A Prompting to Leave the Book Behind: Gary Davis and the First Convert of Piacenza, Italy (1973)

In 1971 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized the Italy North Mission, with 31-year-old Dan Jorgensen — who had left a successful banking career — as its first president. Before leaving for Italy, President Jorgensen and his wife Elaine met privately with President Harold B. Lee. Without President Jorgensen expressing his concerns, President Lee counseled him: "You are not supposed to know exactly what to do. The Lord will teach you by the Spirit one step at a time." That counsel became the culture of the mission: the missionaries were pioneers, opening cities where missionaries had never served before.

On December 29, 1973, Elder Gary Davis and his companion, Elder Larry Noakes, became part of the first four missionaries ever assigned to the city of Piacenza. One day an elderly woman invited them into her home but kindly explained she wasn't interested in another religion. As they talked, Elder Davis felt a strong impression to leave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She smiled and said, "My eyesight is failing. Even if I wanted to read it, I couldn't." The prompting didn't leave. He asked if she had children or grandchildren. She said yes. "Maybe one of them will want to read it someday," he said, and left the Book of Mormon behind.

A few weeks later, while tracting in the same neighborhood, a woman stopped the missionaries and asked: "Are you the Americans with the book of scripture written by prophets in the New World that tells about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas after his resurrection?" Surprised, they said yes, and she asked for two copies of the Book of Mormon — one for herself and one for her husband. She was the daughter-in-law of the elderly woman, and her husband — the elderly woman's son — became the first convert baptized in the city of Piacenza.

The prompting that seemed to fail — leaving a book with a woman who could never read it — had done exactly what the Lord intended, exactly as President Lee had taught: the Lord guides His servants one step at a time, seeing what they cannot.