Missionary Moment: Commandments Bring Blessings
Contributed By Sarah Jane Weaver, Church News associate editor
By choosing to follow the truths taught to him by two missionaries, a once-dissatisfied man opened his life up to receive incredible blessings.
Article Highlights
- Dissatisfied with his life, Donte Holland decided to pray. Missionaries arrived soon after.
Related Links
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA
Thirteen years ago Donte Holland, now a member of the Logan Ward, Philadelphia Pennsylvania Stake, was dissatisfied with the way he was living his life and decided to pray.
He knelt down and offered a prayer to his Heavenly Father with a willing and humble heart to do what his Heavenly Father wanted him to do. “It was the first sincere prayer I had ever uttered in my life.”
From that moment forward everything in his life began to change for the better. “I knew when I knelt down I would do whatever [the Lord] told me to do. I knew He knew I felt that way.”
It wasn’t long before the message of the Restoration came looking for him in a miraculous way. Two days later, missionaries knocked on the door. “I knew the moment that I saw the name Jesus Christ that God had sent them,” he recalled.
Brother Holland was no stranger to the word of God. He always had faith and had read the Bible. In fact, he had a recurring thought: “What if the Bible was being written today?’”
He read the Book of Mormon in a matter of days and prayed to know it was true. He received a personal witness through the Spirit.
He was baptized May 28, 2003. Soon thereafter his wife, Rosalyn Holland, also entered the waters of baptism and became a member of the Church. Sister Holland said her husband found ways to share the messages of the Book of Momron with her before her baptism. “After a while I knew it must be something really important,” she said.
The couple was later sealed in the Washington D.C. Temple.
It’s interesting to note that the first Church meeting Brother Holland attended was the general conference priesthood session broadcast.
“I remember seeing those young men in the choir. The Spirit spoke to me and said, ‘This is God’s army.’”
Later the missionaries told Brother Holland that they had never before gone door-to-door tracting in his neighborhood but felt inspired that they should come to his neighborhood that day. They also felt inspired to knock on his door.
“Everything was confirmed to me,” he said. “When you follow the commandments you are blessed. I have dedicated my life to following the commandments.”
