New Seventy Testifies of Learning of the Power of the Savior’s Atonement

This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

By David Shneider, Church News

Elder Brik V. Eyre learned a little Portuguese from a relative after receiving his mission call and assignment to the Brazil São Paulo South Mission, and then he spent two months in the Provo Missionary Training Center studying the language.

But because of visa difficulties with Brazil at the time, Elder Eyre’s assignment was changed to the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission. On June 15, 1983, two months and one day after entering the Provo MTC to learn Portuguese, he was headed to Spanish-speaking Guatemala.

“I knew almost zero Spanish, and I remember writing in my journal: ‘I’m praying in Portuguese, God answers in English, and everybody here speaks Spanish. I’m in a lot of trouble.’

“I was in Zone 18 in Guatemala City, and literally nobody spoke English at all. My companion was a native Spanish speaker, for which I’m very grateful.”

Elder Eyre remembers going into a bathroom, getting on his knees and praying, “I can’t do this.”

He recalls: “That’s when I began to understand the enabling and strengthening power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. And that quiet reassurance: ‘This is my work. Just do all you can, and find joy in the work.’ That began my process.”

While still in his first area, Elder Eyre was bearing his testimony — “in beginner Spanish” — and realized that he knew that he knew. Like the Prophet Joseph declared, “I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it” (see Joseph Smith — History 1:25).

Elder Eyre said, “Those two places, that bathroom and then that little house in Guatemala City, where I knew that I knew, changed everything for me.”

Download Photo

Forty-two years later, Elder Eyre is a newly sustained General Authority Seventy, called by President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, in January and one of 16 new General Authorities sustained during April 2025 general conference. He begins his first area assignment August 1, in Mexico City, Mexico, as Second Counselor in the Mexico Area Presidency.

At the time of his call, Elder Eyre was serving as an Area Seventy in the Utah Area. The Eyres were living in the Park City, Utah, area.

Growing Up and Young Adulthood

Brik Vern Eyre was born January 17, 1964, in Logan, Utah, to Vern Bingham Eyre and Emma Rae Anderson Eyre; he has five older sisters. He has ancestors among early members of the Church. He grew up in Logan.

When he was 14 he felt that he would go on a mission, so he decided he needed to understand the gospel. “So, I began a study of the Book of Mormon, not a great study, but began reading the Book of Mormon, and I felt reassurance. I just always knew that I wanted to serve a mission.”

He said he also knew he wanted to be married in the temple. “I watched my parents’ marriage and the goodness of them, and the strength of their marriage.”

Elder Eyre was planning on being a dentist, like his father. But two years into a biology major, he recalled: “One day I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do, and it shook me up a little bit. … So I started looking at other things, and I took a couple of introduction-to-business classes and loved it and realized that my mind kind of works that way.”

Marriage and Family

Brik Eyre and Susan Rahimzadeh met November 10, 1985, after a Utah State University dance.

They dated for a year and a half, and then the Eyres were married in the Logan Utah Temple on June 27, 1987.

Sister Eyre says of her husband: “Brik handles everything so well; he’s gentle, kind, loving and very funny. … People he has worked with would tell me remarkable things about him and how he never compromises integrity.”

Elder Eyre says of his wife: “I just love being with her. We have so much fun. She has just an incredible sense of humor. … She lives charity and Christlike love that is evident to everybody she interacts with. It’s a remarkable thing.”

The Eyres have three daughters and two sons, ages 35 to 24, and six grandchildren.

Career

Download Photo

Both Eyres graduated from Utah State University in 1988 and then moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Elder Eyre worked and also earned his MBA. They’ve lived in Southlake, Texas; Claremont, California; and three times in Libertyville, Illinois, a far-north suburb of Chicago. In Libertyville, Elder Eyre served as Buffalo Grove Illinois Stake president, until the Eyres’ call as Arizona Phoenix Mission leaders.

Elder Eyre’s career was in medical products. “I just fell in love with business, but I still loved healthcare. And so I went into the business side of healthcare.”

He worked for Baxter International, Allegiance Healthcare, Cardinal Health and then back to Baxter, where he was senior vice president and president of the company’s Americas region. Most recently, he was a board member of HemaSource, a medical distribution company.

