One evening as he wrestled with his children on the floor, Elder Keith Karlton Hilbig's 5-year-old son stopped and said, "Dad, I'm having so much fun; when are you going to move in with us?"
"I knew something had to change," said Elder Hilbig, sustained March 30 as a new member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy. "I was serving as bishop of the Pasadena Ward in California at the time and spending many hours working in a large law firm. I decided to leave the firm and organize my own law practice in South Bay. This freed up my time and allowed me to be home every evening."
Family, as a source of joy and a model for righteous living, is a reoccurring theme in the life of Elder Hilbig. Looking back on that evening, he and his wife, Susan, consider that moment — simple as it seemed at the time — to be a lesson of monumental consequence.
"We chose to fully participate as parents in the raising of our children," said Elder Hilbig, explaining their philosophy for rearing their family. "We didn't pick and chose when we would be parents. We chose to parent with full purpose of heart."
The depth of their parental resolve was proven over the next 11 years as they met with their children every day for early-morning seminary. It was a team effort. Elder Hilbig, then serving as stake president, helped prepare the children for school by making breakfast while Sister Hilbig led the family in gospel study.
"German pancakes were their favorite," he said, noting with particular delight the tie with his German ancestry.
"I was raised in Milwaukee, Wis., while Susan was raised in Connecticut," Elder Hilbig said. "But our ancestors lived close together in Germany. Susan's family lived in Leipzig, while my father is from nearby Zwickau. If our families had not immigrated to the United States after joining the Church, we would all have been living in the same stake today," he said.
Elder Hilbig's father joined the Church in Germany. By age 17, after his parents had died, he immigrated to Milwaukee where he became a baker. His early morning hours made it difficult to be with the family, but he sought opportunity where he could. Sometimes Elder Hilbig found his father sleeping in the car while waiting to pick him up from school.
"He took every minute he could to be with the family," Elder Hilbig said. "Years later, when he served on the stake high council, he never hesitated driving 200 miles to attend meetings. My mother was also diligent in her Relief Society assignments. I thought bazaars were a way of life for everyone.
"I learned by observation from my family. Though they lived away from the center of the Church, the Church was the center of their lives," he said.
Elder Hilbig attended the University of Princeton for a year before serving a mission in the Central German Mission. Upon his return, while waiting for the next school year to begin, he enrolled at Brigham Young University at the encouragement of mission friends.
They had arranged dates for him for almost every day of the month. "I was March 1st," remember Sister Hilbig.
"He came in a suit. We both had musical backgrounds so we went to a concert.
We either conversed or wrote notes back and forth in French. As he was getting me out of the car that night, I wondered if he would be the one to marry," she said.
She didn't hear from him again for several weeks, until he completed the dating list. A little while later, after he returned to Princeton, they were engaged. Then, in 1967, after closing the book on his last final for the semester at Princeton University, he jumped in the car with Susan and her parents and drove cross country to Salt Lake City where they were married in the temple.
"That was a long drive," Elder Hilbig said, remembering that the conversation ended long before the journey did.
During the next years, the Hilbigs soon learned that their choices in life were not entirely their own, and that a Providental hand was influencing their affairs.
"The people we've met and the experiences we've had have channeled and directed our lives," said Sister Hilbig. "We sensed there was a plan and we've been willing to follow."
One decision came early in their married lives as they considered whether Elder Hilbig should continue working as a law clerk on Wall Street. "We felt, after fasting and prayer, that there was a better way to raise a family and contribute to the Church," he said.
On another occasion, as Elder Hilbig called to accept a position with the dean of a law school in Milwaukee, he felt the room grow dark. They'd made the best decision they could but now felt foreboding feelings. "The dean called to rescind the offer," Elder Hilbig said.
Opportunities soon led the Hilbigs to California. From there Elder Hilbig was called to serve as president of the Swiss mission where he saw people from 27 nations join the Church. "The Swiss saints are wonderful," he said. "They are absolute in their obedience. If they say they are going to do something, they do it."
These were challenging years for the children who did not understand the Swiss dialect. Every Sunday for three years they sat in their youth classes and sacrament meetings without comprehending a word.
"Their only chance to learn the gospel," said Sister Hilbig, "came during early-morning scripture study. We started at 6 a.m. Sometimes it was so cold they came wrapped in blankets. After eating breakfast, they would ride the funicular railway down the mountain, then take the street car through Zurich, then transfer to a bus to the International School.
"The Lord blessed every one of them. Each can look back and see they were blessed. They have all since served missions to places like England, Ukraine, Germany and Brazil," Sister Hilbig said.
