President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Childhood. Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf was born November 6, 1940 in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia to Karl Albert Uchtdorf, a German customs official and his wife, Hilde Else Opeltt. My father, was drafted into the army and sent to the western front of the war. As the war raged with more severity and the eastern front moved toward our town, my mother, alone with her four children and in an effort to protect them, made the decision to leave our home and all our earthly possessions behind and head west, toward the home of her parents in East Germany.

It was the winter of 1944--one of the coldest, harshest winters of World War II. My mother instructed us to take only warm clothes and food, but no other possessions. At this time, we were members of the Lutheran Church, not even aware that there was a restored Church of Jesus Christ. Considering this, it is interesting that she took most of our family records and family pictures on our flight to the west.

As a four-year-old boy, I was so sad as we left behind our nice home with all my toys and a large balcony. How I loved this balcony and the view it provided, even though I once got my head stuck between two of its pillars; my ears--my pretty big ears--kept me from getting back out again. Fortunately, there was my mother to help and a big crowd to watch.

We were on one of the last refugee trains heading westward, and the journey, which would usually take one or two days, took us almost two weeks. Traveling in a freezing train, stopping over in refugee camps, and heading out toward the west again--exhaustion, hunger, and fear were the continuous ingredients of this perilous flight.

One night the train stopped again at a train station, and, as usual, my mother stepped out in search of some food for us children. Often, kind people came to those stations and brought milk and bread and other food for the refugee children. But this time when my mother returned with some precious food for us, the train was gone, with all of her four children in it. During this time of the war, many family members were separated from each other, never to be united again. There she was, in a war zone, without her husband, alone on deserted railroad tracks, realizing that she had just lost all of her children! Later she shared with us how lonely and devastated she felt. The physical stress of the effort to flee to the west, and the emotional stress culminating in the apparent loss of all her children in a few minutes of time, was overwhelming to her. She started to pray--the only source of solace
available to her at that desperate time. I know today that the Light of Christ moved her to pray with faith, as a good Lutheran, and then to get up and look around to see if she could find the train somewhere else at the station. After a short period of terror and despair, she got on her feet and moved from one track to another and eventually found our train on a parallel track quite a distance away, where it had been moved during her absence.

With the protection of God, and under the inspired leadership of our mother, we reached her hometown and were reunited with her parents in Zwickau, East Germany. Those dangerous days, as we fled in front of an oncoming army, and the following months, as the war came to an end, were among the most troublesome of our lives. Someof my memories of these days are of darkness, of night, of coldness. But with the help of

God, we were moved into a place where a light was shining forth for all who came out of that darkness and coldness and who were willing to accept the Savior's invitation: "come and see" (John 1:39). It was in this town of Zwickau that my grandmother was invited by an elderly single woman--an elderly single woman--to attend church with her. The setting was still desperate--the war was just over; food was scarce, and so were all other goods, like coal to heat our homes or cook our meals; houses were destroyed; and a family was fortunate if they were all still alive and had a roof over their heads.

My grandmother accepted the invitation of this dear single sister to attend sacrament meeting with her. Her name was Sister Ewig, and she invited my grandmother to church. This act of kindness might appear small and not too hard to do, but it changed our lives forever. Looking back from today's circumstances of comfort, it is almost unbelievable what was happening then. We attended church in a cold, cramped back room meeting place with electricity often failing, leaving us in the dark. But at the same time, this room was filled with the Spirit, and the divine light of the message of the restored gospel was in great abundance, and we were surrounded by the love, friendship, and helping hands of the dear members. When our family went there, we saw many children. All of us were very impressed by the families, the children, and the music, especially the singing. I felt at home right away

All of our family joined the Church. All were baptized except me, because I was only six at the time. Two years later I was baptized too, in a local indoor swimming pool by one of the Church leaders in our branch. Because of the circumstances during the postwar poverty, I had not learned to swim at this young age and was apprehensive to enter the water to be baptized. This was my first experience in a public indoor swimming pool. I will always remember the feeling of warmth, safety, and importance as I came out of the water after this sacred ordinance had been performed.

