1985 Sacrament Meeting Talk by Otto Schloss

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Sacrament Meeting Talk by Otto Schloss (Summer 1985)

EDITOR's NOTE: This talk was give by Otto Schloss to the Garden Park Ward in the Summer of 1985. He and his wife Rosa were scheduled to speak three weeks before Otto gave this speech but the meeting ran over and there was no time for him. He laughed that he was relieved to not give his talk but the Bishop did not let him off and scheduled him to talk three weeks later. This transcription was made from a tape recording that day. The exact date was not recorded.

Although much of the story he tells here is essentially the same as is told in Otto's Autobiography, there are several unique details here and since the entire work is in his own words, it preserves both the precious extra details and allows us to enjoy Otto's way of expressing himself.

Otto's Talk (Summer 1985)

"My dear brothers and sisters, as I walked into the chapel today, I was happy to see some of our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren here. And I was very happy to see our 18th great grandchild here this morning. I am thankful that the bishopric gave me another chance today to finish my testimony. I have a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"Long before -- many years before -- I became a member of this Church, my parents belonged to the Lutheran Church. And so, three weeks ago when I spoke here, I talked about my parents in 1905, 1906, 1907, and 1908 when I was six years old. And so I went with them to the Lutheran Church when I was a child. And then after they had passed away, I continued to go to the Lutheran Church. Not very often so, but most of the time; at least I went on Christmas and New Year's and Easter.

"Now, I think that many of you have some wonderful experiences in your lives and I had the most wonderful spiritual experience in my life in nineteen hundred and seventeen. I had to go to seminary in the Lutheran Church. Now we didn't call it seminary. We used to call it Konfiermanden Unterricht; and on the 1st of April, 1917, I graduated in the Lutheran Church; and all those young people who graduated received a diploma, or in other words, a certificate, from our pastor; and this particular year they put a picture of Dr. Martin Luther. Now, he [the pastor] would write a Bible verse on each of the certificates; and then he would write something else --- just the way he felt about the particular young man or young woman. Now, on mine, he wrote --- I know those who understand German will understand this, because this is all in German and I see sister Mayer smiling there --- it says here, 'Zur Erinnerung an den Tag der konfirmation;' this means, 'In remembrance of the day of your confirmation;' then here he wrote a verse out of the Bible, 1st Corinthians, Chapter 16, verse 13, 'Seit stark im Glauben, un steht fest im Glauben.' Now this means, in English, 'Be awake, stand fast in the faith, and be strong.' Then underneath, he wrote, 'Vater und Mutter verlassen Dich, aber der Herr nimmt Dich auf.' Now that means, in German, Father and Mother will leave you, but the Lord will take care of you. And my dear brothers and sisters, the Lord has been taking care of me all my life. I am so thankful and grateful for this.

"Now then, the reason that he showed this picture of Dr. Martin Luther --- on the 31st of October, 1917, was the 400th anniversary of the Reformation. Now, '. . . in those days of the Reformation, the Spirit of Inspiration rested on these men like Luther, and Huss, and Swindley, and Calvin, and others, causing them to rebel against the religious evils of the day and seek to make the Bible and other truth available to all who would receive such. The age of reformation was part of the Lord's program preparatory to ushering in this great Latter-day work.' This was the reason of the Reformation; the Lord prepared the world for the coming of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Now, on the 18th of June, 1921 I was baptized in Hamburg, Germany. This was the most happy day of my life. We had a small lake there and I was baptized in this lake. No matter how cold it was; I felt warm. And like I just told you, this was the most wonderful day of my life. Now from then on, I was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and this is the time that I joined the choir. In 1925, I met my wife in Hamburg for the first time in the meeting, in a sacrament meeting. As she told you three weeks ago, she came to Hamburg with her foster parents and they were attempting to go to America.

"Now her foster parents had first class and her foster father had a hunchback and was not able to go. So they had to return to Switzerland. They had sold all their belongings to go to America, but the immigration officers wouldn't let them go because in those days you had to be 100% perfect. Otherwise, you couldn't go. So on their way home to Switzerland they came through Hamburg again and it just so happened that they came to our meeting in Hamburg, our sacrament meeting; and this time I met them just for a short time. After this meeting, they went back to Switzerland and in 1926, my wife, Rosa, and her sister came to Hamburg to immigrate to America. At this time I lived with members of the Church and we invited them for dinner and then I showed them the city and one evening we went to the opera. This was the second time I met my wife. Then Rosa, my wife, and her sister, they went to America. Now we corresponded for about six months. And then I received my affidavit and the ticket for the ship. In those days we had not planes flying over the ocean; so I went by boat. And, as I said, I received the affidavit and the ticket for the boat and I went to America in January 1927. I arrived in New York, eleven days later. We arrived in the harbor in the evening and we were not allowed to leave the ship till the next morning. The next morning, I, of course, awoke very early and went on deck. The first beautiful sight I saw was the Statue of Liberty in the sunshine; a beautiful sight. That was wonderful to see the Statue of Liberty.

"Then, my wife and I, we used to meet in the sacrament meetings. I had my job and she had her job. We were busy. I was in New York for two days when I had a job even though I didn't know the language. I knew, two words; Good Morning and Good Night. This was all. But I got a job in a bakery and the owner of the bakery, he spoke German. He was a Jewish person and Jewish people usually spoke German.

