Description

Go Back and Bear Your Testimony

The Lord once said, “search diligently, pray always, and be believing, and all things shall work together for your good, if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another” (DC 90:24).

December 9, 1893, in the city of Dresden Germany. Elder Albert Schoenfeld of Salt Lake City and his companion Elder William Tobler of Santa Clara, Utah were proselyting in that capital city of Saxony. They were walking about distributing tracts and talking to people when certain “evil-disposed persons informed them that there was a law in Germany against proselyting. The two men were promptly arrested and taken to police headquarters. There they had to show their passports and also had to give proof of their visible means of support. Having done all this to the official’s satisfaction, they were released with a good talking to and a warning.”

After their release, the two elders went home to their apartment and knelt in prayer. As they prayed, a powerful feeling came to both men at the same time that they should do the unthinkable—go back to the chief of police, give him a tract, and bear their testimony. They did so and as they finished they added that since they were keeping the laws of Germany and paying their own way, “would not the authorities rather be glad to have the people informed concerning the things of God?” The Chief heard them and then told them to come back in two days.

They went back in two days as instructed. The Chief of Police wrote out a permit authorizing the two elders to “distribute tracts under the auspices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in said city of Dresden.”

When we are on the “Covenant Path” and pressing forward to righteous destinations, dead ends become mere speed bumps under the Lord’s power.

Sources:

Deseret News Archives January 20, 1894, p. 137

https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/desnews7/id/8978/rec/3