How grateful I am to these two women of the Church--my grandmother and my mother! They are true modern-day pioneers! They went before and ventured into new spiritual territory. They helped me to gain a testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. They had faith, and they radiated love to a little boy, even in places and times of darkness, despair, and coldness. The light of the gospel, bright as the sun, lighted up their life in these challenging times.

And then in return, the warmth of their light and example helped me to feel secure and well grounded in the principles of the gospel. Teachings of the Gospel helped the family cope with the devastation that surrounded them. "One of the things I appreciated very much as a youngster was the saying, 'If the Lord is with you, who can be against you?'" Elder Uchtdorf said in a interview with the Church News. "It gave me strength to go ahead in difficult times."

We met for church in an old villa. Our chapel had a stained-glass window of Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove. Whenever the sun shone on it, I felt that the story it illustrated and what I had learned in Primary about the First Vision were true. I knew that was how Joseph Smith received his revelation and how the return to earth of Jesus Christ’s Church started. This testimony was very important to me, and I learned to appreciate Joseph Smith very much.

We had a pump organ in our chapel. I wanted to help at church, and pumping the organ was one of my jobs when I was eight and nine years old. It felt wonderful to contribute to sacrament meeting by pumping the organ so the congregation could sing.

One song, “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” really impressed me. I felt very close to Jesus when I sang it. I knew He wanted me to be a sunbeam for Him. I have never forgotten that song—I still love it—or the testimony it gave me of the Savior.

I share these very personal experiences with you today, hoping to impress upon you that wherever you live, whatever circumstances you live in, whatever your background or challenges might be, the gospel light has the power and purpose to bring blessings into your life and into the lives of those placed in your path. The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to bring blessings to our Heavenly Father's children. You are planted in your country, your community, your family to facilitate these blessings. I urge you to bloom where you are planted!

A few years after my baptism, my family became refugees for a second time. The political regime in East Germany perceived my father as a dissident. His life was at risk, and we had to leave the country overnight, leaving behind everything we possessed.

Again we had only the clothes we wore, some food for the trip, and family records, as well as family pictures. By the time I was 11, we had been refugees twice within only seven years. But this time we had already received the gospel of Jesus Christ. We had made covenants with the Lord through baptism, and we came to a branch in Frankfurt, West Germany, with other members who had the same principles and precious values.

Until my father could find a job like he had before, he and my mother operated a laundry to make a living, and I was the laundry delivery boy. I saw some shiny red bicycles, and I wished I could have one to make my deliveries. But I needed a heavy-duty bicycle to pull the cart with the laundry on it. I rode around pulling that heavy laundry cart before school and after school. It was hard to see the other children play, especially during the winter months. But everybody in our family had to work hard, and I knew I was an important part of the family business. I felt needed and valued.

Youth. As I grew older, I learned not only the value of hard work but also about the blessings of doing things that at the time you don’t realize are important and good for you. During World War II, when I was very little, I came down with a lung disease, but no one knew it at the time. I knew I was easily out of breath when I rode the delivery bicycle. I thought it was because the cart was heavy. Later, when I joined the air force, I learned that because of that hard work, somehow my body had healed itself. I had built up endurance. I had built up immunity to disease. I had built up strength. When the doctors saw those spots on my lungs, they questioned me about them. They reported that the disease took care of itself, and they said I passed my physical. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to become a pilot. I have been a pilot for 35 years, and I was a chief pilot for Lufthansa German Airlines. As a lad growing up in post-war Germany, Dieter was faced with decisions on how to order his life. Crediting good leaders, Dieter stayed close to the Gospel and attended his assigned meetings regularly.

How He Met His Wife. Into this branch, just a few years later, came a young widow with her two daughters. The missionaries had found this beautiful family. When I saw Harriet the first time, with her dark brown eyes, I thought, "These missionaries are really doing a great job!" Even as a teenager I liked Harriet quite a lot.

My bold advances, however, showed only marginal success. I tried, for instance, to influence the seating at the sacrament table so I could pass the sacrament to her. This did not impress her very much. On my way to Church activities during the week, I usually rode my nice bicycle and often stopped at their home to ask if Harriet would want to have a ride to church on my bicycle. Harriet never accepted; she always declined. Sometimes, however, her mother was there and would say, "Harriet will walk, but I will gladly ride with you on your bike to church." This wasn't really what I was hoping for at the time, but I later realized it is an advantage to be on good terms with the mother of the girl ofyour dreams!

