Seeds of
Faith Planted in the Netherlands: Conversion of Hennie Krohn
by Peggy Proctor
Sunday morning
bright and early my husband and I pulled into the church parking
lot. Beside us was a car with its hood up and four people cheerily
eating crackling bowls of breakfast cereal. "What's wrong with the
car," we inquired?
"Oh, we were
on our way to Yellowstone last night and were almost there when
---that was it, the alternator went out and we got towed back to
here to the Church and slept under those bushes over there. We have
a part for the car on the way from Idaho Falls," he said.
"Would you like
to come over to our place for lunch?" I asked. [Little did I suspect
that they were using the power of prayer on us]
"Oh, that would
be great! We have two teenage boys in the back seat here though,
who eat a lot," he replied.
" We'll talk
to you after church," I said.
After church,
the oldest of the group was tightening nuts under the hood of the
car. "Yep, the alternator came. My wife Tami's uncle brought it
over. We'll be on our way in just a minute."
My husband rolled
up his sleeves and started to help connect battery cables for a
quick charge and I asked the two young men, "Where are you from?"
"The Netherlands." came the reply [There was a give away accent].
They were very gregarious and affable young men. Christiaan Noot
, the son of the stake president, had come to Utah to see his brother
off on a mission and had quite by chance [or providence], run into
his friend Hennie, who had come over from the Netherlands also,
among other things, to visit the missionary who had taught him,
Joseph Kamareth, and his wife Tami.--- " Would you mind telling
me about your conversion?" I inquired.
It is marvelous
to me how the Lord works and that these four had been brought together
and met my husband and me, so that I could relate this story to
all of you. At our home, while my daughter whipped up some food
for them, Hennie unfolded this story of his conversion:
"My mother always told me that there was a God. It was mother who
planted seeds of faith in my heart. There came a time, though, that
I had really big problems. I was taking a lot of medications but
wanted to stop them. I prayed hard and then one night a person appeared
in my room; he laid his hands on my stomach. [I didn't know then
that it was an angel who had appeared to me.] I was at the maximum
dosage with these medications. One more pill would have killed me.
After this personage had appeared to me, I decided that I could
quit the medications and so I did. The angel came again and stood
in my room, said nothing, but nodded his approval to my decision.
That was all, and he never came again.
"A couple of months after this experience I went to work at a bible
foundation. There were all varieties of bibles at the foundation.
One day I picked one of them up and started to read. It was very
interesting to me, and I went home and prayed about which church
I should go to. A few months later the missionaries came to my door.
"The missionaries had been in a car accident a few days before a
mission council meeting and they had to use public transportation.
During the missionary meeting, the mission president told the Zone
Leader that there was a purpose to the car accident [which incidentally,
wasn't their fault] and that they had to meet someone. Two days
later they had to wait for a bus for over 50 minutes so they decided
to tract while they were waiting. They knocked on two doors. At
the first door, there was no one home. The next door was mine. My
mother was always home on that day of the week, but on this day
she was gone and I was home alone. Mother would not have let the
missionaries in, not trusting strangers who come to the door.
"That first visit was two hours long after which I made another
appointment to see the missionaries. On the second visit mother
was there and listened to the missionaries along with me. She was
worried about the missionaries being from some strange sect. After
the meeting she said that she had felt a good feeling and that this
was probably not one of those sects.
"The missionaries continued to visit me for several weeks, but I
had not been to church as yet. On committing to go to church I was
warned by my mother to "watch out." She feared because there are
those sects here that she thought would take me in and I wouldn't
come back home. She was much relieved when I did return home from
church. After a few more visits with the missionaries, I forgot
a couple of my appointments and then I lost contact with them.
"Two months elapsed; transfers must have come bringing two new missionaries
. Elder Joseph Kamerath and his new companion were reading the tracting
books and decided to go visit some people in another city. The elders
went to the car and had their prayer, and during the prayer, Elder
Kamerath was directed by the whisperings of the Spirit: "Go see
Hennie Krohn, " who of course, he had never met and knew nothing
about. He brushed aside the prompting, but again the Spirit whispered,
"Go visit Hennie Krohn," A second time he dismissed the prompting
and was ready to set off for their planned destination when a third
time the Spirit said, "GO VISIT HENNIE KROHN!
"The spirit
came with such force that he couldn't deny it and immediately changed
plans and direction. [When the missionaries met Hennie at the door,
according to Elder Kamerath, he had three days growth on his face
and no shirt on his back and no light in his eyes. Elder Kamerath
wondered why they had been prompted to be there, but proceeded to
give the discussions to him again. Hennie basically taught the missionaries
the first few discussions he remembered them so well.]
"When they arrived at the fourth discussion they were on new ground.
This is the discussion on the plan of salvation that introduces
concepts that would require me to make the most changes in my life.
It was the teaching of this lesson that gave me the direction to
make the changes. As the changes came, the missionaries saw a change
in my countenance that shown in my eyes. Even my mother noticed
a change in my appearance. -- The fourth discussion actually took
three appointments in order to answer all my questions. For some
time now I had been attending church and had even borne my testimony.
I made the decision to be baptized on the 23rd of March, then prayed
about the date and the 28th of May came into my mind. This would
be after Elder Kamerath had gone home, but by now I had a strong
testimony of the power of prayer and listening to the spirit. I
was baptized then on May 28th and confirmed a member of the church
on June 4th of 2000.
"My Mother then got behind my being baptized because she saw the
positive changes in my life. I never remember having a father and
have no other family. Since my baptism I have moved into an apartment
and live almost across the street from the stake president and his
family and I'm always hanging out over there. I have loved going
on splits with the missionaries and talking about the church with
everyone!
"When I feel bad, I just bear my testimony and the feeling goes
away. I bore my testimony of this to the youth in the branch, who
never bore their testimonies. Since then, they have experimented
with this and now bear their testimonies all the time.
"In June of this year I came to the United States and on my nineteenth
birthday received my own endowments in the Salt Lake temple and
did the work for a dozen or more of my ancestors whose names I had
gathered back home. I wanted to do as much of this work as I possibly
could while in the U. S. and went also to the temple in Bountiful
to do work for two more of my ancestors.
"I am now preparing to serve a mission and planning to put in mission
papers early July. Thoughts of serving a mission and bringing others
the great gospel message and plan of salvation make me so happy.
I feel that I need to go as soon as I possibly can!!"
Hennie Krohn will make a great missionary because he is so full
of enthusiasm and light and ignited by the spirit. This mission
in the Netherlands where Hennie is from has about two baptisms per
companionship per year, but in 's-Hertogenbosch, Hennie's home,
they are having, amazingly, on an average of one baptism a month.
Even more amazing, they are especially having success bringing priesthood
into the church. Much of this is attributed to the strong and faithful
converts who are bold and fearless in their approaches to people.
The young man who actually baptized Hennie, Marko, who also has
a delightfully contagious personality and has been in the church
just three years himself, doesn't let a person go by him. He was
in his car at a stop light and waved to the person in the car next
to him. The gentleman rolled down his window and Marko handed him
a church pamphlet. The man showed up at church the following Sunday.
The work is rolling forth.
Editors'
Note: Submit your missionary stories to our Meridian Missionary
Journal editor, Peggy Proctor at missionaryjournal@meridianmagazine.com
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© 2001 Meridian
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