Success Stories - June 15

Elder Holtz (Suriname) –This Sunday at church we had the lesson in Sunday School about Baptism... and reason #1 why I love having investigators at church = they feel the spirit... I was sitting next to an older gentleman that is an investigator of ours and the teacher of the lesson asked the class a general question: "Who needs to get baptized?" so our investigator put his finger in the air to answer the question and stood up and pronounced with a loud voice: "I DO, I WANT TO GET BAPTIZED, THIS SATURDAY!" I was kind of shocked that he just stood up in church and proclaimed to the whole Sunday school that he had just created his baptismal date! Elder Riding was sitting in the back of the class and he said aloud: "What time?" Our investigator looked at me and I just said... “4 o'clock?" He gave a nod of approval and sat back down.... I guess the spirit really does move people!

Elder Stebbing (Guyana) – We witnessed the power of a member's testimony a few days ago. We were teaching a woman named *** and her family. She's been keeping her commitments, but she's very hesitant to believe in Joseph Smith and the Restoration. When we asked if she was still going to be coming to church on Saturday, she said "I'll try", which any West Indies Missionary knows means a 90% chance of failure. Luckily we had *** and ***, two recent converts with us. We just let them loose and sat back and watched the show. *** testified and made church sound like the greatest experience on the earth. After she was finished, she asked *** if she would be coming. ZING! *** was totally changed; she was solidly committed to coming. And lo and behold on Sunday... ZING! She was there early for sacrament meeting, despite the rain. A member's testimony makes all the difference!

Elder Schroath (Suriname) - This week we were having a difficult time finding new investigators. We had been trying to teach this one contact elder Shakespear had more than a week before. We thought we'd give it one more try and then leave it if he wasn't there. So we went and surprisingly he was home. He had told us earlier he was from a different faith, so we weren't so sure how the lesson would go. We both felt prompted during the lesson to use the scriptures. So we shared several verses about the great apostasy and eventually Acts 3:19. By the time we got to the restoration the spirit was so strong and this new investigator said "It must be true!” He is excited to come to church and to prepare for baptism. I love the scriptures!

Elder Williams K. (Trinidad) - So Elder Sookram and I found out that sometimes the most prepared people are on the TALLEST HILLS. This past week we climbed up a huge hill and met with a street contact that Elder Sookram had earlier. She Turned out to be way sweet and also had two boys who are ready to hear the gospel with her they are excited and humble and willing to learn and they understood the need for Prophets in these last days, when we dropped by Saturday night they had their clothes prepared and were extremely excited for church. When Sunday came they showed up and fit right in and members welcomed them and they loved every bit of church. They are a sweet family and love the Gospel.

Elder Jestice (Guyana) - This week while on splits with some member boys, we found some sweet people; in particular, the *** family. The mother was a Jehovah's Witness... They loved us and especially our message from the first moment. To make a long story short, they came to church on Sunday and are all planning to be baptized this coming Sunday. They were definitely prepared before we found them.

Elder Fillerup (Guyana) - Elder McDaniel and I were having a rough week and didn't think we were going to have anyone to baptize this weekend. We were both fasting that things would work out and somehow we would have someone to baptize and confirm. We showed up to church and it was great. Even with the rain our attendance hit 100. We had 3 people show up and get baptized. One was ready a few weeks ago but left for Georgetown and got back Saturday and showed up to church without a reminder. The other prayed about a concern and read from the Book of Mormon and built up the faith to take that step of baptism. Another cousin of a member showed up on her own and decided she wanted to be baptized even though she was scared. We also had 7 priesthood ordinations to top it off.

Elder Averett (Guyana) - This week we have been working with a young man named *** he was a referral that was given to us by a member that was one of his friends. He was supper interested and he has been to church a few times now. The biggest concern was about the restoration. But he loved everything that we thought and wanted to come with us and see what it is like to teach with us so we took him with us and we had to teach a new family that just showed up at church on their own the restoration as we were teaching them *** bore his testimony and as he did you could feel the spirit come into the room. And see a light enter his eyes. He seemed to just get it. At the end of the lesson he told the new people that they should prepaid for baptism just like he is doing now and that he is so excited to do it.

Elder Holtz (Suriname) - Last week I wrote about an investigator of ours that literally stood up and proclaimed his own desire for baptism and then set his own date of the following Saturday, well, Saturday that gentleman was baptized, Sunday he was confirmed and he said that he loved every second of it! We had a chance to stop by his house on Sunday evening to check in to see how everything was going and to remind of about a fireside that night... Turns out he had forgotten about the fireside (he's an older gentleman) and when he told him he had only 45 minutes to get ready, find a ride and get there! He sounded a little worried because he thought he wouldn't have the chance to go but he promised us he'd go and come to find out he was actually earlier than us there!