Boldly, Nobly, and Independent
Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults • September 11, 2022 • Salt Lake Tabernacle
Elder Dale G. Renlund: Thank you. We’re gathered in the historic Salt Lake Tabernacle, but our audience is worldwide. Throughout the scriptures the Lord asks us to remember. Remembering our shared legacy of faith, devotion, and perseverance gives us perspective and strength as we face the challenges of our day.
It was with the desire to “remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men”1 that the four-volume series Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days was conceived. Three volumes have already been published. This narrative history includes stories of faithful Latter-day Saints of the past. It gives us real-life examples of people who loved the gospel of Jesus Christ, made covenants, and moved along the covenant path to come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Sister Ruth L. Renlund: We are pleased to focus on real-life experiences you can now read in Saints: Boldly, Nobly, and Independent, the third volume in the series. This volume chronicles the history of the Church between the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893 and the dedication of the Bern Switzerland Temple in 1955. During this time, continuing revelation is manifest in the Church through the Lord’s prophets and to individual members. Volume 3 of Saints helps us understand our own history, the people who lived it, and our Savior.
Elder Renlund: During this time period, both sets of my grandparents joined the Church. My parents immigrated to Salt Lake City because they had made a promise to be married in the temple. In 1950 there was no temple in Europe. They each received their endowment in the Salt Lake Temple, hearing the instruction in English, understanding little. They were married and sealed and counted themselves eternally blessed. Their choice to do whatever it took to be sealed in the temple has had an eternal impact on my life as well.
Saints, volume 3, is our heritage, whether we descend from early pioneers, like Sister Renlund did, or from later pioneers, like I did, or some of you who are pioneers in the faith. You are an important part of the continuing history of this Church. We thank you for all you do to build on the foundation of faith laid by you and your forebears. “We pray that this volume [of Saints] will enlarge your understanding of the past, strengthen your faith, and help you make and keep the covenants that lead to exaltation and eternal life.”2
Sister Renlund: I’m excited to share stories from volume 3 of Saints. Let’s get started!
Elder Renlund: Let’s begin with an example of the ongoing Restoration of the Church. President Russell M. Nelson frequently teaches that the Restoration “is a process, not an event, and will continue until the Lord comes again.”3 An example from the end of the life of President Joseph F. Smith is a great illustration.
Joseph F. Smith and Julina Lambson Smith.
In 1918, President Smith was in poor health, and he probably knew he did not have long to live. Death seemed to surround him. First, his oldest son, Hyrum, became ill and died of a ruptured appendix. President Smith poured out his grief in his journal, “My soul is rent asunder. … O! God help me!”4 Second, President Smith’s sorrow was compounded when Ida, the widow of Hyrum, died of heart failure shortly after.
Third, he read horrific reports on the world war that raged. During the war, 20 million soldiers and civilians died. Fourth, a deadly strain of influenza was killing people around the world. The number of deaths worldwide was at least 50 million. These deaths brought untold sorrow and heartache to families. President Smith mourned over the loss of lives. Additionally, he’d been bedridden for five months. It is fair to say that death was on the prophet’s mind.
I have here a Bible owned by President Smith. He may have used this one or another like it to prompt a key revelation.
Sister Renlund: On October 3, 1918, he sat in his room in the Beehive House, just one block from here, “reflecting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the redemption of the world. He opened … to 1 Peter and read about the Savior preaching to the spirits in the spirit world. … The Spirit descended upon [President Smith], opening [the] eyes of [his] understanding.” He saw into the spirit world where multitudes of “righteous women and men who had died before the Savior’s mortal ministry were joyfully waiting for His advent there to declare their liberation from the bands of death.
“The Savior appeared … , and the righteous spirits rejoiced … . They knelt before Him, acknowledging Him as their Savior and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell. …
“… [President Smith also] understood that the Savior did not go in person to the disobedient spirits. Rather, he organized the righteous spirits … to carry the gospel message to the spirits in darkness. In this way, all people who died in transgression or without a knowledge of the truth could learn about faith in God, repentance, vicarious baptism for the remission of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and all other essential principles of the gospel. …
Elder Renlund: “The prophet then perceived that the faithful [Saints in] this dispensation would continue their labor in the next life by preaching the gospel to the spirits who were in darkness and under the bondage of sin. [He observed,] ‘The dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God, … and after they have paid the penalty of their transgressions, and are washed clean, shall receive a reward according to their works, for they are heirs of salvation.’
