Elder Erich W. Kopischke

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If there is one thing that Elder Erich Willi Kopischke has gained a testimony of, it is that the Lord knows what is best for individuals.

He recalls being a little disappointed when called to serve a full-time mission in his native Germany. “I wanted to learn a different language,” he says. But he soon came to love teaching his own people. And when he was assigned to the mission office for nine months as a secretary, he had to learn English.

Elder Kopischke came to realize that his mission had truly been the Lord’s plan for him, because it had prepared him.

“The Lord knows your mission in life—that is my greatest testimony,” he says. “He knows what is in store for you.”

Elder Kopischke was born on October 20, 1956, in Elmshorn, Germany, where he was raised by faithful Latter-day Saint parents, Helga Haupt Kopischke and Kurt Kopischke.

Elder Kopischke earned a degree in business. After his mission he served in the military before receiving further vocational training. During this time he met his future wife, Christiane Glück, who was attending nursing school. They were married in the Bern Switzerland Temple on December 19, 1978, and have seven children.

He worked in the insurance industry before taking a job with the Church Educational System in 1996, where he was appointed as the Europe Central Area director in 2000.

In 2003 he was called to serve as president of the Berlin mission, an experience he and his wife loved.

Prior to his call to the First Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Kopischke served as bishop’s counselor, stake high councilor, district president, stake president, mission president, Area Seventy, and Second Counselor in the Europe Central Area.