A few Success Stories

I haven't had time to go through all the Success Stories lately but here are a few that caught my eye:

(please excuse all the asterisks - I prefer to keep the names of investigators and new members confidential)

Elder Tholen (Suriname) - Working this week with Elder Mecham on exchanges in one of my old areas that got closed (Uitkijk), we went to visit a member family. As we were leaving a group of extended family members came to the house and I, thinking we were going to be late getting home, just greeted them and started to climb onto my bike as I got maybe revolution peddling i heard some yell from behind," Do you give lessons!?"....skrrrd. Instantly my most primal missionary instinct kicks in. "Surely" I yelled back, "And where do you live ?" Come to find out she lives in the area that I work in thus i quickly made an appointment and peddled away. Long story short, she has been looking for the missionaries for 7 years after seeing them and instantly knowing that they could help with a "sorrowful" after the death of her husband. So after 7 years she has a baptism date along with 6 others that live with her.

Elder White (Trinidad) - thursday before last we were meeting with a man named ***. The way we met him was quite strange, he walked up to the other elders and asked "do you not talk to rastas? this is just a hair style." When we went to teach him his cousin spent most of the night trying to bash with us and finally after we explained a couple of times that we didn't want to bash, *** told his cousin he wanted to hear what we had to say. When we came back this tuesday, we started teaching, and part way through the lesson, we asked *** if he had prayed and asked God if what we shared was true. He said he had asked the night before, in the morning, and while sitting on the bleachers before Rugby practice. we asked him if he had felt anything. he said that in each of the times, he felt something, like someone had put their hands on his shoulders, and said "And I'm feeling it now" We testified to him of the Holy Ghost

Elder Daines (Guyana) - I have a story about three pastors- Pastor A***, Pastor T***, and Pastor C*** - and the village they live in called ***. Pastor A*** has a big *** Pentecostal church in the town. Pastor T*** didn’t like it and broke away, and formed the *** church. But T***'s co-pastor, C***, didn’t like some of the things that went on, and he left that church.
So we’re on a bus one day, and Pastor A*** asks me about the book I had - I told him a little about The Book of Mormon, and he says wants one. We teach him a few times, and he starts reading the Book of Mormon.
We’d never been to this town before, so we start talking with everyone-and we just happen to tract into Pastor C***. We sit down with him, and he is even more interested. Within a few days, he tells us he’s reading the Book of Mormon, and he’s getting an answer to his prayers.
Just a day or two later, Pastor T*** calls us out as we’re walking down his street. So we stop inside and teach him about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. That lesson wasn’t as good as the other two, because an American man who claims to be an Apostle was sitting with us. (We asked if they had 12 Apostles, but he said he’s actually the only one.)
But the good part is the people who live across the street from T*** - They called us out, and brought us under their house, where they have a store room full of boxes from our church. These two women run an orphanage and shelter, and get newborn and hygiene and medical kits from the church every year. They know all the church leaders, and they love the Whiteheads, and have been attending the church regularly. There’s at least 6 people that live in the house and none are baptized yet. They don’t like Pastor T*** because his church’s music was too loud and it killed their mother, who had high blood pressure.
Plus, just last week, we found out that a strong member family moved into the same town just three weeks earlier.
So things are looking good. Brother C*** came to church yesterday, and should be baptized on July 4. Brother A*** knows that the Book of Mormon and the church is true, but he’s a little scared of what his congregation will do- we told him to just teach them all the truth, and change the name of his church. And Bro. T*** - he’s not going anywhere, but the family across the street should all be baptized by July 11. In the end, I’ve seen that none of this could have been done without the spirit, and teaching doctrine, especially from the Book of Mormon. It doesn’t matter who you’re teaching, our message is true.