‘God Talks to His Children,’ New Seventy Elder Ozani Farias Testifies

Elder Ozani Barboza Marques Farias and his wife, Giovanna, grew up in different spiritual and family circumstances from one another.

Elder Farias grew up with a single mother in Recife, Brazil. They lived with his grandparents until he was 12. He met the missionaries when he was a teenager and was baptized at age 16. Sister Farias was baptized in Recife at age 8 and comes from a multigenerational pioneer family in the Church that includes being the granddaughter of the first Relief Society president in that city.

While their upbringings were different from each other, the two were united in their love of the gospel and have built each other up in their more than 30 years of marriage.

They recognize the beginnings of their lives were different, but they also say the gospel of Jesus Christ both brought them together and keeps them together.

Missionary Promise

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“The gospel changed my life,” Elder Farias said as he spoke about meeting the missionaries and beginning his conversion.

Once committed to the Church, Elder Farias knew he wanted to serve a mission and did so at age 19 when he was called to serve in the Brazil São Paulo South Mission. There he both taught others and matured in his own gospel understanding.

Fifteen months into his mission, Elder Farias’ second mission president, President Stanley Neeleman, assigned Elder Farias to serve as an assistant to the president and to help prepare the mission to be divided with the creation of the Brazil São Paulo Interlagos Mission. The assignment saddened Elder Farias because he loved serving under the leadership of President Neeleman. Seeing the sadness of his newly called assistant, President Neeleman spoke with Elder Farias and taught him from the scriptures. As they finished counseling with each other, President Neeleman told Elder Farias, “The Church needs you.”

The mission president also told Elder Farias that this opportunity was preparatory for future callings. President Neeleman told Elder Farias he would one day serve in a capacity that helped other Church leaders. Elder Farias was grateful for his mission president’s counsel and never forgot what he was told in that conversation. He had a wonderful experience serving with the new mission president in their newly created mission.

With each calling that he accepted, he wondered if it was the one his mission president had referred to. In part, that counsel helped him always strive to please the Lord in fulfilling whatever he was asked to do.

“We need good leaders who help us make good decisions,” Elder Farias said. “Those who have [priesthood] keys, we need to trust them.”

The trust he showed in his leaders and in the Holy Ghost has guided him in the decades that followed his missionary service.

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Grandma the Matchmaker

Following his mission, Elder Farias returned to Recife, where he would eventually meet Sister Farias.

Growing up, Sister Farias went to church because of her mom, she said. But she didn’t really start to study the gospel of Jesus Christ until she was in seminary. At age 16, she read Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9, where the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation for Oliver Cowdery.

Listen to this related Church News podcast Episode 237: Get to know the newest General Authority Seventies through their testimonies

Having read the counsel given to Oliver Cowdery, she hoped to feel something recognizable from the Holy Ghost.

“I felt the exact things described by the scriptures. I felt a strong warmth in my chest. I felt God’s love so strong for me. It was a confirmation for me that the gospel is true because I felt the power of God reveal it to me. Then I started to study more and more and more to gain more knowledge about Jesus Christ and the atoning sacrifice He did for me.”

Her desire to study the gospel soon turned into an opportunity to teach what she was learning.

“When seminary ended, I was called to be the teacher at 17 years of age,” Sister Farias said.

And a few years after that, she was called to teach institute, where she met a recently returned missionary, Elder Farias. Like seminary in many parts of the world, Sister Farias’ institute class was taught early in the morning. In this case, it was at 6:30 a.m.

Elder Farias went to the temple and received a strong impression that he should marry his institute teacher.

Sister Farias’ grandmother, Carminha de Medeiros, had encouraged her to go out with a returned missionary she had met in São Paulo. While serving in the São Paulo Brazil Temple at the time of Elder Farias’ mission, she interacted with him various times.

After a short courtship, Elder and Sister Farias were married. Now, more than three decades later, the two have a beautiful family with three children of their own.

“God always goes first,” Elder Farias said. “Serve Him first. We have seen big blessings from doing this.”

Following the promptings of the Holy Ghost has never led him and his wife astray, he said.

“I have learned the power of personal revelation. God talks to His children,” he said. “And God has a plan for each individual.”

Promise Fulfilled

The promise made to Elder Farias by his mission president has always stuck with him. He didn’t feel it was fulfilled until one day in April 2025 when he was walking on Temple Square.

Upon arriving in Salt Lake City for training as a new General Authority Seventy, Elder Farias was walking in front of the Church Administration Building.

“Who was the first person who came walking in our direction?” Elder Farias asked, recalling the moment. “President Stanley Neeleman. Do you think that’s a coincidence? I don’t think so.”

He embraced his former mission president, who had no idea why Elder Farias was in Salt Lake City. And Elder Farias couldn’t yet share the news of his new calling. But Elder Farias said he finally felt that the inspired words of his mission president were coming true.

“This is why we loved our missionaries,” he said, speaking of the hundreds of missionaries he presided over while serving as president of the Georgia Atlanta Mission. “I do everything I can for them because my mission changed my life.”

Elder Farias said that he asked himself many times after receiving the call to serve as a General Authority Seventy, “Why did God call me?

Knowing that he and others were feeling the same way, President Jeffrey R. Holland, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, counseled some of the newly called General Authority Seventies to pray about their call until they knew it came from Heavenly Father.

“President Holland said something wonderful. He said, ‘You have to pray to know why you are here,’ and he was bold,” Elder Farias recounted.

Elder Farias said he prayed and felt the familiar comfort of the Holy Ghost that he has come to know throughout his life. He said he knows now that he is in the place where Heavenly Father needs him to be to continue serving Him.

Sister Farias served for five years in the temple in São Paulo. She said that serving there taught her an important lesson about what happens to those who are regularly in holy places.

“When we work in the house of the Lord, we become much more sensitive to the Spirit — because you feel more of God’s love, you receive more revelation from Him,” she said. “If people understood how much God can reveal to them there, they would go much more often to the temple.”

Elder Farias said time in the temple has helped them in every circumstance of life.

“That is how we have learned to put God first. He has to be first in every decision. Let God come first,” he said.

About Elder Ozani Farias

Family: Ozani Barboza Marques Farias was born in Recife, Brazil, on October 19, 1969, to parents José Osanã Farias and Severina Barbosa Marques. He was sealed to his wife, Giovanna de Medeiros Prata Farias, in the São Paulo Brazil Temple on January 18, 1994. They have three children.

Education: He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Catholic University of Pernambuco, a postgraduate degree in finance from Pernambuco University and an MBA from the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

Employment: He has worked for the Church for most of his career in positions including financial manager, human resources manager and most recently as the director of temporal affairs for the Brazil Area.

Church service: Elder Farias was serving as Georgia Atlanta Mission president at the time of his call to be a General Authority Seventy. He has also served as a stake presidency counselor, high councilor, stake clerk, bishop, bishopric counselor and Primary teacher.