Darla’s story is nothing short of countless miracles, family love, faith and at the center of it all, Jesus Christ.
Last year, Darla applied for some housing and was put on a year-long wait list. Early this year, she was notified that she had an apartment, but was only given a 48-hour window to move in the apartment or her offer would be gone. Darla knew that her, her husband, and 15-year old grandson Jayden would not be able to move everything into the apartment in time and frantically began looking for help.
She found herself on Facebook where she discovered the Kingsport Tennessee Stake page, and sent a message requesting help. At the time, Bishop Polk was beginning his first week as the new bishop over the Rotherwood Ward. When he received the message that someone within the ward boundaries was looking for help moving his immediate reaction was to dismiss it as he already had so much on his plate, but the Spirit stopped him. There is more to this story.
Bishop Polk followed the prompting and reached out to Brother Adam Smith, the Elders Quorum President, and asked him to help Darla. Brother Smith immediately reached out and scheduled a time to come help. Even after the original meeting fell through, Brother Smith continued to contact them and eventually, with the help of many ward members, got them settled into their apartment.
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After the move, Brother Smith stayed in touch and continued to help them with every opportunity he saw, including inviting Darla to meet with missionaries. She began meeting with Sister Harris and Sister Duncan. As she met with the missionaries, she felt changes began to happen in her life. She felt the desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ and decided to be baptized.
Darla was preparing for her baptism when her husband became ill and died. She lost contact with the missionaries for a while as she mourned the death of her husband and thought about what the future would mean for her. Darla reconnected with missionaries, now Sister Terry and Sister Leathers, and determined to finish what she’d started.
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As Darla began her journey again, trial after trial sprang up trying to pull her back or distract her from the path she was on. The major turning point for her was when she kneeled down to pray, to ask her Father in Heaven, if all this was true. She received her answer that yes indeed it was true! This was an amazing experience for Darla to receive this personal witness that the principles she was being taught were true!
That knowledge gave her strength and courage to continue forward through even more challenges she faced as she again approached her baptism: sickness, family troubles, and other emergencies. She often told the missionaries she felt like she had spiritual armor on as she prayed and studied her scriptures, and that power was increasing every day. She experienced the peace and love as she and her house were blessed by priesthood authority.
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The day of her baptism she was very special, surrounded by ward members that now had become her family! Darla asked Brother Smith to baptize her. She was baptized on July 27, 2024 and is not a member of the Rotherwood Ward.
Michelle was found by missionaries knocking on her door. Sister Chappell and Sister Campbell had found a friend at an apartment complex and had scheduled a lesson with him, but when they went to the lesson he wasn’t home. Preach My Gospel teaches us, “Perhaps you have been led to this person because someone else in the home or neighborhood is ready for the gospel” (page 173). As they considered this, Sister Campbell felt prompted to knock on the door of a house nearby.
The missionaries were led to Michelle’s door and she answered. They felt impressed to share some gospel music together, and as they did, they got to know each other better. The missionaries shared the song “Disciple of Christ” and Michelle loved it! They set up a time to visit her again and began teaching her about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ..
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As the missionaries got to know Michelle better, she told them that she had been praying for people to talk to God with her. Michelle already knew Jesus Christ and had faith in Him. She always studied her Bible. She grew up in a different religion and had always felt close to the Savior. She quickly gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truths she was being taught.
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Michelle was baptized on July 20, 2024 and is now a member of the Hixson Ward.
“Back in 2020 I had my leg operated on and I had a really bad infection in my leg and was about to lose my leg. I hadn’t been to church in about 20 years. I was laying there in the emergency room and the ER doctor came in and told me I could possibly lose my leg. I closed my eyes and just prayed “I know I haven’t been the closest to you Lord, but if you’re with me please just don’t let me lose my leg.”
After that they took me in for emergency surgery for about 9 hours. When I woke up I saw my leg was still there and I told the nurse the Lord was with me because I didn’t lose my leg. I had two or three more surgeries after that first one and I kept my leg. I’m able to do most everyday normal things.
It seems like I forgot about Him but He didn’t forget about me, and He still didn’t turn His back on me after that situation.
After all that, I was at home recooperating and I just talked to myself. “Maybe it’s time for me to make a change, get back into church, and try to live my life right.” I had my phone in my hand and I just prayed, “Lord, lead me the way to attend the right church that would be a close knit family.”
