A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
- Henry Brooks AdamsAcareer teacher and administrator of the Church Educational System, Elder Lino Alvarez has shaped lives of young people across Mexico.
He is described by associates as a "consummate teacher" whose humility keeps him constantly teachable.
Elder Alvarez, 47, is the fourth native of Mexico to be called as a General Authority. He is among 15 new leaders called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy. (Their callings were announced in the Church News on June 6.)
"I feel very frightened and humble about my calling," he said. "But I know the Lord has called me. Throughout my life in the Church it has been a very beautiful thing to feel the confidence of my brothers and sisters in the gospel. With the confidence of the Lord and the Brethren, I sincerely feel I will go forward."
Elder Alvarez, who stands a trim 5-foot-8, is a convert with an easy-going personality who enjoys using humor to make his points. In or out of the classroom, he has a gentle but unceasing way of illustrating a point, provoking a memory, or exposing a truth.
"He's really one of the fine teachers of the Church," said Elder F. Burton Howard of the Seventy and president of the Mexico Area. "There is much to admire about his teaching ability."
Elder Alvarez' abilities were further described by Thomas L. Tyler, Church Educational System zone administrator for Mexico:
"He [Elder AlvarezT has a blend of sensitivity for people combined with a vision of leadership. He has an uncommon administrative ability to rally the people to see the vision accomplished. He was very instrumental when we moved from home study to early morning seminaries in Mexico."
He said Elder Alvarez also helped establish and build up LDS institutes at the major universities of Mexico.
"The strength of his leadership is that he models excellence in gospel teachings," said Brother Tyler. "Under his direction these institutes have really flourished. He's also sound in the doctrine and an excellent example of quality instruction."
Brother Tyler noted that when he and the new General Authority traveled in Mexico, wherever they went, people recognized and spoke with Brother Alvarez. "They remembered his influence while he was CES coordinator, regional representative or as mission president," Brother Tyler said.
As a regional representative, Elder Alvarez often traveled into Nicaragua to help nurture the members there during troubled years of that nation.
Elder Alvarez was born in 1944 to Lino and Margarita Alvarez in the town of Arteaga in the Mexican state of Coahuila. Coahuila lies adjacent to Texas beneath the Pecos River.
Young Lino's first contact with the Church came when he was 12. Missionaries came by knocking on doors.
They asked to speak to Lino's father, who was not home. So Lino's mother invited the missionaries to return. They began teaching the family the missionary lessons.
"At first our family was not interested," recalled Elder Alvarez. "But the missionaries were very capable, and they persisted in teaching the lessons."
The Alvarez family attended meetings at the tiny branch in nearby Saltillo, and soon became regular attenders.
"Our parents," he said, "wanted to dignify our attendance by baptism. Three sons, including myself, were baptized first, and our parents about a month later.
"At first the branch was very small," he related. "There are two stakes in Saltillo now."
Young Lino attended and graduated from a teachers school as an elementary school teacher. He began teaching in a Church school in Piedras Negras, near the Texas border, in 1963. There he met his wife-to-be, Argelia. Soon, however, his career was interrupted by a mission call to the West Mexican Mission from 1965 to 1967. While he was away on a mission, Argelia was also called and she filled a full-time mission in Mexico as well.
His most important mission field convert, he said, was himself. During his mission his testimony and commitment became much deeper.
"I felt very strong about the gospel and I worked hard," he related. He and his companion were stationed in the west coastal state of Sinaloa in a town called Escuinapa. "We taught many lessons and we placed many copies of the Book of Mormon, but we had very few converts. After my mission I felt a little sad that we had not baptized more people."
But later, while he was teaching at Benemerito, the Church's school in Mexico City, a young man came from Sinaloa. He told the former missionary that there was now a branch of 50 members in Escuinapa, and the branch was progressing very well.
"When missionaries came a year later, the people remembered their first experiences with the gospel," said Elder Alvarez. "We realized that my companion and I had planted the seeds."
He and Argelia were married Oct. 16, 1967, in the Arizona Temple. He went back to school and received a bachelor's degree and resumed working for the Church Educational System. He began as an elementary school teacher, then became school director. Later, he was sent to Chile where he worked in Church schools for nearly five years. After his return to Mexico, he taught at a primary school in Mexico City until it was closed. At that time, he was called as president of the Mexico City South Mission. He has been the CES director for Mexico since 1986.
Members in Mexico are stalwart in the gospel, he said.
"When President Benson emphasized reading the Book of Mormon, the saints in Mexico began reading the book more. The Book of Mormon is the best missionary tool we have, and it changes lives when it is read sincerely.
"One thing we do not lack in Mexico is strength and unity. The Church has grown very rapidly at its centers of strength. Where there was one stake, now there are two, three or four stakes.
"The future of the Church in Mexico will be extraordinary. I don't think anyone can guess how much the Church will develop throughout the world in the last days."
*****
(Additional information)
Elder Lino Alvarez Vasquez
- Family: Born in Arteaga, Couhuila, Mexico, on July 18, 1944, to Lino and Margarita Vasquez Alvarez. Married Argelia de Villanueva in the Arizona Temple on Oct. 16, 1967. Parents of a daughter and two sons: Margarita, just called to the California Ventura Mission; Lino Alberto, serving in the Utah Ogden Mission; Jose David, completing military obligation prior to serving mission in 1993.
- Education: Elementary education certificate from Saltillo Normal School; bachelor's degree in education from Superior School of Mexico City.
- Employment: Church Educational System coordinator for Mexico; teacher and director at various Church schools in Mexico and Chile, including Benemerito, the Church preparatory school in Mexico City.
- Church service: Serving as Young Men president in the Benemerito 6th Ward, former regional representative, mission president, patriarch, stake president's counselor twice, bishop, branch president, and district president in Chile.