Reyna I. Aburto

Second Counselor, Relief Society General Presidency

Sister Reyna I. Aburto was born in Managua, Nicaragua, to Noel Blanco and Delbi Cardoza in 1963. “My parents always worked hard so they could provide for us,” Sister Aburto said. “I had a very happy childhood.”

Just past midnight on December 23, 1972, when she was nine years old, an earthquake struck Managua. “I was saved because there was a piece of furniture behind me, but my legs were trapped.” Hearing her and her mother’s screams, neighbors came to pull them from the destroyed adobe house. In the wreckage, they found the body of her older brother in the bed next to hers. “Material possessions are just so temporary, but the important thing is our family,” she said.

When she was 21, Sister Aburto immigrated to the United States with her family. While living in San Francisco, California, she was introduced to missionaries and decided to come to church. “As soon as I stepped into that building, I could feel the Spirit. It was stake conference, and I felt that every single message was for me,” she said. She was baptized in 1989.

During this time she met Carlos Aburto, and they became friends. They continued to correspond, even when Sister Aburto moved to Orem, Utah. They married on May 8, 1993, in the Jordan River Utah Temple. They are the parents of three children.

Sister Aburto, sustained on April 1, 2017, to the Relief Society General Presidency, has worked in the translation industry for more than 25 years, including at Novell Inc. and Lemoine International. She and her husband now own a small translation agency. She studied industrial engineering at Central American University in Managua, Nicaragua, for four years and earned an associate degree in computer science from Utah Valley State College in 1997.

Sister Aburto has served in a wide variety of Church callings, including Primary general board member from 2012 to 2016.