Vera's dream by: Howard L. Biddulph

Vera was one of the early converts in Kiev.  Since the time she was a young girl, Vera periodically had a special dream.  In the dream she was promised that the true way to God would one day be shown to her and that it would bring her great happiness.  At times of great tribulation for her, the dream would come again, assuring her of  the Lord's love and the future blessings she would receive if her remained strong.

As a young girl during World War II, Vera was separated from her family and held in a work camp in Germany.  After the war she was reunited with her mother in Ukraine.  In every destitute conditions, Vera nursed her beloved mother until a lingering, painful death of this loved one left Vera alone again.

     Vera married, and a daughter was born.  Then she cared for her husband in his illness and watched him die, leaving her alone again, this time with young child to care for.  As she grew old,  Vera also suffered serious health problems that took her to the brink of death.  Yet she was always comforted by the recurring dream that promised a future way of happiness.

Shortly before a very serious operation, in which her life hung in the balance, this aged widow again had her special dream.  She was assured that she would survive the operation and be restored to health.  Shown the beautiful faces of two fair-haired young men who would soon teach her the true path of God,  Vera was promised great happiness and peace if she would accept their message.  These were unique, unforgettable faces she saw, unlike any young men she had ever seen in Kiev or Ukraine.  She assumed they would be foreigners.

     After her recovery,  Vera was shopping in downtown Kiev when she recognized with unspeakable joy the faces of two young men dressed in suits and ties-the very faces she had seen in her dream! Like aged Anna in the temple at Jerusalem (see Luke 2:36-38), she had waited throughout her life for the messengers of God.

     Elders Aaron Love and Rony Allen were assigned to the area of Kiev where Vera lived, and their own apartment was very close to Vera's home.  As a result of meeting them, she received the gospel with joy and was baptized.

     In spite of her age,  Vera has become a great gospel scholar and teacher of the Book of Mormon and the Bible.  One of my choicest experiences was to attend and Easter Sunday service in her branch and to hear her give one of the truly great sermons I have heard in my lifetime on the Savior Jesus Christ, his suffering and death, his atonement for sin, and his great resurrection.  on that sacred occasion, Vera blended movingly the testimonies of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Nephi, as well as her own gentle, loving witness of these events.

Vera lived and saved her widow's mite for the time when she could travel with other members of the Church to the temple of God in Freiberg, Germany, to receive her ordinances and to be sealed to her husband and deceased family.  Many years before, by the German troops that had occupied her country in World War II.  Now, with Joy, Vera returned to the same area where she had receive her first dream of the gospel, this time to partake of all the ordinances of eternal life.

***The End***

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Benbow Farm by: Wilforf Woodruff

March 1st, 1840, was my birthday, when I was thirty three years of age.  It being Sunday, I preached twice through the day to a large assembly in the City Hall,  in the town of Hanley, and administer in the sacrament unto the Saints.

In the evening I again met with a large assembly of the Saints and strangers, and while singing the first hymn the Spirit of the Lord rested upon me, and the voice of God said to me.  "This is the last meeting that you will hold with people for many days."

I was astonished at this, as I had many appointments out in that district.

when I arose to speak to the people, I told them that it was the last meeting I should hold with them for many days.  They were as much astonished as I was.

At the close of the meeting four persons came forward for baptism, and we went down into the water and baptized them.

In the morning I went in secret before the Lord, and asked Him what His will was concerning me.

The answer I got was, that I should go to the south, for the Lord had great work for me to perform there, as many souls were waiting for the word of the Lord.

On the 3rd of March, 1840, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord to me,  I took coach and road to Wolverhampton, twenty-six miles, and spent the night there.

On the morning of the 4th I again took coach, and rode through Dudley, Stourbridge, Stourport and Worcester, and then walked a number of miles to Mr. John Benbo's, Hill Farm, Castle Frome, Ledbury, Herefodshire.  This was a farming country in the  south of England, a region where no Elder of the Latter-Day Saints had visited.

I found Mr. Benbow to be a wealthy farmer, cultivating three hundred acres of land, occupying good mansion, and having plenty of means.  His wife, Jane, had no children.

I presented myself to him as a missionary from America, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who had been sent to him by the gospel of life unto him and his household, and the inhabitants of the land.

Mr. Benbow and his wife received me with glad hearts and thanksgiving.  It was in the evening when I arrived, having traveled forty-eight miles by coach and on foot during the day, but after receiving refreshments we sat down together, and conversed until two o'clock in the morning.

Mr. Benbow and his wife rejoiced greatly at the glad tidings which I brought unto them of the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which God had revealed through the mouth of the Prophet, Joseph Smith, in these last days.

I rejoiced greatly at the news that Mr. Benbow gave me, that there was a company of men and women-over six hundred in number-who had broken off from the Wesleyan Methodists, and taken the name of United Brethren.  They had forty-five preachers among them, and had chapels and many houses that were licensed according to the land for preaching in.

This body of United brethren were searching for light and truth, but had gone as far as they could, and were continually calling upon the Lord to open the way before them, and send them light and knowledge that they might know the true way to be saved.

When I heard these things I could clearly see why the Lord had commanded me,  while in the town of Hanley, to leave that place of labor and go to the south, for in Hereford shire there was a great harvest-field for gathering many Saints into the kingdom of God.

