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!
On January 27th, we were grateful to attend the groundbreaking ceremony for the Knoxville Tennessee Temple. We were really looking forward to participating in this event, but we were surprised by the overwhelming feeling of gratitude we felt as we entered the chapel and joined together with these amazing members of the church in East Tennessee who have looked forward to this day for so long.
Temples are central to our worship in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. These sacred buildings are different than the church meetinghouses where we gather each Sunday for worship services and everyone is welcome to join us there. Temples are different in that they are set apart for sacred ceremonies. In fact, they are only places where some of our most important priesthood ordinances are performed. Everything in the temple points us to Jesus Christ and helps us to strengthen our relationship with Him.
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If you haven’t been to a temple before, you might enjoy this video tour of the Washington D.C. Temple:
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I have sent mine everlasting covenant into the world, to be a light to the world, and to be a standard for my people.
Doctrine and Covenants 45:9
As construction on a new temple begins, we have a groundbreaking ceremony. This ceremony formally marks the commencement of the construction of the temple. A limited number of people were invited to attend the ceremony in person, and the meeting was live-streamed to anyone who wanted to attend virtually. In this meeting, a person assigned by our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson, dedicates the ground where the temple will be built. Elder Shayne M. Bowen, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the North America Southeast Area presidency presided at the meeting and gave the dedicatory prayer.
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The Church Newsroom released a video of the groundbreaking ceremony that you can watch here.
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President Nelson announced a temple for Knoxville on April 3, 2022. It will take 2-3 years for the temple construction to be completed. Once completed, there will be a Temple Open House, where anyone can tour the temple before it is dedicated. After the open house, the temple will be dedicated. Once it has been dedicated, only members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are allowed to enter the temple.
All of us missionaries here in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission feel lucky to be here at this time and to have a role in helping to prepare a place for a temple of God. It’s a wonderful time in the TKM!
On February 27th, 28th, and 29th we had another great round of zone conferences. We have two important areas of focus this transfer:
Put the Savior and our Missionary Purpose at the center of everything we do.
Get all lines in the water.
Our Missionary Purpose is:
“Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.”
Preach My Gospel
Preach My Gospel teaches us:
“The gospel of Jesus Christ defines both your message and your purpose. It provides both the “what” and the “why” of your missionary service…
The gospel message is that we can access the saving, redeeming power of Jesus Christ by exercising faith in Him, repenting, being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end (see 3 Nephi 27:13–22). This is also known as the doctrine of Christ…
Your purpose is to help people come unto Christ by helping them live His doctrine.”
Preach My Gospel
As we focus on our missionary purpose, or the doctrine of Christ, it puts the Savior at the center of everything that we do. President Russell M. Nelson has taught:
“The more we know about the Savior’s ministry and mission—the more we understand His doctrine and what He did for us—the more we know that He can provide the power that we need for our lives.”
“There is nothing easy or automatic about becoming such powerful disciples. Our focus must be riveted on the Savior and His gospel. It is mentally rigorous to strive to look unto Him in every thought. But when we do, our doubts and fears flee.”
Our goal this transfer, especially as we prepare to celebrate Easter, is to be more focused on Jesus Christ and our Missionary Purpose. As we do, we can realize this great promise from President Nelson:
“In a coming day, you will present yourself before the Savior. You will be overwhelmed to the point of tears to be in His holy presence. You will struggle to find words to thank Him for paying for your sins, for forgiving you of any unkindness toward others, for healing you from the injuries and injustices of this life.
You will thank Him for strengthening you to do the impossible, for turning your weaknesses into strengths, and for making it possible for you to live with Him and your family forever. His identity, His Atonement, and His attributes will become personal and real to you.
But you don’t have to wait until then. Choose to be one of His true disciples now. Be one who truly loves Him, who truly wants to serve and lead as He did.
Our desire as a mission is to be one of His true disciples today.
Sister Barlow invited us to watch her favorite video on Jesus Christ. This video is full of one-liners. Watch it and consider what statements stand out to you.
What can you do to put the Savior more at the center of your life?
At this zone conference, we also had workshops on Facebook finding, “Teach When You Find” (teach people right now anytime you can), and “Find When You Teach” (develop the habit of always asking for referrals).
Chattanooga, Cleveland, and Cookeville Zones
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Cumberland and Knoxville Zones
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Asheville and Kingsport Zones
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The Living Christ
Lastly, we spent time filming all missionaries reciting “The Living Christ“, which we’ve been working to memorize over the last few months. In each meeting, we begin first by stating our Missionary Purpose, and then ask someone to share a line from The Living Christ that has been powerful for them. It’s been remarkable to hear the insights our missionaries have shared as they have been memorizing this document.
