A Conversion Story and Grand Coincidence

On 07-15-2019, Elder Jamison Chandler, serving in the Bakersfield CA, mission, wrote this:
“So this week was our first Zone Conference with President Sandberg and Sister Sandberg. To be honest it was a really cool and powerful Zone Conference. President Sandberg shared a story of his great grandfather who was living in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota all alone. He checked out the Book of Mormon from a library one time and started reading it. Even though he had read many books on the church that were anti he couldn't deny the power and truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. After a couple of years he packed up his stuff to go to Utah so he could be baptized. After getting baptized he moved back to North Dakota, started a family, and raised all his kids in the Gospel. It was a phenomenal story and President Sandberg referred to his great grandfather as a "Book of Mormon convert".

As a grand coincidence, I believe I met President Sandberg, while I was young missionary in the North Central States Mission, serving in Minneapolis, Minnesota.. Late in the evening, on a night in the early weeks of my mission in 1957, as my first missionary companion, Elder Allen Rockhill, and I approached the door of our apartment, we saw a man knocking on our door.  As he turned to us, I was immediately flooded with a strong spiritual impression that this was special and good man.  Elder Rockhill greeted him and introduced him to me as President Sandberg of the Gettysburg, South Dakota branch.  He was visiting in Minneapolis and had decided to see this elder who had very recently served in his area.

Elder Rockhill told me later of President Sandberg’s remarkable conversion story.  Here is how I remember it.  It probably occurred in the 1920s or 1930s.  The Sandberg family like many in the area had migrated from Norway or Sweden a generatation or so before and were by tradition Lutheran.  The Sandberg family had a farm in the vicinity of Gettysburg, and consisted of a father and a mother and two grown sons helping with the work of the farm.  The son who later became the Gettysburg Branch President, had become disillusioned by the Lutheran Church.  But wanting more religious understanding, he investigated other Christian sects but seemed to also find them wanting.  He then decided that he would try to learn more about oriental religions.  One day the family experienced some kind of farm equipment breakdown, and the other brother made plans to go into town to get it repaired.  Brother Sandberg asked him for a favor when he was in Gettysburg, that he go into the little county library and check out some books for him to study on the “isms.”  The brother did this as asked and when he  made the request of the librarian, she said that she only had two books on the “isms.”  They happened to both be about Mormonism.  It turned out that one of the books was a Book of Mormon, probably donated by an earlier missionary traveling in the area.  The other book was an exposé of Brigham Young and his plural wives.  The brother checked these books out and brought them home.

Brother Sandberg saw that the Book of Mormon seem rather complex, with unusual names, etc., so decided that the Brigham Young book might be an better introduction to his study.  However, in just a few pages he determined that the author was contentious and full of antagonism, and decided therefore, that the book was not trustworthy.  He read the entire book but dismissed it.  Then he turned to the study of the Book of Mormon, and soon became convinced that it was true.

I have repeated this story on a number of occasions, to make the point that persons who present arguments with a contentious spirit can probably not be trusted, as one searches for truth.

The story continues, as told by Elder Rockhill.  Brother Sandberg had never met a member of the Church that believed in the Book of Mormon and may not even have known where they existed, but somehow identified that they were headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Wanting further information and contact, he addressed a letter to the leader of the Church, in Salt Lake City.  That mail found its way to someone in a leadership position in the church, and Brother Sandberg received a reply which began a correspondence.  Other literature was provided to him which he studied carefully and continued to be attracted to what he was learning.  Wanting to have contact with people of the Church, he made plans to travel to Utah. 

That fall, after the harvest on the farm had been completed, Brother Sandberg began a drive to Salt Lake City.  He was anxious to finally meet a Latter-day Saint for the first time, and as he crossed over the state line, he stopped for gasoline in Coalville.  Anxiously, he asked the gas station attendant if he were Mormon, and the man threw down his cigarette and answered in the affirmative.  Brother Sandberg continued on, arriving at Temple Square.  He joined a tour group where at the conclusion, the guide asked his guests if they had questions.  Brother Sandberg raised his hand and asked how he could be baptized.  He was soon introduced to other church members and officials in the vicinity of Temple Square, attended meetings on Sunday where he bore a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and in a few days, left for his home in South Dakota, having been baptized a member of the Church and ordained an elder.

When he got back home, he baptized his girl friend and married her and began to raise a family in the Gospel, and served faithfully and well for many years as President of a branch of the church in his home area of Gettysburg, South Dakota.

This is the story as I remember it, as recited by my companion, Elder Allen Rockhill, of Kamas, Utah.