We first met Elie when she came to church with her brother Jared. As soon as we met her, we immediately knew that we would be great friends. She had moved to the University of Tennessee for school and her brother decided to invite her to come to church with him. Since that day, she never stopped coming!
Elie was raised learning the doctrine of Jesus Christ and of the Book of Mormon from her parents, but was never baptized. When she attended church for the first time in a long time, it all rang true.
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Her first lesson, she joined her brother, Elder O’Brien, and Elder Hathaway for a lesson with their friend. She recognized the Spirit strongly in that lesson and started to remember the teachings of her father about the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation. We started to meet with her and go over God’s plan, the restoration and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything made sense to Elie and she knew it was true.
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The turning point for Elie was when she attended the baptism of Cece, the same friend she participated in the lesson with at the very beginning. After the baptism, we all gathered to talk about it. We asked about if she wanted to get baptized and she said, “How about the 13th of October?” We made all the arrangements and Elie was baptized on October 13, 2024.
We were able to attend the temple with her, and as soon as we exited she said, “I want to go back!” Elie now is serving as a ward missionary and sharing her testimony with so many others. Her influence has stretched to everyone in the YSA and all those around her.
In 2013, missionaries found Simon pushing buggies, TVs, and other heavy items. The sisters offered to help, and introduced The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Simon for the first time. Simon was at first nervous, but was more open as they talked. The missionaries kept visiting Simon at Walmart until one time they just stop coming.
Fast forward to near the end of September 2023, Simon made the decision to come to church after a member had invited him for nearly two months. That’s when Simon met with missionaries again.
As Simon walked into church each week, he felt a sense of peace. Simon noticed how things started to work out better within his life as he was going to church as when he wasn’t. He really desired to come closer to Jesus Christ and live his life according to God’s will.
Due to his busy work schedule, the Elders would meet at the shop Simon worked at to teach principles of the Plan of Salvation, and the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Wakefield and Elder Safsten even helped him move a transmission out of a car!
Many of the missionaries invited Simon to be baptized, but he was just not sure about it. Simon had a lot of questions in regards to the Church of Jesus Christ that he had trouble finding answers to. Many of the members in the Franklin branch shared their love for Simon and helped him feel comfortable at church. One of those members was Brother Sam Carter, who spent a lot of his time answering Simon’s questions. One of those questions was about the temple. He had heard a lot of things about the temple and how special it was, but he couldn’t just take the word of others to know.
One day at church, as Elder Collins and Elder Wakefield were greeting people at church, Brother Carter walked in and said that Simon has set a date to be baptized! The Elders were eager to know what made Simon make the decision. They talked with Simon and he shared what happened the day before.
Simon’s desire to go to the temple, to see for himself, to feel the special Spirit at the temple, and ultimately follow the example of Jesus Christ helped him make his first covenant with his Father in Heaven. Brother Carter and a few other members traveled to Atlanta to see the temple, answering Simon’s questions about the temple along the way. Although Simon wasn’t able to go inside, he shared how he noticed how happy everyone was entering and leaving the temple. Simon stated how he was able to feel uninterrupted peace for an hour, a type of peace he hasn’t truly felt in years. That peace was the Holy Ghost bringing comfort to Simon. He shared how he now knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ’s true church restored.
Elder Collins and Elder Colunga consistently met with Simon, as well as Brother Carter, to answer the rest of Simon’s questions. After learning more about the Book of Mormon, Simon shared that he perfectly understood how the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon work together to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Simon was baptized and confirmed on September 15th, 2024.
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There has always been a special spirit about him. The Elders noticed how that spirit amplified after this special day.
A few days after making a covenant and receiving the Holy Ghost, Simon expressed how he was unable to sleep for nearly three long months, but since his baptism, he was able to sleep in peace. He continues to bring joy in the lives of others with his willingness to share the Book of Mormon with everyone. Simon is an example of a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Aimee’s story began before she even realized. Aimee, a native from “The Selva” of Perú, was living in Perú while her boyfriend, Danny, his brother, Denny, and Denny’s girlfriend, Melissa, began meeting with the missionaries in Cleveland, TN. Danny, Denny, and Melissa began learning the gospel with the support of local family members, but soon after those missionaries were transferred to a new area and lost contact with the missionaries. However, they continued to be supported by their family members.
Fast forward a year, and one of the original missionaries who first taught Aimee’s family was transferred back to Cleveland and swiftly started teaching Danny, Denny, and Melissa again. However, during the past year, Aimee immigrated to the United States to be with Danny, so when the missionaries started teaching Danny again, they met Aimee and invited her to learn more. Aimee quickly embraced the restored gospel.
