Description
She Had A Dream
Matilda Sophia Schramm was born in Germany in 1834, and as a little girl lived very near the Black Forest. She came from a large family, but as was often the case, child mortality claimed five of Matilda’s younger brothers and sisters and then her father, who passed away at the age of 48. Two more sisters passed away in the next three years. Matilda helped her mother care for the family.
When she came of age she moved to a distant city and opened a ladies apparel shop. She “was studious, a hard worker, and naturally religious. She loved the Lord and studied his life and teachings.”
Then she met Latter-day Saint missionaries who shared the restored Gospel and the Book of Mormon. She made it a matter of prayer and became convinced that it was true. She was baptized. With the new-found zeal of conversion, Matilda desired to share the truth with her family, but…
“…to her great disappointment, instead of being happy to receive these truths, her mother told her she had been deceived by the Mormons. Her mother tried to get her to give it up, but she said she would never do so. She did succeed, however, in getting her brother Carl to accept the gospel and be baptized. In fact, at the age of 22 he served as a missionary for three years in Baden, Germany, and in Switzerland. When their mother tried to get him to renounce his church membership and stay with the family, Carl and Matilda decided to go to America and join with the Saints gathering in Utah.”
By 1865, Matilda was living in Salt Lake City where John Alder met her while on a business trip.
“John was greatly impressed with Matilda, her high ideals, and how much she had sacrificed for the gospel. He could not get her off his mind, and finally asked her if she would be his wife. However, she had already had three other proposals for marriage and could not decide which to accept. She told John she would fast and pray about it.
During the third day of her fast, she had a dream in which she saw a man coming up her path holding a little girl by the hand. When John visited her the next day with the same little girl she had seen in her dream, she told him she would marry him. They were married March 4, 1865, in Salt Lake City. Matilda returned to Manti with John and lived there for the rest of her life.”
Do such matters, matter to the Lord? They do. The Lord is involved in our lives and He only can see perfectly where the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people will be found. Trust Him.
Source:
Stories from the Life of Matilda Schramm Alder https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/memories/KWJ4-LT9
