Besides being the year the LDS Church dedicated its first temple inside the former Soviet Union, 2010 marks several key LDS anniversaries in countries once behind the Iron Curtain — the 25th anniversary of the Freiberg Germany Temple, and the 20th anniversaries of missions in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary and the first branch in Russia. Deseret News reporter Scott Taylor is taking a look at the LDS Church’s past, present and future in these countries in a series of stories.
SALT LAKE CITY — Benson, McKay, Kimball, Hinckley, Monson, Nelson.
These names highlight a long list of LDS Church prophets, apostles and general authorities whose service to former communist-controlled countries in central and eastern Europe were critical during the tense and tenuous four-plus decades following World War II.
In an era defined by the phrases "Cold War" and "Iron Curtain," leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were reaching out to perceived unreachable nations, showing concern for clusters of members there and trying to open doors in closed-off countries.
The LDS Church's three-member First Presidency today includes two men with close ties to those areas — President Thomas S. Monson, whose nurturing to church membership and church efforts in the former German Democratic Republic began in 1968; and his second counselor in the First Presidency, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, a native of the former Czechoslovakia and post-war adolescent refugee whose life path took him to both sides of Germany.
The first post-World War II visit by an LDS leader was certainly the longest, as Elder Ezra Taft Benson spent nearly the entire year of 1946 traveling on a relief assignment throughout war-devastated Europe.
The future LDS president supervised the distribution of thousands of tons of much-needed church welfare supplies, including stops in the "Russian Zone of Occupation" — central and eastern European areas that soon would be nations under communist domain.
LDS Church presidents making visits behind the Iron Curtain included President David O. McKay's speaking at a June 1952 Berlin conference at which many East Germany members were allowed to attend, and Spencer W. Kimball's 1977 landmark stops in Poland and Dresden, GDR.
And while it came a decade after the fall of communism in Europe, President Gordon B. Hinckley's 2002 trip to Ukraine and Russia was still nonetheless historic. In speaking at LDS meetings in Kiev and Moscow that each drew thousands of members, President Hinckley became the church's first president to visit the former Soviet Union.
President Monson's extensive work in the former German Democratic Republic since the late 1960s — beginning when he was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve — has been well-documented, with his East Germany experiences and anecdotes sprinkled into his addresses and writings over the years.
While developing relationships with GDR officials during his 20-year assignment overseeing East Germany, President Monson's highlights include:
Speaking to members in Gorlitz during his first visit in 1968, and promising them that they would have all the blessings enjoyed by other church members.
Organiz
ing the Dresden Mission the following year, which had responsibility over all church members in the GDR.
Offering a dedicatory prayer for the German Democratic Republic in 1975 on a mountainside near Dresden, overlooking the Elbe River.
Joining fellow First Presidency counselor Gordon B. Hinckley for the 1985 dedication of the Freiberg Germany Temple, the church's landmark first temple behind the Iron Curtain.
And in the late 1980s, obtaining approval from the GDR government to allow missionaries to enter that country, with local members also permitted to serve missions throughout the world.
History's 20-20 hindsight shows President Monson's European efforts were "for a special purpose, that the Lord had something in mind that we can see only now," said President Uchtdorf, who as a church member and leader in Germany enjoyed a firsthand view of the results of those efforts.
He remembers reading and re-reading many times over the years the 1975 apostolic blessing given by then-Elder Monson and wondering how any of the promises made — of buildings, temples, ordinances and blessings similar to everything enjoyed by Latter-day Saints in long-established areas — would ever be realized. He created a mental checklist of the prayers' promises.
"Over the years, I checked these things as they all came about because of a prophet of God — not of his own will and desire but because he was speaking the will of the Lord," President Uchtdorf said.
"This and the faithfulness of the people in the area prepared the way and was key and instrumental for the changes that happened in Europe," he added.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve currently has "first contact responsibility" for the First Presidency over Europe — an assignment he first received a quarter century ago when open borders, recognition of religions and allowance of missionary work were unthinkable.
He recalled the first meeting of the First Presidency and the Twelve after President Benson succeeded President Kimball after the latter's passing in November 1985. At the meeting, the twelve apostles were given their new worldwide supervisory assignments.
"They started at the senior end of the circle and got around to the junior end where I was and said 'Brother Nelson, your assignment is to be in charge of the church in Europe and Africa, with a specific assignment to open all the countries that are now under the yoke of communism,' " he said.
"I'll never forget that day."
Upon receiving the assignment, Elder Nelson made two lists of European countries — one of nations where the church was then established, and one where it wasn't. "There were more countries where it was not established than where it had been established, even though we as a church had been in Europe for 150 years," he said.
During the next five years of his assignment, Elder Nelson was heavily involved in central and eastern Europe — establishing relationships with communist nations, working with governments, dedicating countries, helping the LDS Church to gain official recognition, creating church units, helping missionaries receive allowance to enter previously closed regions.
"I was on that Europe assignment from 1985 to 1990, then Brother Oaks (Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Twelve) was given the Europe assignment," Elder Nelson recalled.
"Brother Oaks and I told President Benson before he died (on May 30, 1994) that the assignment given me in 1985 was now completed, with the church established in every country in Europe."
Editor's note: Besides being the year of the dedication of the Kyiv Ukraine Temple, 2010 marks a number of anniversaries for the LDS Church in central and eastern Europe — the 25th anniversary of the Freiberg Germany Temple and the 20th anniversaries of missions in Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia and of the church's first branch in Russia.
This is one of an ongoing series of stories by Deseret News staff writer Scott Taylor, who recently traveled to these central and eastern European countries.
e-mail: taylor@desnews.com; gerry@desnews.com