“Elder D. Rex Gerratt Of the Seventy,” Ensign, Nov. 2002, 122
Elder D. Rex Gerratt
Of the Seventy
Elder D. Rex Gerratt was sustained on 5 October 2002 as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. “I have never been given a calling I felt adequate to do, but I know that whom the Lord calls, the Lord prepares and helps,” says Elder Gerratt, a soft-spoken crop and dairy farmer from Idaho. “As I have accepted each call in my life, I have pleaded with Heavenly Father to help me be effective in His hands.”
Elder Gerratt was born in Heyburn, Idaho, on 9 April 1936 to Donald Wayne and Ann Bailey Gerratt. He grew up in nearby Burley, farming with his father and brother. He married his childhood friend, Marjorie Crane, in the Idaho Falls Idaho Temple in 1955. They have 9 children and 35 grandchildren.
“I can remember many mornings when our children and I would sit on the back porch with our family dog, putting on our boots to do our dairy chores,” recalls Elder Gerratt. “Sister Gerratt and I are, of course, concerned for our children, but we have great confidence in them because they all know how to work hard and they have testimonies of the gospel.”
Hard work in his profession and his community has brought Elder Gerratt honors such as induction into the Idaho Dairy Hall of Fame and the Southeastern Idaho Livestock Hall of Fame. He was also named Conservation Farmer of the Year.
His callings in the Church have included Area Authority Seventy, mission president, regional representative, stake president, stake clerk, bishop, ward clerk, and home teacher. These callings have helped teach him gratitude and humility.
“When we realize the many blessings we receive from our Heavenly Father and that we are indeed led by His living prophet,” says Elder Gerratt, “we ought to be very grateful and committed to do our very best at whatever we are asked to do in His Church.”