Within five minutes of saying that prayer, the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website pulled up, and I said, “There’s my answer!” So I filled out the form online and in a few days the missionaries called and set up a meeting.
When they walked in I could just feel the warmth coming off of them. I knew they were the real deal. We started studying the Book of Mormon. The missionaries kept close contact and kept encouraging me to read the Book of Mormon every day. These ladies were sent from God.
I read the Book of Mormon for about a month and followed the calendar the missionaries had given me. On June 8, 2024 I got baptized. That was the best day of my life! When you get baptized, you don’t know how clean you’re going to feel. When I came out of the water, I felt so clean. I felt like a new person.
The people at church make you feel like family. You couldn’t ask for a better church then where I go to church at.
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by Sister Wall
I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to witness Jason choose to follow Jesus Chirst. I remember when Sister Condie and I made a baptismal calendar with Jason, we set his date, and he left the library, and we looked at each other and said, “Why didn’t we plan for his baptism sooner?!” So we ran up the stairs chasing him, and when we finally caught up with him, we asked him if he would like to be baptized sooner. He said with confidence, “That’ll be fine.”
Jason has been a great example of choosing Jesus Christ even when life gets hard and uncomfortable. Jason finds comfort in His Savior Jesus Christ.
by Sister Condie
The first time we read the Book of Mormon intro together, Jason told us he knew it was a good thing. He felt the spirit. After a few lessons, he said he found himself choosing to be kind and acting more like Christ, and he knew those changes came from the Savior.
When baptism day rolled around, the font filled up slower then we were expecting. So Sister Wall, the Elders, and I ran around with pitchers of water so we could get the font filled up in time. It was a little chaotic but when it came time for the actual baptism, the chaos didn’t matter. Jason was happy to be making a covenant with God.
Even when difficult roadblocks popped up, Jason pushed through and made it to baptism. I’m grateful for his testimony, desire to connect with the ward, and example of the light and lasting change that comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It starts with faith. And since I was young, I pretty much had faith that Jesus was my Lord and Savior. That was stuff my grandmother taught me.
I moved to Bristol and I wasn’t really going to church. One day, while I was at the laundromat, some people talked to me about joining their church. But I lost the information, so I looked up a church online. I was looking for a church and I saw an ad that had The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I decided to give that one a try. That is where God told me to go, so that’s where I went.
I saw an ad in the mail about a truck and they gave me zero down and no payments for three months. It’s a lot easier for me to get to church in my truck. God was good and He found a way for me to get there!
Upon going there I was introduced to the missionaries by Bishop Keohane, and we started meeting at Dairy Queen. They taught me lots of great things like the Doctrine of Christ which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then (their favorite) enduring to the end.
I was baptized on June 29, 2024.
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After my baptism, I was able to go to the temple in North Carolina. They invited me to go to the temple to perform the ordinances, so that was pretty cool. I got to perform my first baptism. It was the most peaceful place I had ever been on earth.
Every Sunday, I get to partake in the sacrament which renews our covenant with the Lord, helping us to endure to the end. Because of the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, I’ve been able to see the world differently. I can even tell I heal better.
Listening to a lot of those talks, which come from the scriptures in the Book of Mormon, I’ve been able to become a better peacemaker. The talk about peacemakers from the prophet was awesome!
When I first got to the church I was like, “I don’t know about this Book of Mormon thingy.” But I like how the prophecies in the Book of Mormon prophecy of things to come, and that’s the most compelling part. Like when Benjamin foretells the coming of Jesus Christ way before His mortal ministry. I like how it’s the same lessons from Jesus, but it’s so repetitive because we need it over and over again. I love the Book of Mormon.
On the May 11, 2024, Elder and Sister Christensen were knocking on the door of less active member. Without response, they started to return to their car. In the accompanying house, a man was sitting on the doorstep. With hope in her heart, Sister Christensen made her way to inquire of the whereabouts of his neighbor. While asking this question, Sister Christensen felt the strong impression to invite this man to church. Though they didn’t speak the same language, through Elder Christensen and modern technology, they invited him to come to church.
Rafael, hoping for something that could cure his emptiness, decided to accept the invite and try it out. Rafael quickly started meeting with the local spanish speaking missionaries, Hermana Arnold and Hermana Berrett. After meeting with them the first time, he had a good feeling that led him to come to church. His experience there filled him with a peace, different than anything he had felt before. He related it to feeling the presence of God. He felt healed from his emptiness and distance from God.