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Denny, Danny, Melissa, and Aimee all progressed at their own paces. Since moving to Cleveland, Aimee was able to witness the wedding of Denny and Melissa. Later she witnessed the baptism of Denny and months later the baptism of Melissa. Sometime after that moment, Aimee decided that she too wanted to and was ready to make a covenant with her Heavenly Father. The only problem, she wasn’t yet married to her boyfriend Danny–a requirement of baptism for those who are living together. As a surprise to the missionaries, Aimee and Danny informed them that they were getting married on June 10th, and that 6 days later, on June 16th, Aimee would be getting baptized.
Aimee and Danny had a beautiful wedding late on June 10, 2024. She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on June 16, 2024 by her family member Daniel Godoy. Aimee enjoyed being a member of the church and attending the temple. Since her baptism, her husband Danny has also been baptized.
Steve was referred by his friend Lydia, who is a member of the church in Texas. Years ago Lydia bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon and then slipped one in Steve’s suitcase when he left. A few years later, Steve lost this Book of Mormon and felt curious of what it held that his friend Lydia testified so strongly about. He asked Lydia about it, and she offered to have the missionaries bring him a new copy.
What Lydia thought would be just dropping off a Book of Mormon turned into slow but steady lessons with Steve with the missionaries. At first Steve was hesitant. He didn’t dive right into the Book of Mormon. He said, “I have never read a book in my life!”
Slow persistence and member friendship helped Steve realize he needed to read this book for himself and see what he could learn. In his prayers he prayed for the safety of the missionaries as well as asking for help to understand what he was reading in the Book of Mormon. Steve’s prayers and continued faith helped him progress toward making covenants or special promises with God.
After meeting members during lessons Steve saw the same happiness and joy through trials that he saw with his friend Lydia. After going to church the first week, Steve said, “ I just can’t figure out why everyone is so happy!” But he knew he needed to be part of it.
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Steve became more curious about baptism, but there were a few road blocks along the way. Steve has smoked cigarettes his entire life from the time that he was a child, throughout his service in the military, and into his adult life. He smoked a lot. 3 packs a day was not unusual for him.
Steve wanted to be right with God for his baptism but he knew how hard quitting smoking had been for him in the past. Quitting was difficult. Going from that much smoking to none at all was not an easy task. Through lots of prayers, fasting, the help of God and persistent effort, Steve was able to stop smoking. When we asked him what made the difference, he said, “It must have been this book (The Book of Mormon) and the message that y’all shared.”
The Book of Mormon is what made the difference in Steve’s journey to quit smoking and come unto Jesus Christ. We know the power the Book of Mormon brings, we’ve seen it with Steve. Steve has also seen this power and he wants to share it with others so it can help them.
Steve was baptized on June 1, 2024. This was a huge step in God’s plan for Steve. He continues to grow his testimony by coming to church and preparing to help others by doing their work in the temple.
Ashton actually found the missionaries. Elder Tolman and Elder Woodward were walking down his street and Ashton yelled out, “Are yall church people?” He asked if it would be okay if he came to church with them.
Ashton really wanted to go to church along with all his siblings. He went to a sacrament meeting on Mother’s Day with his mom which really got Ashton excited and motivated to come to church.
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After talking with the missionaries, Ashton really wanted to be baptized because he wanted to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, get closer to God, and to get to heaven. Ashton always had the best questions for the topics we were discussing. He liked having the missionaries over because it felt good to talk to them and when he read the Book of Mormon he felt like he was being changed. His favorite part of the Book of Mormon was learning the ten commandments from Abinadi. He loves to recite all ten in order.
Ashton was baptized on June 30, 2024. Now that he is baptized he feels a greater change and a closer connection to God. He is now looking forward to following all the commandments, passing the sacrament, and going to the temple.
On November 5th, 6th, and 7th, we held zone conferences across the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. This was one of our best zone conferences yet and was a powerful experience for all missionaries in the TKM.
Sister Barlow taught us how to seek and expect miracles as missionaries. She began by talking about our missionary purpose and the authority of our callings as missionaries. She taught that our authority comes with the right, privilege and responsibility to represent the Savior and teach His gospel. Our power as missionaries increases as we repent, stay away from anything crude or vulgar, keep the Missionary Standards for Disciples of Jesus Christ, and focus on our missionary purpose. When we combine God’s authority with our personal spiritual power, we can seek and expect miracles to happen in this work. She gave all of us a clip to wear to remind us of our missionary purpose. When we see the clip, we should ask ourselves, “Is what I’m doing right now fulfilling my missionary purpose?”
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President Barlow then shared that he and Sister Barlow attended the Mission Leader Seminar in October for all mission leaders in the North America Southeast Area. Mission leaders attend these seminars twice a year. They are a great time of reflection and looking back on how things are going in the mission, but also looking ahead to what we need to do next. President and Sister Barlow went to the seminar seeking revelation on what we needed to do next in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission, and returned with strong impressions.