We’ll look forward to sharing that video on a future post. In the meantime, below you can find the cards we’ve used to create a flip book to help all of us memorize this great statement about the Savior. Feel free to create your own and join us in memorizing The Living Christ.
We’ll look forward to sharing our video on The Living Christ in a future post.
I hope that my words can express what I want to share about. This story is pretty personal to me. I want to share with all of you my conversion story.
I hope that as you read it that the Spirit will communicate with you. This will be long. I hope it’ll be worth the read.
This week several milestones happened for me in my missionary service and personal life. Tomorrow I will hit one year as a missionary. I cannot believe that it has gone this fast. I can say without a doubt that being a missionary has been the second best decision I have ever made in my life.
I want to say that serving my Savior, Jesus Christ has brought more joy into my life than anything I’ve ever done. I have made so many life long friends. Had so many life long memories. Seen so many miracles that I still am having a hard time wrapping my head around.
I want to make the most of my missionary experiance. I’m so glad that I have another year to be a representative of Jesus Christ.
The other milestone is that I hit 3 years sober on Feburary 23rd!
I hope that what I have to say next will inspire others to change through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
When I turned 18 years old, I decided to leave The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I decided by my own free will and choice to follow the ways of the world rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason that I state that it was my own free will and choice is because, it was. Something that I have seen on my mission while talking to less active members is that they almost always put blame on other people for why they left the church.
Countless times I’ve heard it was because someone did something to them that they didn’t like. That the “rules” were to strict. That they don’t have time for it. The excuses are endless. The reason I make a point of this is because when I turned 18, as right as I thought I was for leaving, and as much as I thought my life would get better I was simply just wrong.
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Elder Lawrence Corbridge, he explains a truth that I wish everyone in the world could hear. He says:
People say ‘You should be true to your beliefs.’ While that is true, you cannot be better than what you know. Most of us act based on our beliefs, especially what we believe to be in our self-interest. The problem is, we are sometimes wrong.
Someone may believe in God and that pornography is wrong and yet still click on a site wrongly believing that he will be happier if he does or he can’t help but not click or it isn’t hurting anyone else and it is not that bad. He is just wrong.
Someone may believe it is wrong to lie and yet lie on occasion, wrongly believing he will be better off if the truth is not known. He is just wrong.
Someone may believe and even know that Jesus is the Christ and still deny Him not once but three times because of the mistaken belief that he would be better off appeasing the crowd. Peter wasn’t evil. I am not even sure he was weak. He was just wrong.
When you act badly, you may think you are bad, when in truth you are usually mistaken. You are just wrong. The challenge is not so much closing the gap between our actions and our beliefs; rather, the challenge is closing the gap between our beliefs and the truth. That is the challenge.
Elder LawrenceE. Corbridge, “Stand Forever“, BYU Devotional, January 22, 2019
I will attempt to explain how I closed that gap through my testimony.
I can say without a doubt, when I decided to leave the church my life became nothing but a challenge. It was a constant flurry of indecicive behavior. I was CONSTANTLY changing my standards to what I felt right about. The problem with that is what Elder Corbridge is pointing out…what I felt to be right was simply just wrong.
I can testify to everyone who’s reading this that the objective truth about how we should live our lives is found within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
For me however, from the span of 18-22 I was so bitter and hard-hearted toward the Church, and I would never allow the Spirit to tell me otherwise. I was so terrified to be wrong because I had so much pride. If I was wrong, then in my mind it meant that I had to live a way that I didn’t want to live.
So I chose to continue to live my life in sin and to choose to do things that I felt was right as far as the worlds standards. I was trying to find out what was right from wrong through trial and error. I can promise that that is ALWAYS a bad idea.
These actions led me to a very dark place. I won’t share all the details because I don’t want to disrupt the Spirit. But I will explain the situaiton I found myself in.
At this time in the story I was 22 years old. Since I had been abusing my body through the use of substances, I was not very healthy at the time. At my lowest I was 135 pounds. As of right now I’m 180. I had the long hair and the skin and bone. If I would have had on raggy clothes I would have looked homeless.
I took a trip down to Utah to hang out with some friends. I planned on only being there for a few days, but that turned into about a week. While I was there, I was not making good decisions. I was partaking in things that I shouldn’t have been.
