| Robert E. Wells | |
|---|---|
| First Quorum of the Seventy | |
| October 1, 1976 – October 4, 1997 | |
| Called by | Spencer W. Kimball |
| End reason | Granted general authority emeritus status |
| Emeritus General Authority | |
| October 4, 1997 | |
| Called by | Gordon B. Hinckley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Robert Earl Wells December 28, 1927 Las Vegas, Nevada, United States |
Robert Earl Wells (born December 28, 1927) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 1976.
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a general authority is a member of the highest levels of leadership in the church who has administrative and ecclesiastical authority over the church. A general authority's jurisdiction is church-wide, in contrast to the responsibilities of a local authority or an area authority, which relate to a particular area, unit, or department of the church. As a group, the general authorities are often referred to as "the Brethren". As of October 2017, there are 109 general authorities.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian, Christian restorationist church that is considered by its members to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States, and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 16 million members and 65,000 full-time volunteer missionaries. In 2012, the National Council of Churches ranked the church as the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States, with over 6.5 million members there as of January 2018. It is the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
Wells was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. [1] He grew up in Logandale, Nevada. Following high school, Wells served in the United States Navy. Following an honorable discharge, he earned a degree in accounting from Brigham Young University. He then served as a missionary for the LDS Church in Argentina. [2]
Logandale is located in Clark County, Nevada. It was an unincorporated town in Clark County until 1981 when the unincorporated towns of Overton and Logandale were merged to created the unincorporated town of Moapa Valley. The town was incorporated on May 9, 2019. The owner of this corporation is James Schramm. The community is the home of the annual Clark County Fair and Rodeo. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department patrols the town.
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most capable navy in the world and it has been estimated that in terms of tonnage of its active battle fleet alone, it is larger than the next 13 navies combined, which includes 11 U.S. allies or partner nations. With the highest combined battle fleet tonnage and the world's largest aircraft carrier fleet, with eleven in service, and two new carriers under construction. With 319,421 personnel on active duty and 99,616 in the Ready Reserve, the U.S. Navy is the third largest of the U.S. military service branches in terms of personnel. It has 282 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of March 2018, making it the third-largest air force in the world, after the United States Air Force and the United States Army.
Brigham Young University is a private, non-profit research university in Provo, Utah, United States owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and run under the auspices of its Church Educational System. The university is classified among "Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity" with "more selective, lower transfer-in" admissions. The university's primary emphasis is on undergraduate education in 179 majors, but it also has 62 master's and 26 doctoral degree programs. The university also administers two satellite campuses, one in Jerusalem and one in Salt Lake City, while its parent organization, the Church Educational System (CES), sponsors sister schools in Hawaii and Idaho.
Soon after returning from Argentina, Wells married Meryl Leavitt and then four months later took a job with First National City Bank in South America. He lived in Paraguay, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. [2]
South America is a continent in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is how it is viewed in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of the Americas. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics.
Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a country of South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Although it is one of only two landlocked countries in South America, the country has coasts, beaches and ports on the Paraguay and Paraná rivers that give exit to the Atlantic Ocean through the Paraná-Paraguay Waterway. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de Sudamérica.
Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Ecuador also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland. The capital city is Quito, which is also the largest city.
Meryl Wells died when the airplane she was piloting crashed in bad weather in Argentina on December 11, 1960. About two years later, he married Helen Walser.
From 1968 to 1971, Wells was president of the LDS Church's Mexico Monterrey Mission. From 1971 to 1976 he worked for the church's central purchasing department. By the end of this time he was head of the purchasing department. [3]
Mission president is a priesthood leadership position in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A mission president presides over a geographic area known as a mission and the missionaries serving in the mission. Depending on the particular mission, a mission president may also be the presiding priesthood leader of some or all Latter-day Saints within the geographic boundaries of the mission. Mission presidents are ordained high priests of the church.
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost 2,000,000 square kilometers (770,000 sq mi), the nation is the fourth largest country in the Americas by total area and the 13th largest independent state in the world. With an estimated population of over 129 million people, Mexico is the tenth most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, while being the second most populous nation in Latin America after Brazil. Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states plus Mexico City (CDMX), which is the capital city and its most populous city. Other metropolises in the country include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, and León.
Monterrey is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico. The city is anchor to the Monterrey metropolitan area, the second most productive in Mexico with a GDP (PPP) of US$ 123 billion and the third largest with an estimated population of 4,689,601 people as of 2015. Monterrey is also considered as the city with the best quality of life in the country (México) and serves as a commercial center of northern Mexico and is the base of many significant international corporations, its purchasing power parity-adjusted GDP per capita is considerably higher than the rest of the country's at around US$35,500 to the country's US$18,800. It is considered a Beta World City, cosmopolitan and competitive. Rich in history and culture, it is one of the most developed cities in Mexico and is often regarded as its most "Americanized".
Prior to his call as a general authority, Wells had served as a regional representative in several Latin American countries. In 1976, he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy, and held this position until 1997, when he was designated an emeritus general authority. In February 1977, Wells took up residence in Santiago, Chile, as the church's area representative for Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. [4] From 1998 to 2001, Wells was president of the church's Santiago Chile Temple. [5]
Regional representative of the Twelve, commonly shorted to regional representative or regional rep, was a priesthood calling in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints between 1968 and 1995. As the title suggests, the responsibility of regional representatives was to represent the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the various regions or areas of the church. Regional representatives were not general authorities or general officers of the church, but were lay ministers who donated their time to church service.
Latin America is a group of countries and dependencies in the Americas with a shared history of facing colonialism and coloniality by Spain, Portugal and other European countries and where Romance languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, and French dominate, but hundreds of Native languages such as Nahuatl, Mixtec, Maya, Quechua, and Aymara are also spoken. Latin America is broader than the terms Ibero-America or Hispanic America. The term "Latin America" was first used in an 1856 conference with the title "Initiative of the America. Idea for a Federal Congress of the Republics", by the Chilean politician Francisco Bilbao. The term was used also by Napoleon III's French government in the 1860s as Amérique latine to consider French-speaking territories in the Americas, along with the larger group of countries where Spanish and Portuguese languages prevailed, including the Spanish-speaking portions of the United States Today, areas of Canada and the United States where Spanish, Portuguese and French are predominant are typically not included in definitions of Latin America.
Emeritus, in its current usage, is an adjective used to designate a retired chairperson, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person.
Wells is the father of seven children, including Sharlene Wells, Miss America 1985.
Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As of 2018, there is no longer a swimsuit portion to the contest, or consideration of physical appearance. Miss America travels about 20,000 miles a month, changing her location every 24 to 48 hours, touring the nation and promoting her particular platform of interest. The winner is crowned by the previous year's titleholder.
