Juan Pablo Villar
Juan Pablo Villar was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on March 31, 2018. At the time of his call, he had been serving as a member of the Seventh Quorum of the Seventy in the South America South Area.
Villar was born on September 11, 1969, in Valparaiso, Chile. He received a bachelor’s degree in social communications and public relations in 1994 and a master’s degree in marketing in 2002. He also obtained a master of business administration from Brigham Young University in 2007. He has filled commercial and marketing positions in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. He also worked in the mining industry running business improvement programs in Latin America, and most recently working as a senior manager.
The Church News shared the circumstances of his conversion and baptism:
- Elder Juan Pablo Villar’s introduction to the Church came in Santiago, Chile, when his eldest brother, Ivan, announced to the family that he had been baptized without his parents’ permission and later said he planned to serve a mission. When asked why, Ivan shared his testimony and desire to serve.
- “I didn’t understand all the meaning of that,” recalled Elder Villar, then age 17. “But at that moment, he put a seed in my heart.”That seed was given a chance to grow when his brother referred him to the missionaries. During his first lesson, Elder Villar received his own testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.
- “For myself, it was not necessary to kneel down and pray, because the moment they shared their testimony, I knew in my heart it was true,” he said. “When I knew that, everything else had to be true.”
- Ivan, serving in a neighboring mission, received permission to baptize Elder Villar in 1988. Later, his mother and his other brother, Claudio, also joined the Church.
- A year after his baptism, Elder Villar began serving in the Chile Viña del Mar Mission.[1]
Villar and his wife, Carola Cristina Barrios Villar, are the parents of three children. The Church announced in January 2021 that Villar was called to preside over the Spain Barcelona Mission beginning in July 2021.
