Nearly half the members of one of the LDS Church’s highest councils now hail from outside the United States.
During Saturday afternoon’s General Conference session, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that Juan A. Uceda, who was born in Peru, and Patrick Kearon, a native of England, have been named to the seven-member Presidency of Seventy.
In that group, which ranks below the governing First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, they join Brazilian Ulisses Soares and four U.S.-born members.
Uceda earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations in Peru before moving to New Jersey in 2003 to help his father run their family business, according to a biography on the church’s website. He became an LDS general authority in 2010 and has overseen church operations in South America, North America and the Pacific Isles.
Kearon, who wowed conferencegoers last year with an impassioned sermon urging Mormons to help refugees, was schooled in the Middle East and the United Kingdom and has worked in the health care, food, transport and communication industries. He, too, became a Mormon general authority in 2010 and has supervised church activities in Europe and North America.
(Courtesy LDS Church) Patrick Kearon