Elder I. Raymond Egbo

General Authority Seventy

While he was attending a religious boarding school in Nigeria, Elder I. Raymond Egbo’s older sister kept inviting him to “come and see” what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had to offer. At 14 years old, he started going to seminary in the evenings.

While reading the seminary course of study, Elder Egbo came to Doctrine and Covenants 135 and the martyrdom of Joseph Smith.

“Something powerfully touched me, and I knew that the Prophet Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I knew he was killed for the truth,” said Elder Egbo, who soon joined the Church. “I still feel right now how I felt that day when I read it.”

Later, while he was a university student, his sister encouraged him to serve a mission. Their father was angry with him for leaving his studies, but Elder Egbo regularly wrote him letters describing everything he was doing and what he was teaching.

To Elder Egbo’s amazement, near the end of his mission, his mission president read to him a letter from his father that said he had been baptized. “Tell him I will be waiting for him,” his father wrote.

Elder Idyo Raymond Egbo was born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, on June 25, 1974, to Udo Idio Egbo and Veronica Ukamaka Egbo. He met Comfort Ikip Ese when her family moved into his branch in 1994. They were married on May 15, 2003, in Calabar, Nigeria. They have three children.

Elder Egbo has degrees in education, regional planning, and business administration from three universities. He has worked in Seminaries and Institutes of Religion since 2002 in a variety of positions, including as country director and area director.

At the time of his call, Elder Egbo was serving as an Area Seventy in the Africa West Area. He has served as president of the Nigeria Calabar Mission and has been a stake presidency counselor and high councilor. He served a full-time mission in the Nigeria Lagos Mission.