Faithful ground

While I was in Utah a few weeks ago, I looked for something to read after I had finished the book I had brought with me.  I picked up Faith Rewarded: A Personal Account of Prophetic Promises to the East German Saints, by Thomas S. Monson.  As a fairly new apostle (about five years) he was assigned to supervise the European missions of the Church, which included visiting East Germany, a daunting process.

The book consists of his journal entries which cover this subject matter and his experiences, and they begin in 1968 with his first visit and end in 1995.  (The Berlin Wall came down in 1989.)

The Wall went up in 1961, marking a literal, visual separation between West and East Germany.  Berlin was a divided city, but was located squarely inside East German territory.  Stories are legion of how the American airlift kept people alive by dropping food supplies, how pressure did not waver and give up this piece of the city to the Communists and simply retreat to the free territory of the West.  It left an uneasy truce, fraught with peril.

I remember the vivid story my parents heard from one who was there.  There was a priesthood leadership conference in Berlin for those who lived in the region, east and west, and most of those who were attending had arranged the trip with their families as vacation time.  It was the second weekend in August, 1961, and the barriers went up overnight: on Sunday morning, August 13, there was no free passage anymore for anyone, from East to West   These good brethren woke up to get ready for their final meetings, and the whole situation had changed.

They were in the west side of the city, in free territory.  They had their families with them.  If they went back through the checkpoint, they had no idea whether they would ever be able to return.  They had no idea if they would be allowed to meet, to baptize, to worship.  Or, they would have to leave everything behind and go with the clothes on their backs, but they could escape.

To a man, they would not abandon their congregations: they went back.  Back into the unknown, but certain of oppression.  They went back with prayer and courage.

So into this perilous situation Brother Monson is assigned to be the shepherd to these Saints in 1968.  He asked his wife if she wanted to accompany him on that first trip, and she replied that she thought one parent ought to stay home in case he didn't make it back.  We might be tempted to chuckle, but the accounts of people being killed trying to escape into the west were frequent, the capriciousness of the Communist border authorities were described in journalists' reports.  Any American was liable to be detained and accused of spying. You did not waltz in or out, by any stretch of the imagination.

In his first meeting in the Dresden District, Elder Monson, as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, felt inspired to promise that if the Saints would continue faithful and do all that they could do, every blessing of the kingdom would come to them:

I was touched by the sincerity of these wonderful Saints. I was humbled by their poverty. They have so little. My heart filled with sorrow because they have no patriarch, they have no wards or stakes—just branches, they have few teaching materials. They cannot receive temple blessings, neither endowments nor sealings. They are forbidden to leave their country. Yet they trust in the Lord with all their hearts and lean not unto their own understanding.

I stood at the pulpit with tear-filled eyes and a voice choked with emotion and made a promise to the people: "If you will remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours." Although this was a dramatic promise, I believe it was inspired by our Heavenly Father and will be fulfilled under His direction as the Saints in the German Democratic Republic continue to demonstrate their faith.

He continued to be the liaison to the Church in East Germany for almost 28 years, 17 years as a closed society.  I know we were not the only ones who followed the progress of blessings and miracles over the years.  These journal entries cover those events and opportunities with an inside eye. He organized a mission, then two missions, and the first stake. Point by point, he respectfully asked permission to build chapels, bring mission presidents to Salt Lake for conference, and other incremental progress.

Brother Monson tells that one of the local leaders was called in by a government official and asked what the Church believed.  Among other things, he quoted the 12th Article of Faith, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." He also opened his scriptures to Doctrine & Covenants 134 and read a portion of that declaration on governments being instituted for the benefit of their people, and the obligation for citizens to honor the laws where they reside.  This made such a favorable impression that more visas were granted for travel to general conference.

Those who could be brought to Salt Lake, of course, could receive their temple blessings.  When Brother Monson asked to expand the number of such visas, the reply was no.  Why do you want to take them away from here to do this, why don't you build one of your temples in our country?

Well, because we never dreamed we had a chance!  But of course he didn't say that.  He said, how can we arrange to do that? and the plans began.

That announcement riveted the membership at conference.  How did they get permission to do that?  (He couldn't answer those questions without jeopardizing a still-delicate process.)  Members in other nations behind the Iron Curtain would be able to gain permission to travel to East Germany where they wouldn't have a prayer of going anywhere else.  Permission was given to call missionaries to serve within their own country, and then a very few to leave to serve elsewhere.  The blessings were coming, as promised.

In 1975 Thomas Monson rededicated the land of East Germany to the preaching of the gospel.  In 1985 there was a temple ready to be dedicated for the blessing of the Saints there.  The membership of the Church was 4,700 and the open house in Freiberg drew 90,000 people, so many that officials were upset, and said they never would have given permission if they had anticipated such a number.  Too late now! I guess that upswell of interest felt threatening. (Membership eventually declined to 3,500 through deaths and exit visas for those who were elderly and no longer considered productive.)

In 1989 the Wall came down, and the world started to change.  Brother Monson's assignment ended in 1995.  The book gives an inside view of the faithful people whose sacrifices and integrity gave the Lord a way to work out the salvation of His children in a place of terrible constriction.  President Monson recounts the first meeting he had there, and the hymn they sang, "If the Way Be Filled With Trial, Weary Not."  It's too easy to forget that there is nothing He can't do if we have faith and patience.

One last note--we had a young friend who served a mission in eastern Germany after reunification.  Everywhere she went, she found that she and her companion were the first contacts with the people for the Church, there was very little familiarity.  By the time her mission was done and she came home, she had seen very few baptisms, but she was thrilled with the experience.  She said, "I got to be the first contact, the first one to tell people about the restored Church and Joseph Smith!  We were planting seeds everywhere we went, and they're going to grow."  That is an attitude guaranteed to bless.

(note--the book is included in the Deseret Book gospelink database, and my subscription to that service made the quotation available which is used above, along with checking dates, since the actual volume I read is still in Utah with my daughter.)