Nixon Samuel

Singapore Mission

1992- 1994

My name is Nixon Samuel. I was born to devoted good parents in the CSI (Churches of South India) church. My family consisted of my mother - Chellama, father - Dhanaraj, brothers - Newton and Nelson. We lived in a place called Castle Green Compound, which had all kinds of people, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, etc. We had our education in a Seventh-Day Adventist convent school in Bangalore, called the Lowry Memorial High School, which was close to my home. Other than attending the school we also attended the Sabbath school on Saturdays. My parents were prompt in sending us and actively participated in Seventh-Day Adventist church church activities.

My conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is quite interesting. We had a long time neighbor, Brother Anthony, with whom we associated well and lived as family friends. Soon after Bro Anthony passed away his wife was paralyzed and my mother was quite a help to them in everything. It so happened their second youngest son, Bro Michael went to the USA to serve a mission in Salt Lake City and then returned when Sister Anthony passed away. He began to continue his missionary work in our neighborhood and among his friends in Bangalore in Castle Green Compound.

During evening hours he used to gather all the little children in our compound and taught us to sing (I am a child of God; Come, come ye saints; I need thee every hour; Did you think to pray and Oh, How lovely was the morning.) He also told us stories of Joseph Smith's first vision and Book of Mormon stories. I was then 13, and everything was new to me. It was not the same as what I learnt in CSI and Seventh-Day Adventist Church. My special attention was drawn on Prophet Joseph Smith History & the "First Vision". Every Sunday he took permission from our parents and started taking us to the church services which were held by Elder and Sister Jack & Myra Humphreys. These couple lived in Doopanahalli # 777G, 100ft Road in Indiranagar and were taken on auto rickshaws to their place.

This became routine for a couple of weeks and soon my family and I were introduced to the Missionary couple's. These couples taught us the Gospel Discussion. During one of the discussions my long time question was answered on "Church Organization." I somewhat believed that the Lord's Church should have Christ as the cornerstone and Prophets & Apostles, Evangelists, Pastors, Teachers, Deacons were to be the foundation. When the Mormon Church had the same belief, and had President Kimball as the prophet and had 12 others as apostles, I accepted the gospel and gained a testimony of the church, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. Although my parents believed this too, they could not accept and take baptism. However they allowed us three brothers to get baptized. First me & my Elder Bro. Newton on July 5th 1984. Along with us, there were the May sisters (Margret and Christina) and Bro Solomon Ebenezer were baptized. The five of us got baptized in the overhead water tank of the couple's apartment. Later my younger brother Nelson when he was 8 years old got baptized but my parents remained dry Mormons.

Since then my journey began by first receiving the Aaronic Priesthood on July 8th, 1984 to the office of Deacon by Brother Samuel May. I served and learnt day by day in church by taking up various callings and advancement to other priesthood offices. As the membership grew, we started having home groups in our own locality and the first home group we attended was at Brother May's home. Soon Bro. May's house didn't have sufficient space to gather for Sunday Sacrament meetings and so we found an old school in front of the I.T.I main gate and got permission to hold our Sunday meetings in a old dusty class room with long wooden benches to sit for all the three meetings. Later we moved to Nagavarapallaya (Benganahalli) a bigger place where we can hold church meetings. This was about four kilometers from where we lived. Sometimes we members never had enough money to take the bus to attend the church so we did walk to church in the morning, and after finishing all the church meetings, we returned by walking to our homes. Our priesthood attire with our neck tie was an attraction to many and was laughed at sometimes.

One of the most important blessings we saints received was to have Elder Keith Clemons (High Priest), one of the first Patriarch to serve as missionary couples here in Bangalore. On January 14th 1986 I received my Patriarchal Blessing from Elder Clemons and on 21st August 1988, I was ordained as an "Elder" in Melchizedek Priesthood by Elder Glen. T. Warner (High Priest) who served as Missionary couples in Bangalore. I continued to grow up as a faithful saint fulfilling the various callings in the church.

In April 1992 soon after my graduation I got my mission call letter which was duly signed by President Ezra Taft Benson to serve my mission for two years in the Singapore Mission (India Bangalore was not in existence). I served my mission in India in various places namely Delhi, Chennai, Coimbatore & Erode with my companions of both native & foreign. I completed my mission and had an Honorable release by our First Native Mission President Gurucharan Singh Gill who was a Professor in BYU and who was the first Mission President for India Bangalore Mission.

After a span of 6 years completing my mission I found my choicest Eternal Companion Sister Prema Raj who is the sister of Samon Raj, one of the pioneer members who was baptized before me and was a pioneer missionary to serve from Bangalore. Sister Prema Raj was my childhood friend, studied in the same school, same class and also lived in Castle Green compound and above all, she was a returned missionary too, who joined the church after me but served her mission before me in the Philippines in the years 1990-1992. We both got married in the year 2000. We both raised a beautiful family with heavenly blessings of having two sons Dallan & Dennis. On 16th December 2003 our family entered the Hong Kong China Temple and got sealed for time and all eternities.

Today we the saints are blessed from 8 members of a Home Group, to grow to a stake of five wards and one branch. I’m currently serving as RM Nagar ward Sunday School President and my wife is serving as stake Relief Society President. We are also the ward Temple Preparation class teachers and are experiencing the blessing of preparing so many families in our ward to receive the temple blessings.

I personally have seen the growth of the church in Bangalore and stand as a witness for this growth and I am sure I will witness many more events and growth of the church until the Holy Temple in India to come.