CAIRO, Egypt — Nearly 60 years ago, a jet pilot in his late 20s and fresh out of German and U.S. Air Force training flew his Lufthansa airliner several times in to Cairo, Egypt, as well as other cities and countries in the Middle East during stops and layovers.
He marveled at the aerial view of the Nile River, how the green space from the waters and extended flooding would give way to the sands and “the power of the desert.”
He and others would hire horses a great distance from the relatively small capital city of Egypt, riding on the sand dunes to the pyramids of Giza, built by ruling pharaohs of the past. The tallest — known as the Great Pyramid — was built by Khufu, the second in completion and size by his son Kahfre, and the third and smallest by his grandson Menkaure.
The pilot and those with him would ride on to the Great Sphinx and then toward what is present-day Saqqara Necropolis, featuring the Step Pyramid and a series of still-under-excavation monuments, courtyards, tombs and funerary passages where newsmaking discoveries continue to be unearthed from civilizations dating back more than four millennia.
That pilot — Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — hadn’t been back to Cairo since the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states until this past week, when a three-country Church assignment took him to Cairo and provided him a new look at the sprawling largest metro area on the African continent estimated at over 22 million people.
It served as an opportunity to become reacquainted with the city, its environs and its people for the first time personally in more than a half-century — and his first visit in nearly 30 years as a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Apostle since 2004 and 10 years as a First Presidency counselor.
“It has changed in many ways,” said Elder Uchtdorf, underscoring Cairo’s mass of people and city size, which now has spread out onto the sands and encroaching where the stately pyramids and Sphinx stand.
“But some things have remained — and so it is in the Church, some things remain, the core doctrine of Jesus Christ. It is more solid and more firm than the Giza pyramids. It is real to us, and we can trust it.”
For Sister Harriet Uchtdorf, who accompanied him, it marked her first visit to Egypt and first view of what her husband had told her decades ago about Cairo, the Nile and the sites as well as what she has studied for years in the biblical accounts of Egypt.
She listed off the events, starting with the children of Israel, from the time Joseph was sold into Egypt to becoming a ruler and bringing his father Israel’s 12-son family to survive a regional famine.
The accounts continue from Moses being raised by Pharoah’s daughter to abdicating his royal role to become a prophet leading the children of Israel — through miracles and momentous events — through their 40-year trek through the wilderness to a promised land.
And the accounts include the young family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus fleeing to Egypt to avoid King Herod’s decree to slay all young boys.
“For me right now, I’m having to pinch myself, because I am so close to all of those things here,” she said. “Living in the United States, it’s so far away — but now I am here.”
The Uchtdorfs’ time in Cairo included arriving just days after the April 9 Easter commemoration in Western Christianity, just days before the April 16 Orthodox Easter and the final days of the monthlong daily fasts of Ramadan by Muslims across the globe.
“That’s a lot of celebrations in different styles and ways, with a lot of good people,” said Elder Uchtdorf, adding that the key for Latter-day Saints is “accepting the gift that Jesus Christ gave us all — He gave His life, and He rose again. His teachings for you and me is that we can repent and begin again.
Elder Uchtdorf is on a three-country assignment, starting with ministering to members, missionaries and others in Paris, France.
Then the Uchtdorfs traveled from Paris to Cairo, beginning their stay with a Friday morning combined sacrament meeting with the local English- and Arabic-speaking Latter-day Saints who comprise the two local branches. They have continued to Israel and meetings with Latter-day Saints and students at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies.
Latter-day Saint meetings in Cairo are held on Fridays, considered by Muslims to be the national holy day of the week. In that Friday morning sacrament meeting and throughout their four days in Cairo, Elder Uchtdorf repeatedly found similarities in ancient Egyptian history and culture that can be tied to Latter-day Saint living today.
Led by Moses, the children of Israel were sustained daily with manna and an occasional large flock of quail. “What’s our manna?” the Apostle asked. “It is our daily prayers, it is our daily connection to heaven — through the scriptures and through the help of ‘Come, Follow Me.’“
He returned to the Atonement of Jesus Christ as “our daily manna — so trust God, trust His help.”
Labeling the Nile River as the lifeblood of Egypt, “the lifeblood in our lives is the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Elder Uchtdorf said, noting how 20th-century dams had helped control the Nile after centuries of surging, flooding unpredictable waters. “We need to discipline ourselves, just like the Nile River.”
And Elder Uchtdorf singled out a major Old Testament spiritual leader and his modern-day contemporary. President Russell M. Nelson, the President of the Church, is “a prophet like unto Moses” the Apostle said, paraphrasing Doctrine and Covenants 107:91-92.
He also underscored President Nelson’s role as found in the Old Testament. “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken” (Deuteronomy 18:15).
Elder and Sister Uchtdorf both commented about gospel connections they found in Cairo, from the mention of Israel on a stone tablet on display in the massive Egyptian Museum to the yardslong scrolls of papyrus and many stone-wall hieroglyphics in the tombs and funerary chambers describing the journey of the deceased into the afterlife.
“What I really liked is how they show in the afterlife that the heart is measured,” he said. “If it’s heavy, it’s full of bad stuff, and you have to suffer and pay the price.
“But when you’re a good person, you have a pure heart, a light heart, and you continue on the other side in a happier state,” he said, adding that many cultures and faiths, including the Hindu, whom he witnessed on a trip earlier this year to India, share commonalities in a faith in the afterlife and a desire to be together as families.
He noted Old Testament scriptures, from 1 Kings to Isaiah, that speak of God willing to give His children a light heart, a pure heart and an understanding heart. “God will give you a new heart, a light heart, because he makes sure that the bad stuff comes out through repentance and forgiveness. That is the process where the Atonement of Jesus Christ comes in.”
Elder Uchtdorf added: “For us as a Church, we need to better find a way to better connect to the world’s religions — not make it against each other but with each other.”
And the Apostle modeled that, reaching out to a variety of individuals as he made his way through Cairo, asking Egyptian Arabs about the processes and principles of Ramadan, engaging with a man sitting outside his Old City shop and reading the Quran, visiting with a Coptic priest on their plane before their flight to Israel.
“We should cherish commonalities and move forward from there, respecting the differences but appreciating them and the commonalities — and the hearts of good human beings.”
