Success Stories - June 1

Elder Clark (Guyana) – This week's success story has been titled "The Miracle of Members". We decided we needed to focus on effective power finding this week and so we thought of a few members that we could take with us to show us around the area a little more. The first morning, we took Sis *** with us and she was able to take us by some less actives and former investigators who gave us referrals. That afternoon, we asked another member to come to a lesson with us and on the way over she found a family of 8 that committed to come to church. The next morning we went to a different village and a different member went finding with us and we found two families that morning. We had been finding in these same areas previously, but when a member was there to testify look what happened. I love the members of the West Indies!

Elder Kelley (St. Maarten) – Yesterday while we were tracting, Elder Cottam led us to an area where we'd never been before, and we started calling in to people. At first, no one seemed interested, but then we met a woman as she was arriving home, and asked if she would like to hear our message. She welcomed us in and we taught her about the Restoration. When we got to the part about Joseph Smith, the Spirit was really strong as we bore testimony that we knew it was true. We waited a few moments as the Spirit bore witness to her that we knew it was true, and after, we invited her to be baptized. She quietly responded with a positive "Yes, I will." The Spirit knows who is ready, we just have to listen and follow where it leads us.

Elder Green (Guyana) - This week we were out checking by some people that we had met while power finding but didn't really follow up on. We went to one house looking for a man, but quickly found out that he wasn't home from a man working on a motorcycle in the yard. Well we got to talking to him and invited him to church and then to institute that evening. When we went to institute with another of our investigators, we sat there for a while when BAM out of nowhere here shows up the man that we invited. He absolutely loved institute and even contributed to the discussion and we discovering he has a friend who already attends the church. Then BAM he showed up to church Sunday and is now preparing for baptism. Thus we see...

Elder Warhurst (Guyana) - So there is this family that is part Hindu and part Christian. One day we stopped and asked the Mother, who is Hindu, if they would be interested in hearing the Gospel. She kindly told us no. So we go by a few weeks later and we meet her husband, who is Christian, and begin talking to him. He absolutely loved what we taught him and is preparing to be baptized this next Saturday. The mom is preparing to be baptized the Next Saturday after that. I know that she is doing this because she has been reading the Book of Mormon and knows that it is true. Get your investigators to read from the Book of Mormon and I promise you that more people will be converted to the Gospel because of how powerful the teachings of it are.

Elder Holtz (Suriname) - This week we saw a really cool blessing from a couple old investigators in the area. About 3 months ago they were dropped because they couldn't get married and a couple other circumstances and we had gotten a referral from an Elder to go back to see how everything was going with them. When we got there we had talked to the man and the first words out of his mouth were, "We got married 3 weeks ago!" I was shocked! His wife needed to go to a city 3 hours away to clear up paperwork and after that they could get married... well, now we're busy teaching them and getting a newly married couple ready for baptism!

Elder Jones (Tobago) - Last night we had our 8 o’clock appointment cancel, and especially on Sunday night this is the hardest time to fill. We still had several people we needed to contact for the day but it seemed that there was no one on the streets. We walked the long way home and talked to everyone. We passed our home and kept going with three to go. We got two more and then looked around. We had one more to go but no one was in sight and our apartment was just a block away. We thought about going home but decided that we would continue and get all 20 contacts. Then we ran into Mak, who has asked more questions of the soul in a contact than any other man I’ve met. We were blessed for being exactly obedient.

Elder Brenkmann (Guyana) - On Thursday we were having a rough time and after a difficult lesson I looked at Elder Cotton and asked if he ever feels like we’re standing at a brick wall beating our heads against it waiting to get through. We were waiting for anything to go well. A moment later we contact a 21 year old guy sitting at a shop. He invites us to sit with him and pray. We taught the Restoration and it was amazing. The Spirit was there very strongly. After the lesson we asked him to pray about it, and he said that he didn’t know how. After we explained it to him he prayed. As soon as he finished he looked up and said, “It's true.” We asked him to pray about getting baptized and he did. Then he said, “The Lord has a work for me and I haven’t done it yet.” At Church on Sunday we invited him to a fireside with President Johnson and he quickly agreed to go. President asked all future missionaries to stand. To my great surprise Rodney stood with all the others. It was awesome. After the lesson that Thursday night Elder Cotton replied to my rhetorical question by saying, “We just broke through.”

Elder White (St. Vincent) - This week we had a lesson on who is prepared and who is not. We had decided to work a long windy street on a hill earlier in the week, and as we were going down it, we saw a house, and headed towards it. As we hit the "point of no return" we saw a bunch of Rasta’s were in it, sure that they were drunk or high, feeling "here it goes" we shared about how God had called a prophet on the earth today. To our great surprise, a couple of them listened, and as we bore our testimony, we could feel the spirit testifying. We found out the main man listening was the owner of the place, and we set an appointment with him and left a track. We stopped by the place several times during the next few days, but he was never home. When we finally got to talk with him, he was alone, he had read the whole track, and he wanted to know more. There was such a look in his eyes. You really don't ever know who is prepared when you look at them.