President Dieter F. Uchtdorf is the first member of the Quorum of the Twelve in many years who was born outside the United States. He sees that fact as simply an indication of the ever-growing church.
President Uchtdorf and his wife, Harriet, said they love their homeland and their family, friends and fellow saints in Germany and Europe. But their love for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has no borders.
He was sustained as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve in October 2004 with Elder David A. Bednar. He was set apart as second counselor in the First Presidency on Feb. 3, 2008, and he was sustained April 5, 2008, in the solemn assembly in general conference.
He was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventy in April 1994, the First Quorum of the Seventy in April 1996 and to the Presidency of the Seventy in August 2002. During those years President Uchtdorf has served in area presidencies in Europe and the United States. In the past year, President Utchdorf attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama, offered the opening prayer at the Utah Legislature, spoke at Brigham Young University's commencement, participated in the dedication of the Draper and Oquirrh Mountain temples and one of his trips included a 12-day tour that included England, Ukraine and Russia.
"I feel immediately at home when I am with the Saints, even if they speak different languages," Sister Uchtdorf said. "I love everyone," to which President Uchtdorf added, "Irrespective of nationality, of political orientation, of color, of language" because of the understanding that all people, as children of God, are brothers and sisters.
A man of impressive stature and dignified demeanor, President Uchtdorf speaks with a voice that is gentle and loving. That voice is sometimes nearly inaudible as he sincerely and humbly bears his testimony. In several talks, he shares stories and lessons from his career as a pilot.
He is a German who was born Nov. 6, 1940, in Ostrava, Morava, in the Czech Republic.
His family joined the church as a result of a missionary-minded, elderly woman who invited his grandmother to church in East Germany. Through that invitation, his family joined the church and he was baptized two years after his family, when he turned 8 years old in 1948.
By the time he was a deacon, his family had moved to Frankfurt, where they attended a branch.
At that time, Sister Uchtdorf's family was mourning the death of her father from cancer. Eight months after he died, the missionaries knocked on the door of the Reich household.
"When the missionaries came and taught us about the plan of salvation … it was something I hadn't heard before, but it was familiar to me. And for my mother (still grieving over the death of her husband), it was a revelation."
Sister Uchtdorf remembers the first time her family attended church, and her impression with one of the hymns sung that day: "Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel."
President Uchtdorf doesn't remember the specific meeting, but says it is very likely he was there because his family was active in the same branch.
Sister Uchtdorf, baptized at age 12, said she has always loved to attend church. President Uchtdorf said he was also happy that the new convert was in the meetings because he was attracted to the beautiful young girl with large dark eyes.
They learned to dance together at church but, through their teen years, she did not feel the same affection for him that he felt for her. And besides, he said, "Everybody loved Harriet."
As an older teenager, at a time when he would have been drafted into the military anyway, he joined the German Air Force to fulfill his dream to be a pilot. Germany did not have a training program for fighter pilots at that time, so he earned his wings in both the German and U.S. air forces in Texas and Arizona.
Returning to Germany, he found that Harriet Reich was still single and this time he was able to win her heart. "I endured to the end," he said with a smile.
They married in the Swiss Temple (now the Bern Switzerland Temple) in 1962.
After leaving the military, President Uchtdorf became a commercial pilot for Lufthansa German Airlines in 1965, a career in which he would rise to the top levels of management.
He was chief pilot and senior vice president for flight operations for Lufthansa when he decided to retire in 1995. A member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, he wanted more time to spend on his church calling. Shortly after that, President Thomas S. Monson, then a counselor in the First Presidency, extended a call to him to serve in the First Quorum of the Seventy.
"President Monson said, 'By the way, you'll have to retire now from Lufthansa,' " President Uchtdorf recalled, to which he replied, "I already have."
Their two children and six grandchildren are in Europe, and President and Sister Uchtdorf will continue their service while living in the United States.
That is a reversal of another key element in President Uchtdorf's life, he said. As a young man, he felt some lure to move to the United States where there were economic opportunities as well as additional church blessings — such as stakes and temples — not then available in Germany.
But he said that Elder Theodore M. Burton, then serving as mission president in Europe, counseled him to stay home and build the church there. Faithfully following that counsel, he became an important instrument in the building of a stake and temple in Frankfurt.
Compiled from Deseret News and Church News reports