A srory from my mission

 Ohne Gott und Sonnenschein bringen wir die Ernte ‘rein 

When I was in Berlin I would often go to East Berlin where the Russians had their headquarters. As propaganda, there were large banners to let the inhabitants of East Germany know how great East Germany was. I don’t know if the people believed it, because there were many people fleeing to the west. That is why they built the wall and had the border restrictions as depicted in the movie “Night Crossing”.

One of these banners was placed in strategic spots all over the agricultural areas in the East. The translation is, without God and sunshine we will bring in the harvest.

This phrase came to mind yesterday as we were reading in second Nephi. The prophecy was about there being those who would say there is no God.

Karl Marks said that religion was the opiate of the people. The communist party was against religion and that ideology has spread to China and all of the associated countries.

It is presumptuous of anyone to think that one could harvest crops without sunshine or the blessings of God.

We are happy that East Germany is now not under Communism and are free to worship God.

Baptisms

 

This morning Alice and I were talking about baptisms. Melissa‘s girls did some baptisms in the Mesa Temple yesterday and that got us on the subject.

I was baptized in the chapel in Cheyenne, Wyoming and the baptismal font was in the kitchen under a trap door. I was dressed in a white wool pair of pants and a white shirt. My father did the baptizing and the pants absorbed a lot of the water and it was really heavy and hard to get out of the font.

My brother Martell was baptized in Denver by my father. 

 

The next summer, we got a ride from Denver to Paris, Idaho to visit my grandmother Stucki. In August of that year when Glendon was eight years of age, we went to the Logan Temple to do baptisms for the dead. At that time , if I remember correctly, I was baptized for 100 individuals.

Martell was also baptized for the dead, but Glendon had not yet been baptized and so he was baptized for himself in the Logan Temple, but did not do any proxy baptisms at that time. My father was not there.

Alice was baptized in Lake Mystic, but not by her father because he was not a member of the church at that time. We have pictures of her baptism and confirmation that her father took.

Her brother Glen was baptized in the chapel in Mariana where the baptismal font was underneath the stage. She was 15 at the time and stood outside the chapel and was not a witness to his baptism because no one told her about it.

The Lord knows the end from the beginning

 The Lord knows the end from the beginning

I recently received an email from my granddaughter who will be coming home from her mission in a few weeks. She expressed a mixture of feelings. That brought me to thinking about my mission experience.

I was scheduled to be released in January 1957. I loved being a missionary and in my interview with president Gregory a month or two before, I told him that I would like to extend and serve another six months. He told me that he felt I should go home as scheduled.

I went home and enrolled in BYU for the spring quarter. I had to find housing and contacted one of the returned elders from my mission (Robert Peterson). He was the companion that I had in Hildesheim and was living in a house with a number of students. There was another student from my mission, Lawrence Wilson. We lived together in the top of the chapel in the Bell Strasse in Berlin although he was not my companion. Elder Peterson moved out and I moved in.

I completed the quarter and returned to Lander for the summer to work.

I reserved a place in the same house for the fall quarter.

My future wife had spent her first year in the girl’s dormitory, Amanda Knight Hall. When she came back for her second year she and some friends took an off campus apartment. Thus because of our living in the same off campus district we were in the same student ward with Lester Allen as our bishop.

Thus we were positioned for that fast Sunday when she was directed to my Sunday School class and the rest is history.

Had I remained on my mission for another six months we never would have met. Had she stayed at Amanda Knight Hall for her second year we never would have met.

Seemingly unrelated decisions in our life make all the difference in our opportunities.

We feel that we knew each other in the pre-existence. There was something familiar when we first saw each other.

We were the recipients of guidance from the Lord, although we were not aware of it at the time.

If you live the gospel the Lord will guide your footsteps even through you may not be aware of the process. Learn to listen to the promptings.

Love,
Grandpa

In the mouth of three witnesses

 In the mouth of three witnesses 

A missionary story

When I was at Weber College I had a good friend. We played golf together and had classes together. We graduated together and were in the same social club.

We got our mission calls to report at the mission home in Salt Lake at the same time. They housed us in the New Ute Hotel in the same room. We went through the temple together.

The Sunday we were there, he had his farewell in his home ward in Ogden. A couple of us went to attend. He spoke for almost the whole time. During his talk he told the following story.

