When Michel Guillas first received a Book of Mormon in 1983 from missionaries in Geneva, Switzerland, he was experiencing a personal crisis in which he questioned his purpose in life, and wondered where he was going.

In short, he said with a smile, "I was a good customer for the missionaries."The 44-year-old French doctor, now a medical coordinator for the International Committee of the Red Cross, was later baptized, but his conversion didn't come immediately. Although he felt the Church was true, Dr. Guillas found the Word of Wisdom a difficult challenge. The elders who began teaching him, knowing that he was unemployed at the time, promised Guillas that if he would quit drinking and smoking, he would receive a good job offer.

"I quit both habits," recalled Guillas, who speaks fluent English. "Three weeks later, I was offered a great assignment in East Africa."

Taking his Book of Mormon with him, he moved to Somalia, where he began monitoring a medical project with the Somali government. Although he wanted to continue the missionary discussions, Guillas wasn't sure how to contact members there.

As he continued to read the Book of Mormon though, a picture on the inside cover of a kindly looking couple, along with their printed testimony, kept drawing his attention. The couple was Leland and Zella Paxton of Salt Lake City, who had sent many such books to their close friend Max Wheelwright, then president of the France Toulouse Mission. One of those copies ended up in the hands of Dr. Guillas.

"I would look at their picture," said Guillas, "and it seemed like they were looking at me like parents. I found it very comforting."

He decided to write to them, asking for more information about the Church in Somalia. The Paxtons were more than pleased to respond, and not only wrote him back, but arranged for someone in the Somalian Branch to pick Guillas up for Sunday meetings.

Mostly Americans on assignment in eastern Africa, the members met in a private home. Guillas joined them for several months, and then became busy with work and other pressures. When he wanted to return after an absence of two months, he experienced his "first real answer to prayer" when he tried to locate the home on his own.

"I knew the general direction, but it was a hard place to find," he recalled. "I prayed and was guided like a magnet. It was so moving for me and the members to find each other again! They gave me assignments to read, monitored my progress, and answered my questions and objections. The more time went by, the less objections I had!"

Guillas was baptized in the Indian Ocean on Dec. 15, 1984.

Upon his return to Geneva after two years in Somalia, he met and married a Swiss woman, who also joined the Church in April 1988. He and his wife, Anne, have two children by previous marriages.

Serving as Sunday School president in Geneva, Guillas received another international assignment in December 1988. He left his family in Switzerland, and moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, for 11 months, to be in charge of the medical assistance of the war-wounded.

He was the only member of the Church in the area, and spent 44 Sabbaths having Church meetings by himself.

"I would have all three meetings, but they lasted a little less than three hours," he said with a smile. "On Fast days, I'd bear my testimony to myself."

Once, Guillas watched a video of general conference, and as President Benson spoke, urging all to "flood the earth" with the Book of Mormon, tears came to Guillas' eyes.

"I was far away, and yet I felt the power of his message," he said. "I thought, `This is true. It brings immense relief to the world.' I could make a parallel with the effect of the Book of Mormon to the life-saving work I was doing in Cambodia."

Guillas began sending out copies of the Book of Mormon to friends. By the end of his stay in Cambodia, he still had 25 books left over. Although proselyting was forbidden, Guillas felt strongly impressed that the books should be given to the native Khmers.

Ten of the books were taken to the local university library, while several others were given to the Minister of Health. Of the experience, Guillas said, "I felt so good to share my testimony that way. It gave me so much encouragement to carry on with missionary work.

"Just by example I can share the gospel," he continued enthusiastically. "We have a wonderful gift - the ability to help people change themselves from the inside out, as President Benson once said."

Guillas is currently back in Geneva with his family, where he is doing further work in epidemiology, the branch of medicine that investigates the causes and control of epidemics. On his way home from Cambodia, he stopped in Salt Lake City, where he met both the Paxtons and the Wheelwrights for the first time.- Elayne Wells