Elder José A. Teixeira

Presidency of the Seventy

Elder José A. Teixeira recalls a lesson he learned as a young boy in Portugal. During a family reunion, he sneaked away to go fishing. He felt he should tell his parents where he was going, but he decided not to because they were busy talking.

Hours later, his worried parents found him at the riverbank. From that experience, he learned to obey not only his parents but also the whisperings of the Holy Ghost.

Since then, Elder Teixeira has made a habit of heeding the still, small voice. He and his family were introduced to the gospel in 1976, after Portugal was opened to missionary work. He was baptized at age 16 and later served as a missionary in the Lisbon Portugal Mission.

“Our choices have the undeniable power of transforming our lives,” said Elder Teixeira, sustained a member of the Presidency of the Seventy on March 31, 2018. “This gift is an extraordinary sign of trust in us and simultaneously a cherished personal responsibility to use wisely,” he taught in the April 2009 general conference.

Elder Teixeira earned degrees in accounting and business management and worked for the Church as an international controller. He also served in the Portuguese Air Force as part of a NATO unit. During that time, he was called as a national public affairs director for the Church. Soon afterward, he met his wife, Maria Filomena Lopes Teles Grilo. They were married in 1984 in the Bern Switzerland Temple and are the parents of three children.

José Augusto Teixeira da Silva was born in Vila Real, Portugal, on February 24, 1961. He has served as a counselor in a bishopric, district president, stake president, Area Seventy, and president of the Brazil São Paulo South Mission. He was sustained as a General Authority Seventy on April 5, 2008. He currently serves as President of the South America South Area and will begin his service in the Presidency of the Seventy on August 1, 2018.

Above all, Elder Teixeira counseled us in the April 2015 general conference to “deepen our understanding of the Savior. … Let us not leave for tomorrow what we can do today. It is now that we must come unto Christ.”