12 A Second Mission

He sat across from me in his little apartment on the temple grounds in Freiberg. In May 1986, Herbert Schreiter had been called, along with his wife, Dorle, to an eighteen-month temple mission. He had never been a temple missionary before, but there is scarcely another calling he has not held in his seventy-seven years. And this is his fourth full-time mission. During our conversation, he mentioned being branch president in Chemnitz from 1937 to 1941, Sunday School president in Salzburg [Austria] during the war, district president in 1948, two times branch president in Leipzig, Sunday School president of the branch, the district, and the mission, high councilor, sealer, and counselor in the temple presidency.

Herbert Schreiter. Courtesy Manfred Schütze.

Brother Schreiter has strong faith and great determination to serve God. He has often felt the hand of the Lord:

One experience took place in the courtyard of the Hoffmann and Aurich company, where I was an apprentice locksmith-metal worker at the Fleischerei Machine Factory in Chemnitz, No. 3-5 Wettiner Street. Another apprentice and I were using a hand-driven elevator. We were moving machinery from the assembly room on the second floor to the paint room on the third floor. Mr. Hoffmann and the chief metal worker were watching us. The two of us were lifting the weight up, each turning on a long handle. When they were taking one of the machines off, the double steel hook by which the entire weight was hanging came loose and came crashing down into the courtyard. I was standing in such an unfortunate position that the heavy hook fell just behind my head and bounced off the concrete floor. Those who were standing around gave a scream of terror, and I felt the rush of wind just behind my head. It was a miracle that, with the help of the Lord, I was not injured. It was not my time yet, and I thanked my Heavenly Father for this divine protection. The others there were also greatly relieved. It was strange, but on the next day I received a letter from my uncle to whom I was very devoted and who lived in Grossolbersdorf. I had lived with him for two years, and he treated me like his own son. He was also my guardian because my father had died on the battlefield in France in 1916. The uncle was very concerned about me and asked if anything had happened to me. He had had a bad dream in which I was lying across a railroad track and a locomotive had stopped just a few centimeters from my body. I consider this event as an example of the divine providence of our Heavenly Father, and I testify of this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. This happened in Chemnitz when I was sixteen years old.

When I was nineteen years old, I accepted a call to serve a mission. This was in the year of the great depression, 1929, and I gave up a secure job with the likely prospect that I would never get it back again.

This turned out to be true. When Brother Schreiter returned after twenty-five months, he was unemployed and had to sell newspapers to make a living. But he did not regret these two years which, as the following will show, were the determining influence in his life.

There were highs and lows to his mission. In Stopl (in the former Pommern), a superintendent gave a public warning, “The Mormons are coming,” and paid for the rent on a tavern himself to prevent the missionaries from using it to preach. But they were successful in spite of this opposition. About forty members came by night with lanterns from the neighboring village of Wobeste to hear the missionaries. In Küstrin (Pommern) were ten Relief Society sisters who held a bazaar to display handicrafts and attracted about 130 investigators. Brother Schreiter reports that there were even official journalists at a baptism.

These highs and lows experienced by the missionaries of those days impressed the young missionary for his later life in a positive way. He remembers with gratitude the financial support he received from his mother and sisters in this depressed time.

From 1937 until he was drafted into the army in 1941, he served as the president of the Chemnitz Branch with more than five hundred members, which brought him both joy and toil. At the same time, he had personal problems to deal with. His own illness, plus his wife’s life-threatening illness, along with the terrible war experiences, tried him and gave him the maturity he needed for the job the Lord had picked out for him immediately after the war.

On Pentecost Sunday 1946, there was a missionary conference in the Congress Hall in Leipzig. Herbert Schreiter from Chemnitz was among the thousands who were able to attend this first great conference of the Saints after the war. One of the events that changed his life is described in his journal:

After the Saturday evening meeting, which was dedicated to the MIA, Brother Richard Ranglack called me to him and asked me if I was ready to go on a mission. As surprising as this was, after Brother Ranglack had told me that no family had ever died whose husband was out working for the Lord and after he had asked me which was more important, working as a metal worker or working for the Lord, there was only one answer for me: of course, I am ready and am happy to have this honor.

