(Taken from Elder Scott Anderson’s journal)
We had an unexpected moment in the mission field. We knocked on a door and a lady said something to us we had never heard before. “Come in,” she told us. I was serving in a German mission and this never happened to us but this dear lady invited us in.
“Do you know who we are?” my companion asked.
“You want to talk about religion, don't you?” she said.
“Yes,” we explained. “We do.”
“Oh, come in,” she invited. “I've been watching you walk around the neighborhood. I’m so excited to have you here. Please come into my study.”
We went in and seated ourselves and she sat down behind a large desk.
She looked at us with a smile and then pointed to three PhD diplomas hanging on the wall just above her head. One was in Theology, the study of religion, another in Philosophy, the study of ideas, and the third was in European History specializing in Christianity.
She then rubbed her hands together and said, “See this row of books here?”
We looked at her well-arranged shelf of books.
“I wrote them all,” she told us. “I’m the Theology professor at the University of Munich. I've been doing this for 41 years. I love to talk about religion. What would you like to discuss?”
My inspired companion replied, “We’d like to talk about the Book of Mormon.”
“I don't know anything about the Book of Mormon,” she told us.
“I know,” responded my companion.
Twenty minutes later we ended our discussion, giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon as we left. I did not see this lady again for another eight and a half weeks.
I next saw her in a small room filled with people. She was standing near the front and was dressed completely in white. This Theology professor from the University of Munich, well known throughout Southern Germany, stood in front of a small congregation of people and declared, “Before I'm baptized I’d like to tell you my feelings. Amos, chapter 8 verse 11 states there will be a famine of the word of God. I have been in that famine for 76 years. Why do you think I have three PhD’s? I've been hungering for truth and have been unable to find it. Eight and a half weeks ago, two boys walked into my home. I want you to know these boys are very nice and wonderful young men, but they didn’t convert me. They couldn’t; they don’t know enough.”
She then smiled and said, “But since the day they walked in my door I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of Talmage’s great writings, Evidence and Reconciliations by John A. Widtsoe and 22 other volumes of church doctrine.” Then she said something which I think is a challenge for every one of us. “I don't think you members know what you have.” In her quiet yet powerful way, she added, “After all those years of studying philosophy, I picked up the D&C and read a few little verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and Socrates! When I read those verses, I wept for four hours. I just don’t think you members know what you have. Do you understand that the world is in a famine? Do you not realize we are starving for what you have? I am like a starving person being led to a feast. And over these eight and a half weeks I have been able to feast in a way I have never known possible.” She added, “These missionaries don't just carry membership in the church in their hands, they carry within their hands the power to make the atonement of Jesus Christ full force in my life. Today I'm going into the water and I'm going to make a covenant with Christ for the first time with proper authority. I’ve wanted to do this all my life.”
She ended her powerful message and her challenging statement with a favorite scripture, “The truth can make you free.”
None of us will forget the day that she was baptized. After her baptism she stood again, and before receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and said, “Now I would like to talk about the Holy Ghost for a while.” She then gave us a wonderful talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost.
(later in Elder Anderson’s journal)
Two young missionaries, both relatively new, (one had been out about five months, the other three weeks) accidentally knocked on the door of the seminary in Reagansburg. Inside, 125 wonderful men were studying to become priests. The Elders hadn’t realized they had knocked on the seminary door because it looked just like any other door. They were invited in.
In somewhat of a panic, the man answering the door said, “I am sorry we just don’t have time to visit with you at the moment.” The two missionaries were understandably relieved, but then the gentleman added, “Would you come back next Tuesday and spend two hours addressing all 125 of us and answer questions about your church?”
They agreed and walked away with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy. They called the mission president and cried for help. The mission president in turn called us and asked, “Do you think that dear lady that you have just brought in to the church would like to come help these two missionaries with this assignment?”
When I called her to ask if she would like to help these two missionaries, she replied, “More than I would like to eat, more than I would like to sleep, more than . . .” “that’s great!” I said. “You don’t need to explain.”
