Elder Kevin James Hathaway has always loved Jesus Christ.
He doesn’t remember exactly when he developed that love, he said, but from his earliest memories, it’s been in his heart. Now, as a General Authority Seventy, Elder Hathaway wants people to know of Christ’s love for them.
“This is a joyful, wonderful Church and gospel,” Elder Hathaway said.
He also has a testimony of prophets and apostles. As a boy, he said, he cherished their teachings; today, he’s grateful for the opportunity to assist current Church leaders “in building the kingdom and [testifying] of my Savior.”
Elder Hathaway was one of eight new General Authority Seventies sustained during the Saturday afternoon session of April 2026 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4.
He and his wife, Sister Kali Hathaway, currently serve as mission leaders over the Arkansas Bentonville Mission, with their service scheduled to conclude July 1.
As he prepares to transition into his new role as a General Authority Seventy, Elder Hathaway said he’s been pondering Doctrine and Covenants 107, which specifies the two main responsibilities of a General Authority Seventy: one, to be a special witness of Jesus Christ, and two, to assist the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the First Presidency in all matters.
“I’m grateful that God has given me from a young age … that witness of those two things,” Elder Hathaway said.
Formative experiences
Elder Hathaway was born in Billings, Montana, on Feb. 28, 1975, to Mike and Lorraine Hathaway. He is the third of seven children and was raised in the Hamer, Idaho, area.
His mother has a strong, simple faith in Jesus Christ and of Joseph Smith’s prophetic calling, Elder Hathaway said. “I can remember her telling me that she’s never had any strong powerful experiences, but many, many small ones that have created a testimony for her.”
His father is “an extremely hard worker” who managed a large potato farm and who “valiantly” serves in any Church calling asked of him. He’s also “very doctrinally sound,” said Elder Hathaway, who recounted memories of his father teaching their family from the scriptures.
His father served as a missionary in the southeastern United States, Elder Hathaway continued, and often shared stories from his time there. His open and obvious love for his mission helped create Elder Hathaway’s desire to serve his own mission.
And he did just that, serving in the Russia St. Petersburg Mission from 1994 to 1996. Elder Hathaway recalled the culture shock of going from a small Idaho farming town to a city teeming with millions of people.
Still, his mission was “a very formative experience” for him, Elder Hathaway said. He arrived in St. Petersburg at a time when the Church was welcome and many were searching for truth; he fell in love with everything from the people to the language, he said, and witnessed lives transform through the Savior.
“It changed everything about what I thought about Jesus Christ and the Church,” Elder Hathaway said.
He recalled a couple, for instance, who had lost their 14-year-old daughter several years earlier. Teaching them about Christ, the plan of salvation, eternal families and baptisms for the dead brought this family out of darkness and into light, Elder Hathaway said. They’d later serve as missionaries and as temple workers in the Helsinki Finland Temple, while the husband became the first patriarch of the St. Petersburg Russia Stake.
Elder Hathaway said he still keeps in touch with this family and to this day they’re vibrant, bright and happy. It’s been an inspiration to him, he continued, to see them embrace the gospel “with such zeal and excitement.”
‘It just worked’
After his missionary service, Elder Hathaway attended Brigham Young University, earning bachelor’s degrees in Russian and international law and diplomacy.
Just a few weeks into his schooling, he met fellow student Kali Lewis through a family home evening group. He was also her home teacher, but both Elder Hathaway and the future Sister Hathaway were dating other people when they first met.
Nine months later, however, after their respective relationships had ended, the pair reconnected, “and it just worked,” Elder Hathaway said.
Sister Hathaway agreed that something immediately clicked between her and Elder Hathaway. “I don’t know that we ever fell in love. We were just in love… There wasn’t any need to debate it,” she said.
Born and raised in Modesto, California, Sister Hathaway is the fifth of six children. Her parents, Rex and Vicky Lewis, always had “a strong desire to do what was right,” she said, and raised their family in such a way that there was “never, ever a question” about whether they would attend church, hold family home evenings or study the scriptures.
They also taught their children the importance of making good choices, Sister Hathaway said. Their motto was “If you do what you’re supposed to do, you can do what you want to do,” and Sister Hathaway said she appreciated from a young age that her parents taught her right from wrong.
