Benjamín De Hoyos

Benjamín De Hoyos Estrada (born 20 February 1953) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 2005.
De Hoyos was born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico, and grew up in northern Mexico. As a young man, he served a mission in the Mexico Hermosillo Mission, where he first met his wife Evelia Genesta Mendivil, who is a native of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. Mendivil had converted to the LDS Church while a teenager and was then serving as a Stake missionary.
Benjamín and Evelia renewed their acquaintance later when he was working as a seminary teacher at Benemerito De Las Americas, an LDS Church-owned prep school in Mexico City, and Evelia was working there as a secretary. They were married on 4 June 1975 and are the parents of six children.
De Hoyos received a bachelor's degree from Normal Superior Benavente and a master's degree from Chapultepec University.
Prior to his call as a general authority, De Hoyos spent his career as a Church Educational System (CES) employee. He was a seminary teacher, institute director, and CES coordinator at various levels. At the time of his call as a general authority, he was director of the Mexico South Area for CES.
De Hoyos has served in the LDS Church as a counselor in a stake presidency, stake president and as president of the Mexico Tuxtla Gutiérrez Mission. While in this position he supervised the reopening of missionary work in areas where it had been closed due to civil unrest. From 1999 to 2005, he was an area seventy, which included serving as a counselor in the church's Mexico South Area. As a general authority, he has served as a counselor in the presidency of the South America North Area and from 2009 to 2014 as a counselor in the church's Mexico Area. From 2014 to 2017, he was president of the Mexico Area. In May 2016, the Mexico Area Presidency encouraged church members to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize same-sex marriage.
In 2017, De Hoyos was relocated to Salt Lake City where he served as assistant executive director of the LDS Church's temple department. In August 2018, De Hoyos became president of the church's South America South Area, which covers Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay.

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