by Sister Bird and Sister Foster
Steven is a miracle! He was truly prepared by God!
He has grown up around religion, but didn’t fully participate in it all his life. When he moved to Chattanooga, which was a prompting from the Spirit, he was working with a member of the Church. She introduced him to the church and told him some of the things that we believe. She offered to have missionaries meet with him, but he responded that he wasn’t ready yet.
Later, he had a strong feeling that he needed to move to Knoxville! He’s been here for 7 months studying law at the University of Tennessee. He had had feelings that he needed something more, that there was something missing from his life. He wanted to grow closer to God, and he wanted to start attending a church again. He remembered his friend from Chattanooga that had invited him to “come and see”.
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We found Steven the day after Christmas. It was really rainy and really cold. We were trying to visit a new member, and she wasn’t home. We didn’t have miles on our car to spare, so we were walking everywhere. We were on our way to visit a member that lived in the same area, and we saw Steven outside with his dog, Athena.
Athena started jumping and trying to run over to us. We talked to Steven for a minute and shared Mosiah 2:17 from the Book of Mormon.
And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
Mosiah 2:17
Sister Foster bore powerful testimony of the power of service in God’s name. We got a return appointment with him, but didn’t think much of it. Steven later told us that he didn’t want to go outside because it was cold and rainy, but he needed to let Athena out. If he hadn’t taken Athena out, we would not have met him.
We called him that Saturday and invited him to come to church. He said yes.
The next morning, his car broke down and he almost didn’t make it to church. One of our new members helped give him a ride from the auto shop to church. This was the best Sunday ever!
He actually attended a different ward in our building because that was the only time he could attend. He walked in, was sitting with us and our member, and shortly after sacrament meeting, one of his law school classmates walked up and said hello.This was amazing! So now he had many friends in the church, some he didn’t even realize were members!
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After Sunday School, Steven was talking with his friend from law school. At this point, we hadn’t even given him a Book of Mormon or taught him about the restoration yet. We had only talked to him about the sacrament. He had a Come Follow Me manual, and he was asked, “Can I have a Book of Mormon?” We gave him one and then we asked him how he liked church. He said something that made our hearts rejoice! “I usually go with my gut when making decisions, and my gut is telling me to stay!”
We had many lessons with him and we met with him often. Steven made a habit of reading the Book of Mormon every day, and he started attending YSA activities during the week.
Steven was baptized on January 27, 2024. He’s already grown so much in the past month. His testimony is incredibly strong. He knows that this is the true church and he is so excited to be a member. He has already helped us in giving a chapel tour to one of our friends, and he is constantly asking us about the people we’re teaching, giving us advice on how to help them. We absolutely love Steven!
#TKMTenderMercies
Barlows in TKM 