The Burned Book

In 1991 Adam Rosflender was an 11-year-old boy in Vanuatu.  He had a job working in the fisheries.  Being the youngest employee, one of his duties was to take out the rubbish.  One day when he took the rubbish to the burn pile, he found the remnants of a burned book.  The cover and the first half of the book were missing.

Adam read the burned book.  He read about Helaman, two prophets named Nephi, and the visit of Jesus Christ to some people called Nephites following His resurrection.  He read about Mormon and the destruction of the Nephites.  He read about a great civilization that preceded the Nephites which destroyed itself in a great civil war.  He read about two prophets named Moroni and Ether who were each the last survivors of the two extinct civilizations.

At the end of the book he found the name of a church—The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He told his family that if they ever found that church, they must tell him.

Years passed.  Adam was an 18-year-old young man in Port Vila, the capitol city.  He saw two young men dressed in white shirts and ties.  It was hot, so he invited them to have a drink of water.  One of the men was from Fiji.  The other was from America.  As they introduced themselves he read their name tags.  He was overjoyed when he realized that he had found the Church that he had been looking for.  He insisted upon hearing a lesson.  At the end of the lesson, he knew he had found the truth.

That was on a Wednesday.  He was baptized the following Saturday.  When he told his cousins back on the island of Mere Lava that he’d found the Church, they located another pair of missionaries, listened to their lessons, and were also baptized.  That was in 1998.  From 2001 to 2003 he served a mission himself in his native country of Vanuatu.