A Three Generation Family Baptism

Memphis, Tennessee

Elders Molnar and Davis were Spiritually Harvesting a neighborhood after school one day in March of 2014. They ran into several young kids who were interested in hearing their message.

When the grandmother saw the children talking to two young adults, she hurried out of the house. "Those young men are too old for you. Stay away from them," she warned. "What are they telling you?"

"They're telling us about Jesus," said one of the young boys.

"Oh," said the grandmother. "In that case, invite them in."

That was the beginning of the conversion of a family prepared and waiting to hear the message of  Latter-day Saint missionaries concerning our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

After the Elders met with the family a couple of times, they invited us to go with them to teach a discussion. We entered the house, and ten children, from age sixteen down to one, sat on the large sectional, each with a Book of Mormon open to the chapter in 1st Nephi the Elders had asked them to read.

Everyone participated in the discussion, answering and asking questions and enjoying a lively discussion. Elder Davis had stickers for everyone. The kids LOVED them.

The six-year-old was working his hardest to keep up with the teens in the reading, so I hurried back to the apartment to order a picture copy of the Book of Mormon for the young ones.

As the lessons progressed, the mothers became involved in learning about their Savior Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. Then the grandmother joined the discussions—each person gaining a testimony on his or her own. But the family as a whole, moved toward baptism together. 

There is love in this family, and hard work, and discipline for the children, and more love and more togetherness.  The grandmother is truly the matriarch of the family, and her daughters follow her example.

Elder and Sister Monson with Grandmother and the Public Affairs Specialist for the Stake

As the weeks went by, Elder Molnar was transferred and Elder Holden joined Elder Davis in teaching this golden family. We were privileged to be included in the lessons from time to time, as were other members of the ward.

On Saturday all seven children were baptized (Three of them were under the age of eight.) along with two of their mothers. The third mother will be baptized this coming Saturday, and grandmother will follow in a couple of weeks as soon as her work allows her to be off on Sunday so she can attend Sacrament Meeting.

I thought serving a mission would give me an opportunity to enrich the lives of others. But everyone we have met has given much more to us that we could ever give to them.

It is with grateful hearts that we participated in a small way in this family's progress to becoming an eternal group. We will return, no matter where we are and what we are doing, to see the culminating of this conversion story in the Memphis Temple. What a privilege it is to know and love these great people.

(There are no names listed on these pictures. For privacy's sake, people will not be identified. Mother's of the missionaries have been notified. See how great your sons look!)

Here is the link to a blog post I wrote about this family on my Connections blog.
http://christymonson.blogspot.com/2014/05/family-success.html