On the 7th or 8th day of this, my body had enough. I was mentally, physically, spiritually, and emotionally maxed out. I hit the lowest point in my life. I wasn’t able to sleep because of the intense anxiety attack that I had because of the crud I was doing to myself. My body was in full on panic mode. I couldn’t hold down food. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t function normally. It felt like my brain was in a blender. There was no rational thinking that I could perform. I have never felt the darkness that deeply in my life.
The best way I can really explain what I was feeling is to quote Alma 36:12-16:
“12 But I was racked with eternal torment, for my soul was harrowed up to the greatest degree and racked with all my sins.
13 Yea, I did remember all my sins and iniquities, for which I was tormented with the pains of hell; yea, I saw that I had rebelled against my God, and that I had not kept his holy commandments.
14 … and in fine so great had been my iniquities, that the very thought of coming into the presence of my God did rack my soul with inexpressible horror.
15 Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds.
16 And now, for [24 hours] I racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.”
I truly can understand how Alma felt as he was in His state of agony. The only way I can explain what happened next is to quote the rest of the scripture:
17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.
19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.
20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!
I can testify that the “marvelous light” that Alma beheld, I have beheld as well. I tesify that the light shines brightest when we are encompassed by the darkness.
I wish I could put into words how it felt to truly see the illuminating light of Jesus Christ light up my soul and my heart. In that moment, I made the conscious decision to come unto Christ. I chose as deliberatly as I did when I left Christ to come back to Christ.
What I am so grateful for is that Christ took me back. The instant that I knew I needed my Savior, He succored me. He helped me and I have truly felt His atoning grace. I felt Him both physically and spiritually change not only my mind, but also my heart. I wanted nothing else but to keep His commandments because I finally closed the gap that Elder Corbridge mentioned.
I finally understood that what I believed was simply put, wrong. What I was chosing to do was wrong. What I was chosing to believe was wrong.
In the midst of all of this I understood an eternal truth that came from the prophet Joseph Smith. His revelation of the Word of Wisdom was correct. It had to be.
If it wasn’t, then how could what I believed to be true end up putting me in a place that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy? The place that I put myself in was no where else but the “gall of bitterness” Alma mentions (Alma 36:18). I was in the chains of hell.
There is no way that eternal truth would EVER put me into that position. Because Jesus Christ is the embodiment of truth, all good things come from Christ. I can promise every single one of you that the place I was in was anything but good.
Through the grace of Jesus Christ I took up my bed that I was in and got the heck out of that house (John 5:8).
Thankfully I have an uncle named Jack who was living in that area. I am still indebted to him for rescuing me out of that horrible place. He let me stay at his house and lent me his comfy bed to rest in until my body and brain went back to normal. To my uncle Jack, I love you. Thank you so much for helping me three years ago. I don’t know what I would have done without you.
I want to testify and make it absolutley clear to everyone I that is reading this. That I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real. It is as real and the ground you are standing on. I testify that without His Atonement I would not be here to write this email. I wouldn’t be the man I am today.
I am so grateful for Him. I can testify that no matter what your life is like, you can change it through His Atonement. He is waiting for you to simply ask to have His Atonement work in your life. He works according to our own understanding. He will help.
These things I testify, in his sacred and perfect name. Even Jesus Christ, Amen.
On February 22nd, we were grateful to welcome 18 new missionaries to the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. It is incredible to think about the amount of good they will do over the next 18-24 months.
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In an amazing Tender Mercy, as our departing missionaries were heading home, they ran into a group of our arriving sisters in the Atlanta airport. Incredible that the Lord would have them cross paths.
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We spent the morning in interviews, reviewing expectations with finances, apartments, medical, and vehicles, and heading out to the University of Tennessee campus to do some street contacting.
When David put in a request online to meet with missionaries, Elder Taylor and Elder Thompson responded. They shared the Book of Mormon and invited David to church.
Most churches overlooked David because of his wheelchair, but the missionaries offered to get him transportation to church, which meant a lot to him. After a few visits, Elder Rumsey got transferred into the Athens area, and he really connected with David. His testimony and personality was vital in helping David to change and continue growing his faith in Jesus Christ.
David was worried about his tattoos and appearance while coming to church, but the missionaries and members helped him feel comfortable and loved. He states that a lot of the trials he has had in his life was God preparing him to live a clean life. Even though he no longer has his lower left leg, he is grateful that God used that trial as a way to help him to become drug free.
