“New Area Leaders Assigned,” Ensign, August 2016, 14–15

New Area Leaders Assigned

The First Presidency has announced changes in area leadership assignments, effective on August 1, 2016. All members of Area Presidencies are General Authority Seventies.

The Seventy are called by revelation, under the direction of the First Presidency, to assist the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in their ministry throughout the world.

During Christ’s mortal ministry, He called the Seventy, instructed them in a manner similar to the Twelve Apostles, and sent them out “before his face,” explaining that those who heard their voices would hear His voice (see Matthew 10:1, 16–17; Luke 10).

In a revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1835, the Lord revealed, among other things, “the order of the Seventy, that they should have seven presidents to preside over them, chosen out of the number of the seventy” (D&C 107:93).