Mission  Blog.  July 16, 2012

I have had a very spiritual experience.  When we first arrived, and at our second GML (ward missionary council meeting)  We were asked to introduce ourselves by telling about our first mission.  Elder Storrer told about his first mission and then they said to me in English, “Sister Storrer, tell us about your first mission.”

I thought, now I never went on a mission when I was young.  And then the thought came to me that yes I did, I had chosen to be a mother.  But I did not have vocabulary enough to tell it.  I was told that most understood English and I could speak it in English.  So I began.  “As a mother of ten children my mission was to teach them to love the Lord and want to serve him.  The spirit just took over and I bore my testimony about reading the Book of Mormon as a family daily and how I know it is why all of our children are active in the church and married to wonderful spouses who also love the Lord and want the same for their children.

Brother Schubert, the ex mission president to Berlin  and also a professional translator, (which I did not know at the time,) asked me to please write that up and give me a copy.”  This I did.  Several weeks later he gave it back to me and when I thanked him for it, he told me that I needed to talk about that sometime.

So here we are 5 ½ months later.  It had been nagging me that I needed to  bear my testimony using that.  Well it was longer than any testimony I have given here, so I thought maybe I would rewrite it.  I went to get it out of the drawer and could not find it.  So now I figured I really had an excuse not to use it.  I opened the internet to Babylon translator and also word and began to write it.  Now the second is seldom as good as the first, but I thought I would have Norm proof it as Babylon is not perfect, expecially when they can only translate and miss the spirit of it.  Also the word for sealed is locked, so they miss LDS religious translations as well.  That was Monday the 9^th.

Wednesday the 10^th in the evening a call came.  I knew it was Bruder Martinz, the excutive Secretary to the Bishop. Because E. Storrer had acknowledged him.  The conversation was in English, so I knew immediately that he had asked if I would speak, and they would have some one translate for me.  I told E. Storrer, that I had prepared a talk and it was in German.  This he relayed.  Well B. Martinz said that he would have to clear the subject with the Bishop.  E. Storrer asked him what the subject was, and it was perfect.  As it was about teaching our children to understand the gospel.

We immediately went to work.  In the end I went back to the drawer and found the first, right on top where I had put it.  I would combine items from the two testimonies and add some quotes. 

We would revise that talk about 6-7 times as it was done carefully and prayerfully.  Then I would read it over and over for word pronunciation.  I would also compare it to the English that was written first, and continually changed. With each revision, it was almost like starting over.  Each change, each addition had to be learned the same way.  I knew I could never just give it, but it would have to be read.  I also knew they would forgive me.  But I also knew that I had to have the right intonations and  pauses, and able to let them know I knew what I was talking about.  I also know that I can slaughter the German with thick English pronunciation.  So I took it several times to the Lord.   I only asked him that if it was what he wanted me to say that he help me by loosening my tongue.  I told him it did not have to be perfect, but understood so that they could grasp the message.

I also knew that I had to work hard and be as prepared as I could be so that the Lord knew the intent of my heart and would help me.  So I arrive at church, with no other accompanist for either Relief Society, or Sacrament Meeting, including practicing before church with the choir.  Now having to sight read German hymns at the last minute is not easy.  I had practiced the choral number, but went through the four songs the congregation would be singing and one was in German.  I saw a very full plate, but it did help me take my mind off of the talk.

When I stood to speak I began to stumble over the German and so a prayer went quickly through my mind. By the second paragraph it was all familiar to me, and flowed rather smoothly.  I had to concentrate very hard on what I was saying  Then as the spirit took over tears started to flow down my cheeks and I had to stop several seconds gather my courage and strength.  I knew that tears would blur what I was reading.

As we talked about it, prayed about it and kept reworking it, suddenly Elder Storrer said “I feel strongly that this may be the most important thing we do while on our mission.  It is true.  As we have studied the rolls of the church, I have had such strong feelings.  As we study our YSA lists for both wards, I have been disturbed.  We have over 65 JAE age and only 8-9 average in attendance to institute.  Granted some of those invited to institute are married, and raising families and also very active in church.  Some live so far away and the church is clear across town from the Bahnhoff making it possibly a bus ride, a train ride, and two more bus rides to get to church.  Some of them live far enough away that attending church regularly is almost an impossibility, especially in the winter when they are snowed in, in mountain villages.  These kids attend all of the Taglungs.  But many of them, especially the young men are not active, and the rolls indicate that most were only deacons or priests or no priesthood at all.  Interestingly many are from active parents.  In one family the younger brother was a teacher while the older brother held no priesthood.  I asked myself why.  Each time it would come to me how Bruder Schubert asked me to give my testimony and experience of teaching our children by daily reading of the Book of Mormon.  The spirit had been working on me for several months, until it was too strong to quit the procrastination.

