Early Life

Neil Linden Andersen was born in Logan Utah, on August 9, 1951, the third of five children, to Lyle and Kathryn Andersen. Neil’s father was a student at Utah State University. When Neil was three, the family moved to Colorado.

They lived 90 miles from the meetinghouse. Making the journey to Church meetings was something they just did every Sunday. “We wanted to show our children how important the Church is,” his mother, Kathryn, explains.

When Neil was five, his family moved to a dairy farm in Pocatello, Idaho. Neil raised rabbits, rode horses, and played in the fields with his siblings. 

When Neil was about seven years old, a rabbit he especially liked escaped from its cage. He relates:

“I looked all over our little farm, but I could not find it anywhere. I remember walking back behind an old barn and praying that I could find the rabbit.

“Immediately after the prayer, an image came into my mind of a spot beneath some boards. And sure enough, I went to that spot and found my rabbit. This experience and many others like it taught me that the Lord responds to the small and simple prayers of all of us.”

Life on his parents’ farm instilled the principle of hard work in Neil. “I milked a lot of cows and moved a lot of irrigation pipe,” he says. “I can remember that on Christmas morning before we opened our presents, we had cows to milk. Looking back, I realize how valuable it was to learn that part of life is just hard work.”

As a young man Neil also worked hard at sports. In high school he lettered in cross-country running. However, he focused most of his energies on excelling in other ways. 

His mother recalls, “While at Highland High School, he attended Boys State in Boise, Idaho, and was elected governor by all of the other delegates. He was president of the Idaho Association of Student Councils, which included all the high school student body officers throughout Idaho.”