Anne Williams

India Bangalore Mission

1993- 1994

I was born in Sri Lanka and lived a very comfortable life. We were blessed with all the comforts of life. My father was in a very good job. But there was no peace in the country, there were riots between the people who spoke Sinhala and the people who spoke Tamil. My father decided to migrate to India to keep the family safe. We migrated to India in the year 1979, I was just 10 years old and my sisters were 8, 6 & 5. We journeyed by ship. Soon after we left Sri Lanka, within a short period of time the house we lived in was burned by the Sinhalese. We are always grateful to the Lord for His tender mercy of protecting us by inspiring my father to move to India. Not only He protected us, nine years later we also had the opportunity to listen to the missionaries and joined the church, which wouldn’t have happened if we would have lived in Sri Lanka.

When I was 19 years old, my family had the blessing of listening to the missionary discussion. When I saw the Book of Mormon that my music teacher Bastian Alexander carried with him while teaching me, I became very curious to know what the book is all about. When I opened the Book I saw the books Nephi, Jacob... I got confused as to how my music teacher believes in a totally different bible and it could be a completely wrong doctrine. He brought the missionaries to answer my questions. My father and my three younger sisters joined me to listen to missionary discussions. I started listening to the missionaries with a strong opinion in my mind that they are wrong. Though I was 19 years old, I was well taught about the old and new Testaments by my old Church of South India. I feel bad about how I gave a hard time to the missionaries asking questions. But the discussions went on well for a few days. One day the missionaries were teaching me about why Jesus Christ was baptized from 2 Nephi 31: 5-7 “And now, if the Lamb of God, He being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness.....But not withstanding He being holy, He showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh He humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that He would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments”. This scripture really touched my heart. The bible spoke about how Jesus Christ was baptized but it never spoke about why He got baptized. I realized that the words of the Book of Mormon are very valuable, true and important. I also realized how important it is for me to get baptized being a sinner when Jesus Christ being holy got baptized to show his obedience to Heavenly Father. That is how my conversion started. We got baptized (except my mother) on February 4, 1990”. My mother joined the church when I was serving my mission in the year 1993

I had the opportunity to serve a mission in the year 1993 - 94 in India Bangalore Mission, which I consider to be the greatest opportunity and blessing in my life to serve my brothers and sisters and share the gospel that I have been blessed with. I served in Bangalore, Rajahmundry and Erode with wonderful daughters of God. I was able to share the gospel with everyone I met with faith and boldness with the help of the Lord. I witnessed many miracles on my mission in being an instrument in the hands of the Lord to carry the message into the hearts of the people with whom I shared the gospel. The holy ghost was always with me inspiring me what to say and what to do. We were miraculously guided towards many individuals on our way and into the houses of many faithful children of God who were prepared to listen to our message, whoever listened to us with humility were touched by the spirit and got baptized. As sisters, we faced lots of trials and unsafe situations. The Lord was with us guiding and protecting us miraculously. Everyone wondered how safe it is for sister missionaries to serve in India. Even I had that fear, but soon that fear was overshadowed by faith, courage and protection from heaven. The Lord’s work will go forth and no matter what happens. I have a strong testimony of the revelation received by prophet Joseph Smith in 1842, he prophesied : “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”