David was interested in the Book of Mormon when the missionaries first started meeting with him. He would have spiritual experiences while reading it, but would also experience periods of doubt.
As his journey progressed, Elder Driggs arrived in Athens and they were able to connect really well. David was steadily progressing when he had obligations to attend to back in his hometown of Alabama. After coming back from a trip to Alabama, David sat down with the missionaries and said he didn’t believe in any of it. This was a pivotal day for David’s testimony. Elder Driggs and Elder Rumsey shared some personal experiences and testified strongly of the restored gospel, and the spirit flooded the room. The missionaries and David were crying tears of joy when a pure miracle of the Lord happened. Mid-conversation the spirit told David: “Get up!”
The missionaries watched in shock as David stood up, walked seven steps, and proclaimed he knew what we taught was true.
One thing David said about missionaries coming by was “When y’all walk in, I feel the spirit walk in with you. When you walk out, it leaves too”.
David still had struggles with his testimony and weaknesses he had to overcome, but he knew that God was working in his life. His life was changing for the better and he was continuing to see it. The Elders invited David to continue to pray to know truth, and to act on the truth he received.
David said that after two days of asking God “not to know if the Book of Mormon was true, but just to know the truth, whatever it may be I would accept”, he had a very spiritual experience watching “Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration”. He said that reading the Book of Mormon after that was a different experience. “I was no longer looking for ways to disprove it. God had opened my eyes to the truth.”
David was ready, but had to say goodbye to Elder Rumsey. Elder Driggs and Elder Huff helped him prepare for baptism. He had daily phone calls or in-person lessons with the missionaries to help support him spiritually while facing major temptation from the adversary. After months of hard work, David was ready.
His baptism was a very spiritual experience for all those involved. After coming out of the water, David was overwhelmed with the Spirit. He knew it meant that he had fully repented of a lifetime of walking without the Lord. David described his baptism in these words: “I felt like I was going to float away. When I came up out of that water I felt like I was going to keep on going. I honestly felt like I was going to keep floating. I felt like a feather. I cried a little bit but it was happy tears. I’ve never felt that good, never felt that amazing.”
David’s life was literally saved by God. He was willing to make sacrifices and his life and our Heavenly Father blessed his and continues to bless him graciously.
Angel was a referral. She was really pushed into sending the referral by her really close friends and family.
Here is Angel’s story in her own words…
I have always sought out religion. None seemed to “click”.
I have a close friend who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve known him almost 40 years and had no idea that he was a member.
My friend started sharing with me the story about Joseph Smith, how he was called to restore the church of Jesus Christ back to the earth, and the translation of the Book of Mormon.
He shared remarkable beliefs with me that I began to understand and feel were true:
That Adam and Eve fell so that man could be
He taught me about the three degrees of heaven
He invited me to live the Word of Wisdom
The belief of the Godhead that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are separate and individual Beings
How we have been created in God’s own image
This friend is incarcerated in prison. He has 16 more years to serve. We read the Book of Mormon and study together daily with his phone calls.
I am so happy to have found the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I used to not be a believer in God. For me It was scientifically impossible. But I NOW believe!
As a child, I had enjoyed a close relationship with God. I was an enthusiastically religious young lady and was disappointed when my mother stopped attending church at the same time my parents split up. However, when we returned to Texas for the holidays, I could always look forward to visiting the Lutheran church where my parents had been married and my cousins and I had been baptized.
When I was a little older, we attended a nondenominational fellowship church where I was the only child of a single parent. This church had none of the prescribed processes of the Lutheran church to be able to participate in communion, and, being twelve (around the time I would have been confirmed in our family church), I asked permission from my mother to do so. I was filled with joy to be allowed to be counted worthy to participate. After the service, at the potluck that followed each Sunday service, I shyly approached the Pastor and shared that I had just taken my first communion. He told me “Oh that’s nice” and turned back to his conversation with the other adults. The next Sunday, I told my mother I’d like to take a break from church, and I never went back.
A few years later, a series of sad and terrible events caused me to turn from Heavenly Father and convinced me that I was beyond his concern. I was abandoned by my parents at 15 and was left to figure out how to raise myself in a world that was all too eager to avoid any discussion of religion at all. Over the intervening 25 years, I became a wife and a mother to four beautiful and amazing children, suffered a broken marriage and an exhausting career, and was left with my life a wreck.
Motherhood showed me that I was not forgotten. The birth of a child brings us closer to Heavenly Father on earth than we may ever otherwise know. But I was still angry, ashamed, and in my marriage, frightened to approach a relationship with Him again. I continued to try to carry my burden alone. Eventually, that weight was too much, and I surrendered to what path he had for me. I lost everything to get there. And when I was finally alone, I attended church and wept and begged for help.
