Elder Pedro X. Larreal had been serving as a missionary for only four months when President Gordon B. Hinckley visited the Venezuela Caracas Mission.
Elder Larreal recalled, “He extended an amazing invitation for us about consecration: ‘If you are focused 100% on your mission, I promise your future family will receive blessings’; and I wanted those blessings.”
After the meeting, and to the shock of his companion, Elder Larreal wrote a letter to break up with his girlfriend back home. “I needed to put everything on the altar. I needed to be more focused and consecrated.”
Now a General Authority Seventy sustained in April 2025 general conference, Elder Larreal recognizes many blessings looking back — beneficial education, a successful career and his marriage to Sister Sariah Larreal — sprouting from his trust in that apostolic promise.
“When we follow the direction of our prophet, seer and revelator, we will receive blessings in our lives in all aspects: physically, spiritually and emotionally,” he testified. “I promise.”
Faith that their parents have cherished
As a 9-year-old newly introduced to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, young Pedro Larreal saw that “simple but significant prayers in the family started everything.”
His father gathered family members, who were taking missionary lessons together, in the living room one night and suggested they say a prayer to know if what they had been taught is true.
“My dad said the prayer that evening,” recounted Elder Larreal. “I remember when he finished saying the prayer, all the members of my family were crying. At this moment, we knew the Book of Mormon was true.”
Sister Larreal also learned to love the gospel from her parents, who were baptized as young adults. “I have never seen people more converted and willing to sacrifice things for the Lord than my parents,” she said.
After serving missions as young adults, Sister Larreal’s father and mother had sold all their belongings to travel to the Washington D.C. Temple to be married.
That decision empowered the family to follow their Savior, including when 3-year-old Sister Larreal’s sister died. “I never saw my parents getting mad at God,” she said. “And they always reminded us: ‘It’s OK. This is just temporary. We’re going to be together again, because we’re sealed as a family.’”
Institute classes and temple recommends
Elder Larreal, who was born in Valencia, Venezuela, served a mission in Caracas, Venezuela. At around the same time, Sariah Alvarez Campos — from Caracas — moved to Valencia as her parents served as mission leaders.
A mutual friend introduced the two when Elder Larreal returned to Valencia. They met again when Elder Larreal started teaching an institute class that his future wife was attending.
“I could feel the Spirit every time that I was in those classes,” said Sister Larreal, noting she started to see him as more than a friend. Rather than keep a list of what she wanted in a husband, “I wanted only one thing — I only wanted a guy who would love the Lord more than anything.”
“When we follow the direction of our prophet, seer and revelator, we will receive blessings in our lives in all aspects: physically, spiritually and emotionally.”
— Elder Pedro X. Larreal
Elder Larreal asked her on a date one day after class, and they dated for a month or two. When they decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend, Elder Larreal asked her another question.
“My mission president had told me: ‘Elder Larreal, if you are going to date any girl, you need to ask her about her temple recommend. If she has one, you can move on. If not, you need to stop dating.’”
So, acting on the invitation, Elder Larreal asked Sister Larreal if she had a temple recommend. Since there hadn’t yet been a temple built in Venezuela, she didn’t have one.
“I told him, ‘OK, well, give me some time.’ So I went to my bishop right away the next day,” Sister Larreal recounted.
She excitedly returned to her soon-to-be boyfriend with the signed piece of paper and a beaming smile. The couple was sealed two years later in the newly built Caracas Venezuela Temple on Aug. 25, 2001.
“I know that for some people, it might seem drastic,” said Sister Larreal. “But to me, it showed me where he had his eyes on, what really mattered to him. And I guess when he saw that I went to get my temple recommend, he also saw where my eyes were too.”
Great miracles in the gathering of Israel
Elder and Sister Larreal had a fond admiration for missionaries even decades before being called as the Texas McAllen Mission leaders in 2022. They look with gratitude to the missionaries who introduced their families to the gospel, and Elder Larreal still keeps in contact with some of them.
“I can see how the promise given by President [Russell M.] Nelson about this new generation is being fulfilled,” he said. “The Lord is preparing this new generation with different special skills, spiritual skills, to preach the gospel in a natural way.”
Sister Larreal added: “We love missionary work. We will be forever grateful to the missionaries because they literally have changed our lives. I know that our life wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for the sacrifice of all those young men and women.”
As mission leaders, they saw great miracles through acting in faith and letting the Spirit guide. “The Lord is very actively participating in this work with us,” said Sister Larreal. “He can guide us through the Spirit if we let Him and invite Him to, even into the details, even into the daily things that we do. If we reach out to Him, He will guide us.”
When the Larreals started as mission leaders, the missionaries were having around 600 new people being taught each month. Then, after the McAllen Texas Temple was dedicated in October 2023, the number gradually increased by hundreds. Now more than 4,000 people are being found each month in the mission.
“I know that we all have a mission in life, to work to one day return to the presence of our Father, but we must not go alone; we must strive to bring all we can back to Him as well,” said Sister Larreal.
“It’s not about us. It’s about the Lord’s work in gathering Israel on both sides of the veil,” said Elder Larreal. “The Lord is working today through missionaries to find, teach and baptize. This is a miracle we’re seeing in the whole mission. He’s involved in our lives more than we think.”
‘Sometimes we need to take a leap of faith’
In August 2025, Elder Larreal began his service as the second General Authority Seventy from Venezuela — the first being Elder Rafael E. Pino, who began serving in 2008 and was given emeritus status earlier this month.
The Larreals, embracing this new chapter in their lives, relate to Nephi in the Book of Mormon when he said, “I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do” (1 Nephi 4:6).
“Sometimes we need to take a leap of faith,” testified Elder Larreal. “We don’t know the details beforehand, but as long as we take steps of faith, He is going to guide us. You’re not going to have all the answers, but trust in the Lord and involve Him in your life.”
Sister Larreal agreed, saying, “Everything that we have gotten in our life has been because we have always been counseling with the Lord.”
Whenever the couple needs to make an important decision, they find answers through prayer and temple attendance.
“Even when we didn’t completely understand the answer, we still did it,” she said. “And the Lord gave us even more than what we ever dreamed of. I think counseling with Him has been key in our lives.”
Although many want to receive an answer before making a decision, Elder Larreal said the Lord first requires exercising faith in Christ.
“I don’t know why the Lord called me to serve as a general authority. I need to learn so much; and I had other plans for my life,” he said. “But I need to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, trust in the Lord and believe in myself. This is enough.”
About Elder Pedro X. Larreal
Family: Elder Pedro Xavier Larreal Noguera was born July 6, 1976, in Valencia, Venezuela, to Duilio Antonio Larreal Romero and Haydee Maria Noguera De Larreal. Married Sariah Alvarez Campos in the Caracas Venezuela Temple on Aug. 25, 2001. They are parents to three children.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in management from Simón Rodríguez University, a Master of Science in Education degree from Santa Maria University and a Master of Business Administration from the BYU Marriott School of Business.
Employment: Worked as a Seminaries and Institutes of Religion coordinator. Since 2009, he has worked for Nature Sunshine Products Inc. as general manager and then as director of Latin America from 2017 to 2023.
Church service: Texas McAllen Mission president (2022-25), Area Seventy in both Mexico and Utah areas, stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, stake executive secretary, bishop and missionary in the Venezuela Caracas Mission.
