovakia Prague Mission as a young man. He has also served as a ward mission leader, elders quorum presidency counselor, mission prep teacher, Gospel Doctrine teacher, bishop, stake high councilor, bishopric counselor and ward Young Men president.
— Mary Richards
Elder Isaac K. Morrison
Elder Isaac K. Morrison says he and his wife have slept little since they met with President Russell M. Nelson via Zoom and President Nelson extended a call to Elder Morrison to serve as a General Authority Seventy.
“We know this is going to be a journey for us. We will rely on the Lord to show us what we should do,” Elder Morrison said.
Elder Morrison, 44, was called as a stake president in 2012, Area Seventy in 2018 and Ghana Cape Coast Mission president in 2020. “Every assignment has come at a time when I least expected it. … But I rely on the Lord and not my own abilities.” He also has served as a stake presidency counselor, bishop, bishopric counselor, elders quorum president, Gospel Doctrine teacher, seminary teacher and missionary in Nigeria.
He has a Master of Science in strategic management and leadership from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Elder Morrison has worked for the Church in various capacities since 2004, most recently as leader and member support manager for West Africa.
Isaac Kofi Morrison was born Nov. 25, 1977, in Takoradi, Ghana, to Joseph Kojo Morrison and Mary Efua Obua Sarfo. He and Hannah Nyarko were married Dec. 18, 2004, in Takoradi and sealed three days later in the Accra Ghana Temple. They have three sons.
Read more: New general authority gained testimony while attending seminary before being a member of the Church
As a child, he and his family attended church meetings of another denomination. When Elder Morrison moved in with his uncle’s family to attend a local high school, he attended Latter-day Saint meetings with them and then went to Sunday meetings at his church.
An early morning seminary teacher invited him to attend. Also in class was the future Sister Morrison. “She was very intelligent and would give great comments. … It really gave me the edge to want to study more.” The topic that year was Book of Mormon. “When the school year was over, I was ready for baptism.”
— David Schneider
Elder Ryan K. Olsen
When Elder Ryan K. Olsen was growing up in Sandy, Utah, his parents never let him leave the house without this defining reminder: Remember who you are.
“It used to drive me crazy when I was a young man,” he said, laughing. “But those words helped me remember my divine identity. It helped me remember that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me and that the Savior is my best friend.
“Everything that we can hope to do or accomplish is only through Him.”
That reassuring self-identity — coupled with the examples of his parents, fellow missionaries, Church associates and wise business mentors — are all precious tools Elder Olsen will utilize as he begins his service as a General Authority Seventy.
Born on Oct. 11, 1974, and raised in Utah’s Salt Lake Valley, Ryan Kirk Olsen, 47, is the son of Kirk and Cathy Olsen.
Elder Olsen’s love for Latin America and the Spanish language was cemented when he answered a call to serve a full-time mission to the Argentina Resistencia Mission. Later, he and his wife, Julie Darrington Olsen, served together when he presided over the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission (2016-2019).
Read more: Elder Ryan K. Olsen knows blessings await those who trust in the Lord
He and Sister Olsen were married on Nov. 20, 1998, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of four children.
At the time of his recent call as a General Authority Seventy, Elder Olsen was serving as an Area Seventy. He has also served as a stake president, stake mission president, high councilor, bishop, bishopric counselor and ward Young Men presidency counselor.
Elder Olsen earned a degree in mass communication from the University of Utah and has worked in a variety of business fields. He was an area president of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., a global insurance firm, until his call as a mission president. At the time of his call as a General Authority Seventy, he was working as area senior vice president of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
— Jason Swensen
Elder Jonathan S. Schmitt
When Elder Jonathan S. Schmitt and his wife, Sister Alexis Schmitt, served as mission leaders for the California San Diego Mission, they often told their missionaries “the Lord cares more about our availability than he cares about our ability.”
Elder Schmitt says availability is what he brings as a newly sustained General Authority Seventy. “That’s all we have,” he said, adding “what a broken heart and a contrite spirit mean is you just put your heart on the altar and allow the Lord to do His will from there.”
The Lord, he said, “can give us the strength, the talents and the gifts that we need to be able to accomplish His work. But if we don’t make ourselves available, then we are self-selecting and not giving Him the opportunity.”
Jonathan Stephen Schmitt, 48, was born April 16, 1973, in Mesa, Arizona, the son of Robert Edward and Dianne Lyda Schmitt. He married Alexis Swain Udall on July 21, 1995, in the Mesa Arizona Temple; they are the parents of four children.
He received a Bachelor of Science in agricultural and resource economics in 1997 and a Juris Doctor in 2000, both from the University of Arizona.
When called as a general authority, he was an Area Seventy in the Eleventh Quorum of the Seventy in the North America Southwest Area. Previous callings include mission president, stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, stake Young Men presidency counselor, stake missionary preparation teacher, bishop, ward executive secretary, high priests group leader, elders quorum president and full-time missionary in the California Fresno Mission.
Read more: The Lord uses ‘ordinary’ people — New general authority and his wife describe themselves as ‘normal,’ ‘ordinary,’ ‘available’
After working first as a law clerk for the Arizona Supreme Court, he was an attorney for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and later attorney and litigation counsel for Baker Hughes Incorporated. After his mission president assignment, Elder Schmitt was an assistant vice president at Arizona State University.
— Scott Taylor
Elder Denelson Urbano da Silva
The 4,000-mile distance between São Paulo, Brazil, and Luanda, Angola, gave Elder Denelson Urbano da Silva and his wife, Sister Regina Silva, some time to wrestle with a prompting.
After serving as a mission president, Elder Silva felt he and his wife should do something unplanned.
The couple had sold their home prior to leaving for their mission. They planned to simply purchase a new home upon their return, but they were prompted to wait.
“Houses in Brazil are not an asset you put up for sale and it sells immediately,” Elder Silva said. “It can take days or months or years.”
Sister Silva said they focused on the fact that Heavenly Father had helped them figure things out prior to their mission and that He would help them again.
“We decided — we decided together — to wait for a time,” she said.
Like selling a house in Brazil, the answer didn’t come in days, or months, or a year. The answer came more than two years later when the call was extended to serve as a General Authority Seventy.
“We have to have the mentality that if He asks us to do something, the answer is always yes,” Elder Silva said.
Read more: Elder Denelson Urbano da Silva knew ‘something was ready to happen’
“If the answer isn’t always ‘yes,’ it leaves space for ‘no’ or ‘maybe.’ And there was no space for ‘no’ or ‘maybe’ in Gethsemane. There was no space for that.”
Denelson Urbano da Silva, 56, was born on July 4, 1965, in Recife, Brazil to Domingos Urbano da Silva and Maria José de Almeida Silva. He grew up in Recife and was sealed to Regina Maria de Carvalho Silva on May 26, 1987. The couple has two children.
He has a degree in business administration (data processing) and worked in the travel industry for 30 years.
Elder Silva served as mission president in the Angola Luanda Mission from 2016-2019 with his wife.
He has also served as an Area Seventy, stake president, stake presidency counselor, high counselor and bishop.
— Jon Ryan Jensen
Read more April 2022 general conference coverage