There has never been a better time to serve in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. A temple is being built in Knoxville, and we are serving at a time when we are helping to prepare a place and the people here for a temple of God. At the October 2024 General Conference, President Russell M. Nelson taught:
“My dear brothers and sisters, do you see what is happening right before our eyes? I pray that we will not miss the majesty of this moment! The Lord is indeed hastening His work. Why are we building temples at such an unprecedented pace? Why? Because the Lord has instructed us to do so. The blessings of the temple help to gather Israel on both sides of the veil. These blessings also help to prepare a people who will help prepare the world for the Second Coming of the Lord!
“The Lord Jesus Christ Will Come Again”, October 2024 General Conference
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As President Nelson said, the Lord is hastening His work. We should not let the probabilities limit the possibilities! Now is the time for us as a mission to increase our faith, and learn to act in greater faith. In preparation for the zone conference, the mission studied President Nelson’s talks “The Power of Spiritual Momentum” and “Christ is Risen; Faith in Him Will Move Mountains“. We discussed the ways that we can increase our faith and act in greater faith as missionaries. We then shared with the mission that we felt the Lord wanted us to work towards a goal that would require more faith, and we felt that goal should be 100 friends making the covenant of baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the end of the year. This is far greater than what we have seen previously, but do not let the probabilities limit the possibilities!
In addition to the goal, we also shared that we had received impressions on steps to follow, and that if we would follow these steps as a mission, we would experience the miracles we seek. Those steps fell into two categories:
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Apply the doctrine of Christ more fully in our own lives. As we do that, we will have more power to…
Invite others to come unto Christ by applying the doctrine of Christ in their lives.
The main focus is increasing our own faith, repentance, keeping covenants, following the Holy Ghost, and enduring as missionaries. We then walked through the commitments we would need to make in applying the Doctrine of Christ to build our faith and seek these miracles.
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As a mission, we are focused on five things to help us achieve our goal:
It has been incredible to see the faith of these missionaries over the last two weeks. They are increasing in faith and acting in greater faith, and in the process Heavenly Father is teaching them the great things He can do for them now and in the future as lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. We are excited to see what we can accomplish in the coming months with greater faith.
We ended Zone Conference with “Preach My Gospel Jeopardy” where the districts in each zone competed in our Jeopardy game based on their knowledge of the first six chapters of Preach My Gospel. A champion was crowned in each of the 7 zones and they will compete in a final round of Jeopardy later this month.
Preach My Gospel Jeopardy Champions
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The “Army of Light” of the Tennessee Knoxville Mission
On a February stormy night, Elder Clark and Elder Packard went to visit members in Cleveland, “the Godoys”, and Melissa and Denny were there. They were a little hesitant at first, but the missionaries always kept visiting them with the member’s and they came to really love the missionaries. Over time, they came to love the Gospel and the message that the missionaries shared and were willing to take any steps to come closer to Christ.
A year later after being found, they took the first big step of getting married in December 2023. Denny had a powerful, spiritual experience watching a virtual tour of the Rome, Italy Temple. While watching that video, he felt the Spirit tell him to be baptized soon after their wedding. Denny was baptized a Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints early in January. However, Melissa felt she still needed to wait for her own confirmation to be baptized.
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A few months passed, and her confirmation finally came.
One night, while Denny and Melissa were sleeping, Melissa was awoken to a vision. In this vision, outside of her bedroom window, she saw a personage standing in the air in a bright light. She was unsure of what exactly was happening and what she was feeling. Making sure she wasn’t imagining anything, she woke up Denny to ask him if he saw what she was seeing. Still half asleep, Denny affirmed that he did see what Melissa was seeing. Melissa asked Denny to describe what he was seeing. Still half asleep, but confidently, he responded that he saw Jesus Christ.
Denny quickly went back to sleep, but Melissa could not sleep. Overwhelmed with peace, she now knew that she needed to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She had received her confirmation and she couldn’t deny it.
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Melissa was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on May 11, 2024. Shortly after, the Romero family was able to attend the temple and be baptized for many of their ancestors. Denny and Melissa look forward to the day when can once again go to the temple and be sealed together to their family for time and all of eternity.
On the afternoon of August 10th, Sister Biasi and Sister Hodges were walking out of the library when someone shouted, “Hey Sisters!” Quickly turning to see who called to them, they were met with Riley Cowin, who turned out to be a recent convert from the Crossville Ward. Riley had just moved into the area and had not yet met the missionaries. He went on to introduce himself and explained that he and his girlfriend would be attending church the next day. His girlfriend, Jayme, seemed very excited to come and the Sisters set up a lesson with them right after church.
