“Elder Larry Y. Wilson,” Ensign, May 2011, 138
Elder Larry Y. Wilson
Of the Seventy
Balancing the demands of work, Church, and family responsibilities has been a challenge for Elder Larry Young Wilson, but he has made sure family members know how important they are to him.
“The most formative experience I have had is being a husband and a father,” Elder Wilson says. “I rarely missed a child’s performance in an athletic, musical, or other event. I read them bedtime stories and said prayers with them before tucking them into bed at night. It is so important to be there.”
Elder Wilson knows well the demands placed on one who has leadership roles in all aspects of life. He was born in December 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, to George and Ida Wilson and grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, USA. He received a bachelor’s degree in English and American literature from Harvard University and later a master’s degree in business administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Elder Wilson has spent his career as a consultant and executive in the health care industry. Although his career was demanding, Elder Wilson made sure it never took over his life.
“You have to establish boundaries around your work life,” he says. “Otherwise, it will swallow everything else. Practically speaking, the areas of work, church, and family time have to take turns being put on hold. Pray to be guided and you will know which one takes precedence on any particular day.”
Elder Wilson served diligently as a missionary in the Brazil Central Mission and as bishop, stake president, and Area Seventy before being called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy.
Helping Elder Wilson find that important balance in all his service is his wife, Lynda Mackey Wilson, whom he married on July 10, 1974, in the Logan Utah Temple. The Wilsons raised four children.
“Whenever I left for Church meetings, she would say, ‘Good-bye, honey. Go serve the Lord,’” Elder Wilson says. “She was teaching our children the deeper meaning of my service. Before long they would say, ‘Good-bye, Daddy. Go serve the Lord!’”