In another interview, speaking of how they met, President Uchtdorf said that itt was while attending MIA as a thirteen year old priesthood bearer, that he first met, Harriet, who later became his wife. "I always loved her," he recalled. "I fell for her from the very beginning, even as a Deacon. She was a very beautiful girl. She still is." If it was love at first sight for Dieter, the same cannot be said for Harriet. Though they enjoyed learning to dance together, it was not until after he had completed his military duty and came back to Germany to begin his airline pilot training that she began to appreciate that he might be the right man. They were married December 14, 1962 in the Swiss Temple and have two children.

Sister Carmen Reich, my mother-in-law, was truly an elect lady. She embraced the gospel in a most difficult and dark time of her life, and she liberated herself from grief and sorrow. As a young woman and a widow, and the mother of two young girls, she emancipated herself from a world of old traditions into a world of great spirituality. She embraced the teachings of the gospel, with its intellectual and spiritual power, on a fast track. As you heard, when the missionaries gave her the Book of Mormon and invited her to read the marked verses, she read the whole book within a few days. She knew things beyond the understanding of her peers because she knew them by the Spirit of God. She was the humblest of the humble, the wisest of the wise, because she was willing and pure enough to believe when God had spoken. She was baptized November 7, 1954, and was asked by the missionary who baptized her to write her testimony down in December, only a few weeks after her baptism. The missionary wanted to use her testimony in his teachings to help others feel the true spirit of conversion. Fortunately, Elder Jenkins kept the handwritten original for more than 40 years and then returned it to her as a very special and loving gift. What a wonderful act of love. Carmen Reich, my dear mother-in-law, passed away in 2000 at age 83.

In 1951 and 1952 I attended the Frankfurt Branch, which was not as big as the one in Zwickau. The Frankfurt meetinghouse was small, and we had classes in the basement. I recall missionaries teaching us important gospel principles. One missionary, Elder Stringham, impressed me very much with his teaching about the Pearl of Great Price, especially where Moses is being taught he is a son of God. Another thing Elder Stringham taught me was the scripture that says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) This gave me comfort and courage, because at that time the future looked bleak in Germany. The city of Frankfurt was in ruins with bombed-out buildings. That teaching has stayed with me throughout my life. It taught me I need to be on the Lord’s side. I cannot afford not to be on the Lord’s side.

College years. Though times may have been difficult, young Dieter did persevere... as a member of the Church, as a student, and in his career He studied engineering and later continued his education in business administration in Cologne, Germany, and international management in Lausanne, Switzerland. Elder Uchtdorf joined the German air force (Luftwaffe) in 1959 and received his pilot wings in Big Spring, Texas, and fighter pilot training in Phoenix, Arizona. After leaving the Luftwaffe, he attended airline pilot school and graduated in 1965.

He also attended Business Administration School in Cologne, Germany and the International Management Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland. He pursued a career as an airline pilot, flying for Lufthansa Airlines beginning in 1970. He quickly moved into management positions, serving as head of cockpit crews, then director of inflight services, and as head of Lufthansa's airline pilot school. After a stint as the check and training captain for Boeing 747s, he became Senior Vice President for flight operations and Chief Pilot for the airline.

Career as a pilot. He worked as an airline captain from 1970 to 1996, flying multiple types of airplanes and completing his career flying the B747. He held several executive positions, including head of the airline pilot school, director of in-flight services, and head of cockpit crews. At the time of his call as a General Authority, he was the senior vice president of flight operations and chief pilot of Lufthansa German Airlines. He was also chairman of the Flight Operations Committee of the International Air Transport Association. He has served as a board member for several government and business executive committees.

Grandparents. Elder and Sister Uchtdorf love to travel. They have visited most parts of the world. They enjoy hiking, dancing, classical music, and spending time with their children and grandchildren, who all live in Europe

As a pilot, I flew all over the world. In all those 35 years, I never got tired of looking out the window at the stars, the clouds, the landscapes. I could see the beauty of the different countries with their different cultures. I know from going to those different places and seeing the people and the Church in those different places that the gospel is for everyone, no matter what nation you live in or what your traditions are. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word of God, whether it is written in the scriptures or spoken by the living prophets, whether we read it in Church magazines or hear it at general conferences, is for every culture, in every nation.

