Today’s Miracle Monday is a conversion testimony submitted by Sister Vanessa Tostado. Since church camps and conferences play a big role in her story, we think it’s very appropriate to share in the wake of GMBA camp and the summer YIA tours. There’s also one other reason why this article is super timely — can you spot it in the article?

At GMBA Camp in 1998, we had a wonderful seminar for the youth. My brother had been recently baptized, and I was beginning to contemplate baptism. I remember that, in the seminar, while the ministers were praying for others, I went up to Brother Phil Jackson and began to cry, telling him I didn’t want to die by the fountain. He cried with me, prayed for me, and gave me a big hug like my father would’ve — something I will never forget.

Nevertheless, I spent the next year (my senior year in high school) very busy with worldly things, preparing for my future. Everyone around me said that I must be so proud; it had been my most successful school year, being senior class president, homecoming queen, accepted to every university I applied to and offered scholarships. However, I can honestly say it was the emptiest year of my life. I felt like the verse in The Songs of Zion No. 28 that says, “Satan that lion is holding dear loved ones and whispering stay with me another long year.”

After I graduated from high school in the summer of 1999, I had very mixed emotions. I was sad to leave San Diego where I was born and raised but excited and afraid to move away from home and begin college. The most overwhelming emotion, though, was anticipation for the World Missionary Conference in Chicago. That’s where a week full of experiences and God’s Spirit filled me.

My cousin asked for his baptism, and I wanted to ask too but held back. On the flight home, I felt a very strong fear come over me and thought that if I died I would surely go to hell. I could not wait for it to be Sunday to ask for my baptism.

I used to ask God for signs to show me that I should ask for my baptism, but I knew the truth my entire life, and after that week of powerful experiences, I just couldn’t wait any longer.

The next Sunday, I was still struggling during the meeting, but then a sister said in her testimony, “Don’t turn Him away…” and I kept hearing those words repeating in my mind like He was telling me directly. That’s when I finally got up and asked for my baptism. As soon as I sat down, a brother got up to share a vision. He saw Jesus touch me on my shoulder and then walk up toward the pulpit and say, “There shall be more.” I was baptized with my cousin on July 18, 1999.

Exactly one year later, I was in Tijuana, Mexico, at the Conference of the Americas with brothers and sisters from all over Mexico. During the night meeting, an older couple got up to praise God for celebrating exactly one year of being baptized together in The Church of Jesus Christ. I immediately thought of the vision where Jesus said, “There shall be more,” and I shared this experience with them. It was such a blessing to have God’s confirmation and to meet my new family members in Christ. I thank God for His miraculous power, love, and mercy!

Miscellaneous Miracles for August

Every year, we have a no-theme Miracle Monday month so that anyone who has been wanting to share an experience that hasn’t fit into any of the recent themes can do so. Click here to share yours!

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.