Above, the Maeser Memorial Building at BYU
(Click to enlarge. Click again to enlarge further.)
We’re meeting in the large Darmstadt chapel, which, it turns out, was the home meetinghouse (until he and his wife were obliged to move) of a German Latter-day Saint by the name of Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Brother Uchtdorf had considerable success as an aviator and as an executive, serving for more than a decade as chief pilot and senior vice president for flight operations of Lufthansa German Airlines. Since 1994, however, he has gone on to hold significant leadership roles elsewhere, as some of you may be aware.
The first speaker this morning was Ulrich Rückauer, who presented a very interesting overview of the history of the Church in German-speaking Europe, including information about Joseph Smith’s prophecies on the matter and the Prophet’s fascination with the German language and Luther’s translation of the Bible. (There’s more on this topic than one might at first guess.) A lawyer and a former stake president, Brother Rückauer is quite optimistic about the future of the Church in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
We’re now listening to Laura and Brian Hales, who are addressing the theology underpinning Joseph Smith’s introduction of plural marriage, as well as the history of early Mormon polygamy.
Posted from Darmstadt, Germany
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