I retired to my bed with joy after offering my prayers and thanksgiving to God, and slept sweetly until the rising of the sun.

I arose on the morning of the 5th, took breakfast, and told Mr. Benbow I would like to commence my Master's business, by preaching the gospel to the people.

He had a large hall in his mansion which was licensed for preaching, and he sent word through the neighborhood that an American missionary would preach at his house that evening.

As the time drew nigh many of the neighbors came in, and I preached my first gospel sermon in the house.  I also preached on the following evening at the same place, and baptized six persons, including Mr. John Benbow and his wife, and four preachers of the United Brethren.

I spent most of the following day in cleaning out a pool of water, and preparing it for baptizing in, as I saw many to be baptized there.  I afterwards baptized six hundred in that pool of the water. . .

The whole history of this Herefordshire mission shows the importance of listening to the still small voice of the Spirit of God and the revelations of the Holy Ghost.

The Lord had a people there prepared for the gospel.  They were praying for the light and truth,  and the Lord sent me to them,  and I declared the gospel of life and salvation unto them, and some eighteen hundreds souls received it, and many of them have also been called officiate in the bishopric, and have done much good in Zion, but in all these things we should ever acknowledge the hand of God, and give Him the honor, praise and glory, for ever and ever.

***The End***

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Real Intent by: Elder "C"

Not all of a missionary's "contacts" come from knocking on doors.  This young man we taught the gospel over the backyard fence.  He was a young man, only twenty-eight years of age, lived next door to the apartment we were renting.

This man was extremly intelligent-well read, well versed in the current affairs of the world-and an atheist,  he felt that if there was a God, as we had explained our conception of God to him, that God would not have created the mess in Christianity that is prevalent in the world today.  Therefore, he concluded that is prevalent in the world today.  Therefore, he concluded that there was no God.  But he also believed that to be able to communicate with a Supreme Being would be one of the most sublime experience in the world-an experience which he said he had never felt before, nor did he believe would ever happen.

Spiritually, the Church was not of interest to him, but he enjoyed comparing the doctrines of the Church with other churches, both Christian and non-Christian.  As with any new subject that caught his interest, he delved deeply into the subject, reading the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great price, and Talmage's Jesus the Christ in just a matter of weeks.

As there "Over the backyard" discussions continues, we soon exhausted our resources, without any indication that he was gaining testimony from his extensive reading, or our discussions.  In our frustration at not knowing how to better proceed, we began to encourage the man to pray to gain a spiritual testimony of the gospel, instead of just  studying it as a sociological organization.  As a result of our persistence, finally one night he said,  "I'll put your teaching to a test.  I'll pray, and if I recieve an answer, I'll join your Church. If not, you can never come back into my home as a minister!"

We agreed to those terms.
My companion and I retired to bed about ten o'clock that night, as we usually did.  We sound asleep when the phone rang.  I was little groggy as I answered the phone, and on the other end was our next door neighbor, obviosly very excited.

"Elders!Come over, quick!" he said.  "I've got to see you.  Right now!"

"It's late," I mumbled.  "It's one o'clock in the morning!"
"I know it's late, but I've got to talk to you. Come quick!"
So we quickly dressed and went to his home to find him sitting on the sofa, shaking, obviously very upset, and very white.  He exclaimed very excitedly,  "Elders, I've got to be baptized! Tonight!"

We looked at our watches and said, "It's only a little after one o'clock in the morning.  The water would be cold.  Besides the chapel is locked."

"I don't care! I'll go get baptized in the river! We've got to do it right now!"
"Well, what happend?" we asked.
"Elders," he said, "something wonderful happend tonight! I suppose the most wonderful thing I've ever experience.  I was able to communicate with a source higher than my self.  A Supreme Being! I do believe in God, Elders! In fact," he said,  "I know there's a God!"

He then went on to relate what had happened to him that night.  He had waited until his family had gone to bed that evening to fulfill the commitment that he had made to us to test prayer, and see if it really did work; to find out if there really was a Father in heaven and put the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the gospel to the test.

He prayed as we had told him to, although very mechanically.  When he got up after having not felt anything, he said to himself, "Well, that's just what I expected-nothing!"

But, as he sat there thinking about that prayer, he said, "I thought to my self that if there was a God as the elders told me there was, he probably would not have answered that prayer because of the motives that I had.  I was doing this purely for an intellectual exercise.  I was just curious about this knowledge merely from a worldly standpoint."

He then began to wonder what would happen if he promised God, if there was a God, that he would join his Church and serve him and build up his kingdom on earth, if he would only communicate with him tell him the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon.

So this young man again down by the side of his bed and pryaed with a different intent,  And as he started to pray, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him to such an extent that, as he reached out to touch his wife to awaken her, he found that he could not, as he was paralyzed.  He could not move.

Then his eyes were opened, and a vision of the story of the Book of Mormon was unfolded to him.  He saw Joseph recieving the "Golden Plates," the translation of the Book of Mormon, and the apostles giving Josep Smith and Oliver Cowdery the priesthood.

After the vision left him, he immediately called my companion and we requesting, almost demanding, baptism into the Lord's Church.  The Lord had honored his sincere request for a knowledge of the truth, and now he was determined to keep his commitment to that Supreme Being.

This man is now the branch president in his small community, having been truly converted by the communication that he experienced that night with our Father in heaven.

***The End***

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