Elder Benjamin De Hoyos

Of the Seventy

This July, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos Estrada of the First Quorum of the Seventy and his extended family will celebrate 100 years since his great-grandmother on his mother’s side joined the Church in 1905.

But their long history with the Church is not the family’s only legacy—they are a family of teachers, having influenced countless lives.

Elder De Hoyos’s mother was a teacher. He has two uncles who taught at Brigham Young University. His three sisters are teachers. Now the profession has reached into a third generation with one of his daughters.

Elder De Hoyos planned on being an engineer, then graduated in pedagogy and spent 26 years with the Church Educational System. “The Lord’s hand was in my decision to change from engineering to teaching,” Elder De Hoyos says. “We are all teachers in the Church. My profession has been a resource to me to be able to serve better.”

Elder De Hoyos and his wife, Evelia Genesta Mendivil De Hoyos, have lived in almost every state in Mexico during his work for CES as a seminary teacher, CES coordinator, institute director, associate area director, and country director. During that time he has served as president or counselor in four stake presidencies, president of the Mexico Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mission, Area Seventy, and Second Counselor in the Mexico South Area Presidency.

He and Evelia were married on June 4, 1975, in the Mesa Arizona Temple. They and their six children maintained their unity during all of the moves and all of the hours of Church service through family scripture study and planning time to be together.

Though he will give up his employment to serve full-time, he won’t be giving up teaching. “One is never finished teaching or learning,” Elder De Hoyos says. “Being a teacher is a great privilege.”

Elder De Hoyos was born on February 20, 1953, in Monterrey, Mexico, to Alfredo De Hoyos and Sarah Estrada De Hoyos. He served in the Mexico Hermosillo Mission.