Description
The Blind Pioneer: Hans Ulrich Bryner
Hans Ulrich Bryner was born in Zurich, Switzerland, April 22, 1827, to a hard-working and happy Lutheran family.
Then, when Hans was nearly 16m he became ill and wondered if he might die. He experienced an unusual dream. In it, “a man with a gray beard and peculiar eyes took him by the hand and led him, in darkness, halfway around the world. He could see nothing at all until they came to the top of the world. Then the heavens opened above their heads and he saw a bright light come down. He saw the City of Zion shining like gold, silver, and glass – it’s loveliness was above description. He saw a big wall with three gates leading through it. Righteous and holy people were going through these gates into the city. He wanted to go in too, but the man said, “You can’t go through now, but if you are faithful and true, the time will come when you will be allowed to go.”
Hans pondered the dream day and night, wondering what it meant. He concluded that he was going to have to pass through some kind of darkness. In time, he married Anna Maria Mathys, and in 1851 their first child was born., Then one day at work, an accident ovvurred that eventually left Hans totally blind. The darkness had come.
Friends encouraged Maria to leave Hans. “What can he do for you now?” they said, but Maria would not leave.
Hans became discourage. “Nothing could comfort im…He felt that the Lord had cast him m aside.”
One day Maria’s mother said to her: “Don’t feel sorry that Bryner is blind, it’s good for you all but you don’t know it yet.”
Then, Hans had another dream. “I found myself in a great dark room with no glimmer of light. Three fires appeared, each of a different size. A man with a gray beard and peculiar eyes stood at my side, the same man I had seen before. He had an open book in his hand. He crossed out my sins and they fell to the floor. A voice said to me: “You will have to go throug the middle firs.’ I said: ‘I am able to stand that too.’ The wall opened so wide that we could pass through it. The light came in as bright as noonday and we were shown the road to Zion. We had to cross the sea with a great company and take a long journey across the great prairie into the mountains to reach the City of Zion.”
A few months later, in February 1854, word reached Hans that a new religion had come from America. Members of the family walked for two hours to see the missionary. Could he be the man with the unusual eyes that Hans had seen in vision? “As soon as they saw him, they recognized him as the man in Ulrich’s dream. George Meye was very cross-eyes and wore very thick lenses.”
Twelve members of the Bryner and Mathy’s family were baptized. Hans’ sorrow was turned to tears of joy and gratitude. They came to America. Hans Ulrich Bryner walked across the plains holding to the back of a wagon, traveling the same route to Zion that he had seen in his dream. When the wagon got stuck, he pushed. When the oxen bolted, he was dragged, but he held on. On that journey his feet were frozen and nearly lost.
Hans settled in Zion and went to work – hard – supporting his large family and building up the kingdom of God on earth. He raised 21 children and spent the last seven years of his life doing the temple work for 5000 of his kindred dead.
“He always said that he was glad that he became blind, otherwise he might have been too busy to listen to the missionaries.”
Source:
https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/memories/K2W3-49H