Jayme loved Relief Society and was very interested in learning more. The missionaries set up another appointment with her for later in the week and she was excited to start reading the Book of Mormon.
On the next Sunday, Jayme was unable to make it due to her work schedule, so Riley invited another one of his friends, Michael Martin, to church. Michael loved it as well and he was very open to learning more.
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The Sisters began to meet with Jayme, Michael and Riley quite frequently and in a short amount of time, both Jayme and Michael accepted their baptismal date.
As September 8th came around, Michael and Jayme’s testimonies grew as did their love for their Savior. Jayme loved coming to church and Michael was had already read 100 pages of the Book of Mormon by the third time they met with him.
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September 8, 2024 was a happy day! One of Michael’s good friends in the church baptized them both, and all of Jaymes’ family were able to attend the baptism. Since the day of their baptism, they have been coming to institute on Thursdays, attending church each Sunday, and going out on lessons with the missionaries.
The missionaries were able to go with Michael to the temple on September 18th. He loved it and said he was able to feel peace and love there and he can’t wait to go back with Jayme on October 10th! These two new members were so ready for the gospel, they just needed someone to guide them to it and thanks to their friend, they were led right to the doors.
Celia is the most willing and humble disciple of Jesus Christ. She was found by the missionaries knocking on her door! She immediately pulled out chairs for the missionaires to sit down and teach her. Celia was eager to learn more and it has been so clear to see how the Lord has been preparing Celia for a long time to receive this message of the restored gospel.
Ever since that moment she has been consistently meeting with missionaries. She has been through many hardships but has unfailing trust in our Savior.
When the missionaries extended the invitation for her to be baptized she quickly accepted. Many miracles occured in order to make her baptism happen. The first being that she always had work on Sundays, but the second she made the commitment to be baptized, her boss agreed to give her Sundays off.
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Another miracle is that she speaks a Mexican dialect called Mixteco that is not widely spoken. Spanish is her second language and it’s sometimes hard for her to understand Spanish. However, two recent converts of just a few months also happen to speak this rare dialect. They played a crucial role in her progress towards baptism and her understanding of the gospel. One of them was also able to baptize her.
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Celia was baptized and confirmed on September 8th 2024. She was feeling sick the week leading up to her baptism, but she said that the second she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost she felt completely better. She has continually expressed that since receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost she has felt God at her side.
Celia is continuing to learn and grow and is also helping her family learn more about the gospel as well. We are so excited to see what the Lord has in store for Celia in the future!
We were having a rough day. But we had about 10 minutes left in the night so we decided to tough it out and go to the Walmart parking to finish the day out strong. We were walking around talking to people and we saw this guy with a “Hot Cheeto” shirt on so we knew we had to talk with him.
We offered Brandon a picture of Jesus with the invite to the Tabernacle Choir Watch Party on the back. We testified of God’s love for him and got his number. We later came to know that his mother had just been diagnosed with cancer. He needed to hear that someone cared for him and loved him at that moment.
We stayed in contact with Brandon over the phone the next couple of days and we set up a church tour with him. Elder and Sister Bennett joined us for the church tour and it was incredible. When we showed up to the church, Brandon and the Bennetts were already talking outside the church. They had a friendship that connected instantly. On the tour, we taught Brandon about the sacrament and what to expect at church. We then made our way to the baptismal font and we taught the doctrine of baptism and the role of the Spirit and how it can comfort and guide in times of need. The Spirit was so strong and Brandon knew that was the next step he needed to take. So he chose a date of September 15th and he said, “That is my day!”
We gave Brandon a Book of Mormon and every single time we met with him he would always show us cool verses he found and he would share what he learned from them. He found so much comfort in the Book of Mormon and he would take it to work and to his mom’s doctor appointments for when he was feeling stressed. His favorite verse that really touched his heart was 2 Nephi 31:20.
Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. – 2 Nephi 31:20
His first time at church was fast and testimony meeting and Brandon loved it. He admitted he felt the Spirit so strongly that it brought tears to his eyes, and he found it so cool that every member was able to share their feelings if they liked.
Members played a huge role with helping Brandon. The Bennetts had him over for dinner and invited him to come to President Nelson’s birthday party with them. Another member had a huge impact as well. We invited this member to join us for a lesson with Brandon and it turned out that the member had gone through chemo and cancer treatment and they were able to mourn with each other and share a strong testimony. That gave him what he needed to keep going.
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Brandon was baptized on September 15, 2024. His baptism was a Spirit-filled experience and he loved it so much! At the end of his baptism, he shared his testimony on how Christ has helped him and how he knows that Christ restored His church through Joseph Smith. Brandon has been able to find the peace and joy that comes from this church because it truly is the church of joy!
Barlows in TKM 