Sister Renlund: “… The next morning, [some were surprised to see that he attended] the October general conference despite his poor health. Determined to speak to the congregation, he stood unsteadily at the pulpit [in this building], his large frame shaking from the effort. … Lacking the strength to speak of his vision without being overcome by emotion, he merely alluded to it. ‘I have not lived alone these five months,’ he told the congregation. ‘I have dwelt in the spirit of prayer, of supplication, of faith, and of determination, and I have had my communication with the Spirit of the Lord continuously. It is a happy meeting this morning for me,’ he said. ‘God Almighty bless you.’”5
President Smith dictated the revelation to his son Joseph Fielding Smith after general conference. This is one of the copies that he signed and submitted to the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. They read the vision and fully endorsed it,6 and it is canonized as section 138 of the Doctrine and Covenants. We now understand that God cares about those on the other side of the veil of mortality. He cares about their redemption. The “dead” are not really dead. The ongoing Restoration brought this understanding to us and brings comfort and clarification about the next world.
Elder Renlund: In many ways, personal revelation requires the same process. For me, I have to focus on a problem. I have to study it out and think about it. I have to formulate various solutions. It seems that only then can personal revelation reliably come. Often revelation comes to me in short, terse imperative directives, such as “Go,” “Do,” or “Say!”
Sister Renlund: The same is true for me. After I have pondered, studied, and prayed, I frequently have thoughts or ideas that come to my mind that I know are not my own. It always encourages me that God is aware of me and prompts me through the Holy Ghost to do good.
Elder Renlund: Often revelation comes because there is a specific need. A remarkable example occurred at the April 1894 general conference. President Wilford Woodruff announced to his counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles that he had received a revelation regarding temple sealings. He said, “The Lord has told me that it is right for children to be sealed to their parents, and they to their parents just as far back as we can possibly obtain the records.”7 This revelation came more than 50 years after Elijah restored the sealing authority in the Kirtland Temple.
Sister Renlund: On Sunday, at the 1894 general conference, President Woodruff declared, “‘We have not got through revelation. … We have not got through the work of God.’ He spoke of how Brigham Young had carried on Joseph Smith’s work of building temples and organizing temple ordinances. ‘But he did not receive all the revelations that belong to this work,’ President Woodruff reminded the congregation. ‘Neither did President Taylor, nor has Wilford Woodruff. There will be no end to this work until it is perfected.’”8
Since the Nauvoo years, members had been doing baptisms for the dead for deceased family members. But the importance of being sealed to one’s own ancestors had not yet been revealed. President Woodruff explained, “We want the Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers. … Have children sealed to their parents, and run their chain through as far as you can get it.”9
President Woodruff “reminded the Saints of Joseph Smith’s vision of his brother Alvin in the Kirtland Temple. ‘All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom.’
“‘So shall it be with your fathers,’ President Woodruff said of those in the spirit world. ‘There will be very few, if any, who will not accept the gospel.’
“Before closing his sermon, he urged the Saints to … seek out their kindred dead. ‘Brethren and sisters,’ he said, ‘let us go on with our records, fill them up righteously before the Lord, and carry out this principle, and the blessings of God will attend us, and those who are redeemed will bless us in days to come.’”10 This revelation provided the reason for members to return frequently to the temple to perform proxy ordinations and ordinances for their deceased ancestors. Families started keeping careful records of their ordinances and the work that they had done to complete them in books like this one that shows work done for members of the Jens Peter and Marie Dame family.
Elder Renlund: Today, the doctrine of sealing across generations seems so normal and natural to us, but it took a revelation from the Lord to correctly organize the sealing of families. This revelation had a direct impact on my family in the faraway island of Larsmo, just off the west coast of Finland. This story is not in Saints, volume 3, but it is treasured in my family. In 1912, my paternal grandparents, Lena Sofia and Matts Leander Renlund, listened to missionaries from Sweden preach the restored gospel. Lena Sofia and Leander were baptized the following day. They found joy in their new faith and in being part of a small branch, the first in Finland. Unfortunately, life’s fortunes changed and disaster struck.
In 1917, Leander died of tuberculosis, leaving Lena Sofia a widow and pregnant with her tenth child. That child, my father, was born two months after Leander’s death. More family members died of tuberculosis. Lena eventually buried 7 of her 10 children, in addition to Leander. It was a major struggle for her, an impoverished peasant woman, to keep what remained of her family intact.
For nearly two decades, she did not get a good night’s rest. She hustled at odd jobs during the day to scrape together food to eat. At night, she nursed dying family members. It is hard to imagine how Lena Sofia coped.
