Mikey's Musings

Die Heiligen der letzten Tage

I currently work as a research assistant for a professor where I have the opportunity to interview German Latter-day Saints who survived WWII. It's quite the fulfilling job! I'm always amazed at the courage these people had to be able to go through the circumstances they went through in Germany during the war. I listen to their stories, and at the end of the interview I always ask, "How did you maintain your testimony of the gospel during everything you went through?" Their response is almost without fail, "We had to in those times. It's what got us through." Their answer reminds me of a talk Elder Jeffrey R. Holland once said in a Mission Conference in Frankfurt, 2004. He said something to the effect that, because we are here experiencing this earthly life, we have already made the decision (in the pre-mortal realm) that we would live the commandments of our Heavenly Father; he said that there is no reason why we should be making those decisions again in this life. The German Latter-day Saints reflect this frame of mind in the way they respond to my question.

Today I met with a German who was a missionary in east Germany. Because of privacy reasons, I won't share anything she told me; however, listening to the things she went through put all of my problems in their proper perspective (which was that they are super insignificant and shouldn't really be classified as problems). I was amazed that, despite the incredible sorrow and sacrifice she faced and endured, she was not bitter about the events and losses she experienced. She impressed me greatly with how she still smiled and laughed, as though she had an assurance that most people in those similar situations didn't have.

I'm grateful there's an assurance of peace when we live our lives as best we know how; and that that assurance can grow brighter and brighter when we seek to know the Lord's will and follow it. Joseph Smith once called the Germans "an exalted people,"¹ and the Germans who came out of that war as better people prove the validity of that statement.

1. ^{"Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith: Compiled by Joseph Fielding Smith", Deseret Book Company, 1976, p 364}