We drove her to the seminary and as we went in, she grabbed the two missionaries that had originally been invited, put her arms around them and said, “You are wonderful, young men. Would each of you spend about two minutes bearing your testimony and then sit down and be quiet please?” They were grateful for their assignment. They bore their testimonies and then seated themselves.
Then this dear woman stood and said, “For the next 30 minutes I would like to talk to you about historical apostasy.” She knew every date and fact. She had a Ph.D. in this subject. She talked about everything that had been taken away from the great teachings the Savior had given, mostly organizational, in the first part of her talk. The next 45 minutes was doctrinal. She gave every point of doctrinal changes, when it happened and what had changed. By the time she was done, she looked at 125 seminary students and declared, “In 1820 a boy walked into a grove of trees. He had been in a famine just like I have been. He knelt to pray, because he was hungry just like I have been. He saw God the Father and His Son. I know that is hard for you to believe that they could be two separate beings, but I know they are.” She shared scriptures that verified her statement and then continued, “I would like to talk about historical restoration of truth.”
Then, point by point, date by date, quoting scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, she laid out the organizational structure of Christ’s church. The last 20 minutes of her talk were brilliant. She doctrinally put the truth back in place, point by point, principle by principle.
When she finished this profound talk, she said, “I have been in a famine as talked about in Amos. You know that because last year I was here teaching you.” For the first time, we realized that she had been their Theology professor. She continued by saying, “Last year when I was teaching you, I told you that I was still in a famine. Well, I have been led to a feast. I invite you to join me.” She finished with her testimony and sat down.
What happened next was hard for me to understand. Theses 125 sincere, wonderful men stood and for the next 7 minutes gave our friend a standing ovation. By the time four minutes had gone by I was in tears. Standing with them I could see the tears in their eyes as well. I wondered why they were applauding after the message she had given. I asked many of them later and they responded, “To hear someone so unashamed of the truth, to hear someone teaching with such power, to hear someone who finally has conviction.”
The truth can set us free. Do we really know what we have?
We had an unexpected moment in the mission field. We knocked on a door and a lady said something to us we had never heard before. “Come in,” she told us. I was serving in a German mission and this never happened to us but this dear lady invited us in.
“Do you know who we are?” my companion asked.
“You want to talk about religion, don't you?” she said.
“Yes,” we explained. “We do.”
“Oh, come in,” she invited. “I've been watching you walk around the neighborhood. I’m so excited to have you here. Please come into my study.”
We went in and seated ourselves and she sat down behind a large desk.
She looked at us with a smile and then pointed to three PhD diplomas hanging on the wall just above her head. One was in Theology, the study of religion, another in Philosophy, the study of ideas, and the third was in European History specializing in Christianity.
She then rubbed her hands together and said, “See this row of books here?”
We looked at her well-arranged shelf of books.
“I wrote them all,” she told us. “I’m the Theology professor at the University of Munich. I've been doing this for 41 years. I love to talk about religion. What would you like to discuss?”
My inspired companion replied, “We’d like to talk about the Book of Mormon.”
“I don't know anything about the Book of Mormon,” she told us.
“I know,” responded my companion.
Twenty minutes later we ended our discussion, giving her a copy of the Book of Mormon as we left. I did not see this lady again for another eight and a half weeks.
I next saw her in a small room filled with people. She was standing near the front and was dressed completely in white. This Theology professor from the University of Munich, well known throughout Southern Germany, stood in front of a small congregation of people and declared, “Before I'm baptized I’d like to tell you my feelings. Amos, chapter 8 verse 11 states there will be a famine of the word of God. I have been in that famine for 76 years. Why do you think I have three PhD’s? I've been hungering for truth and have been unable to find it. Eight and a half weeks ago, two boys walked into my home. I want you to know these boys are very nice and wonderful young men, but they didn’t convert me. They couldn’t; they don’t know enough.”
