Ruben V. Alliaud
Rubén V. Alliaud was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6, 2019.
Alliaud was born on January 8, 1966, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After his father died, Alliaud’s mother, María, was concerned about his developing rebellious spirit, so she sent him to Houston, Texas, to live with her brother Manuel Bustos and his family. She requested that her brother not share his Latter-day Saint beliefs with her Catholic son.
- But the spirit of the gospel communicated with the struggling teenager in other ways. He observed the many ways that the Church united the Bustos family.
- The shelves in Rubén’s guest bedroom held hundreds of copies of the Book of Mormon. Curious, he pulled out a Spanish copy and discovered Moroni’s promise located at the front of the book. Through his words, the ancient prophet assured the young man that he could know the Book of Mormon was true through prayer.
- “That promise touched me in a strange way—I wanted to read the book,” he said.
- Rubén took Moroni’s promise to heart and prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true. He received an affirmative answer before telling his surprised uncle that he wanted to be baptized.
His uncle honored his commitment to Alliaud’s mother and sent the boy back to Argentina to receive his mother’s permission to join the Church.
After his baptism, he worked to find other youth to join him in his small branch. Later, he served a full-time mission in Uruguay. While on his mission, he made an impression of Fabiana Bennett Lamas, who would become his wife after he returned to his mission country three years later. They are the parents of six children.
Alliaud earned a law degree from the University of Belgrano in Buenos Aires. He specialized in criminal law and worked as a managing partner for Alliaud & Asociados.
He presided over the Argentina Cordoba Mission and has served as a stake president, bishop, elders quorum president, and Area Seventy. At the time of his call to full-time church service, he was an institute teacher, first counselor in the presidency of the Argentina Missionary Training Center, and public affairs director.