Following his church attendance, he continuously met with the missionaries and felt a change begin in his life. He shared, “I started to have a motivating faith in God to be baptized.” His thoughts, once dark and depressing, became focused on scripture and God’s plan for him.
In the third lesson, he asked how he could be baptized and what he needed to do to make it happen. After learning the necessary steps, he readily and happily accepted a baptism date, the gospel, and all it has to offer.
His original baptismal day was the week prior. His work situation as a construction worker had been unaccommodating to put it simply. Days or even weeks would go by without being called into work which made it imperative to take any project he was offered. Imperative not just for his financial security but for the health of his son.
Before his baptism, his son had been ill in the hospital for some time, and the money Rafael made here was then sent in order to pay for medical expenses in Venezuela. The week he was originally set to be baptized, he hadn’t been offered any projects in over a week. That Thursday night, he received a call from his boss with a project in North Carolina. Taking this project would prevent him from receiving his baptismal ordinances.
Out of pure necessity, he left for North Carolina. The baptism was quickly rescheduled for the following Sunday. Rafael was not offered any jobs that week, but at the last minute he was offered an opportunity to work. Though he needed the money to provide for his family, with faith he declined the offer and was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on June 23, 2024. The empty hole in Rafael was eternally filled. He said “before I met the missionaries I was depressed, I used substances to cope, but now, I don’t have these feelings anymore, and if I do, I turn to the scriptures.” Since his day of baptism, the peace he received has never left.
Rafael was blessed spiritually and emotionally by the covenants he made with God, but God was not yet satisfied with his work. After working for the construction company for 8 months, he started looking for a job that would pay and treat him honestly. The day after his baptism he was offered a position at a company which requires him to work Monday-Friday, giving him the weekend off. He then received other news. His son, who had been in the hospital for a long time, was due to finally be released. Though the sacrifice of work seemed impossible, outlandish, and a bit irrational, in turn the windows of heaven were opened, and blessings descended upon Rafael and his family.
After doing companionship study in the park on April 13, 2024, the missionaries introduced themselves to a group at an adjacent picnic table and shared a couple of verses from Enos with them. Lilly happened to be babysitting with the family at the time. While the family she was with wasn’t interested, Lilly piped up and said she might want to meet with us again.
A few months earlier, Lilly had prayed for some guidance and she thought that maybe this could be God’s way of answering her prayer.
She didn’t know much about the church, but she was an excellent researcher. She remembered a youth in our ward, Anderson Griggs, sharing his testimony with her when having a conversation about religion at a football game. She also recalled her fellow clarinetist, Lilly, being a member as well.
Before her first visit with the missionaries, Lilly had researched even as far as the Word of Wisdom, and she took a particular interest in God’s Plan of Happiness. The missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon, and she studied it. One of her favorite teachers caught her reading it in class and was sure to let her know that it was a, “good book!”
Her family was not very supportive of her decision to keep learning. She struggled to defend her newfound belief to them because it was simply a feeling. Nonetheless, she would come home after school to take a nap, pray, and read her Book of Mormon. She explained the feeling as happy, excited, and calm at the same time.
A few lessons later, the missionaries were teaching Lilly about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith. They stood in front of a painting of The First Vision, and despite not planning to invite Lilly to be baptized, the spirit was too strong not to. Lilly was beaming and so excited to be invited to make her first covenant.
As she was preparing, she found herself feeling down and alone in the band room at school. She remembered a song that she heard on a church video of the Knoxville, TN temple. She also heard it the first week she was at church. Hymn number two, The Spirit of God, had quickly become her favorite. She memorized the words, played it on her clarinet, and sang it on that hard day at school.
Her testimony grew day by day, and she could not wait for her baptism day. Lilly was baptized on May 24, 2024. On the day of her baptism, she beamed with pure joy as she listened to her good friend Lilly Jones give a talk on baptism. In her talk, Lilly said she had a thought several months prior to pray for Lilly despite not having talked to her in several months (she is a few years older than Lilly). Her first three missionaries gave her a Book of Mormon with their testimonies written inside.
Attending the temple to do proxy baptisms was another exciting day for her! Along with doing a few baptisms and confirmations, she got to watch someone be baptized on behalf of her grandfather. She said her favorite part was sitting in the lobby of the temple afterwards and just feeling peaceful and happy to be there.
