MISSION MIRACLE

THIS AMAZING NEW MEMBER is the 22-year-old nephew of one of our members in the ward where we are serving.  Elder 'Iongi and I first met him during Elder 'Iongi's final week on the mission. Despite not having a belief in God or an interest in religion, he came along with us and his cousin to a musical fireside that was at the chapel on the night we met him. He had a really good time listening to the music, and thanked us for inviting him. We came into contact with him again about a month later on a visit to his aunt's home. We didn't talk to him for long, mostly just had a catch-up and then taught his cousin a lesson about the priesthood. That night, we received a text message from him; he told us that his life was in turmoil, and he had no sense of identity anymore. He had no idea how to find himself, and his life felt very empty. He'd turned to everything in an attempt to find something that satisfied the emptiness he felt, but nothing had worked. He said his aunt told him to ask us if we could help him. We had our first lesson with him the next night, discussing his identity as a child of a loving Heavenly Father. We told him that God truly does exist, and that he could find that out for himself. We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and how to pray. We saw him a couple of times after that, and he told us that he had been praying, and was thinking he should get baptized. We set a date with him. As the weeks went on, we met with him multiple times a week to teach him. He was full of questions, and loved learning about the gospel. He loved reading the Book of Mormon. In a week he had read from 1 Nephi to the beginning of Alma. When we taught the Plan of Salvation, his entire countenance changed. He had always believed that this life was it. You could see hope in his eyes as he learned what happens after our time in mortality. After this discussion, we were able to bump up his baptismal date by a month. However, we encountered a bit of a problem. During the time that we were teaching him, he was charged for being in possession of a stolen vehicle. He was innocent of the crime, but despite being innocent he was unable to be baptized until he was cleared of the charges. We wouldn't know until his court date, which would take place 2 weeks after his baptismal date. We prayed very hard that he would be able to prove his innocence. That prayer was answered sooner than expected. His lawyer was able to meet with the prosecution about 2 weeks before the court date and prove that there was no way that these charges were true; he could not have stolen the vehicle. The prosecution offered to drop all charges if he would give them all information on whom he had purchased the vehicle from. As soon as we found out that he could be baptized, we gave him a call. We asked if he still wanted to be baptized that weekend. He told us he had been praying the night before that he would be able to. On the 28th of June, we were blessed to see him enter the waters of  baptism. 
Elder Rosier and Elder Bly