She then smiled and said, “But since the day they walked in my door I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price, all of Talmage’s great writings, Evidence and Reconciliations by John A. Widtsoe and 22 other volumes of church doctrine.” Then she said something which I think is a challenge for every one of us. “I don't think you members know what you have.” In her quiet yet powerful way, she added, “After all those years of studying philosophy, I picked up the D&C and read a few little verses that answered some of the greatest questions of Aristotle and Socrates! When I read those verses, I wept for four hours. I just don’t think you members know what you have. Do you understand that the world is in a famine? Do you not realize we are starving for what you have? I am like a starving person being led to a feast. And over these eight and a half weeks I have been able to feast in a way I have never known possible.” She added, “These missionaries don't just carry membership in the church in their hands, they carry within their hands the power to make the atonement of Jesus Christ full force in my life. Today I'm going into the water and I'm going to make a covenant with Christ for the first time with proper authority. I’ve wanted to do this all my life.”
She ended her powerful message and her challenging statement with a favorite scripture, “The truth can make you free.”
None of us will forget the day that she was baptized. After her baptism she stood again, and before receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and said, “Now I would like to talk about the Holy Ghost for a while.” She then gave us a wonderful talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost.
(later in Elder Anderson’s journal)
Two young missionaries, both relatively new, (one had been out about five months, the other three weeks) accidentally knocked on the door of the seminary in Reagansburg. Inside, 125 wonderful men were studying to become priests. The Elders hadn’t realized they had knocked on the seminary door because it looked just like any other door. They were invited in.
In somewhat of a panic, the man answering the door said, “I am sorry we just don’t have time to visit with you at the moment.” The two missionaries were understandably relieved, but then the gentleman added, “Would you come back next Tuesday and spend two hours addressing all 125 of us and answer questions about your church?”
They agreed and walked away with overwhelming feelings of inadequacy. They called the mission president and cried for help. The mission president in turn called us and asked, “Do you think that dear lady that you have just brought in to the church would like to come help these two missionaries with this assignment?”
When I called her to ask if she would like to help these two missionaries, she replied, “More than I would like to eat, more than I would like to sleep, more than . . .” “that’s great!” I said. “You don’t need to explain.”
We drove her to the seminary and as we went in, she grabbed the two missionaries that had originally been invited, put her arms around them and said, “You are wonderful, young men. Would each of you spend about two minutes bearing your testimony and then sit down and be quiet please?” They were grateful for their assignment. They bore their testimonies and then seated themselves.
Then this dear woman stood and said, “For the next 30 minutes I would like to talk to you about historical apostasy.” She knew every date and fact. She had a Ph.D. in this subject. She talked about everything that had been taken away from the great teachings the Savior had given, mostly organizational, in the first part of her talk. The next 45 minutes was doctrinal. She gave every point of doctrinal changes, when it happened and what had changed. By the time she was done, she looked at 125 seminary students and declared, “In 1820 a boy walked into a grove of trees. He had been in a famine just like I have been. He knelt to pray, because he was hungry just like I have been. He saw God the Father and His Son. I know that is hard for you to believe that they could be two separate beings, but I know they are.” She shared scriptures that verified her statement and then continued, “I would like to talk about historical restoration of truth.”
Then, point by point, date by date, quoting scripture from the Doctrine and Covenants, she laid out the organizational structure of Christ’s church. The last 20 minutes of her talk were brilliant. She doctrinally put the truth back in place, point by point, principle by principle.
When she finished this profound talk, she said, “I have been in a famine as talked about in Amos. You know that because last year I was here teaching you.” For the first time, we realized that she had been their Theology professor. She continued by saying, “Last year when I was teaching you, I told you that I was still in a famine. Well, I have been led to a feast. I invite you to join me.” She finished with her testimony and sat down.
What happened next was hard for me to understand. Theses 125 sincere, wonderful men stood and for the next 7 minutes gave our friend a standing ovation. By the time four minutes had gone by I was in tears. Standing with them I could see the tears in their eyes as well. I wondered why they were applauding after the message she had given. I asked many of them later and they responded, “To hear someone so unashamed of the truth, to hear someone teaching with such power, to hear someone who finally has conviction.”
The truth can set us free. Do we really know what we have?
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