New Seventy Elder B. Corey Cuvelier Believes in Answering When the Lord Calls

When Elder B. Corey Cuvelier announced he was leaving his job to become a mission president for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his colleagues asked, “Are you crazy?”

Elder Cuvelier was achieving professional success as an executive at Shell Oil Co. He recalls many of his coworkers struggling to understand why he would step away from his flourishing career for three years. “Why would you do something like this?” they asked. “Here you are, you have everything going for you professionally. Why would you give this up?”

But those questions were opportunities, Elder Cuvelier said, “to share why we do what we do and why we believe what we believe and in whom we believe. That’s Jesus Christ.”

It’s the same attitude he’s carrying into his new role as a General Authority Seventy. Elder Cuvelier was sustained April 5 during general conference, along with 15 other new General Authority Seventies, a new member of the Presidency of the Seventy and a new Young Men General Presidency.

“When you’re called to do something that has eternal consequences, you go do it,” he said.

Testimony-Shaping Experiences

Brian Corey Cuvelier was born January 12, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, where he was adopted and raised. His father, Heinz Joachim Cuvelier, was a police officer; his mother, JoAnn Leslie Jarnecke Cuvelier, kept the home. He is the oldest of four children.

Elder Cuvelier shared that his parents were unable to have children for about five years before they adopted him when he was 6 weeks old. Shortly after his adoption, his mother became pregnant with the first of his three sisters.

“I think it just goes to show that God is in the details,” Elder Cuvelier said of his parents’ experience.

He recalled his childhood in a diverse community, where he made friends among families on his street from Mexico, China, Italy, Armenia and England. Appreciating and learning from other cultures created a strong neighborhood, he said, amidst a strong Latter-day Saint presence.

“So it was really an idyllic situation for us, where you combine the diversity of the community with the strength of the Church,” Elder Cuvelier said.

Photo

He said he can’t point to a distinct childhood event that shaped his testimony; rather, he experienced a series of confirmations in the years leading up to his mission.

It was during his time as a young missionary that Elder Cuvelier had two “singular” experiences that solidified his testimony.

The first was while he was in the Provo Missionary Training Center and sang “I Know That My Redeemer Lives” with a group of other missionaries. “I couldn’t get through the hymn, because it was just that powerful confirmation that, yes, He lives, He’s real.”

The second came while serving in his first area of the Brazil São Paulo South Mission, during a lesson with a family in “very humble” circumstances. Despite his limited Portuguese, a young Elder Cuvelier bore his witness of Joseph Smith’s First Vision.

The Spirit was so powerful, it was like time had been frozen, Elder Cuvelier said.

“As we left that home, we didn’t say a word. We couldn’t speak,” he recalled. “We just walked for probably 30 minutes without saying a word, because it was just one of those moments that we knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet.”

Three-plus decades after his mission, Elder Cuvelier can look back and see the ways that his experiences in Brazil shaped his testimony for years to come.

He’s also seen some of the fruits of his labors there. For instance, on Christmas Day 1988, Elder Cuvelier baptized a woman named Selma who was later sealed to her husband in the temple. After she ed away, one of Selma’s sons reached out to him over social media. The son was then serving a mission himself.

“He thanked me for teaching his mother, for helping reactivate his father, and said, ‘Let me show you some pictures of the fruit of your decision,’” Elder Cuvelier recounted. “I opened up these pictures, and they were pictures of him as a missionary in the waters of baptism with dozens of people whom he had taught and baptized.”

Selma’s son is now home from his mission and raising his own family in the Church, Elder Cuvelier said. And of the people Selma’s son baptized, many of their children are now serving missions all over the world, from Japan to England to the United States to Mexico to Brazil.

“I never would have thought, in 1988 on Christmas Day, to see what could happen and how generations could be impacted. … This ripple effect becomes this huge wave across the entire globe from one singular event,” Elder Cuvelier said.