Learning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit and submit to the will of God is hard. I resisted coming back to North Carolina, and yet I was compelled to return. When Covid came, I was able to move back to Rutherford County and began to truly understand that there was a plan and purpose for my return. The Lord blessed me and my children with a home, with friends, and eventually, with a second chance to build a family with faith as its cornerstone.
I had searched for several years for a church home to bring my children to. It was scary, and it shouldn’t have been – I didn’t fear the Lord’s judgement, I was instead wary of people and their interpretations of scripture, practices of faith, and manipulation of children. It was very important to me that my children experienced a traditional and Christ-centered religious community like the one I grew up in, but I struggled to find a church that was conservative, traditional, and growing. Once my husband-to-be and I started dating, we began traveling an hour and a half every Sunday to attend a church that came closest to meeting my conditions. We began taking my children as well. They loved it, and the church was very welcoming. But we were so far away, it was hard to get to know people; I saw my daughters long for the opportunity to more fully belong, and the challenges we faced to do so.
My husband is a straightforward man and was clear in defining his faith. I had begun reading about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as soon as we had started seeing each other. I had literally dozens of tabs of information on the church, on being in a mixed faith marriage, of the good and bad things people had to say about the Church. My husband never pressured me or my children in any way to attend Sacrament or convert. If we had questions, he answered, but he respected very much that the spiritual education of my children was my department.
The summer of 2022, I had a series of strokes and my husband had brain surgery, all in the course of about six weeks. He and his mother arranged for him to receive a blessing from the Elders prior to his surgery, but even then, he met them in the park nearby. After overcoming these challenges, we decided we had better go ahead and get married, because the Lord had obviously brought us together; we both felt there was no way we would have survived without the other. Of course, the children had been trying to get us to commit for months, and our families were thrilled. We were married in December of that year.
In the meantime, the Pastor who led the church we attended was retiring. The church itself was so dependent upon him as a person, and only truly growing in a more contemporary direction that wasn’t what I was looking for. One afternoon, we heard a knock at the door (an infrequent occurrence where we live), and I went outside to find a pair of Elder missionaries. I assumed that they had come to check on my husband, babbled pleasantly at them, and asked them to come over another time when he was feeling better. Turned out they didn’t even know he was a member, but they definitely came back. I kept feeding them, and they spent a lot of time with my son.
Every time we would travel out-of-town, we would find that we were staying nearby the local Meetinghouse. It happened so much that it became a habit to look for them when we were on the road. My curiosity was rampant, and so was my children’s. In order to experience Sacrament Meeting as quiet observers, my son, husband, and I traveled around the area, visiting different wards. I kept reading about the Church, and I had interesting conversations with my son and my husband about both the Church as an institution and as the bearers of the Restored Gospel. In fall of 2023, my son announced that he would like to be baptized and join the Church. We were all so happy for him, and I knew that this was a choice he had made securely on his own.
My husband and I made a trip to Wyoming in November 2023, shortly before my son was to be baptized. We visited the Meetinghouse where he himself had been baptized as a child, and spent a great deal of the trip enjoying Temple architecture from the outside. We’re both history fans, and did a lot of reading on both secular and Church history on our trip. As we came home, we stopped in Nebraska to attend Sacrament meeting there, and I knew that I was going to join the Church as well.
I kept it under my hat until my son’s baptism. I didn’t want to take any of the focus off of his passage into manhood and his development of his relationship with Heavenly Father. My husband baptized my son, and two of his sisters were present. It was a beautiful thing. I told the missionaries afterwards that I intended to be baptized as well. My son baptized me on January 28, 2024, and my husband did my confirmation.
We made my first journey to the Temple in Raleigh last week with the missionaries. As I prepared to attend, and often on this journey, I have reflected on a Greyhound trip I made in 1996 that inexplicably took me through Salt Lake. As the bus left the station, it went past the Temple. I only had a fleeting glimpse of its stunning beauty, and I remember thinking, I’ll never be able to visit a place like that. Now, look how things have changed.
I know that Heavenly Father lives, and he loves every one of us. I know that Jesus Christ has blessed us with his Infinite Atonement, and that through my repentance, he has washed me clean in his sacred blood. I know that Joseph Smith received the Restored Gospel and shared it with the world that we all may be reunited in Glory. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true, and that Heavenly Father has illuminated the path for us, if only we can hear and see. I am so blessed to be a part of the body of Christ in his Holy Church, and I am so thankful to share this with my family.
