F. Enzio Busche's Conversion — A Postwar German Youth's Spiritual Awakening (1950s)

Friedrich Enzio Busche (1930–2020) was born in Dortmund, Germany, three years before Hitler's rise to power. He led an idyllic early childhood that was swept away by the chaos and destruction of the Second World War; at just fourteen he was drafted into the German army. In the devastation and moral emptiness that followed the war, the young Busche grappled with profound questions about existence, purpose, and the afterlife — a deep yearning to know whether a living God really existed and could be found. His seeking was answered when Latter-day Saint missionaries stood on the Busches' doorstep offering a spiritual message. As he investigated and prayed about their witness, he received a powerful spiritual confirmation of the truth of the restored gospel — an awakening that transformed his life. He was baptized and became a faithful leader among the German Saints; in 1977 he was called as one of the first General Authorities of the Church for whom English was not a native language, serving in the First Quorum of the Seventy. He later recounted his journey in the memoir 'Yearning for the Living God,' testifying that earnest seekers can indeed find the living God.