"So we met in the Manhattan Ward. At that time they met at 125th Street in a dance hall. This is where we had our meetings and every morning when we entered the hall we had to open up all the windows to let some fresh air in. We were there for about two years when they moved the ward to Carnegie Hall on 59th Street. I guess most of you are acquainted with Carnegie Hall. In Carnegie Hall I was ordained an Elder by Ernest L. Wilkinson who was later on a president of BYU. And his son, Dr. Ernest L. Wilkinson was our doctor for many many years. Of course, now he is not practicing anymore. From Carnegie Hall we moved over to the music hall. This was just about across the street. And then a couple of years later, we moved to the Manhattan Tower. Of course, this was a beautiful building. All of those buildings are beautiful. And now they are having a high rise in New York with a wonderful visitors center on the first floor and the chapel is located on the second floor. When you go to meetings you can either take the elevator or walk one flight up.

"Now when we lived in New York and we had been meeting in our meetings, my wife and I, we decided after about two years to get married and on the fifth of February, 1929, we got married. In the morning we went through New York City to the City Hall. I bought the marriage license. It cost $2.00; quite reasonable in those days. And we went to the Brooklyn Chapel and got married by one of the Elders there in the chapel and two sisters, members of the Church, they were our witnesses. So we were invited by Rosa's sister for dinner that day. And we went over there and visited for a while and then in the evening we went to a show. This was our wedding day, but we were happy. We didn't know very many people over there, so Rosa's sister invited us.

"We lived in New York for a long time. Now in 1939, we decided -- we had four children then -- we decided to come to Salt Lake City and go through the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity. This of course, was a very happy occasion for us to be sealed with our children for all time and all eternity. Brothers and sisters, we have been blessed. I would say that nobody here in this chapel has been as blessed and I am very thankful to the Lord. I wouldn't be able to tell you all our blessings otherwise we would be here all afternoon. Under strange circumstances we receive blessings.

"In December 1970, Bishop Evans was our bishop then; he called me one Sunday morning. He called me in the office and he said to me, -- he used to call me by the first name --- 'Otto, how would it be when you and Rosa would go on a mission?' I said, 'We going on a mission? Well, this is impossible. How can we go on a mission?' We had our work. We had our home. 'No, it's impossible. We can't go on a mission.' So Bishop Evans said to me, 'Well, Otto, you think it over and then let me know.' I went home and I had been thinking this over for a whole week before I was telling Rosa about this. I was not going to scare her.

"So the following Sunday we had a farewell in our chapel here. Brother Eugene Bryson was called as Mission President in the North German Mission. And they had open house after sacrament meeting and they invited us to come down there. So while we were there we were visiting and President Bryson was talking to Rosa while I was talking to somebody else. And he asked her, 'Well, Rosa, how about, why don't you come to Germany on a mission?' 'We going on a mission? No, that's impossible.' So on our way home, Rosa told me this and she said, 'Well, how can we go on a mission?' We can't go on a mission.' I said, 'Now don't you say this too loud.' 'Why? How is this?' So I told her that Bishop Evans had called me in the office the week before and told me that we were supposed to go on a mission.

"In January 1971, we received our call from the Presidency of the Church to go to the North German Mission. We arranged for everything. We were told just like every missionary that we had to have our examination. We had to see our doctor and our dentist and take care of everything. So we got all our shots because we had to go over to Europe.

"One morning, very early, I got up and we had so much to take care of. And this morning we had about three inches of snow. Now what I'm going to tell you is a little embarrassing, but I will tell it to you anyway. The dentist had prescribed a new set of dentures for me. And I just had received those dentures. And as you know -- those who have experience -- they usually hurt a little bit the first couple of days. And I had these dentures on and I went outside to clean off the cars. We had two cars there behind the house. One was just about ready for the junk yard. But as you know, you usually hold on to these things. And I went out and cleaned both cars off; I shoveled the walk around the cars and to the house and all around and cleaned everything off.

"So my dentures were hurting me and while I was shoveling snow, I didn't want to take the time to take them inside to put them in the proper place where they belong. I put them in my shirt pocket. I had a clean white shirt on and I put them in there. And while I was shoveling snow, somehow, I must have lost them. And I went in the house to replace my dentures. They were gone. Now where in the world can I find them in all this snow? I was thinking of taking the hose and connecting to the hot water faucet. Anyhow, that would melt the snow, but this would take hours and hours. Well, I tell you what I did. I went in the house. I went on my knees and prayed to my Heavenly Father and asked him that he should help me find my dentures.

"After I got through with pleading with the Lord I went outside. I took the snow shovel. I didn't start at one end or the other end. I walked about six or eight steps. I lifted one shovel of snow and there were my dentures. I couldn't believe it. This was the most wonderful experience. Brothers and sisters, I'm telling you I could tell you many more wonderful experiences that we had in our lives. But like I said, my time is up. I can tell you that the Lord lives and answers prayers. Let me leave you with this thought. A closing thought . . .

'Did you ever stop to think
what makes a day seem bright?
It isn't just the sunshine
though, of course, that helps all right.

It's not just meeting friends you like
exchanging news and jokes;
No sir, it's the little thoughtful things
you have done for other folks.'

"May the Lord bless you. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."