Difference between revisions of "Charles A. Didier"

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Charles Andre Didier is an emeritus general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He was born on October 5, 1935, in Ixelles, Belgium. His father was a Belgian Army officer and was captured at the beginning of World War II. He managed to escape and saw his family occasionally. The secret police looked for him and searched the family, so they moved to Antwerp Province where he was hiding and then moved to Flanders to live with Elder Didier’s great-grandmother.

When Didier was finishing junior high, two missionaries came to their door and his mother let them come in and teach her. She was baptized the following year, but Didier did not attend as he was in Rome on a church trip to see the Pope. His sister, Jacqueline, was later baptized, but Didier went on to college in Liège, only occasionally participating in activities, but living the principles of the gospel. A missionary asked him to pray about the Book of Mormon and after he did, he had an assurance it was God’s will that he join the Church. He was baptized in November 1957.

Didier earned his degree in economics in 1959 and became a lieutenant and radar supervisor in the Belgian Air Force. He married Lucie Lodomez who had served as a missionary in France with his sister. They are the parents of two children.

He became president of the Liège branch and worked briefly in Germany as the assistant to the director of temporal affairs for the Church in Europe. He then worked as the Church distribution center director in Liège until he was called to preside over the France-Switzerland Mission. At the conclusion of that assignment, he was called to serve as a regional representative and area manager in translation and distribution of Church materials for Europe. Five years later he was called to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy. He served twice in the Presidency of the Seventy (1992–1995, 2001–2007). He was designated as emeritus status in October 2009.

In addition to French, Didier speaks English, German, Dutch, and Spanish.

General Conference Talks by Charles A. Didier

• "Testimony," October 1991
• "Spiritual Security," April 1987
• "Friend or Foe," October 1983
• "To Follow or Not, That Is the Question," October 1981
• "Language: A Divine Way of Communicating," October 1979
• "Letter to a Returned Missionary," October 1977
• "The Value of People," April 1976
• "My Gratitude," October 1975