Keyser is Zion

This is Elder Dakota Marshall speaking. Myself and Elder Miles had the wonderful opportunity to open the Keyser area in late August 2018. The area had been closed down for about a year and a half. When we entered the area there were 0 investigators, 0 potentials, 0 everything. We just had a clear slate with the members in the area to work with as well. I want to share that the Lord's hand was revealed as we strived to do our very best in Keyser. Over the course of 3 months serving in Keyser we were able to find close to 40 new investigators with one person currently on-date and another person who wants to join the church soon. I share Ammon's words as I do not boast in myself but I boast in my God. Only He could bring forth miracles. I am grateful for the blessing it was to be a part of those miracles. I would like to share a couple of those miracles with you. 

We had a miracle with finding a guy named Ron. We were in Cumberland (30 minutes from Keyser) and we were working our way back down to Keyser trying to contact some members. A lot of the plans fell through but we looked on the map and went to a street with more members to meet. It is 8:50 and we are walking down and a guy walks out of his home to his car and we catch him before he goes back inside. Long story short, he had been researching other religions trying to find truth. He has a ton of questions that have gone unanswered. He did not look into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so we gave him a brief rundown and he responded, "I believe everything you are telling me." The Spirit just shot up my body as we continued to bear testimony of the restored church of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. He said he would read the book and will be going back to share more. Such a miracle. On the way home I just was thinking how truly this is the Lord's work. Not a coincidence at all that out of everywhere we could have been that night out of the hundreds of square miles we cover in our area that we crossed paths with the guy at 8:50 at night. Just little things like that that boost my testimony of this work.

Another miracle to share is that of Steve Hartman. In our first week in Keyser we went to contact some members in the area and were walking down a trailor park. I saw a man sitting in a chair with his lawn looking like a landfill and a big dumpster next to the trailor. We went over to him and asked if he needed any help and he gladly accepted. His physical condition left him unable to do a lot of things and needed help with it all. We went back the next day and cleaned up his yard. He knew who we were and was asking questions about the church. We were able to teach him a lot and invited him to learn more about Christ's church on the earth today. He gladly accepted the invitation and we have been teaching him ever since. He shared with us that 2 hours before we met him that he had prayed to God to send someone to help him. Heavenly Father was listening to Steve's prayer and answered. A few short months later, Steve has attended church and has a desire to be baptized.