“Homesick for the Church”

In the 1920s, when she was a child, Heidi Kaspar’s family members were active Latter-day Saints. Heidi remembered her mother, who served as Primary president, taking all seven children in the family to Primary every Wednesday. Heidi was baptized at age eight and served in various callings when she was young. She considered it the greatest moment of her early life when, shortly after her 15th birthday, she met Church President Heber J. Grant during his visit to Switzerland.

After she’d grown up, however, her family situation disrupted the simple rhythms of faith that marked her childhood. Heidi’s parents divorced, and her mother chose to live with a man she had not married. “That was a bit difficult for us children,” Heidi recalled. It was hard for them to reconcile what they’d been taught with what they were experiencing in their home.

Heidi’s situation was further complicated when she married a man who was not a member of the Church. When they were dating, he’d gone to Church with her, but after their wedding in 1948 he’d forbidden her to attend. Heidi stayed away from the Church for nearly 20 years to try to keep peace in their home, but eventually the marriage fell apart, and she and her husband separated in 1965. During all those years, she never lost her testimony. “I was so homesick for the Church during my separation,” she said.

The Winterthur Ward was glad to welcome her back. She was glad to be back at church and especially enjoyed her time serving as ward mission leader. She worked hard to magnify her calling, putting up a street display every weekend and making it a goal to have members go work with missionaries each evening. “I wanted people to know that it’s not just Americans who are Mormons,” she said. “There are also Swiss members. And a Swiss member can maybe understand the mentality of an investigator better.”

In 1972, however, the bishop called her into his office because of new instructions that a ward mission leader needed to be a priesthood holder. Heidi, who wanted to continue her work, was deeply disappointed but did not let her questions about the change disrupt her discipleship. The next year, she was called to serve as the stake Relief Society president. In that calling, she worked closely with stake president Hans Ringger. His motto for leadership in the Church was “Do something! If it’s wrong, then you’ll learn from it. And if it’s good, you can be happy about it. But never do nothing!”

She took the counsel to heart. Especially when she worked with priesthood leaders who struggled to make decisions, she found that it helped to be proactive and assertive, making plans and bringing them for approval rather than waiting for direction. At times, she had to ask for old traditions to change in order to accomplish her work. “I am a woman who can assert herself,” she noted. And she had found a place for herself in the Church.