He opened the letter from president David O. McKay calling him to serve in the New England mission. He was disappointed that he was not called to serve in a foreign mission. He wrote his letter to President McKay declining to serve. As he was going to the post box to mail his letter he met his bishop. The bishop told him he understood that my friend was disappointed that the call was not to a foreign mission. Also that he would know within six months why he was called to serve there. He went home without posting the envelope. A short time later the stake president came to talk to him and expressed the sentiment that he knew my friend was disappointed that he was not called to a foreign mission, but that within six months the reason for that assignment would be made known.

About a day before we left for our assigned missions we assembled in a large room in the church office building at 47 East South Temple where we were to meet with a general authority to be set apart. Three of the 240 were assigned to Elder Marion D. Hanks. My friend and I and one other were escorted to a small room. Everyone there was privy to the others blessing.

Elder Hanks on the setting apart blessing said he knew my friend was disappointed with not being called to a foreign mission, but that within six months it would be apparent why he was assigned to that mission. He received a wonderful powerful blessing.

When I was in Hildesheim, I went to a district conference in the latter part of 1954. Another friend from Weber College, Elder Glissmeyer, asked me if I had heard about my friend. The elder said that my friend had returned home because he had doubts about the gospel and could not bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.

He had doubts placed in his mind by a professor at Weber who
made it his calling to plant seeds of doubt into the minds of his students.

Reading the Book of Mormon on my mission kept me grounded and rooted in the gospel.

The Lord inspired three different individuals to assure my friend that his calling was from the Lord. He had six months to gain a testimony in the area where the gospel was restored. He was given a chance to strengthen the faith that lay dormant in his mind and heart.

As far as I know he did not leave the church. He needed to gain something by bringing the gospel to others. It is a shame that he did not take advantage of the opportunity.

Please do not miss the opportunity to be a savior on mount Zion because you are not sure. Go forward with faith even though you may have doubts. As Elder Uchtdorf recently stated, doubt your doubts.

Love,
Grandpa

Amen

Amen

We are used to the liturgy we have in our meetings. It begins with what we call an opening prayer and ends with what we call a closing prayer.

There are other names for these prayers. More descriptive words are invocation and benediction.

I would like to have my grandchildren be instructed in offering public prayers

First these are not private prayers. When offering a prayer you do not use the pronoun I. You are praying for the congregation. You use the pronoun we. Such as; we thank thee and we ask thee.

The invocation is a word that comes from the Latin invocare. This means to call upon. So the opening prayer is for us to call upon the Lord. We invite his spirit to be with us and thank him for blessings. We pray for the spirit to be with those who address or take part in the meeting. We may also pray for the leaders and ask His blessings upon them.

The word benediction derives from the Latin. Bene means well or good. Dicere or dictere means say or verbalize.
Thus the benediction is to pronounce a blessing on those who have attended. We may bless those to carry the spirit with them, to have a safe journey home, to remember what they have heard and felt, or anything else that the spirit may inspire you to say.

You are praying for the congregation you need to speak so the people on the back row of the chapel can hear and if they agree to was is said, can respond and say Amen. This means that they are in agreement with the prayer. The words spoken need to be clearly enunciated and not rushed or run together. There may be individuals present like Grandpa who have hearing issues who have trouble understanding rapid soft speaking. 

We close these prayers in the name of the Lord's only begotten son and our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. 

All things done in the church are done in His name.

Pray with the spirit.

Love,
Grandpa

Listen to the Lord

 

I had been a stake president for a few years and had no problem in knowing which person to call to any of the stake positions that became available. Then there came a time when I had a difficulty in knowing who to call. It did not come easily as it had in the first few years. One day the regional representative came to Lander to visit me. We talked about a number of things. I mentioned to him about my seeming lack of ability to receive inspiration.

He had no counsel for me. I suggested that perhaps I should be released as the stake president. Nothing happened. One day I was in what we called our celestial room and pondering. I heard a voice in my mind saying, "If you want to be like me, you are going to have to think like me."

I then realized that I had to do what the Lord would do if he were here, do my homework. I would need to consider the needs of the stake, learn to know the people and their strengths and experience. Then after I had made a decision I took it to The Lord for his approval.

 

“We shall never have the keys of authority committed to us to be rulers until we will rule just as God would rule if he were here himself. 14:97.”
— Discourses of Brigham Young by John A. Widtsoe, Brigham Young

 

Learn to think like the Lord.

 

Love,

Grandpa