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My dear brothers and sisters and friends,
what a glorious day for us to witness the announcement
of five new temples by our beloved prophet.
What a beautiful day for all of us.
Toward the end of World War II,
my father was drafted into the German army
and sent to the western front,
leaving my mother alone to care for our family.
Though I was only three years old,
I can still remember this time of fear and hunger.
We lived in Czechoslovakia, and with every passing day,
the war came nearer and the danger grew greater.
Finally, during the cold winter of 1944,
my mother decided to flee to Germany,
where her parents were living.
She bundled us up and somehow managed
to get us on one of the last refugee trains
heading west.
Traveling during that time was dangerous.
Everywhere we went, the sound of explosions,
the stressed faces, and ever-present hunger
reminded us that we were in a war zone.
Along the way the train stopped occasionally
to get supplies.
One night during one of these stops,
my mother hurried out of the train
to search for some food for her four children.
When she returned, to her great horror,
the train and her children were gone!
She was weighed down with worry;
desperate prayers filled her heart.
She frantically searched the large and dark train station,
urgently crisscrossing the numerous tracks
while hoping against hope
that the train had not already departed.
Perhaps I will never know
all that went through my mother’s heart and mind
on that black night
as she searched through a grim railroad station
for her lost children.
That she was terrified, I have no doubt.
I am certain it crossed her mind
that if she did not find this train,
she might never see her children again.
I know with certainty:
her faith overcame her fear,
and her hope overcame her despair.
She was not a woman who would sit
and bemoan tragedy.
She moved.
She put her faith and hope into action.
And so she ran from track to track
and from train to train until she finally found our train.
It had been moved to a remote area of the station.
There, at last, she found her children again.
I have often thought about that night
and what my mother must have endured.
If I could go back in time and sit by her side,
I would ask her how she managed to go on
in the face of her fears.
I would ask about faith and hope
and how she overcame despair.
While that is impossible,
perhaps today I could sit by your side
and by the side of any who might feel discouraged,
worried, or lonely.
Today I would like to speak with you
about the infinite power of hope.
Hope is one leg of a three-legged stool,
together with faith and charity.
These three stabilize our lives
regardless of the rough or uneven surfaces
we might encounter at the time.
The scriptures are clear and certain
about the importance of hope.
The Apostle Paul taught that the scriptures
were written to the end that we “might have hope.”
Hope has the power to fill our lives with happiness.
Its absence—when this desire of our heart
is delayed—
can make “the heart sick.”
Hope is a gift of the Spirit.
It is a hope that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ
and the power of His Resurrection,
we shall be raised unto life eternal