Mission Leaders

The Eyres were mission leaders in the Arizona Phoenix Mission from 2020 to 2023.

Elder Eyre describes the experience of being mission president as “unbelievable.” A couple of the reasons:

• He served alongside his wife: “It is a wonderful and unique calling. You are equally yoked with your companion, and so you serve side by side every day.”
• They served with almost 800 full-time missionaries — “It is an incredible blessing to spend every day with authorized representatives of Jesus Christ for three years,” Elder Eyre said.
  Sister Eyre said: “I can’t even describe how much I love our missionaries. They are amazing. I loved them on their missions, and I have loved continuing the relationship with them postmission.”

The Eyres began serving as mission leaders during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many American missionaries whose original calls had international mission assignments were given domestic assignments. “I had all those wonderful missionaries who were temporarily assigned,” Elder Eyre said. “Some struggled with not being in their original assignment. I was able to tell them, ‘I actually understand having a change with mission assignments.’ I was grateful that I could relate and hopefully help them through that change.”

Newsroom First Presidency Announces 2025-2026 Area Leadership Assignments

Sister Eyre

Susan Zari Rahimzadeh was born October 14, 1966, in Salt Lake City to Mohamad Bagher Rahimzadeh and Arthea Cottam Rahimzadeh. She has two older brothers.

Her parents met in St. George, Utah, at what was then Dixie Junior College — now Utah Tech University.

Sister Eyre’s mother was a St. George resident and a descendant of early Latter-day Saint pioneers.

Sister Eyre’s father was in the United States, away from his devoutly Muslim family in Iran, to attend college and then was supposed to return to Iran for an arranged marriage.

“You can imagine St. George, Utah, in the late 1950s,” Sister Eyre said. “My mom’s family wasn’t really happy that my mom was dating my dad, and my dad’s family wasn’t happy because my dad obviously did not go back to Iran.”

After their marriage, the Rahimzadehs settled in Salt Lake City. Mohamad Rahimzadeh went from living with his family in Iran with no financial stress to starting a janitorial company and then working the night shift in the parts department of a large trucking company.

Sister Eyre recounts that it was in her Iranian grandparents that she saw religious observance, such as in the car driving to Disneyland. “They were devout Muslims; they pray five times a day. So we’d stop on I-15 at a rest stop, and my grandparents would be in full prayer. … And then at Disneyland, they would find a quiet spot to pray.”

Although her parents and siblings usually did not attend church, young Susan did. “The blessing of living in Salt Lake was the church was just down the street. And so I would often walk to church by myself, from the time I was probably 7 years old.”

She had Primary teachers and Young Women leaders who loved her. One was Rosemary M. Wixom, who later served as the Church’s Primary General President from 2010 to 2016.

Sister Wixom “didn’t care that I smelled like my father’s cigarettes, or that my family was inactive. … She just loved me. And I could feel her love.

“There are so many people just like me. They’re in the gospel fully committed because of one leader … a Primary teacher, a bishop, a Young Women leader, someone who’s loved them on their journey to come unto Christ.”

Sister Eyre has served as ward Young Women president, ward Relief Society presidency counselor, early morning seminary teacher, Sunday School teacher, Relief Society teacher and Primary teacher.

She earned a bachelor’s degree from Utah State University in English and history.

Church News Find out more about the Church’s 16 new General Authority Seventies

About Elder Brik V. Eyre

Family: Brik Vern Eyre was born January 17, 1964, in Logan, Utah, to Vern Bingham Eyre and Emma Rae Anderson Eyre; he has five older sisters. He married Susan Zari Rahimzadeh in the Logan Utah Temple on June 27, 1987. They have five adult children and six grandchildren.

Education: Associate degree from Snow College, bachelor’s degree in finance from Utah State University and Master of Business Administration from University of Tulsa.

Employment: Worked in the medical products industry, including for Baxter International as senior vice president and president of the Americas, and most recently as a HemaSource board member.

Church service: Area Seventy, Arizona Phoenix Mission president (2020-23), stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, bishop, Young Men president, early morning seminary teacher, missionary in the Guatemala Guatemala City Mission.