Oct 20

Zone Conference 10/13

Tennessee is starting to get a bit colder. The Fall is here and you can feel winter coming in close behind it. There is a lot to be grateful for this week. We were able to commit a new investigator for baptism.

For starters the blessings of the time I got to serve in Farragut have been flowing my whole mission, We got a referral from a member in the Knox. stake that I got to know a little bit while I was serving there. His name is Stewart and he found out his friend who he is trying to share the gospel with lives in our area. We got in contact and he brought his friend Steve  out to church last week. We were able to get an appointment with him for this last Thursday. We began to teach him the Restoration and everything was going great! We got to my favorite part, sharing the First Vision. It has become my absolute favorite thing to teach. Elder Russo shared the experience with Steve, and I had the prompting to pull out the restoration pamphlet and show him the picture of the first vision, which is typically a rarity for me to do. But I pulled it out and he looked at the picture and his mouth dropped. The room was swimming with the Spirit. He told us that a while ago he was at a flee market and decided to purchase a wrinkled old piece of art for a dollar for Stewart, he steamed it and it was framed and given to him. He proceeded to tell us that the painting had an eery similarity to the picture in the restoration pamphlet we had just shown him. He then relays a series of experiences from earlier that very day. He is not a man of wealth, in fact he is very poor and he works for Stewart, and Stewart had given him that morning 20$ to put gas in his car. He was driving down the road and he ran out of gas precisely the time that the man in front of him ran out of gas. They pull off the road and Steve remembers the 20$ in his pocket for gas and he gives 5 of it to the other man. In gratitude this "Grizley Adams" (in the words of steve) looking guy gave him in return a painting. (random... who does that right?) Upon closer inspection of the painting Steve notices that the artist is the same one that had done the painting he had given to Stewart, in fact it was the sister painting to it, and they are both the originals. He takes us out to his vehicle and shows us the painting. It was amazing, The Spirit touched his heart, and The lord had prepared him. We committed him for baptism the 16th of November.

I testify that "the field is white already to harvest." And according to our faith, diligence, and obedience and the Lord's will we will be able to find "those that will receive (us)." thanks for everything! Love you!

Love Elder Bakker