Jorge Zeballos

Jorge Fernando Zeballos (born 19 July 1955) has been a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2008. He is the first Chilean to be a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy and only the second Chilean to serve as a general authority of the LDS Church. The first was Eduardo Ayala.

Zeballos was born in Ovalle, Chile. He joined the LDS Church when he was twelve. His interest in the Church began when he noticed the North Americans in his town, and then he read a very positive interview with them in the local paper. He had a friend who joined the Church and Zeballos went to church with this friend and his family. It was not until seven months later that the missionaries learned Zeballos was not a member and began teaching him.

Elder Zeballos attended Santa Maria University in Valparaiso, Chile. It was here he met Carmen Valenzuela. Shortly after that she took the missionary discussions, and she was baptized by Zeballos before he left to serve in the Chile Concepcion Mission. Zebellos and his wife Carmen Gloria Valenzuela traveled to São Paulo, Brazil to marry in the São Paulo Brazil Temple. Their marriage occured on June 26th, 1982. At that point this was the only temple in all of South America. The Zeballoses now have five children.

Zeballos worked as a mining engineer and later as a manager of corporate affairs for a mining company before his call to full-time church service. For a time he mangaged corporate affairs for Minera Escondida Limitada, which was at that point the biggest copper-producing mine in the world.

Zeballos became an area authority of the Church in 1995. He was released released from this position in October 2004.

At the time of his call as a general authority, Zeballos was serving as the president of the Chile Concepción South Mission.

Sources

• “Elder Jorge A. Zeballos,” Liahona, May 2008, p. 140
• Church News, August 5, 1995; March 25, 2006; April 12, 2008