I felt the entire burden of this responsibility resting on me, just as I had felt it seventeen years earlier at my first missionary call, when, on November 4, 1929, I was advanced from deacon and ordained an elder and sent out into the mission field. Brother Ranglack answered, “I hereby call you on a mission. Put all of your affairs and your family in order and open your mouth to preach the truth of the Gospel.”

I had to split the wood I had on hand and put many things in order. I was quite surprised that my mother took the news of my mission call so calmly, especially because of her worry about the physical condition of my wife, Lisbeth, and our meager finances. Lisbeth suggested that I start my mission on March 26, my birthday, to which Brother Ranglack agreed.

19 March 1946: Took my mother’s handcart and went gleaning with Hans Schumann. Arrived home about 10:00 p.m. with 80 pounds of potatoes, 10 pounds of wheat, and 2 pounds of peas.

The rest of the week spent with garden work, dentist, visiting, repairing shoes for Lisbeth and the children.

Sunday, 24 March 1946: Visited Sunday School for the last time, spoke a few words of farewell, closing song: “Wir bringen dir, o Bruder hier.” Sat by my mother. After the Sunday School, I received the large sum of 130 marks from those in attendance.

At the sacrament meeting of the Chemnitz Central Branch, I had my official farewell. A farewell poem by Sister Ilse Böttcher, words of praise and gratitude by Brother Alexander Franke. Donations from those in attendance, 260 marks.

Monday, 25 March 1946: Putting final things in order, paid the light bill, did some visiting, got a cover for my bicycle. While Lisbeth was getting my things together, I spent some more time repairing my children’s shoes and then packed my bags. Went to bed late. My daughter, Irene, cried when she said good night.

26 March 1946: Lisbeth cooked my farewell breakfast and then accompanied me to the train station. I’m glad that Lisbeth is so brave and good. She says, nodding at the baby buggy in which she is pushing part of my luggage, “I have pushed all my happiness in this buggy, and now I sending you off on a mission with it.”

On April 3, 1946, Brother Schreiter was transferred to Bernburg. While he was there, along with his other duties he organized a special meeting, which was attended by my [Manfred Schütze’s] mother and my grandparents. This was the beginning of the conversion of my family, who in the midst of the war’s confusion had left Schlesien and after much suffering had ended up here.

After his mission, he served the Church in the district and the branch of Leipzig. As branch president, he experienced his greatest disappointment on Christmas Eve 1968, when he was informed by the city authorities that the Church would no longer be permitted to use the branch house, which had just been newly remodeled by the members. The branch would have to vacate the house they had occupied for so many years since the war. The building was to be demolished. After the war and after much difficulty, the branch was offered an old, rundown movie theater to meet in. It was part of a building that was actually in ruins. After months of labor under the direction of Brother Schreiter, it had been turned into an acceptable meeting place for the members. Shortly after the beautiful dedication, they were told it was to be condemned and could never be used again because of a supposed violation of the building police regulations.

Under Brother Schreiter’s leadership, the branch stayed together, and in the end, he was able to reobtain the use of the branch house. It is hard to explain how much spiritual strength this took.

In 1978, Brother Schreiter received a new calling, a third mission. But this time he was with his wife and in the Leipzig District. As with all of his assignments, he took this one also very seriously. He and his wife were able to convert and baptize seven adults and one child. The Schreiters had many wonderful experiences together; therefore, Sister Schreiter’s death in December 1983 was very painful for him.

In 1984 he married his former sister-in-law, and in 1985 at the dedication of the temple in Freiberg, he was called to be a temple sealer by President Hinckley.

In 1986 he was called to his fourth mission, this time in the temple. For him the expression “Once a missionary, always a missionary” has a special meaning. He fulfilled his temple mission honorably, and President Monson called him to be a counselor in the temple presidency. He is also active as a stake historian.

Whenever the question arises—how was it possible for the Church to exist and to develop in the eastern part of Germany after the war, how could faithful members and active youth grow when the tie to the headquarters of the Church had to be so nebulous?—then there is only one answer: because of leaders like this!