Today we have 10 wonderful missionaries who have finished their service in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission and are returning home. Each has made an incredible impact and influenced so many…people they’ve taught, strangers they’ve met and strengthened their faith, members of our church they’ve spend time with, and the many missionaries they have served with. How do you measure the impact of 18 or 24 months of this kind of service?
When a stone is dropped into a still pond of water, the water moves in ripples across the entire pond. The impact of the stone in one area of the pond has an effect on the water everywhere in the pond. That’s true of these missionaries, and the ripple effect happens in two ways.
First, there are so many ripples that extend out from their efforts to “go about doing good.” During His mortal ministry, the Savior served others. He went about “doing good” and “preaching the gospel” (Acts 10:38; Matthew 4:23), and as representatives of Him, these missionaries have done all they can to do the same. While they have given planned service each week, by far most of their service has been unplanned. Every day during their time in Tennessee, they’ve prayed for and looked for opportunities to do good. They’ve listened to the Spirit to recognize occasions for small acts of kindness they can offer, and as they’ve touched so many lives from this daily focus..
But there are other ripples, and those are the ripples that will be felt in their own lives. How much sacrifice has been packed in to these 18 or 24 months? How many times have they been discouraged and wanted to turn back? How many times have they had to rely on their discipline to carry them when their motivation did not? How many times have they had to focus on what the Savior needed them to do, and not what they wanted to do? How many miracles have they witnessed? How much change have they been able to see in others? What skills have they gained as they’ve done this day in and day out for that much time? What attributes have they acquired and how have they had to change? And what lessons have they learned through all of this?
Those lessons will be the biggest ripples, and they will continue to ripple throughout their futures. Their entire lives will now be changed by this experience and by the lessons the Lord has taught them. We’ve only had the opportunity to work with them for the last 7 months of their service, but we can see the tremendous change and growth that has happened in each of them over that time. We admire and love each of them.
We held our 6th TKM Family Olympics with these 10 missionaries. They were divided into five teams and competed in four events:
Cornhole
Kubb
Bocce
Welcome Poster Contest
Final Tender Mercy from the Mission Home
This group did an incredible job of making the welcome posters for our 19 missionaries who will arrive tonight. They took this part of the competition very seriously.
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In the end, Sister Cunningham and Elder Keller took home the gold medals for the 6th TKM Family Olympics. Congratulation to Sister Cunningham and Elder Keller!
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Before departing, we did have one final match of corn hole. Sister Maxwell would want to make sure I let everyone know that the team of Maxwell/Barlow defeated the team of Cunningham/Keller.
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We love these 10 missionaries! With each group that departs from the TKM, we’ve spend a little more time with them, and that makes it harder and harder to let them go. It’s hard to imagine what our mission will be like without them. We love them deeply. But we are look forward to the great things that now lie ahead for them in their lives. And we are grateful to be connected with them in a really powerful way because of this time together and the service that we’ve been able to give side-by-side.
They each leave changed for the better. The Lord has taught them powerful lessons that will help them with all He has planned for them in the future.
How do you measure the impact of their service? Ultimately it is now measured in their efforts to be life-long disciples of Jesus Christ. And thus the ripples that continue to go out from their goodness as they continue to “go about doing good” and following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Elder Shelley and Elder McClellan were sending 20 second videos to people through Facebook Messenger when Elder Shelly got a response to a video. It was from Jake who reacted to the video with a heart.
Jake describes how he was found on Facebook.
Much later Jake told us that he usually doesn’t open messages from random people but felt like he needed to open ours. We texted him explaining our purpose and set up to call him the next day. We called him over Facebook Messenger and had a great phone call with him where we explained the Book of Mormon and testified of its power.
He then told us: “well I want one of them books!”
We set up to meet him at the church building a few days later so that we could give him a Book of Mormon. We began teaching him regularly at the church, and he was already very well acquainted with one of our members. A week or two later, we went to his house planning to read the Book of Mormon with him. At that meeting, Jake told us he had received a spiritual witness of the Book of Mormon and he knew it was true. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted.
Jake readily accepted everything we taught him after that experience. He has changed so much since when we first met him and has told us multiple times that the gift of the Holy Ghost has brought so much positive change in his life since he was baptized.
Jake was baptized on January 6, 2024 and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on January 7, 2024.
Barlows in TKM 