15 All They Have Left Is an Organ and a Window Drape
as told by Manfred Schütze
I wonder if we who were born and grew up after the war can realize what it meant in the summer of 1946 to be called on a mission that was to last for fifty months—to be forty-six years old, to leave behind a wife and two children still in school? The story of Paul Schmidt is not so much about the intense concentration on converts as it is about how, out of the total confusion after the war, one had to worry about bringing the branches back to life, finding the scattered members, creating a place to meet, and helping the destitute survive.
Paul Schmidt. Courtesy Manfred Schütze.
On Brother Schmidt’s arrival at the mission office, the mission president said, “You will go to Gera. All they have left is an organ and a window drape. You will build up the branch.” And thus his worst fears were realized, because he had told his wife when he left, “The worst thing that can happen to me is that I will have to find a branch meeting place and furnish it.” He learned that it often turns out in life that one has to do exactly that which one does not want to do. He added:
I was successful in all of this because in principle I followed the mission rules. I had studied them thoroughly. The rules said that a pair of missionaries should have a room with two beds. When I told that to the branch president, he told me we would be lucky if we could find a room with one bed. I replied that that was also my opinion, but that my mission rules were of a different opinion and that I intended to follow them.
He and his companion went to work, and after a long, strenuous day, when they were ready to give up, they were led to a family who had a lovely house. Soon the family heard about their problem concerning a room and spontaneously made them an offer of a room with two beds. The price was agreeable, and the lady of the house remarked a short time after they had moved in that she had never had such neat guests.
With this one contact, they solved all of their problems: food—the family owned a butcher shop; a place to meet—the family ran an inn which rented rooms; furnishings—the innkeeper loaned them chairs and gave them wood to make a podium, etc. Summarizing, Brother Schmidt emphasized:
All of our success in Gera was dependent on following the rules, which were based on experience and inspiration. If they had been based on experience alone, then we could have done nothing, because in 1945–46 no one had the kind of experience that was necessary. But it depended also on inspiration. We could follow that without worry, and we were successful.
Brother Schmidt and his companion were invited to eat in homes where their hosts didn’t know what they were going to feed them because they had nothing to eat themselves. But the families had faith that they would be able to do it, and they did. He was once given the bedroom of a couple, temporarily, until the missionaries could find an apartment of their own. When he moved, he learned that the host family had been sleeping on a mattress in the washroom.
As missionaries after the war, they were also responsible for storing and distributing the welfare supplies that came from the American members. This program brought joy as well as problems, such as when a delivery would be temporarily confiscated as “black market” goods. These and other experiences—such as the organization of the Freundecho [a magazine] in 1948 or a camp-out in Berlin in 1950 with eight hundred participants—helped bring the members together and provide stability in the Church after the devastating experiences of the war. These were not small duties in a time of poverty and deprivation.
After returning from his mission, Brother Schmidt faithfully filled many callings. For almost seventeen years, he served as president of the elders quorum and as a counselor in the branch presidency. He is especially proud that he served for almost fifty years as a teacher in the various organizations of the Church and as a teacher trainer. Not only is he active today, he is dynamic in the best sense of the word.
