“It’s Just Personal Revelation. For Some Reason I Needed It”
In October 1973, Paul Schmeil saw Victor Nugent, one of his coworkers, reading the Bible at lunchtime and invited him to his home to learn about the Church. Victor believed the story of Joseph Smith and read the Book of Mormon in three days but was taken aback to learn of the priesthood restriction for Black people such as himself.
Nevertheless, at the first Sunday meeting Victor and his wife, Verna, attended with a group of expatriate Latter-day Saints, he recalls, “We were so impressed with the Spirit that was there.” Verna wanted to take more time to learn about the Church. “I needed to be very sure,” Verna recalled. “I didn’t want it to be a euphoric thing.”
Victor, Verna, Peter, and Cecile Nugent
Verna and Victor were baptized with their oldest son on January 20, 1974, joining a group of Latter-day Saint families living in Mandeville and Kingston. Then, in June 1976, political upheaval broke out, and all the expatriates left. The Nugents were the only Church members remaining in Jamaica.
In 1976, Amos Chin was studying abroad in Montreal, Canada, where he encountered the Church and decided to be baptized. His parents, devout Catholics, were initially opposed but later gave him permission. Amos’s ancestors were Chinese, European, and African, so he was also subject to the priesthood and temple restriction of the time. Nevertheless, Amos believed the Book of Mormon was true. He began having dreams about serving in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission, whose boundaries encompassed Jamaica. He wrote a letter to President Spencer W. Kimball about his desire to serve.
After returning to Kingston in 1978, he sometimes traveled to Mandeville to meet with the Nugents and their friends Josephine and Errol Tucker, who had joined the Church in February. In June 1978, Victor gave Amos the news about the lifting of the priesthood and temple restriction. Amos was overjoyed but not surprised. Amos was soon called to serve in the Florida Fort Lauderdale Mission. “I knew everything a year and a half before what would happen,” he said. “It’s just personal revelation. For some reason I needed it.” By November 1978, he was in Jamaica teaching the gospel.
Amos’s example was a blessing to his own family. His mother, Cecilyn, and his brother Augustus (Gus) were baptized in July 1979. Later, his sister Rosemarie and father, Edward, also joined the Church. They were sealed as a family five months later, shortly before Edward died. Gus became the second Jamaican to serve a mission, laboring in a Spanish-speaking mission in California.