President Monson, in and out of Germany

A nice capsule summary of the life of President Monson:

“President Thomas S. Monson:  1927–2018”

In this 3.5-minute excerpt from an address years ago, President Monson tells the remarkable story of the approval of the construction of the Freiberg Germany Temple by the government of then-Communist East Germany — the German Democratic Republic — four years before the fall of the Berlin Wall:

“Freiberg Temple — Lord’s promise and East Germany’s approval — Thomas S. Monson”

Here, for those who understand German, are some responses from an area of the world for which President Monson long had a particular responsibility and in which he took special interest:

“Deutschland war für Präsident Thomas S. Monson eine Herzensangelegenheit”

“Ein großer Hirte hat die Erde verlassen”

Here’s an interesting twelve-minute KSL-TV interview with Sheri Dew — the president and CEO of Deseret Book and a former member of the general presidency of the Relief Society — about her experiences with President Monson:

https://www.facebook.com/ksltv/videos/10156414758948676/?hc_location=ufi

***

President Russell M. Nelson related a really interesting family story back in 2017:

“President Russell M Nelson on the Spirit World”

And, in case you would like to hear more of his thoughts on the subject (though he deliberately and expressly declines to share the stories that he’s heard over decades of treating cardiac patients), here’s a conference address that he delivered many years ago:

“Life after Life”

***

Rather relevantly, a quotation from the late Swiss-American psychiatrist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross:

“And after your death, when most of you for the first time realize what life here is all about, you will begin to see that your life here is almost nothing but the sum total of every choice you have made during every moment of your life.  Your thoughts, which you are responsible for, are as real as your deeds.  You will begin to realize that every word and every deed affects your life and has also touched thousands of lives.”

***

On a quite irrelevant note:  My wife and I are just back from attending a concert of the Utah Symphony, conducted by Thierry Fischer, in the De Jong Concert Hall at BYU.

During the first half of the concert, rather unusually, the orchestra interspersed the movements of Joseph Haydn’s Symphony No. 8 in G Major (“Le soir”) with various Slavonic Dances by Antonin Dvořák.

In the second half, the orchestra was joined by the superb violinist Hilary Hahn, who soloed in Dvořák’s Concerto in A minor for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 53.

It was an unusually entertaining symphonic concert.  Not only for the wonderful music but because Thierry Fischer is fun to watch.  And so, for that matter, is Hilary Hahn.