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From LDS Church News:
Brian Loyal Pfile, 56, Colorado Colorado Springs Mission; Belt Branch, Great Falls Montana East Stake; branch president; former stake president and counselor, bishop, high councilor, high priest group leader and stake mission president. Sales representative and manager, Chemsearch. Born in Milwaukee, Wisc., to Donald Miles and Joann Frances Awve Pfile. Married Sylda Rae Eitel, eight children.
A youth Sunday School teacher, Sister Pfile is a former ward Relief Society, Young Women and Primary president, counselor in a stake Relief Society presidency and ward pianist. Born in Ann Arbor, Mich., to Butler Ray and Priscilla Jean Gilbertson Eitel.
From "Crossing the Divide", Ensign, June, 1993
Keeping abreast of the stake’s activation efforts is one of stake president Brian L. Pfile’s fortes. In stake high council meetings, his characteristic geniality disappears while he focuses all his faculties on discussions of activation. All present are moved by his deep concern for the less active and the sense of urgency he instills in high councilors at every turn of discussion—when he reviews stake activation goals, issues challenges, hears reports, asks probing questions, role-plays encounters with less actives, testifies, and receives inspiration.
“He’s a very intense, animated, high-energy person,” says John M. Barger, a counselor to President Pfile. “It’s not unusual for him to remain standing during our meetings. He’s a stickler for details, yet he’s the most people-oriented person I’ve ever worked with. There’s never any question of his love.”
Activated members heartily agree, even those with whom President Pfile, in personal interviews with them, had to take a hard line. One brother so appreciated that loving firmness that he could hardly bear to wait for his next appointment. In another interview, the president’s inspired, forthright words touched a member in ways he’ll never forget. “I felt almost as if the Lord was talking to me. There was no question in my mind what I needed to do,” the brother recalls.
A clue to President Pfile’s approach is written on the chalkboard in the stake high council room: Alma 4:19. The watchword recalls Alma’s reliance on devotion to the ministry and on the power of “pure testimony” as means of reclaiming his erring people. Bold? Not for President Pfile. “He believes that when he’s on the Lord’s errand, he may speak on His behalf,” President Barger says, adding that such an exercise of faith is “incredibly motivating” for less-active members. |