Listen to this related Church News podcast. Episode 237: Get to know the newest General Authority Seventies through their testimonies

Following his mission, Elder Cuvelier attended Brigham Young University, where he met Wendi Sue Manwaring, another student from California.

It wasn’t exactly love at first sight — they were in the same ward, but their paths didn’t cross much. He often missed home evening activities due to BYU soccer team commitments, and she thought he “looked like he was 16 years old.”

One day, while walking across campus, Wendi Manwaring and a friend ran into him. As the group chatted, she looked at him and thought, “‘So he plays on the soccer team. He doesn’t go to family home evening. He probably didn’t serve a mission.’ I just totally blew him off.”

Then he began speaking enthusiastically and openly about how much he loved his mission experiences.

“And all of a sudden, I looked at him and I [thought], ‘You are so good looking,’” Sister Cuvelier recounted.

The Cuveliers became friends and began spending more time together in casual group settings. Dating didn’t happen right away — Sister Cuvelier said she initially “pursued him a little more than he pursued me.”

But it was while driving home together with other friends for Christmas that he realized that he wanted to spend more time with her. “I thought, ‘I think I really like this girl,’ and it just kind of hit me [like] a ton of bricks.”

From there, the their relationship blossomed, leading to their engagement a year later. They were married in the Los Angeles California Temple on July 18, 1992, and are the parents of four sons. Currently, they live in Katy, Texas.

A ‘Go and Do’ Attitude

Elder Cuvelier finished his education and graduated from BYU in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations. He used those skills to enter the business world and ed Shell Oil Co. in 1996, where he worked across various North America business units.

That’s where he was working when, years later, the call came to serve as president of the Brazil Curitiba South Mission. As he and Sister Cuvelier prepared to leave, the door opened for “many” conversations with colleagues about the Church that previously hadn’t been possible in a secular setting.

“I had made a covenant when I was 19 years old that whenever the Lord called and wherever He asked me to go, I would go,” Elder Cuvelier said.

Sister Cuvelier added that she and Elder Cuvelier have seen the Lord’s hand in their lives in many ways throughout the years. “With all the Lord had given us and with all that He had shown us, it was not a hard decision to [go]. … He knows better than we know. We will follow what He wants us to do.”

The Cuveliers served from 2016 to 2019. Three of their boys came with them, while the fourth was already out on his own mission.

Elder Cuvelier said it was a special experience returning to the country where he served as a young missionary. “We follow Jesus Christ. We preach of Jesus Christ. We love Jesus Christ. … The message becomes much simpler than it did perhaps when I was a young missionary.”

Sister Cuvelier said she learned so much from the missionaries and from the Brazilian people. No matter their economic situations, they thrived spiritually because their lives were centered on Jesus Christ, she said. “They knew what brought real happiness and joy.”

‘He is Our Redeemer’

Besides his missionary service, Elder Cuvelier has also served as an Area Seventy in the North America Southwest Area, stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, bishop, bishopric counselor and ward Young Men president.

Throughout all his experiences, he’s come to know that God is the Father, that He and the Son appeared to Joseph Smith, that Christ restored His Church on the earth and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Most importantly, he’s come to know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

“He is our Redeemer,” Elder Cuvelier testified. “He is our Friend and our Advocate with the Father, who makes it possible for us to return to His presence.”

About Elder B. Corey Cuvelier

Family: Brian Corey Cuvelier was born January 12, 1969, in Los Angeles, California, where he was adopted and raised. Son of Heinz Joachim Cuvelier and JoAnn Leslie Jarnecke Cuvelier. Married Wendi Sue Manwaring on July 18, 1992, in the Los Angeles California Temple; they are the parents of four sons.

Education: Graduated from Brigham Young University in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in public relations.

Employment: ed Shell Oil Co. in 1996, where he has worked across various North America business units and as a director and officer on several boards.

Church service: Area Seventy in the North America Southwest Area, president of the Brazil Curitiba South Mission, stake president, stake presidency counselor, high councilor, bishop, bishopric counselor and ward Young Men president.