Elder Wilford W. Andersen

Of the Seventy

Elder Wilford Wayne Andersen of the Seventy “has a real touch with the human heart,” said his wife, Kathleen Bennion Andersen. “I think one of his greatest strengths is that he’s nonjudgmental and people feel comfortable around him.”

Elder Andersen was born on August 22, 1949, the third of eight children, to Darl and Erma Farnsworth Andersen in Mesa, Arizona, USA, where he was living at the time of his call. Elder Andersen said he learned to love people from different backgrounds from his father, who worked with people of many faiths, and his mother, a native of Chihuahua, Mexico, who taught him her native language.

Elder Andersen believes that he gained his testimony the same way Alma described the process in Alma 32. As a boy, the seed was planted in his heart.

“I felt the first stirrings early on,” he says. “The seedling has continued to grow throughout my life. It has become a tree and has borne fruit. I have partaken of the fruit, and it has filled my life with joy.”

Elder Andersen was serving in the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy as an Area Seventy in the North America Southwest Area when he was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy on April 4, 2009. His previous Church callings include president of the Mexico Guadalajara Mission from 2002 to 2005, stake president and counselor, stake executive secretary, high councilor, bishop and counselor, and full-time missionary in the Argentina South Mission.

Elder Andersen met his wife through a mutual friend. They married in the Provo Utah Temple in April 1975 and have nine children. Elder Andersen received a bachelor of science degree in business management at Brigham Young University in 1973 and a juris doctor degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School in 1976. Since 1979 he has been a managing partner of a real estate investment firm.