Elder Cody Greenburg: Awe inpiring story

Joseph got baptized.

Weeks ago Elder’s Frost and Denning of the Circle City Ward talked to a young man at a bus stop outside Centennial High School. They felt the Spirit prompt them to speak with this young man. They spoke for a little bit and right as the Elders were about to get this young man’s information, his bus arrived and he had to leave. We arrived and picked Elder’s Denning and Frost up for the dinner appointment and they re-told all that had just happened and told us that they thought that the young man lived in our area. We were disappointed that an address or phone number wasn’t obtained, but that’s what happens with missionary work sometimes. My companion and I went about our day the same and a couple of days later we were trying some potentials from our area book that were from over a year ago. We found a name for someone named George that looked like it had some potential, so we decided that we would try it out. We arrived at the house and knocked on the door and young man answered the door.

We asked, “Is George here?” The young said, “Which George?” My companion and I were taken back. That had never happened to me before. After a moment we asked, “Has there ever been someone who has taken missionary lessons here before?” The young man said, “No, but I spoke with a couple of you a couple days ago. They said that they were both from Utah.” Elder Vang and I were perplexed by this because there wasn’t a companionship in the zone where both missionaries were from Utah at that time. I asked, “You spoke to guys like us? They were wearing white shirts, ties, and black name tags like us?” He said, “Yes. One was Samoan.” I knew exactly who he was speaking of. Elder Denning was from Elk Ridge, Utah while Elder Frost was from American Samoa and his family had moved from American Samoa to Utah while Elder Frost had been out on his mission. I said, “You were waiting for a bus a few days ago.” He said that he had been. I asked him if he thought that it was a coincident he talked with them, but they didn’t get any contact information, but that we found him anyway. He said that he didn’t think that it was, and I agreed. We asked his name and he said his name was Joseph. We met with Joseph and taught him the first lesson and taught about the Restoration of the Gospel in its fullness. We asked Joseph to be baptized and he said, “Just tell me when and where.” Brothers and Sisters, when the Lord asks us to do something that we aren’t familiar with or that seems redundant, do we ask, “Lord, how long do I have to do this? How hard is it going to be? What do I get out of it?” Or do we, like Joseph, simply say, “Just tell me when and where, Lord. Just give me the chance.” We saw Joseph take that first step on his road to returning to be with our Heavenly Father.
I bear witness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He saw our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is the word of God along with the Bible. It contains the fullness of the everlasting Gospel of Christ.
I testify of the divinity and the reality of the Christ. He is the Living Song of the Living God. He felt our pains, afflictions, and infirmities in Gethsemane, He suffered our sins on the cross at Calvary, and He rose from the tomb on the third day like He said he would. I had a friend who wrote me a personal letter while she was serving on the Canada Vancouver Mission. She said, “I am realizing that the tomb is empty and that makes all the difference.” She is one-hundred percent correct. He lives, his Atonement can change you, but only if you let it.