Mark and Laura Willes spoke at the Fall President’s Forum at BYU-Idaho last Thursday.
Mark had a chief executive role at the multi-billion-dollar company General Mills and has been in leadership roles at federal reserve banks in Philadelphia and Minneapolis. Laura is an accomplished author who has written several books on topics related to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and some of her works include “Minnesota Mormons: A History of the Minnesota Stake” and “Bushels of Blessings,” among others. She also has work published in editions of “The Friend” magazine.
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, they highlighted how they’ve kept on the gospel path, despite having many responsibilities, both in their respective careers and within the Church of Jesus Christ.
“It was a lot of stress, I’ll have to admit that,” Mark said. “You have a promise that if you keep the commandments and do all you can to live close to the Savior, He will help you. On many occasions I felt like I was in over my head, but I would appeal to heaven for help and work as hard as I could, and somehow, we managed to get through.”
Laura wasn’t aware of her love for writing until she finally had the right mix of an unexpected church calling, a natural curiosity for history of the Minneapolis stake, and a “very persuasive husband.”
“Mark was called as stake president, and I said to him, ‘You need to call a stake historian to write the history of this stake. It is so interesting,’” Laura said. “He said to me, ‘I’m going to call you to be the stake historian.’ It was the beginning.”
In Laura’s talk titled “A Story of Light,” she shared how she was inspired by a farming family getting electric lights on their farm for the first time in the 1940s.
“I was just thrilled with the reaction of the family to this opportunity to get electric lights and what more light meant in their lives,” Laura said. “I saw immediately a connection to the gospel.”
For Mark, his talk is titled “Better Questions Lead to Better Answers,” and he concluded his message in a profound way.
“I’m going to conclude my talk today by saying, the most important question any of us asks, which is, ‘Who am I?’, Mark said. “For me, the answer to that is, ‘I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.’”
To listen to their forum talks, click here.