Area Authority in Argentina

“Music is an important part of our home,” says Elder Claudio D. Zivic, Area Authority Seventy in the South America South Area. His wife, Dina Noemí Alvarez, and all five of their children play the piano, and the two oldest teach music. Elder Zivic is a frequent vocal soloist at weddings, funerals, sacrament meetings, and other functions. “Especially,” he says, “I will never forget the day I was able to sing a traditional song of our country for President Spencer W. Kimball, who was at that time a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and visiting for a regional conference.”

Having grown up in the Church, Claudio Zivic was baptized at the age of eight in the Liniers chapel in Argentina, the first meetinghouse built by the Church in South America. “My wife and I met when we were children,” he says. But Dina’s family moved to the United States for a period of several years and then lived in Chile for several more. When the Alvarez family returned to Argentina, Claudio and Dina began dating and were married in 1972. “Since then,” Elder Zivic says, “she has been a source of inspiration and constant help in all the accomplishments and challenges of my life.”

He tells of an experience he had as a teenager: “On receiving my patriarchal blessing one day before turning 19 years old, I shed tears of emotion and gratitude throughout the prayer because I felt my Heavenly Father was the one talking through His servant, the patriarch. That experience marked my life with fire because I clearly knew the blessings that would come upon me and my future family if I strived to progress in every aspect of my life, especially working in the Lord’s service.” Elder Zivic says that following the Lord’s guidance has helped him in his professional life as an accountant and in his personal life as a husband and father.

“My earthly existence centers around the gospel of Christ,” says Elder Zivic. “He is not just a part of my life, but He is my whole life. Thanks to the gospel, the perspective that my wife and I have of eternal life has been expanded to levels unthought of in our youth.”

Left to right: Leonel, Elder Claudio D. Zivic, Damián (front), Sister Dina Zivic, Nelson, Evelina, Adrián.