Continuing a series of Church leaders sharing how they “hear Him,” Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf recalled an experience he had as a 10-year-old boy in East Germany when he had a special assignment during Church meetings to pump air into the organ pipes. While the job was not easy and required that he pump with all his strength “so the organ would not run out of wind,” Elder Uchtdorf said that the job came with an additional benefit: a view of a stained glass window in the chapel that portrayed the First Vision.
“Here I was, a little boy in post-World War II Germany, and yet I felt very close to our Savior, Jesus Christ,” Elder Uchtdorf writes.
Elder Uchtdorf says that when people ask him if the Lord speaks to him all the time, he replies that the Lord speaks to him now the same way He has spoken to the Apostle his whole life: by the power of the Holy Ghost. Elder Uchtdorf goes on to explain some of the unique ways he has heard the Lord throughout his life, one of which is through various languages due to his international background.
While German is his native language, Elder Uchtdorf learned Russian as a boy. Additionally, as he pursued a career as a pilot, he had to learn English. Elder Uchtdorf explains how these various languages affect his life spiritually. For example, he and his wife say their prayers in German, but his Church assignments frequently require speaking in English.
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“What I have learned is that I feel and hear the voice of the Lord in any language. The voice of the Lord transcends the language we speak,” Elder Uchtdorf said. “Even though I often pray in German, I don’t know whether the answers come in German, but they do come to me. And when I pray in English, the answers come too.”
Read more of Elder Uchtdorf's thoughts on listening to the voice of the Lord at ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
