Meet New Africa Central Area Second Counselor Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier and Sister Isabelle Giraud-Carrier

In January of 2023, Christophe G. and Isabelle Giraud-Carrier were invited to meet with President Russell M. Nelson in his office.  During this meeting, Christophe was called to serve as a General Authority Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints commencing the following April.  This calling from the prophet to full-time church service, and their acceptance, was consistent with their lives of faith, devotion, service, and testimony.

Christophe and Isabelle are both from France and are the children of converts to the Church with similar conversion stories.  In 1968, while living in Bordeaux France, a door-to-door carpet salesman came to the Mauclair’s home - Sister Giraud-Carrier is a Mauclair.  The carpet salesman was invited in and told his story.  That same day, two missionaries from the Church knocked on the door.  They too were invited in and told their story.  The two door-to-door visits resulted in the Mauclair’s purchasing new carpet and joining Heavenly Father’s kingdom on earth.  The parents of future Presiding Bishop Gerald Caussé fellowshipped the Mauclairs while they were taking the missionary discussions.  Isabelle was one year old when her parents joined the Church, and she is the second of five Mauclair children. Isabelle’s paternal grandmother also joined the Church, following her son and his family.  Shortly before leaving mortality in 1981, she asked her family to go to the temple for her and other Mauclairs that are beyond the veil.  This request was joyfully followed.

Christophe was born January 21, 1966, the first of seven children born to Gérard and Annie Giraud-Carrier.   When he was two years old, his parents met two missionaries on the streets near Toulouse, France.  The Giraud-Carrier’s gave the missionaries their phone number, but the missionaries misplaced it and never called. Later, other missionaries serving in the area found the phone number and reached out to the Giraud-Carriers.  Shortly after connecting with the new missionaries, the Giraud-Carrier’s were baptised and confirmed.

Both couples were devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ teaching, their children, and serving wherever they were called.  The Mauclairs and the Giraud-Carriers served in significant ways, including in branch and ward leadership, as well as in district and stake leadership callings.  Isabelle’s father was a physician in the French armed forces which gave him opportunities to serve in foreign lands.  Consequently, several of Isabelle’s childhood years were spent in Djibouti, New Caledonia, and Algeria.  In some of thse countries, the Church was not established, so worship and gospel living were family-centered without a supporting church organization.  Family prayer and family scripture study were regular practices in the home, as were sacrament meetings each week including administration of the sacrament, which was approved by far away priesthood leaders. 

In the late 1970s, the Mauclairs moved back to metropolitan France, first to Auch (pronounced Osh) near Toulouse.  In 1978, they moved to the Versailles ward, where the Mauclair and Giraud-Carrier families became good friends, and a young Christophe met an even younger Isabelle.  Their childhood friendship grew into dating, courtship, engagement, and eventually marriage.  Although the families later moved apart, Christophe and Isabelle's developing romance continued to grow through regular letters, occasional phone calls, and quarterly in-person visits. 

In early July of 1986, Christophe commenced his full-time missionary service in the Canada Montreal Mission.  While he was in Canada, Isabelle’s father, who was then the district president, called his daughter to serve as a district missionary, fulfilling a promise in her patriarchal blessing.  She arranged her work schedule to work three days a week and all evenings with the full-time missionaries.  During her service, she played a key part in bringing about 20 new converts into the church. 

Just days after Christophe returned from the Canada Montreal Mission, the two, who had met as children ten years earlier, became husband and wife on July 16, 1988 in Cholet, France.  Three days later, in the Bern, Switzerland Temple, they became a forever union.  Christophe was 22 and a half and Isabelle was 21. The Giraud-Carriers can barely remember a time when they were not taken with each other.  They met as children, and now, nearly 50 years later, they have an ever-growing love and appreciation for each other.

In 1988, one year of full-time military service was required of all young men in France.  Shortly after their marriage, Christophe was drafted into the French military and served in the Air Force for that year.  Prior to his full-time mission, Christophe had completed two years of college.  After his military service in France, he transferred his college credits to Brigham Young University Provo, where he earned a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a PhD in Computer Science. 

After earning his PhD, the family moved to Bristol, England where Christophe worked as a computer science professor for six and a half years.  He then left academia to accept a manager position at ELCA Informatique in Lausanne, Switzerland.  Living in Switzerland, they were just two hours from family for the first time in nearly 13 years, and they loved their time there. 

BYU had regularly asked Christophe if he would consider accepting a professorship at the Provo campus, and the answer was always “no.”  The Giraud-Carriers had no interest in moving back to Provo. During a trip to Utah in 2004, the Computer Science department chair asked them again, “What would make you come to Utah?”  Their immediate response was, “Nothing.” However, the Lord had different plans for them.  Both Christophe and Isabelle felt a strong impression that they should accept a professorship at BYU.  Shortly after initially saying, “no,” they said “yes,” and moved resolutely forward with the direction the Lord was revealing to them, even buying a house in Utah before USA resident visas were awarded. 

The Giraud-Carriers have eight children, four sons and four daughters.   Four of their children were born after they left Provo.  Today, six of their children are married, and they are grandparents to 18 beautiful grandchildren. Throughout their lives, they have accepted and magnified every church calling.  Elder Giraud-Carrier has served as a bishop, ward and stake young men president, stake mission president, high councilor, stake president, and mission president.  Sister Giraud-Carrier has served as ward primary, young women, and relief society president, primary teacher, district missionary, mission leader, and an exceptional ministering sister. Elder Patrick Kearon has said of her, “If I had to cross the plains, I would want to be in her wagon.”