I met Lena Sofia once in December 1963. I was 11 and she was 87. She was stooped from a lifetime of hard labor. The skin of her face and hands was weather-beaten, as tough and textured as worn leather. As we met, she stood and pointed to a picture of Leander and said to me, in Swedish, “Det här är min gubbe.” “This is my hubby.”
I thought she had incorrectly used the present tense of the verb. Since Leander had been dead for 46 years, I pointed out this apparent mistake to my mother. My mother simply told me, “You don’t understand.” I did not understand. Lena Sofia knew that her long dead husband was and would remain hers through the eternities. Through the doctrine of eternal families, Leander had remained a presence in her life and part of her great hope for the future.
Lena Sofia Renlund, Dale G. Renlund’s paternal grandmother.
Young Dale G. Renlund.
Before the Helsinki Finland Temple dedication in 2006, my sister checked to see what ordinance work was needed for our father’s line. What she found is a blazing affirmation of Lena Sofia’s faith in the sealing authority. Lena Sofia had submitted the family records for her deceased children, who were over eight years of age when they died, so that temple work could be performed in 1938. These were among the earliest ordinances submitted to a temple from Finland.
Lena coped by keeping in mind the doctrine of salvation. She considered it one of God’s great mercies that she came to know that families were eternal before these disasters befell her. A marker for her deep-seated conversion to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ was her work in family history, work revealed through Joseph Smith, Wilford Woodruff, and Joseph F. Smith. She was like those who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.”11
Sister Renlund: Because the Restoration is an ongoing process, we have more to look forward to. Less than a year ago, President Nelson said, “Current adjustments in temple procedures, and others that will follow, are continuing evidence that the Lord is actively directing His Church. He is providing opportunities for each of us to bolster our spiritual foundations more effectively by centering our lives on Him and on the ordinances and covenants of His temple.”12 President Nelson explained that these adjustments are made “Under the Lord’s direction and in answer to our prayers” because the Lord wants us “to understand with great clarity exactly what [we] are making covenants to do. … To comprehend [our] privileges, promises, and responsibilities … [and] to have spiritual insights and awakenings.”13
Sometimes revelation comes in the moment. This happened with yet another example of the ongoing Restoration when Lorenzo Snow was the President of the Church. In 1898, the Church was in a difficult financial condition. At the height of its anti-polygamy campaign, the United States Congress had authorized the confiscation of Church property. Worried the government would seize their donations, many Saints stopped paying tithing, greatly reducing the Church’s main source of funding. The Church borrowed money to provide enough funds to keep the Lord’s work moving forward. The Church even took out loans to cover the cost of finishing the Salt Lake Temple. This financial situation weighed heavily on the 85-year-old prophet’s mind.14
“One morning early in May, President Snow was sitting in bed when his son LeRoi came into the room. … The prophet greeted him and announced, ‘I am going to St. George.’
“LeRoi was surprised. St. George was … three hundred miles away.” To get there, they had to take the train over 200 miles south to Milford and then travel another 105 miles by carriage. This would be a difficult journey for an old man. Nevertheless, they undertook the long, demanding trip. “When they arrived … , dusty and weary, … [a] stake president asked why they had come. ‘Well,’ President Snow said, ‘I don’t know what we’ve come to St. George for, only the Spirit told us to come.’
“The next day, May 17, the prophet met with members in the St. George Tabernacle, a red sandstone building several blocks northwest of the temple.” When President Snow stood to address the Saints, he said, “We can scarcely express the reason why we came, yet I presume the Lord will have somewhat to say to us.”
Elder Renlund: “During the sermon, President Snow paused unexpectedly, and the room went utterly still. His eyes brightened, and his countenance shone. When he opened his mouth, his voice was stronger. The inspiration of God seemed to fill the room. He then spoke on tithing. … He lamented that many … Saints were reluctant to pay a full tithing. … ‘This is an essential preparation for Zion,’ he said.
“The next afternoon, President Snow [taught,] ‘The time has now come for every Latter-day Saint who calculates to be prepared for the future and to hold his feet strong upon a proper foundation, to go and do the will of the Lord and to pay his tithing in full. That is the word of the Lord to you, and it will be the word of the Lord to every settlement throughout the land of Zion.’”