Conversion: “Denotes changing one’s views, in a conscious acceptance of the will of God… Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing.”¹
Whenever a story is told, or a piece of someone’s history is shared, it is important to reflect on the context of why it is being shared. For example, a parent might share a story of them being burned by a stove in the context of their children getting too close to a hot burner. A friend might share a fun memory from years ago in the context of the two of you reuniting and reminiscing after not seeing each other for a while. We have four different recorded accounts of Joseph Smith’s first vision, all with the same consistent story but with varying amounts of detail and depth due to the context of why and when he was sharing it.
I want to share my conversion with you. If you’ve served around me, you have probably already heard it before. However, whether you have heard it before or not, I share it in the context and hope that you too can know that God will succor and strengthen you through the “many trials and much testing” you will face on your path to true conversion.
I grew up in a mixed faith household. My mother was raised in the church and is still an active member. My father was raised Christian, joined the church, but overtime became Atheist. I can’t remember a Sunday where my father attended church with us, but my mother is a valiant woman and she took my sister and I every week to church on her own. She is an integral part of the reason I am on a mission and writing this conversion story.
At the age of six, I knew the Book of Mormon was true, and subsequently, I knew that I had a Heavenly Father who loved me. I had a very powerful experience with the Spirit after I prayed to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I like to say that it hit me like a bullet train. I went from kneeling down at the side of my bed, to crying because of the feeling the Spirit brought. Like Joseph Smith, from that moment on I felt I could say that “I had [felt the Spirit confirm the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon]; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it.”²
At the age of 8, I desired to be baptized because of the truth I knew. However, my dad did not give me permission to be baptized. He felt that 8 years old was not old enough to make such a lasting decision. Due to that fact, church policy would not allow me to get baptized until I had the permission of both of my parents, or until I was an adult.
At this point in my story, most people like to ask me about my relationship with my father or with him and my mother. I would like to assure you I love my dad and he has been a wonderful parent to me. He and my mother also love each other and he has been supporting her through some health troubles she’s been facing recently. While he and I disagreed on me being baptized, you can see it from his perspective, He was just a parent trying to make the best decision for his child and not wanting to let me make any hasty life choices that I wasn’t prepared for or had a full understanding of yet.
However, my inability to be baptized did cause some heartache. It was very hard for me to understand at that age why all of my other friends could get baptized and I couldn’t. Same with the sacrament and the temple. It was really painful at some points to see all of my friends get to pass the sacrament while I just sat with my mom and sister. Or when we went on a youth temple trip, I remember everyone else going inside, while I stayed outside with my mom and helped clean the grounds. The young men’s leaders did their best and tried to include me, but sometimes I honestly just felt more excluded when they did. They let me sit with the other deacons before the sacrament was blessed, but it just reminded me that I couldn’t participate like they did when they all stood up and took a tray while I was left alone in the pew. There were times I would have to leave cousins’ baptismal services crying because I wanted to be in the font so badly getting baptized myself. I couldn’t understand why if it was a commandment and I wanted to do it, I couldn’t.
Luckily, I had my mom, really great friends, and some amazing bishops and youth leaders who supported me through the ten years I had to wait to be baptized. When things were hard, they helped me out and kept encouraging me forward. I could also feel God’s love empowering me too. I knew baptism was something He wanted me to do, so I waited. Eventually, I turned 17, and close to turning 18 I went through all of the missionary discussions in about 3 weeks, I had my baptismal interview by a missionary over zoom, and eventually was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, on my 18th birthday.
Almost all of my extended family on my mom’s side showed up, and my dad even supported me as much as he could by making lasagnas for everyone (my extended family is pretty big, so we needed a lot of lasagna). The circle for the confirmation to give me the gift of the Holy Ghost was probably 25 people big. It was one of the best days of my life.
If you had asked me if I was going to get baptized when I was 8, or 10, or 14, or 17, the answer at each age would have been a resounding yes each time. Before my baptism, despite the hardships, I had no doubt in my mind that someday I would be baptized a member of the church. However looking back I see so many scenarios where it might not have worked out the way it did. Maybe my mom stopped going to church because it was too hard to do it on her own, and so I stopped going too. Or maybe if my friends had moved away or I hadn’t had their support for some reason and I strayed off the path during middle school or high school. Or maybe if my leaders just saw an unbaptized youth and treated me differently than everyone else to the point where I didn’t want to join the church anymore. Any number of different things could have happened in the ten year time period from 8 to 18 where I could have lost my desire to be baptized, and yet those things didn’t happen.
