Sister Cristina B. Franco served as the second counselor in the Primary general presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from April 2017 to April 2021. She was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Hugo R. Fraga and Maria A. Fraga and is the oldest of four children.
| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
Her family joined the Church when she was 3 years old. She grew up attending Primary (the Church’s organization for children 11 and younger) where she first met her “best friend,” Rodolfo Franco. They married in 1978 in the Salt Lake Temple and have three sons. At the time of her call to the Primary general presidency, she was serving with her husband as he presided over the Argentina Resistencia Mission.
It was in Primary where Sister Franco gained a testimony of the gospel. She recalls, “I learned that if I had a question, I could ask my Father in Heaven and I would get an answer.” This same principle has helped her throughout her life.
After graduating from high school in 1977, she moved to Utah with her family, where her father continued his career as a watchmaker. This turned into a successful family business that specialized in fixing and selling watches, a company that Sister Franco was a part of for 28 years. She worked in the family business when her sons were at school and received the support of her parents when long hours kept her from being home, but she always kept her children’s spiritual nurturing a priority: “We made scripture study each morning a must before they left to school,” she said.
Sister Franco has served in different assignments in the Primary, Young Women, Relief Society and Sunday School organizations. She served on the Primary general board from 2005 to 2010. Sister Franco loves art, enjoys working with acrylics and watercolors, and has contributed designs to an international fabric distributor. Family is very important to Sister Franco, and she enjoys getting together with her family for homemade pasta and spending time with her sons, daughters-in-law and nine grandchildren.