Elder John Groberg

Elder John H Groberg (born June 17, 1934) was a General Authority Seventy from 1976 to 2005, and in 2005 was designated as an emeritus general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Groberg was born to Delbert V. and Jennie Groberg in Idaho Falls, Idaho in 1934. He grew up in Idaho Falls during and after the Great Depression. Elder Groberg received a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University (BYU) and an MBA from Indiana University. Elder Groberg served as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tonga. He experienced much difficulty in getting to Tonga: he was prevented from arriving by strikes, visa problems, and transport issues. Elder Groberg served briefly in Los Angeles, Samoa, and Fiji while waiting for his transport to be finalized. When he finally arrived in Tonga, his first assignment was on the remote island of Niuatoputapu, which had had only limited contact with the outside world in the form of an occasional telegraph and a visiting boat. During the year he spent on the island, Elder Groberg suffered from mosquitoes, a typhoon, and starvation. His missionary companion on Niuatoputapu was Feki Po'uha, who would later serve as district president in Niue, while Elder Groberg was president of the church's Tongan Mission (which at that point included Niue). After a year on Niuatoputapu, Elder Groberg was assigned to more developed islands and served as a district president supervising smaller branch congregations of the church. Elder Groberg later reported that the branches he dealt with lacked unity and morality. He had little contact with his supervising mission president and nearly drowned when pushed out of a boat during a major storm; he also suffered from exhaustion frequently. Elder Groberg was denied an extension to his mission that would have allowed him to accompany a group of church converts to the New Zealand Temple. Elder Groberg wrote a book about his mission from his memoirs called In the Eye of the Storm, which was adapted into the 2001 Disney film The Other Side of Heaven. A sequel to the film, The Other Side of Heaven 2: Fire of Faith, was made in 2018. Elder Groberg married Jean Sabin and they have 11 children.