As a noun WordWeb defines succor as “assistance in time of difficulty.” And as a verb it defines it as “help in a difficult situation.” Alma 7:11-12 says, “And [Christ] shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.”
I’ve always interpreted that scripture to mean that Christ will empower us and help us through our trials by lending us His divine strength. And while that is true and I promise He will do that, I have come to realize that the Lord will succor us in more ways than that. He will provide family members to teach you and help you through the hardship. He will give you friends that will encourage you and help you maintain your standards. He will give you leaders to guide and support you. He will give you experiences with the Spirit that will strengthen your testimony to overcome the trial in front of you. And there are countless other ways He will succor you throughout your life. The Lord has succored me in many different ways throughout my trials, and without His help and other people being instruments in His hands, I don’t think I would have been able to make it to my baptism.
“And there was not a wicked man slain among them; but there were more than a thousand brought to the knowledge of the truth; thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people.”³
I promise whether you are going through a trial right now, or one is awaiting in your future (because the trials will come), that the Lord is succoring you today, and He will continue to do so the rest of your life. He will be your “[H]elp in a difficult situation.” His succor will come in many different forms, because He “worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people.”
Some of the ways He has helped will not even be realized until you look back after your trial has ended and you can more fully see where His hand was assisting you. He will never forget you. You are known and watched over by the Almighty God Himself. The most powerful being in the universe is supporting and strengthening you. If you ever feel weak or downtrodden, the Savior of the world himself said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”⁴ Trust in that promise from Him to you.
Elder Holland stated “I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”⁵ No difficult situation, caused by an outside force or by ourselves, will “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”⁶
You are and will be succored by Jesus Christ, the Lord Omnipotent. That is not a statement of belief, that is a statement of fact.
I testify to you that I know that my Savior and Redeemer lives. I have felt the succor He gives to me. I have been converted through my many trials and much testing to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and know that you can be converted too. I have felt His love and know that I have a Father in Heaven. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that Christ’s church was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. I will follow Jesus Christ for the rest of my life.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
¹ – Conversion definition, from the bible dictionary
On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, we said goodbye to 9 remarkable missionaries who have completed their service in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. Our day began with lunch as we discussed important commitments they must keep to be lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. We had the chance to give each of them a blessing. We then went to the mission home for the 9th TKM Olympics, dinner, and a testimony meeting.
We held four competitions for the 9th TKM Family Olympics. The premier event was the poster making contest, along with corn hole, bocce, and Kub. Competition was intense.
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The office couples join us for dinner and do the poster judging. The missionaries take these welcome poster VERY seriously.
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The winners of the 9th TKM Family Olympics was Elder Barrow and Elder Greenhalgh. The poster judging was a little controversial this time, but it was enough to secure these two Elders the gold medal.
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We love these missionaries! It has been incredible to see how much they have changed over the last year. We feel so proud of them and are grateful for the difference they’ve made in the Tennessee Knoxville Mission. Great things lie ahead for each of them!
Over the next 9 weeks, everyone worked really hard in keeping up with the schedule. Most missionaries also highlighted this new copy of the Book of Mormon with something they were looking for…things like the Doctrine of Christ, covenants, prophets, or willingness were a few examples.
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It is difficult to put into words the powerful experience we had together as a mission. It was really meaningful to do it together, and anytime you read the Book of Mormon at a faster pace like this, it leads to observations and connections you wouldn’t make otherwise. We began each meeting during this period with two missionaries sharing thoughts about what they were learning from their recent Book of Mormon reading. We discussed their progress and learnings in interviews.
In the introduction of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith is quoted as saying, ““I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
President Ezra Taft Benson once said, “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path.”
Our current prophet, President Russell M. Nelson taught, “When I think of the Book of Mormon, I think of the word power. The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.”
We learned in the TKM the power that these prophets are talking about and invite everyone to tap into that power themselves by reading the Book of Mormon.
June 18th was the day on our schedule that we would finish the Book of Mormon. We gathered as a mission on zoom and read together the final chapter of the Book of Mormon, Moroni chapter 10. Anytime you finish the Book of Mormon, it is a meaningful experience. But finishing it together with this amazing group of representatives of Jesus Christ is an experience we will never forget.
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Sister Barlow had promised that we would do something special to celebrate finishing the Book of Mormon together as a mission. And as promised, Sister Barlow “makes no small plans”!