She valued those teachings more than ever when, as a BYU student, she realized no one was making her attend church or fulfill her callings — she was living the gospel solely because she wanted to.
“I think at that point, I realized that the gospel was blessing my life,” Sister Hathaway said. “I loved the way I felt when I attended church and read my scriptures and lived the gospel.”
Elder and Sister Hathaway were married Oct. 25, 1997, in the Oakland California Temple. They are the parents of six children and the grandparents of one. Sister Hathaway is also a BYU graduate who holds a bachelor’s degree in business management.
Guided by the Lord
Following his marriage, Elder Hathaway took an internship in Belgium with NATO but quickly realized he had no interest in pursuing government work as a career.
With only one semester of school left after his internship, Elder Hathaway returned to BYU and began searching for new opportunities. That’s when he learned about a pharmaceutical company that was seeking sales representatives in the Idaho Falls area.
While some might call it luck to get a job in their hometown, Elder Hathaway now knows that the Lord was directing him to Idaho Falls.
Sister Hathaway recalled how these experiences changed the course of their lives. “We didn’t see it in the moment. … The Lord needed us in Idaho Falls, and a government job was not going to take us there,” she said.
Over the years, Elder Hathaway has built careers in health care, real estate and construction. But early on, he realized he didn’t want his job to become his identity; rather, he and Sister Hathaway tried to center their lives around being disciples of Jesus Christ and children of a Heavenly Father.
“God has seen my inadequacies and allowed me to prosper through His grace and mercy in my jobs so that we could have this experience with our family — raising them in a culture where Christ was important,” Elder Hathaway said.
Building the kingdom
Those same principles guided the Hathaways when they were called to serve as mission leaders over the Arkansas Bentonville Mission starting in July 2024. They initially planned to ask their son and his wife to live in their home — Sister Hathaway’s dream house, built only three years earlier — during their mission, but six months before leaving, Sister Hathaway said she realized they’d never asked the Lord what to do about their Idaho Falls home. After that, it became “quite clear” they were supposed to sell their house, Sister Hathaway said.
This was an especially difficult decision for her, Sister Hathaway continued; but the Lord helped her realize that a house is just a house. The Hathaways ultimately sold their home to a large, “wonderful” family with many children who benefited from the house’s size. The wife also chose to be baptized, Sister Hathaway said, and the family has since been sealed in the temple.
“It doesn’t matter where I live,” Sister Hathaway said. “It doesn’t matter what my dream house looks like. The most important thing is, ‘Am I building the kingdom? Am I building my family? Am I becoming a disciple myself?’”
The Hathaways’ experience with selling their home set the tone for their mission. Elder Hathaway also said their time in Arkansas has been an “accumulation” of all their previous Church callings and service and that they’ve received greater blessings than ever before.
For instance, Elder Hathaway said he’s learned how “powerfully” the Lord loves His missionaries. Throughout his previous callings — which include bishop, stake president and Area Seventy — he’d never before felt “such a consistent flow of the Savior’s love to me that I am impelled to give to those missionaries.”
Now, as Elder Hathaway prepares to serve as a General Authority Seventy, he said the Lord is teaching him what truly matters.
“It’s really not about us. It’s about Him, and it’s about His work,” said Elder Hathaway, underscoring “the importance of following His direction to come unto Him … and to never make it about anything but the building of His kingdom in the way He wants to build it.”
About Elder Kevin J. Hathaway
Family: Kevin James Hathaway was born Feb. 28, 1975, in Billings, Montana, to Mike and Lorraine Hathaway. He is the third of seven children and was raised in the Hamer, Idaho, area. He married Kali Lewis of Modesto, California, on Oct. 25, 1997, in the Oakland California Temple. They are the parents of six children and the grandparents of one.
Education: He received bachelor’s degrees in Russian and international law and diplomacy from Brigham Young University.
Employment: Elder Hathaway has built careers in health care, real estate and construction.
Church service: He and his wife currently serve as mission leaders over the Arkansas Bentonville Mission, with their service scheduled to conclude July 1. Elder Hathaway’s previous callings include bishop, stake president and Area Seventy.