I challenge you children to follow the words of the prophets. When you do, you will find the answers to your questions, whether you are 6, 9, 11, 19, or, like me, 57 years old. (April 1999, Liahona, Friend to Friend)

At thirty-five thousand feet, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gained a perspective of the vastness, the glory, and the diversity of the earth. His career as a pilot for Lufthansa Airlines has afforded him that perspective and an appreciation for the beauty of God's handiwork. “I see how beautiful the deserts and the jungles and the seas are,” he said in an interview with the Ensign. “Even after ten long hours in a cockpit, I am amazed at the sunrise. I marvel at the world’s different cultures. Everyone is different, and yet we are the same.”

The Uchtdorfs have witnessed near miraculous events in their native Germany. Rising from the ashes of World War II, Germany became an economic powerhouse. And as Germany's economic engine grew more powerful, so also was the growth of the Church. "Years ago, President Monson came to Germany and dedicated the land again and blessed it. That was when the wall was still up. It was a terrible situation in East Germany. I thought that Germany would be reunited at some time but I thought that it would be my great-great-grandchildren who would see it. But after President Monson's blessing, things changed quickly. We had a temple built in East Germany. The political situation changed completely, and the wall fell down. You can take the blessing and check all the things President Monson said and they've all been fulfilled."

Church service. At the present time, Germany hosts two temples and the Church is strong, stable, and growing therein. Elder Uchtdorf and Harriet have played no small role in this remarkable growth. He has served as a Young Men's President, in an Elder's Quorum Presidency, as a Stake Missionary, a Stake High Councilor, a Stake Mission President, Vice-Chairman of the Frankfurt Temple Committee, and twice as a Stake President. In April of 1994, after nine years as President of the Mannheim Germany Stake, he was given a five-year call to enter the ranks of the General Authorities as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. He would serve but two of those five years before being called into the First Quorum of the Seventy on April 6, 1996. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf was named as Second Counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 4, 2008. He was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on October 2. 2004. He has served as a General Authority since April 1994, and served as a member of the Presidency of the Seventy from August 2002 until his call to the Twelve.

Family Home Evening Game: To learn more about President Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency, match the lettered pictures above with the clues below.

___ 1. Elder Uchtdorf was raised in this country.

___ 2. He is the first Apostle to be called in more than 50 years who was not born in the United States, but he says he was not called to represent a certain group of people. Like all Apostles, he represents this perfect man.

___ 3. As a child, he worked hard in the family business, pulling a laundry cart behind one of these.

___ 4. Growing up in a war-torn city where buildings had been bombed, he found hope in reading and learning from these. One of his favorite verses was Romans 8:31: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” He says: “This gave me comfort and courage, because at that time the future looked bleak.”

___ 5. The Church building he attended as a small child had a stained-glass window depicting this event. Whenever the light shone through the glass, he thought about his testimony and developed a stronger appreciation for Joseph Smith.

___ 6. One of his first callings as a child was to pump this instrument so the congregation could sing.

___ 7. He married Harriet Reich, and they were sealed here in December 1962. They have two children.

___ 8. For 35 years he operated one of these. He eventually became chief pilot and senior vice president of flight operations for an airline.

___ 9. As he flew, he never grew tired of seeing these out the window. He also says: “I could see the beauty of the different countries with their different cultures. I know from going to those different places and seeing the people and the Church in those different places that the gospel is for everyone, no matter what nation you live in or what your traditions are. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Adapted from “Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Seventy,” Liahona, Apr. 1999, F2–F4; see Friend, June 1998, 7–8; “Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2004, 125–26.

Answers:

1E (Germany), 2A, 3D, 4I, 5B (First Vision), 6C, 7H (Bern Switzerland Temple), 8G, 9F.

Sources for the quotes in the summary included: Grandpa Bills GA website, Speech from Woman's Conference by Elder Uchtdorf, Liahona, Anne Marie's Musings Website, and LDS.Org Website of Press Release.