Grandpa Alfred Durtschi
About 45 Kilometers away from my Grandma Ida, in Wimmis, Switzerland, lived my Great Grandpa Edward and Grandma Rosina Durtschi and their nine children (of 11 births).
Much of Grandpa Alfred Durtschi’s experience was very different from Grandma Ida’s. Much was the same.
Grandfather, Alfred Durtschi, was raised in a Christian home. Both Mother and Father being very religious members of the Protestant Reformed State Church of Switzerland. Grandpa Alfred was born October 2nd, 1886, in Wimmis, Bern County, Switzerland to Edward Durtschi, a wood cutter and farmer born in Spiez, and Rosina Katherina Hiltbrand born in Wimmis, Switzerland.
Wimmis sits just west one of the many mountain lakes, Thunersee, Lake Thun, (the lake where many Durtschi family members were baptized) in another beautiful Swiss mountain valley, a mere 30 miles from Eggwil, where Grandma Ida spent her young years.
Their family also around the table and took turns reading aloud the Bible aloud … all day Sunday, Grandpa Alfred recounts. Their mother who loved the Savior also read to them from the Bible. Edward and Rosina were loved and respected by all for their honest dealings. They counseled with family before making decisions. Gr. Grandpa Edward was among the very few Swiss men who did not drink or smoke. He also had a great deal of faith. Edward and Rosina had purchased the Hiltbrand family farm. Edward was a very strong man in body and spirit. He never finished planting a crop without taking off his hat and asking the Lord to bless it that we might have a harvest. He did the same as he completed his work at the barn at night. He would remove his hat and ask the Lord’s blessings on the flocks that all would be well throughout the night. We had an ideal home. On winter evenings we gathered together and sang songs while father accompanied us on the accordion. They all loved that.
Grandpa’s family first met Mormon Missionary in the summer of 1900. Elders delivered tracts to their home which were in harmony with the teachings of the Bible, but he had no desire to investigate further, as the “Mormons”, it was reported, were terrible people.”
About November 1902, more elders came to their home and left more tracts. Grandpa Alfred read all they gave them and concluded that “if what I read was true, it must be the work of God.” He fasted and prayed as Moroni admonished, in the Book of Mormon, and received his own witness that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was indeed the truth. Grandpa’s mother who was eventually baptized into the church, said, “I don’t know about this Mormon religion, whether it is true or not, but I know this, that a church that produces such fine young men as these men are, is a better church than ours.”
Grandpa Alfred was baptized August 20, 1905, by Elder Hirschi. My mother, two sisters, Eliza and Emma, my brother Fred… were baptized the same night in Lake Thun. I was then 18. He has the Gospel light.