Small and Simple Things

In his recent talk in general conference, Elder Michael Cziesla told a story about his grandmother who joined the Church in East Prussia in 1926. He commented, “She loved the Lord and His gospel and was determined to keep the covenants she had made.” But in 1930 she married someone who was not a member of the Church and they moved far away from any congregation of the Church. Elder Cziesla recounted, “She focused on what she could do. Oma continued to pray, read the scriptures, and sing the songs of Zion.” He continued, “Some people might have thought she was no longer active in her faith, but that was far from the truth. When my aunt and my father were born, with no priesthood in the home and no Church meetings or access to ordinances nearby, she again did what she could do and focused on teaching her children ‘to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord.’ She read to them from the scriptures, sang with them the songs of Zion, and of course prayed with them—every day. A 100 percent home-centered Church experience.”  It was those small actions that proved indeed to bring about great things. In 1945, during WWI and with her husband off at war, “Oma took her two little children and left their beloved farm behind to seek refuge in a safer place” as their enemies approached. Life became very difficult for her, and “they had nothing left except the clothes on their bodies. But Oma continued with what she was able to do: she prayed with her children—every day. She sang with them the songs of Zion she had memorized by heart—every day.” About a decade later her seventeen-year-old son (Elder Cziesla’s father) walked by a building in the city he was going to school in and saw that it was his mother’s church. He told his mother and she “was determined to attend the next Sunday and convinced my father to accompany her. Rendsburg was more than 20 miles (32 km) away from the little village where they lived. But this would not keep Oma from attending church. The next Sunday, she got on her bicycle together with my father and rode to church.” What dedication after 25 years away from the Church! Elder Cziesla described what happened to his father that day: “They started to sing, and they sang the songs of Zion that my dad had heard since he was a little boy: ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints,’ ‘O My Father,’ ‘Praise to the Man.’ Hearing this little flock sing the songs of Zion he’d known since childhood pierced his heart, and he knew immediately and without a doubt that the Church was true.” All of those years singing and praying with her children every day had prepared that son to have a powerful spiritual experience that day, and he was baptized shortly thereafter. Little could she have known that one day in front of an audience of millions of people, her grandson would tell her story of faith and devotion.

               One of the scriptures that Elder Cziesla highlighted in his conference address was this well-known verse from Alma: “Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise” (Alma 37:6). That Oma could continue to do those small and simple things—praying and worshipping with her children each day—for twenty-five years is a powerful reminder to each of us to never give up on the simple, little things in the gospel. Her story gives me hope that continuing to try to pray and read the scriptures and go to church as a family will yield fruit in the long run for my children in particular. I love how Alma put it in his words to the Zoramites, “And because of your diligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you, behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet, and which is white above all that is white, yea, and pure above all that is pure; and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, neither shall ye thirst” (Alma 32:42). Great things usually take faith, diligence, and patience to bring about the fruit we seek. Though it might seem from Elder Cziesla’s story that a testimony came in a moment for his father, I don’t think that is accurate. Every prayer with his family and every hymn he heard his mom sing were small and simple things that gradually prepared his heart to receive the gospel. Elder Cziesla summarized his message this way: “I have learned through my own experience that the small and simple things of the gospel and faithfully focusing on Christ lead us to true joy, bring about mighty miracles, and grant us confidence that all promised blessings will come to pass. This is as true for you as it is true for me.”