Sixty-three years ago yesterday, in North Peckingham, England, a young World war II bomber pilot and his B-24 crew prepared for a mission to Brunswick, Germany approximately hundred miles south of Hamburg where I'll be serving my mission..
Knowing the pilot had served as an LDS missionary to Australia, the crew asked him if he would lead them in prayer. His mission had previously been interrupted when he was called back to the US for the war.
The crew gathered together under the wing of the aircraft which had been named "Boomerang" for obvious reasons by the pilot. The prayer went as follows: “…Please help each of us perform our assigned tasks well, that we will work harmoniously together to successfully complete our assigned mission, and please Father keep us safe and protected from harm so we may return to our home base safely....” As the pilot uttered the words “return to our home base safely,” something was different. He suddenly knew that they were not coming back! It was hard for him to finish that prayer, but he did know one thing for certain: he would not tell his crew members. He was hoping to find something seriously wrong with the aircraft so that they would have a legitimate reason to abort the mission. But, there was no such luck, everything was working perfectly.
As the plane was over the English channel, he was thinking about the last time he was home. It was then that his thoughts turned toward Jesus Christ and His experience in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even, HE, the Son of God, was looking, at least temporarily, for an honorable way out of his ordeal as he prayed, “Father let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.” A feeling of peace then came over the pilot as they passed across the channel and reached the Netherlands coastline. He knew they were not coming back, but he prayed earnestly for their lives to be saved.
Accounts of the day are varied and details of the air battles are rather foggy. The Luftwaffe caught their bombing group twice without fighter protection and the scenario was set for a massacre as about 40 messerschmidtt fighters began firing cannons and machine guns at the B-24 bombers.
The Boomerang had been hit several times by enemy fire and was crippled. With two bad engines and a damaged vertical fin and rudder the only hope was to try to make it back to England. As planes were exploding in the air all around him the LDS pilot turned for home. He told the crew he was going to stay with the plane and gave them the choice to bail out. All members chose to stay with the plane. When the last engine failed, the plane had to crash land in occupied Holland. Miraculously, only one crew member was killed, although others were injured. Before the plane even hit the ground, German soldiers were there to take them prisoners.
They were forced onto a train where they were transported to their new destination ... a prison camp called Stalag 17. This was the infamous site the so called "Great Escape" where previously about 50 allied prisoners attempted a tunnel escape to be re-captured and executed in front of the other prisoners to deter other escape attempts.
The LDS pilot spent 9 months in this prison, but the allies were closing in, so they were forced to march in bitter cold and in a foot of snow for a one full day and two nights where they then were transported by train to another prison camp. Food was scarce and hunger rampant and the prison guards were often cruel. A short time later they had to march again, this time 100 miles to still another prison camp where conditions were even worse.
Back in the United States in a little town in Southeastern Arizona lived the parents of this LDS pilot. They had two sons fighting in Europe during World War II and one of them was a prisoner of war. Any news about their son was difficult to get so all they could do was pray fervently for his safety.
War is a two sided affair, and not far away in Safford, Arizona was also a prison camp that housed Germans prisoners of war. This prison was a work camp. Each day prisoners were trucked to different farms in the Gila valley to provide work for families in the area. Two prisoners named Ernst and Fritz were transported daily to a small farm in Franklin, Arizona for work.
The family they worked for was the family of the LDS pilot who was imprisoned in Germany. It would have been easy for members of this family to harbor ill feelings toward their German prisoners. It would have been easy to show animosity for the hardships their son had to endure, but each day this family treated these two prisoners with respect and dignity. In fact, the mother of this family insisted that Ernst and Fritz be fed the same as their family.
All they were given each day from the prison was a sandwich of two bread slices and a thin slice of bologna. This was not good enough. This mother made sure they be fed like her family because she prayed each day that someone in Germany would treat her son as well as she treated Ernst and Fritz.
While her son was not treated well, it didn't matter to this mother. She had true Christlike love for all people. She was able to forgive any trespasses and cruelty imposed on her son and hence on her family.
Elder Ukedorf recently gave a talk at conference on forgiveness:
He said: Jesus taught us an eternal truth when He taught us to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. … For, if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not … neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (3 Nephi 13:11, 14-15) Therefore, extending forgiveness is a precondition to receiving forgiveness
Pres Hinckley says of forgiveness: “I think it may be the greatest virtue on earth, and certainly the most needed. There is so much of meanness and abuse, of intolerance and hatred. There is so great a need for repentance and forgiveness. It is the great principle emphasized in all of scripture, both ancient and modern"
The great crowning love of the Savior was expressed when in His dying agony He cried out, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
In our day the Lord has said in revelation: “Wherefore, I say unto you, that ye ought to forgive one another; for he that forgiveth not his brother his trespasses standeth condemned before the Lord; for there remaineth in him the greater sin. “I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men” (D&C 64:9-10)
A great example of forgiveness was shared by President Thomas S. Monson. It's a story about a family which came to America from Germany early many years ago. The English language was difficult for them and they had but little by way of means, but each was blessed with the will to work and with a love of God. Their third child was born in America, lived but two months, and then died. The Father was a cabinetmaker and fashioned a beautiful casket for the body of his precious child. The day of the funeral was gloomy, thus reflecting the sadness they felt in their loss. As the family walked to the chapel, with Father carrying the tiny casket, a small number of friends had gathered. However, the chapel door was locked. The busy bishop had forgotten the funeral. Attempts to reach him were futile. Not knowing what to do, the father placed the casket under his arm and, with his family beside him, carried it home, walking in a drenching rain.
