Baxter's parents divorced when he was five years old and his mother remarried twice in his childhood. During his youth, Baxter was taken from his home by the state on more than one occasion. Baxter joined the LDS Church along with his mother and siblings when he was twelve and shortly after this the family moved to Surrey. This is where Baxter first met his future wife. He and his future wife, Dianne Lewars, were in the same ward and were two of only five Latter-day Saints at their school. Baxter then attended the University of Wales where he graduated with a BSc in Economics. After graduating, Baxter served a mission in the Scotland EdinburghMission, starting in 1976. For ten months of this mission he was branch president in Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Baxter served for a time as a senior director at British Telecom. He also served as the UK Government's Director for international trade and Investment for Greater London and as a member of the Board of Capacity Builders, a UK Home Office Agency. He previously served as Chairman of the Board of Business Link for London, and as a member of the Board of London First, on the CBI London Council, and as Deputy Chairman of the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust.
Baxter became an LDS bishop at age 25. He also served as a counselor in a stake presidency, as president of the Ipswich England Stake and as a counselor in the presidency of the England London Mission. From 2002 to 2006 he was an area seventy, which included serving as a counselor in the presidency of the church's Europe West Area from 2004 to 2006. After his call as general authority, Baxter served as a counselor in the church's New Zealand/Pacific Islands Area and then as president of the Pacific Area, each based in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2012 he addressed the LDS Church general conference and focused on single parents, "Please never feel that you are in some kind of second-tier, subcategory of church membership, somehow less entitled to the Lord's blessings than others. In the kingdom of God, there are no second-class citizens.". In 2009, Baxter was diagnosed with brain cancer after suffering a seizure while touring a mission in Australia. He underwent brain surgery and radiation therapy for the treatment of this illness.
Personal life
After returning from his mission, Baxter and his wife were married and they are the parents of four children.