This was not my talk. It was the Lord’s talk.  I was only the messenger.  I felt like Moses and Enoch when they told the Lord that they were slow in speech.  It was very humbling knowing that I speak very little German, haltingly and turning to Elder Storrer for vocabulary words—even of words I know but can never remember.  Yet Elder Storrer told me that I only messed up on the pronunciation of two words, and he understood it all.  The missionaries assured me that they could understand it very well.  Sister Roth asked me if she could take my talk to reread, and promised to bring it back the next Sunday.  I had thought that maybe she didn’t understand it, so was a little worried, until Norm reminded me that the Lord always keeps his promise.  (Which was in my talk.)  Satan will always have us doubt, if he can.  So I pray that it helped at least one family.

For my posterity here is the English version of what I gave:

If we are building a house we use a plan.  Without using the plan and proper tools our house could not be built.  Heavenly Father has given us a wonderful plan for our house and he has given us the tools to build it.  The two most important tools are Scripture and prayer.

Today our children need to understand the scriptures. They need to be spiritually converted while young.  It will happen in the homes where scripture study and prayer is a daily habit.

In last April Conference Sister Cheryl of the Primary General Presidency said, “This divine privilege of raising our children is a much greater responsibility than we can do alone, without the Lord’s help.  She also said, “Teaching our children to understand is more than just imparting information.  It’s helping our children get the doctrine into their hearts.

The mother is the spiritual guide in the home. She plans Family Home Evening, insists on daily Scripture study and insists on family prayer, when father is not available or does not do it.

I have a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon, in raising children.  Joseph Smith said, “I told the brethren that if they keep its precepts, they will come closer to God than by any other way”.

My mission was to raise 10 children to love the Lord and want to serve him.  As an LDS mother my goal was to raise all my sons so that they would desire to serve missions.  All six sons and one daughter chose to serve a mission for their Heavenly Father.

In 1974 my mother called me.  While visiting the Idaho Falls Temple with President Spencer W. Kimball, Marion G. Romney gave a promise that if we read the Book of Mormon to our children daily, they would be obedient.

As a young mother with 7 children who were typical  I wanted them to be obedient.  And so we started reading the Book of Mormon every day.  Sometimes it was hard.  Sometimes we would forget.  But we continued to get better about it and it became a habit.

In the April conference of 1986 President Ezra Taft Benson reaffirmed the promise of  Marion G. Romney.

In our home prayer was a very vital part of our lives.  This included Priesthood blessings.  It was so common that our 3 year old son, concerned that his father was ill, placed his hands upon his head and attempted to do for his father what his father had done many times for him.

Their father loved the Lord and during every evening meal he would lead discussions about the Gospel of Christ and teach our children as we ate. We taught them to love one another and to love other people.  We taught them that this was one of the most important things they could do.  On his first day of preschool, our youngest son was skipping along beside me.  He kept saying, “I hope they will like me.  Oh, I hope they will like me.”

I told him, “Degen if you are always kind to people they will always like you.” 

When our third son was sixteen, he wanted to rebel.  He decided that he would no longer read scriptures or attend family prayer.  So his father went to him.  He shared the family daily scriptures with him and then knelt beside him to pray.  His brother reported that he always prayed before bedtime.  I guess his father made it too hard for him to rebel.  Today this son is sealed in the temple to a wonderful woman.  He sees that his children study the Book of Mormon daily, because he has a testimony of it.

We have ten children.  7 Served missions.  All ten are married in the temple and trying to teach our grandchildren with daily family prayer and scripture study.  I believe the promises made by the servants of the Lord. We need a very strong generation of children to withstand the worldly temptations that lead us away from God.  In D&C it tells us, “to stand in Holy Places and be not moved until the Savior comes.”

Daily prayer and studying the scriptures helps us stand in that Holy Place, our homes, which fulfills the Saviors’ promise.

Yes, I am happy that all of my children are faithful.  But I bear you this testimony because we are being sent god’s most valiant spirits There is a way that they will resist the world’s temptations.  Our prophets are always telling us to pray daily and study our scriptures daily as a family.  This is the most powerful tool we have to influence our children to love the Lord and stay close to him.

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Today when family get together the talk always turns to discussing the gospel.  We are always excited to share a recent discovered scripture to learn and strengthen each other.  This is not just our children but also our sons and daughters-in-law.  It has become a tradition in our family.  And we have noticed the same tradition with some of the families here in Salzburg.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this became the tradition that all Salzburger families were famous for.  How that would strengthen God’s kingdom in Austria.

Bruce D. Porter of the council of Seventies

” Those who honor the calling of righteous parenthood will find their souls refined, their hearts purified, and their minds enlightened by the most important lessons of life.”

I say this in the Name of Jesus Christ.  Amen