Todd Hazelbarth was born and raised in a rural Midwestern environment. He said he knew nothing of the restored gospel of Christ until he was in his early 20s. He was traveling to Japan for post-graduate education when he got on the same Tokyo-bound plane in Honolulu with a group of young men about his age wearing white shirts and ties. They were going to Japan to start their missions. Todd was seated right in the midst of them, was interested and wanted to know more. Some months later, he took the missionary lessons and was baptized in Tokyo. The following year he served in the Japan Sapporo Mission.
After graduate school at BYU, he was employed by the State Department, and then the Central Intelligence Agency, where he met Patricia Dao, who was a French and Vietnamese linguist. She had been born and raised in Vietnam and moved to the United States when she was in high school. Pat joined the Church, and she and Todd were married in the Washington, D.C. Temple. They have lived in Tokyo and Singapore and served a previous senior couple mission in Fukuoka, Japan. They have one son, Paul, who is adopted from the Philippines, and two grandchildren. Pat and Todd both enjoy reading, languages, walking, and sharing the Gospel.