“Make no small plans. They have no magic to stir men’s souls. – Spencer W. Kimball
Sister Barlow then announced that to celebrate finishing the Book of Mormon in 65 Days, we had arranged for all missionaries to be able to attend the temple. As there are no temples in our mission boundaries, this was a REALLY big deal. Many of these missionaries had not been to the temple for over a year, so some of their reactions to this announcement was priceless.
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We are grateful for the power of the Book of Mormon. We testify that it can help everyone come closer to Jesus Christ. And we are grateful for these wonderful missionaries. We love them and feel so grateful to see them act in faith and receive the blessings that come with doing so.
Travis was baptized into the Baptist faith when he was 12 years old. At 17 years old, when he started falling away from God, he was kicked out of church instead of welcoming him in further to give him the support he needed to make his way back. He still believed in God but that experience hardened his heart towards church. It made it difficult for him to want to return to any church, and that seemed to get more difficult as time went on.
Lisa (his wife) and Travis met right before Covid. Lisa was praying before they met and she said, “If the next person isn’t the right person, then I’m done dating all together.” That’s exactly when God put Travis in her path.
Lisa is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but hadn’t gone to church in a long time. Travis knew she was a member but they didn’t talk much about her religion because Lisa didn’t want to push a church onto Travis.
Travis and Lisa
In 2023, Lisa and Travis started talking about church and wanting Jesus Christ back in their life. Lisa left the decision of which church to attend up to Travis. Nothing really came of it because it wasn’t at the top of his priority list at the time, but God didn’t give up and continued to work on his heart.
In the span of one week, Travis had many random people on the street come up to him talking to him about church, asking to pray for him or asking him to pray for them.
That same week, Travis got in a car accident. The driver in the other vehicle was a super nice guy. He got out and asked Travis if he had a church to go to. He said no and the stranger said he didn’t either so he asked if they could pray for each other to find a church. So they prayed. The next morning, Travis woke up and said “Ok Lisa let’s go to the Mormon church.”
Through those interactions with strangers on the street, his heart began to be softened. Their first Sunday in church, he met the missionaries. “My heart felt happy, I felt the spirit and that made me really want it more.”
The missionaries invited him to pray about getting baptized, so he did. His answer came in a way God knew he needed, a way that was unique to him. His grandpa had passed away in 2005, but growing up, he and his grandpa were really close. He would spend hours helping him on his farm, having heartfelt conversations while they were eating peaches in his truck. His grandpa means the world to him and God knew that.
The night he prayed about baptism he had a very powerful dream. In his dream, Travis’ grandpa was there and only said two words to him. “Move forward.” That was the answer Travis was looking for.
The missionaries explained faith to be an action word. Hearing that clicked for Travis and increased his desire to take action so he could further show his faith to God. He knew he needed to be baptized.
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Being baptized was a big decision he was making, so leading up to it, he prayed that he would be able to walk into his baptism on his own two feet and he’d be out of his cast. In his previous appointment, the doctor said he’d have a cast on for three more months so the chances were looking low, but his faith was high. His follow up appointment was two days before his baptism. They were shocked by the amount of progress his leg had made and said that he could have the cast off for his baptism. It was a huge miracle how fast his leg had healed, especially since they hadn’t seen much improvement since December. After he began to pray and turn back towards God, that’s where it all turned around. God answered his prayers and he was able to walk into the waters of baptism on his own two feet.
Throughout this whole process, Lisa had been praying for guidance on what to do and how to get Travis to church. The inspiration she received was to be quiet, which was out of her nature but she trusted God. Travis also expressed if he crossed paths with the missionaries any sooner, he would have turned them away. God’s timing is beautiful and He knew exactly what Travis needed. His heart needed time and it all fell into place right when he was ready.
Travis was baptized on June 22, 2024. He now has a drive to be surrounded with people and places where the spirit is present. He is so full of light and has a deep desire to help other people. A few things he’s looking forward to is getting a calling in the church and having the priesthood.
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Lisa has seen such a noticeable and happy change as he’s been filled immensely with the spirit. In turn, they have grown closer to each other and to God within their marriage.
There was another beautiful tender mercy. As Travis has been preparing to do baptisms in the temple, he discovered that someone had already done all of the temple work for his grandpa. The same grandpa that had been in his dream, encouraging him to “Move forward!”
Barlows in TKM 