'I love this Book of Mormon
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Holding up a first-edition of the Book of Mormon, printed in 1830 at the E.B. Grandin Company in Palmyra, N.Y., President Boyd K. Packer spoke Sunday morning of the 108,936,922 copies that have since been printed — in 62 languages, with selections of it in another 37 languages and 22 more language translations in process.
"Now 60,000 full-time missionaries in 162 countries pay their own way and devote two years of their lives to testify that the Book of Mormon is true," said President Packer, Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve. "For generations it has inspired those who read it."
President Packer then recounted the life and missionary experiences of Herbert Schreiter, who was released as a prisoner of war after World War II and returned to his wife and daughters in Leipzig, Germany. Soon thereafter, he went as a missionary to Bernburg, Germany. "He thought of what he had to offer the war-devastated people. He printed by hand a placard which read, 'Will there be a further life after death?' and posted it on a wall."
Soon, the placard drew the attention of the family of 4-year-old Manfred Schutze. They had come from Poland to Bernburg. The family had suffered greatly and lost loved ones. They soon learned of the Book of Mormon, which gave them the answers they sought about life after death. "They joined the Church. Soon their lives changed."
President Packer related how after he was released from the air force, he went to the welfare mill at Kaysville, Utah, to fill bags of wheat for shipment to starving people in Europe. "I like to think one of the bags of grain that I filled myself went to Manfred Schutze and his mother. . . .
"Elder Dieter Uchtdorf, who sits with us on the stand today as one of the Seventy, remembers to this very day the smell of the grain and the feel of it in his little-boy hands. Perhaps, one of the bags I filled reached his family."
President Packer then spoke of his attempts when he was younger to read the Book of Mormon. "I did not read it all until I was on a troop ship with other bomber crew members, headed for the war in the Pacific. I determined that I would read the Book of Mormon and find out for myself whether it is true or not. Carefully I read and reread the book. I tested the promise that it contained. That was a life-changing event. After that, I never set the book aside."
Continuing, President Packer declared: "In a world ever more dangerous than the world of little Manfred Schutze and Dieter Uchtdorf, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ has the nourishing power to heal starving spirits of the world.
"Manfred Schutze is now a member of the Third Quorum of the Seventy and supervises our seminaries in Eastern Europe. His mother, now 88, still attends the temple in Freiberg where Herbert Schreiter once served as a counselor to the president.
"With Elder Walter F. González, a new member of the Seventy from Uruguay, I attended a conference in Moroni, Utah, a town with a Book of Mormon name. There is no doctor or dentist in Moroni. They must leave town to shop for groceries. Their students are bused to a consolidated high school across the valley.
"We held a meeting with 236 present. Lest Elder Gonzlez see only ordinary rural farmers, I gave this sentence of testimony: 'I know the gospel is true and that Jesus is the Christ.' I asked if someone could repeat it in Spanish. Several hands went up. Could someone repeat it in another language? It was repeated in: Japanese, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Tongan, Italian, Tagalog, Dutch, Finnish, Maori, Polish, Korean, French — 15 languages.
"Again in English: I know the gospel is true and that Jesus is the Christ.
"I love this Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Study it and one can understand both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Bible. I know it is true.
"In this 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon, printed by 23-year-old Egbert B. Grandin for 23-year-old Joseph Smith, Junior, I read from page 105: 'We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.'
"And that is exactly what we do.' "
