“Elder Weatherford T. Clayton,” Liahona, May 2016, 132
Elder Weatherford T. Clayton
General Authority Seventy
Elder Weatherford T. Clayton is extremely grateful for the opportunity to serve. The work of the Lord is a priority for him. He feels a great love for people and strong ties to his family.
“With the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can all gather home,” says Elder Clayton. “My family has felt the influence of those who have gone before. They are as real as those who are present.”
Born in California, USA, on March 1, 1952, to Whitney Clayton Jr. and Elizabeth Touchstone Clayton, Elder Clayton gained a strong testimony in his youth of home teaching. Because of the efforts of a home teacher, he, at age 12, and his family accepted sacred gospel covenants and were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1964 by then-Elder Harold B. Lee of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.
Thinking about ways the Lord prepared him to serve, Elder Clayton says he was often inspired by the example of others: “I watched how friends and family dedicated their lives to the Lord and found their joy in the service they offered to God.”
After serving in the French Canadian Mission, he enrolled at the University of Utah, where he met Lisa Thomas. They were married on March 16, 1976, in the Salt Lake Temple. They are the parents of five children.
Elder Clayton earned a degree in psychology and completed medical school at the University of Utah. He worked in a private medical practice as an obstetrician-gynecologist from 1985 to 2013, prior to his call to serve as president of the Canada Toronto Mission.
He has served as ward mission leader, Gospel Doctrine teacher, Young Men president, family history consultant, youth Sunday School teacher, bishop, high councilor, counselor in a stake presidency, and stake president.