Monday, May 17, 2010

Elder Smith Heads for His Homeland

Elder Martin Thayne Smith, second of five children of Eric and Karin Smith, entered the Provo MTC on Wednesday, May 12 anticipating a two month stay, but because he speaks German fluently, he was placed into an international zone where he will study with other German speaking missionaries for three weeks before traveling to his service in the Berlin Mission, soon to be consolidated with the Hamburg Mission - where Elder Smith was born. His call to Germany (where he will be surrounded by Karin’s immediate family, including her parents and her oldest brother who is a bishop in Hamburg), came as a big surprise! Because his oldest brother also spoke fluent German, but was called to serve in Portugal, Elder Smith says it never entered his mind he would be called to Germany, but he is very pleased.

The first congregation of Latter-day Saints in Germany was organized in Darmstadt in 1843. Elder John Taylor of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles preached in Hamburg in 1851 and supervised the translation of Church literature into German, but due to strong persecution, many early members emigrated to Utah.

Despite problems associated with two world wars, the Church continued to grow gradually. During the 1920s, there were three congregations in Chemnitz with more than 600 members - the highest concentration of members outside of the United States.

The Church continued to exist in the former GDR after WWII while faithful members continued to maintain contact with the Church in the West. These ongoing efforts made it possible to dedicate the Freiberg Temple (Saxony) in 1985, the first temple on German soil and the first in a (then) Communist country. Two years later, a second temple was dedicated in Friedrichsdorf.

Today, Latter-day Saints in Germany total approximately 36,000, many of them second, third, and fourth generation members. Church members in Germany - representing every age and socioeconomic segment of the general population - are organized in 183 congregations meeting in 161 meetinghouses.

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