“Elder Patrick Kearon,” Liahona, May 2010, 141
Elder Patrick Kearon
Of the Seventy
While living briefly in California, Elder Patrick Kearon stayed with “an outstanding” Latter-day Saint family who introduced him to the gospel.
Two years later, back home in England, he met missionaries on a London street and eventually began investigating the Church. He came upon a scripture in the Book of Mormon that read, “Men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). The scripture resonated with him as he recalled the joy in the home of that LDS family and in the lives of the missionaries teaching him.
“That scripture rang in my ears,” Elder Kearon says. “In those I had met, I saw how our lives can be enormously enriched by following the Savior’s counsel to be of good cheer.”
Since joining the Church on December 24, 1987, Elder Kearon has brought that good cheer to numerous callings, including ward Young Men president, bishop’s counselor, branch president, stake president, and Area Seventy.
As a newly called member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, he says that he has always “endeavored to be guided by the Church’s principles. I have seen how living those principles can transform lives.”
Elder Kearon was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England, in July 1961, to Paddy and Patricia Kearon. With his father serving in the British Royal Air Force, Elder Kearon was educated in the Middle East and the United Kingdom.
He met Jennifer Carole Hulme while she was studying in England with Brigham Young University. They were married in the Oakland California Temple in 1991. They are the parents of four children, one of whom is deceased.
Elder Kearon has lived and worked in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and the United States in various industries, including politics, health care, and the automotive industry. Before his call, Elder and Sister Kearon ran a communications consultancy in England.