As I looked at the pictures and thought of my ancestors, I could hear the question of the servant in the vineyard, “How comest thou hither to plant this tree…? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.  And the Lord said…Counsel me not…” (Jacob 5:21-22)

 

While the green villages of Switzerland were prosperous for some of my ancestors, for the Frischknecht family, it was a place of poverty.  My great great grandfather, Conrad Frischknecht, was born in the town of Herisau, Switzerland where as a young child he began working in a lace or cloth factory running errands, threading needles and picking up broken threads.  His family did not own property and at one time were housed in a home shared with three other families where illnesses spread quickly.  Hunger was a frequent companion which was sometimes alleviated by begging for a portion of the ample rations provided the Swiss soldiers stationed in their area.

 

When Conrad was six years old, his parents joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which brought additional persecution to his young life.  His parents were able to send his older brother, John, with a group of Saints who were emigrating to the United States and three years later, Conrad and his parents followed, settling in Manti, Utah.  It was a far cry from the features of their Swiss homeland but it was their land of opportunity.  

 

Prosperity was a slow process.  Jobs and income were hard to come by but land was plentiful.  They obtained two and a half acres and built the home where he and his wife would raise their family.  Conrad did primarily physical labor until an accident at the mill where he worked significantly reduced his capacity.  Still, the land planted with fruit trees and a large garden allowed them to feed their family, sell the excess and by small jobs he and his children obtained, they were sheltered, fed and had opportunities for education and spiritual growth.  His three sons graduated from college, his two daughters obtained teaching certificates and each of his children made covenants with God in the Manti temple, a temple he had helped to build.  These gifts of temporal and spiritual opportunity have been passed down through the generations that have followed.

 

“Counsel me not; for I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.” (Jacob 5:22). Conrad and his family followed the Lord to this “spot of ground” and it bore “much fruit.”  As we serve with the Lord of the vineyard and heed His counsel, we will witness “fruit” greater than we could envision in all the types of ground in which our lives grow.