President Snow later taught, “‘We are in a fearful condition, and because of it the Church is in bondage. The only relief is for the Saints to observe this law.’ He challenged [members] to obey the law fully and promised the Lord would bless them for their efforts. He also declared that tithe paying would now be a firm requirement for temple attendance.”15
Sister Renlund: Since that time, many can testify that the Lord does pour out His richest blessings on those who are willing to obey this simple law. Brother Alois Cziep served as president of the Vienna Austria Branch. He kept tithing and other branch records in this modest strong box. During the air raids of World War II, this was the first item secured by President Cziep and his family before their own personal possessions.
Some have testified also of the challenge in accepting the law and of receiving remarkable blessings as a result.
The experience of the Yanagida family in Japan is such an example. In 1948, the First Presidency once again sent missionaries to Japan. When Toshiko Yanagida asked her father about religion, he encouraged her to attend a Latter-day Saint service. He had joined the Church in 1915.
Sister Yanagida met with the missionaries, was converted, and was baptized August of 1949 with her father in attendance. Her husband later sought out the missionaries and was baptized by the same missionary who had taught Sister Yanagida.16
Toshiko Yanagida.
Elder Renlund: Brother and Sister Yanagida struggled with paying tithing. They “did not make much money, and sometimes they wondered if they had enough to pay for their son’s school lunch. They were also hoping to buy a house. After one Church meeting, [Sister Yanagida] asked a missionary about tithing. ‘Japanese people are very poor now after the war,’ she said. ‘Tithing is so hard for us. Must we pay?’
“The elder replied that God commanded everyone to pay tithes and spoke of the blessings of obeying the principle. [Sister Yanagida] was skeptical—and a little angry. ‘This is American thinking,’ she told herself.
“… One sister missionary promised [Sister Yanagida] that paying tithing could help her family reach their goal of owning their own house. Wanting to be obedient, [Brother and Sister Yanagida] decided to pay their tithing and trust that blessings would come. …
“[They] began to see [those] blessings … . They purchased an affordable lot in the city and drew up blueprints for a house. They then applied for a home loan through a new government program, and once they received approval to build, they started work on a foundation.
“The process went smoothly until a building inspector noticed that their lot was inaccessible to firefighters. ‘This land is not land that is suitable for building a house,’ he told them. ‘You cannot proceed any further with the construction.’
“Unsure what to do, [Brother and Sister Yanagida] spoke to the missionaries. ‘The six of us will fast and pray for you,’ an elder told them. ‘You do the same.’ For the next two days, the Yanagidas fasted and prayed with the missionaries. Another inspector then came out to reassess their lot. … At first, he gave the Yanagidas little hope of passing the inspection. But as he looked over the lot, he noticed a solution. In an emergency, the fire department could get to the property simply by removing a nearby fence. The Yanagidas could build their house after all.
“‘I guess you two must have done something exceptionally good in the past,’ the inspector told them. ‘In all my years I have never been so accommodating.’ [Brother and Sister Yanagida] were overjoyed. They had fasted and prayed and paid their tithing. And just as [that remarkable] sister missionary promised, they would have a home of their own.”17
Saints around the globe have had similar experiences when they paid tithing. The Lord blesses His people who are faithful and obedient. And it is the faithful payment of tithing that has allowed temples to be built around the world.
Sister Renlund: I know our lives have been blessed in subtle and significant ways by living the law of tithing. Sometimes the blessings are not what we expect and can easily be overlooked. But they are real. We have experienced it.18
One of my favorite stories told in Saints is how the first sisters were called to serve as full-time missionaries. In England in the late 1890s, rumors were being circulated that Latter-day Saint women were gullible dupes who could not think independently. Then a Latter-day Saint from Salt Lake City, Elizabeth McCune, and her daughter came to London for an extended visit.
When they attended a Church conference in London, Elizabeth was taken by surprise when, “during the morning session, Joseph McMurrin, a counselor in the mission presidency, denounced … unflattering statements about Latter-day Saint women [and announced,] ‘We have with us just now a lady from Utah … . We are going to ask Sister McCune to speak this evening and tell you of her experience in Utah.’ He then encouraged everyone at the conference to bring their friends to hear her speak.”
“As the hour of the meeting neared, people filled the room to capacity. Elizabeth said a silent prayer and took the stand.” She spoke to the crowd about her faith and her family, testifying boldly of the truthfulness of the gospel. She also said, “‘Our religion teaches us that the wife stands shoulder to shoulder with the husband.’ When the meeting ended, strangers shook Elizabeth’s hand. ‘If more of your women would come out here,’ someone said, ‘a great amount of good would be done.’”
