Success Stories

If you are a follower of this blog, I hope you occasionally read the mission success stories. I keep them on my mission website here so they will be all together.

Each week the missionaries write an email letter to President Robison. He asks them to comment on their family, area, companion, testimony, and include a success story (FACTS). The letters are strictly confidential but the elders know he will copy the success story and send it to the assistants (and to me) who select a few and send them out to the entire mission each week.

President Robison started Success Stories early in our mission and I think it has helped all of us serving in the West Indies see the hand of the Lord more clearly in the work we do. Also, I know the elders love to read about the success of their 'brothers'. This fosters a feeling of unity in our very spread out mission.

Here is an amazing Success Story that Elders Risenmay and Damm told me last week and then wrote up for President Robison

Success Story - So Friday we are contacting people like we always do in between appointments and we meet a guy named Harris. We tell him the usual "we help people prepare to be baptized" he said "Yeah, I've been reading my scriptures about how I need to not put off being baptized because I don't know how long I will have before I die." So by this time we're pretty impressed and we talk to him about how Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet. We set an appointment for 1/2 hour later. We go by and we start the lesson and talk about how Adam was the first prophet, he said "Really? It doesn't say anything about that in the Bible but that makes sense" so we keep talking about Adam and he said "Sorry to cut you off but I have a question for you, what is with this dry spell without prophets since the apostles died?" By this time we are totally amazed. We tell him hold on a second and we will answer the question and we start talking about Jesus Christ and yet again he asks "So what happened with the prophets?" So we decide to answer his question. We teach him about how Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet to bring things back and talk about how he can know by the Holy Ghost or by good feelings. He says to us "I am feeling something that I have never felt before, It's like a peace. Like I don't know why I have ever worried about anything before." This whole time he is just looking at his feet and his body wondering what is going on. We show him John 14:26 and he reads "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the father will send in my name". Immediately after he said that a dove flew through his front door, hit the light, and flew out the back door. He pointed up and said "A dove" and looked down and finished the scripture. I told him the sign of the Holy Ghost was the dove. He kept thanking us and raising his hands like hurrah for Israel because he was so excited. After the closing prayer I showed him a picture of the temple on my planner and told him how he could live with his family after this life through temple sealings. He told us just a few days ago his wife asked him if they would live as husband and wife after they died. He proceeded to tell us how he prayed "That when the truth came that God would send it to my home. Now it's here!" He kept thanking us over and over for the truth. As we were walking out the door Elder Damm put his Book of Mormon down and Harris picked it up and said "I need one of these! I saw a commercial for one a while ago and I have been looking ever since!" Does the Lord prepare people? Yes, yes He does.