Elder Neil L. Andersen was born 9 August 1951 and reared in Pocatello, Idaho. He was raised in an active LDS family, being baptized as a child, and following the normal path of advancing through the Aaronic Priesthood in his teen years before receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood and being ordained an Elder as a young adult.
Elder Andersen served as a missionary to the France Bordeaux Mission and upon returning home, married Kathy Sue Williams on 20 March 1975 in the Salt Lake Temple. The couple have four children.
He graduated from Brigham Young University and earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Harvard University. He and Kathy then moved to Tampa, Florida, her hometown, where he worked as an advertising executive and later as a vice president of Morton Plant Health System.
In addition to his service as mission president,
he served as a stake president, as a counselor in a stake presidency,
and as a high councilor.
In 1989 Elder Andersen, Andersen, then serving as mission
president of the France Bordeaux Mission, Kathy, and their four children were watching videotapes of general conference. They were impressed by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve’s address that suggested members read the preface of the new hymnbook and then counseled members not to neglect the hymns, recalled Elder Andersen, three years
later as a newly called member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
Elder Andersen took the counsel to heart, as did his family. “We
instituted an almost daily program to learn the hymns,” he said. “We have
realized in great abundance the promises outlined in the preface written
by the First Presidency.”
“We don’t realize the enormous blessings available
to us unless we actively pursue a course that follows the teachings of
the prophets and Apostles,” observes Elder Andersen. “Our family has seen
it work over and over again.”
“Some of our happiest memories are of serving a mission,”
notes Elder Andersen. “It is while serving others that the Lord increases
and builds our capacities. On so many occasions, as I have felt inadequate
in the calling before me, I have felt the Lord’s generosity in lifting
and strengthening me. It is that knowledge that sustains me now as I contemplate
this new and humbling opportunity.”
Elder Andersen served in the First Quorum of the
Seventy and in April of 2005, he was called into the Presidency of the quorum.
While a Seventy he served as executive director of the Church's Audio-visual
department and assistant executive director of the Priesthood Department. He
also served as a counselor in the Utah North, Utah South, North America
Southwest, North America Northeast, and Europe West Area Presidencies; and as
first counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency.
He must have been doing something right, for on April 4, 2009, he was released from his reponsibilities with the Seventy with a vote of thanks, and sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, replacing Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, who had died the previous December. Elder Andersen continues to serve at this posting.
Bibliography
"News of the Church: Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Seventy," Ensign May 1993
"News of the Church: Elder Andersen, Elder Rashand Called to the Presidency of the Seventy," Ensign, August, 2005, p.76
"New Leaders of the Seventy Sustained; Eleven General Authorities Released," Church News Release, Oct 1, 2005
Selected Discourses and Writings