If the family were of a lesser character, they could have blamed the bishop and harbored ill feelings. When the bishop discovered the tragedy, he visited the family and apologized. With the hurt still evident in his expression, but with tears in his eyes, the father accepted the apology, and the two embraced in a spirit of understanding. No hidden wedge was left to cause further feelings of anger. Love and acceptance prevailed.
To have forgiveness we must have a change of heart.
When King Benjamin finished his remarkable address in the land of Zarahemla, the people all cried with one voice that they believed his words. They knew of a surety that his promises of redemption were true, because, said they, “the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent … has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, [and note this] that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.” (Mosiah 5:2)
When we have undergone this mighty change, which is brought about only through faith in Jesus Christ and through the operation of the Spirit upon us, it is as though we have become a new person. Thus, the change is likened to a new birth. Thousands of you have experienced this change. You have forsaken lives of sin, sometimes deep and offensive sin, and through applying the blood of Christ in your lives, have become clean. You have no more disposition to return to your old ways. You are in reality a new person. This is what is meant by a change of heart.
With this change of heart comes forgiveness from the Father through the Mercy and atonement of our savior Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the mediator between us and the Father. He is the means through which we can communicate. This is why we are taught to pray in his name. Along with being the mediator between us and Heavenly Father, he is also the Fathers advocate. Because of the sacrifice that He made on behalf of human kind, he is able to, as 2 Nephi 8:22 reads, plead the cause of his people. Jesus has felt our temptations. He has felt our pain and suffering. He has felt our sorrow. Because He has been where we’ve been, He pleads our case to God the Eternal Father. Jesus has compassion on our souls and has done the ultimate to help us return to our Father so that we may all dwell as brothers and sisters in paradisiacal glory. It is now up to us to take hold of this chance we’ve been given to return to God our Father. It is up to us to use the tools that Christ has given us.
One of, if not the, greatest tools Christ has given us is the tool of our salvation; the Atonement. The Atonement satisfies the demand for justice. It is the power by which we can live forever. In 1 Nephi 11:6 Jacob tells us that “save Christ should come all men must perish”. We do not know or understand how Jesus did so great an act; all we know is that he did it. He suffered for our sins. He bled from every pore and died on the cross so that we may be made perfect. Without Him, we would be damned.
The Atonement is a wondrous thing. Not only does it apply to our eternal salvation, but because of it we can also be comforted in our most trying times. As I’m sure many of you here know, I played volleyball in high school. Once during a practice I injured my ankle very badly. I was angry, I was hurt, I couldn’t understand why this would happen to me. Then something my dad said came into my mind. He told me that if I didn’t humble myself, the Lord would do it for me. This made me even madder. I believed that my dad cursed me. I thought that it was his entire fault. Well as weeks went on my ankle began to heal and I began playing again. But something wasn’t right. Nothing was meshing. I had lost several inches off my vertical jump, the team had grown together without me because I was not able to play, and nothing was going the way I wanted or needed it to. Because of the lack of balance in my sports life, I started loosing grip on other parts of my life. My academics were slacking. I was fighting with good friends. I was still angry at my father and at the church. I tricked myself into believing that if God loved me and wanted me to be happy, none of this would have happened.
This attitude continued on for several months. Everything continued to spiral downwards. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t straighten out my life. I became depressed. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t stand to be around people. Finally I had enough. I had to find a way out of my slump. The problem was that I didn’t know where to turn or who to talk to. I wanted to change my life but I was still to proud to talk to my parents. I was still fighting although there was nothing left to fight.
Luckily, Christ was there to catch me and comfort me as He always is. I had a lesson in priest’s quorum one Sunday on the Atonement. I remember thinking to myself, “What’s left to lose? I’ve lost everything that I once held dear.” In that moment I decided to take the car and drive to my personal spot. The place that I felt was mine in the world. Once I arrived there, I knelt down and cried. I told the Lord all that I was feeling. I begged for help. As soon as I did so, I felt as if a thousand pounds was just lifted off of my chest. The thought came to my mind “Chad, you never had to beg. I was always here. I am always here. Let me help.” The spirit bore witness to me that through the power of the Atonement, I didn’t have to bare my burdens alone. I know that I never will.
In John chapter 21 Jesus asks his disciple Peter the following: (read verse 15 through 17)
Now if I have learned anything in seminary it is this. If something is repeated twice in the scriptures, PAY ATTENTION. If it is repeated three times, you better do it.
We all have a great responsibility that has been placed upon our shoulders by the Savior. He said, “If you love me, Feed my sheep”
That includes searching out those that are not with us and extending to them our love and fellowship. They stood with us in our first estate. They stand alone now. They need our help.
I hope to feed the people of Germany like I have been fed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and follow the example of my great grandmother who fed the two German prisoners like they were her own.
Jesus promised in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: … Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. This is the message I hope to give to German people.
TESTIMONY.