“After seeing Elizabeth’s effect on audiences, [President McMurrin wrote to the President of the Church:] ‘If a number of bright and intelligent women were called on missions to England, … the results would be excellent.’” “The decision to call women as full-time proselyting missionaries was partly a result of Elizabeth McCune’s preaching.”19
Elizabeth McCune.
On April 22, 1898, Inez Knight and Jennie Brimhall docked at the port of Liverpool, England. They were the first ones set apart as “lady missionaries” for the Church.
They accompanied President McMurrin and other missionaries to a town east of Liverpool. In the evening, a large crowd attended a street meeting with the missionaries. “President McMurrin announced that a special meeting would be held the following day, and he invited everyone to come and hear preaching from ‘real live Mormon women.’”20 This is Inez Knight’s missionary diary. She wrote, “In the evening I spoke mid fears and tremblings but did surprise myself.”21 She recognized the heavenly help she received when she wrote, “I spoke in the evening to a large crowd, but was blessed with prayers of other missionaries.”22 These “real live Mormon women” acquitted themselves well, going door to door and testifying frequently at street meetings. They were soon joined by other sister missionaries who labored throughout England.
Elder Renlund: Sister Knight and Sister Brimhall were the beginning. In this dispensation hundreds of thousands of sister missionaries have served.23 One of the things that strikes me about sister missionaries is that they can be effective by being their authentic selves. They are real Latter-day Saint women. Like Sister Knight and Sister Brimhall, they talk to people about who they are and why they believe as they do.
The impact of sister missionaries on the gathering of Israel has been extraordinary. One young elder recently asked me in a question and answer session why the wards in his mission prefer sister missionaries. My answer was simply, “Because sisters give their heart and soul to the work. Members love all missionaries who do so, not holding anything back.”
Sister missionaries’ response to missionary calls has been and continues to be a major part of spreading the gospel. President Nelson said in the April general conference, “We love sister missionaries and welcome them wholeheartedly. What you contribute to this work is magnificent!”24
Sister Renlund: I am also impressed by the good that came from Sister McCune who was not called and set apart as a missionary. But this dear sister made things happen because of her faith.25
This brings us to another amazing story of Saints, volume 3. We find examples of Saints who demonstrated their discipleship under the most trying circumstances. Former enemies overcame animosity and became united as they relied on Jesus Christ.
After World War II, “the Netherlands was in a deplorable state after five years of occupation [by the German Nazi regime]. More than two hundred thousand Dutch people had died during the war, and hundreds of thousands of homes had been damaged or destroyed. Many Saints in … the Netherlands were bitter toward the Germans” and toward each other because some had resisted and others had collaborated with the occupiers. The divisiveness was palpable.
Elder Renlund: “The mission president, Cornelius Zappey, encouraged Church branches to supplement their food supplies by starting potato-growing projects using seed potatoes from the Dutch government.” With this encouragement, “branches in the Netherlands … started potato patches wherever they could find a spot, growing potatoes in backyards, flower gardens, vacant lots, and road medians.
“Near harvesttime, [President Zappey] held a mission conference in the city of Rotterdam.” He knew from conversations with the president of the East German Mission “that many Saints in Germany suffered from severe shortages of food. [President Zappey] wanted to do something to help, so he asked local leaders if they would be willing to give a portion of their potato harvest to the Saints in Germany.
“‘Some of the most bitter enemies you people have encountered as a result of this war are the German people,’ he acknowledged. ‘But those people are now much worse off than you.’
“At first, some Dutch Saints resisted the plan. Why should they share their potatoes with the Germans? [Some had lost houses] to German bombs or [watched] loved ones starve to death because German occupiers had taken their food.”
President Zappey asked Pieter Vlam, a former prisoner of war and the leader of the Church’s branch in Amsterdam, “to visit branches throughout the Netherlands and encourage them to support the plan,” making a distinction between the Nazi regime and the German people. “Pieter was an experienced Church leader whose unjust imprisonment in a German camp was well known. If the Dutch Saints loved and trusted anyone in the mission, it was Pieter Vlam.”
When Pieter met with the branches, “he alluded to his hardships in prison. ‘I’ve been through this,’ he said. ‘You know that I have.’ He urged them to forgive the German people. ‘I know how hard it is to love them,’ he said. ‘If those are our brothers and sisters, then we should treat them as our brothers and sisters.’
Sister Renlund: “His words and the words of other branch presidents moved the Saints, and the anger of many melted away as they harvested potatoes for their German [brothers and sisters].” Not only that, but disagreements and distrust that had existed among members within the branches began to dissipate as well. The members “knew they could work together going forward.
