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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

East German Temple, LDS faith, Mormon studies, prophecy fulfilled, building a temple

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

In November 1968, Elder Thomas S. Monson, a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leader, promised LDS members in then Communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) that “every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.” 1 This included the blessings of a temple, an important part of LDS worship. Many Latter-day Saints in the GDR regarded this as a prophecy, which at the time, seemed unlikely. The irreligious Communist government of the GDR had a long record of hostility toward organized religion. Few Latter-day Saints were allowed to travel outside of the GDR to attend temples in Switzerland and elsewhere, and even fewer could afford to do so. Seventeen years later, this same Thomas S. Monson returned to participate in the dedication of a Mormon temple in the city of Freiberg in the GDR.2

Included in

History Commons

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