Elder Stanley G. Ellis

Of the Seventy

Serving God is a choice, says Elder Stanley Gareld Ellis, recalling his days as a student at Harvard University. “As I looked around, I saw that there was no way you can prove God exists by any scientific means. Believing in Him is a choice we have to make,” he says. “I still remember as a freshman making that choice.”

He remembers receiving confirmation from the Spirit much earlier in life than that—in his prayers as a young child. Born on January 22, 1947, and raised in the Church with the good examples of his parents, Stephen and Hazel Taylor Ellis, he grew up on the family farm in Burley, Idaho, USA, where he learned the importance of hard work—pulling sugar beets, hauling hay, and herding cattle—and faith.

Elder Ellis served from 1966 to 1968 in the Brazilian Mission, one of only two missions in the country at that time. There are now 26, a fact Elder Ellis knows from having recently served as president of the São Paulo Brazil Mission.

“Our hearts beat Brazil,” says his wife, Kathryn Kloepfer Ellis. They currently reside in Houston, Texas.

Elder and Sister Ellis met at Brigham Young University, where he earned a law degree after graduating from Harvard in governmental studies. They married on June 7, 1969, in the Los Angeles California Temple.

After raising their nine children, they remark on how each one is different. “With this calling too you learn how different the Brethren are,” Elder Ellis says. “And yet together they are all effective in serving the Lord.”

He says he has been guided and prepared by the Spirit every step of the way and in every calling for his call to the Second Quorum of the Seventy. He has served as mission president, stake president, high councilor, counselor in a bishopric, elders quorum president, and ward Young Men president.