“[President Zappey], meanwhile, worked to secure permits to transport the potatoes to Germany. … When some officials tried to stop the shipment plans, [President Zappey] told them, ‘These potatoes belong to the Lord, and if it be His will, the Lord will see that they come to Germany.’
Cornelius Zappey, Dutch missionaries, and Dutch Saints load potatoes for transport.
“Finally, in November 1947, Dutch Saints and missionaries met in The Hague to load … more than seventy tons of potatoes. A short time later, the potatoes arrived in Germany for distribution among the Saints. …
“Word of the potato project soon reached the First Presidency. Amazed, President David O. McKay said, ‘This is one of the greatest acts of true Christian conduct ever brought to my attention.’”26
Elder Renlund: The following year, the Dutch members again sent a large potato crop to the Germans. And they added herring, making the gift even more substantial. A few years later, in 1953, the North Sea flooded, and it flooded significant portions of the Netherlands, leaving Dutch members in need. This time, German Saints sent aid to the Netherlands to help them in their time of need. The Dutch Saints’ acts of charity have reverberated for years and provide a lasting testament of the love and charity that is possible, even between enemies, when ordinary people love God first and their neighbor as themselves.
The willingness to forgive brought healing to the Dutch members. I have found the same is true for me. If I hold a grudge, the Spirit is grieved. If I am angry, I am less kind and less Christlike in my behavior toward others. This truth is beautifully stated by a character in Alan Paton’s 1953 novel, Too Late the Phalarope, set in Apartheid South Africa, “There is a hard law … that when a deep injury is done to us, we never recover until we forgive.”27
Sister Renlund: There are so many more inspiring stories from Church history during this time frame as told in Saints, volume 3, stories from every part of the world. Perhaps you would want to know something about William Daniels, who served faithfully for years in segregated Cape Town, South Africa. Although he wasn’t ordained to a priesthood office, he had a fervent testimony. 28
Elder Renlund: Or Rafael Monroy and Vicente Morales in Mexico, who were martyred for their faith. And Rafael’s mother, Jesusita, and wife, Guadalupe, who led their family and community courageously despite ongoing threats.29
Jesusita Monroy.
Sister Renlund: Or Alma Richards, the first Latter-day Saint to win an Olympic medal, in part because he chose to live the Word of Wisdom.30
Elder Renlund: Or Hirini Whaanga, who, supported by his faithful wife, Mere, returned to his homeland in New Zealand as a missionary to preach and gather names for temple work.31
Sister Renlund: Or Helga Meiszus, who kept the faith as a young woman Latter-day Saint in Nazi Germany despite bullying by former friends, teachers, and school leaders.32
Elder Renlund: Or Evelyn Hodges, who worked as a social worker employed by the Relief Society to help families get back on their feet during the Great Depression.33
Sister Renlund: Well, we don’t have time to highlight anymore, but I know you will all want to read this third volume of Saints for yourselves.
Elder Renlund: For me, the perfect anthem for this period in Church history is “Hark, All Ye Nations!”34 that the choir will sing to close our meeting. “Hark, All Ye Nations!” was written by Louis F. Mönch, a native of Germany who joined the Church while traveling through Salt Lake City. He later served as a missionary for the Church in Switzerland and Germany. While on this mission, he published many materials in German, including “Hark, All Ye Nations!” It became one of the most loved hymns of German-speaking Latter-day Saints. It was first published in Germany in this hymnal in 1890. It was translated into other languages and published as part of the current hymnbook that we use. That version left out his third verse that the choir will also sing.
This third verse describes what the Saints we have talked about did in this era. They “honor[ed] the one and true living God. [Came] and [were] baptized; [held] to the rod. [Gave] Him [their] heart, with faith in His Son—Jesus, the Holy One.”
I invite you to read Saints to learn and understand the history of the Church and learn from the example of its members. Saints is extraordinarily well researched and reliable. It is a testament to the ongoing Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Our history is inspiring. This history is our shared heritage, whether we descend from early pioneers, later pioneers, or if we are pioneers in the faith.
Why does this matter? Why would we spend so much time telling these stories? It’s because these stories give us real-life examples of the power of coming to know our Savior. I know that Jesus Christ lives and leads this Church and watches over His covenant people, who are armed with the power of God in great glory. I invoke a blessing on you that you will feel the Savior’s love in your life as you draw closer to Him and His Church, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.