Elder José A. Teixeira

Of the Seventy

Elder José Augusto Teixeira of the First Quorum of the Seventy was part of the harvest that took place when Latter-day Saint missionaries were allowed into Portugal in late 1975. In 1976 his parents, Fernando Teixeira and Benilde Teixeira, and the rest of the family were introduced to the restored gospel, and the whole family was baptized in 1977.

Prior to that, Elder Teixeira attended his church regularly, assisted during worship, and did everything expected of a young believer. But he had questions about his faith.

When the missionaries invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, he did. “That was the beginning of my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith,” he says.

Elder Teixeira was born on February 24, 1961, in Vila Real, Portugal, but grew up in the old university city of Coimbra, which is where he joined the Church at age 16. Like all converts, he was faced with decisions about friends. Fortunately, his friends soon came to accept his new standards. “They knew when I came into the circle that there were certain things that could not be done,” he recalls.

Following service in the Portugal Lisbon Mission, Elder Teixeira joined the Portuguese Air Force and was stationed in Oeiras as part of a NATO international unit. While there, he was called as the Church’s public affairs director for the country. At a training meeting, he met the Lisbon stake’s public affairs coordinator, Filomena Lopes Teles Grilo, who also lived in Oeiras. They were married in the Bern Switzerland Temple on June 5, 1984, and are the parents of two sons and one daughter.

Elder Teixeira has degrees in accounting and business administration and prior to this call was an international controller for the Church, stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Elder Teixeira has served as a district president, stake president, Area Seventy, and president of the Brazil São Paulo South Mission.