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AREA PRESIDENCY MESSAGE

It Is Finished By Elder Edward Dube Former Second Counselor, Africa West Area Presidency Edward Dube

ears ago I found myself helpless as last dose a couple of hours earlier. I directly into my eyes and said, “It is YI watched my mother suffer from entered the bedroom where she was not up to you or anyone else, but it a terminal disease. As a young father sobbing. I felt helpless and, in tears, is up to God whether this pain will with a young family and serving as a joined her in sobbing. I prayed and go away or not.” I sat up quietly. She president, I tried to figure out cried for instant relief to my mother’s too sat quietly. In a scene that remains what needed to be done, and more pain. To this day the picture of my vivid in my mind, mother said these especially, what the Lord wanted done mother in that state remains in my words with a smile, through her tears. and how He wanted it to be done. mind’s eye: frail, stricken, sobbing, Her words soothed me, lifted and In the spare bedroom I could hear and begging for the pain to go away. blessed me for life. my mother sobbing in pain. She was That night my mother, who was still in That is precisely the reason why suffering from cancer and taking severe pain, looked at me, and calmly Jesus Christ suffered in the Garden morphine to relieve the severe pain. made a profound statement which of Gethsemane and on Golgotha. The At that stage, the cancer specialist taught me the lesson of a lifetime. Savior reminds us what the gospel is: had recommended that we increase This lesson has sustained me and “Behold I have given unto you my the morphine dose to three times per strengthened my faith in Heavenly gospel, and this is my gospel which day, and my mother had taken the Father and Jesus Christ. She looked I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me” Christ in Gethsemane, (3 Nephi 27:13). My mother, through by Harry Anderson her severe pain, reached out to me, her son, and helped me be prepared to serve in the Lord’s kingdom, under any circumstances, knowing that my loving Savior and Redeemer’s experi- ence with the bitter cup that terrible night in Gethsemane, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42), set forth the course to follow. We follow our Savior Jesus Christ who directs the affairs of The Church

September 2015 A1 of Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints but still with the severe pain of can- and continuing today, He exercises through a living prophet, who, with cer. It is fair to say that her lesson that His agency to accept and carry out his associates—the First Presidency night has guided my choices in life. our Heavenly Father’s plan” (“Waiting and the Quorum of the Twelve Mother taught me then that in mag- upon the Lord: Thy Will Be Done,” Apostles—charts the way forward in nifying our callings, we give our all Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 71). building the Lord’s kingdom here on regardless of the challenges we might Alma reminds us of our covenants and earth. The branch, stake, , and be going through. Our callings and our assignments, “Have ye walked, district presidents and bishops, who assignments are only for a season. May keeping yourselves blameless before have the keys delegated to them, con- we, at the end of our assignments, join God? Could ye say, if ye were called to duct and uphold Church doctrine in with our Savior Jesus Christ in giving die at this time, within yourselves, that the same way throughout the world. our stewardship report: “I have finished ye have been sufficiently humble? That They use the Church handbooks of the work which thou gavest me to do” your garments have been cleansed instructions and the scriptures; they ( John 17:4). The Savior, during His brief and made white through the blood of listen to current messages from the life on earth, looked up to His Father in Christ, who will come to redeem his First Presidency and the Quorum Heaven in every way; yet He suffered. people from their sins?” (Alma 5:27). of the Twelve Apostles to bless the Toward the end of His mortal life, the When my assignment in the Africa lives of those they preside over in the unrelenting suffering worsened—He West Area Presidency comes to an Savior’s way. They follow the way out- experienced more pressure, more tor- end, I would like to say with a clear lined and the example of how sacra- ture, and more agony! Still, He endured conscience, “It is finished.” Will you, ment meetings are conducted without to the very end and proclaimed, “It is regardless of what calling you cur- adjusting to suit their circumstances finished” ( John 19:30). rently hold, view yourself, with all because it is never for our circum- You and I will at some stage come the trials or whatever it is you may stances or purposes but to glorify to the conclusion of some tasks as- be going through, look up to the our Heavenly Father and draw near signed to us. May we, when that day Lord and join with Him in saying, “I to the Savior. He declared; “And my comes, say with a clear conscience, came into the world to do the will of Father sent me that I might be lifted “It is finished.” When trials and trib- my Father, because my Father sent up upon the cross; and after that I had ulations come, remember not to be me” (3 Nephi 27:13). Yes, my mother been lifted up upon the cross, that I impatient with the Lord by seeking for needed to look at her son, the young might draw all men unto me, that as immediate solutions. Elder Robert D. father, the young leader, I have been lifted up by men even so Hales of the Quorum of the Twelve and say, “It is not up to you or anyone should men be lifted up by the Father, Apostles taught us very well regarding else, but it is up to God whether this to stand before me, to be judged of the patience of our Savior Jesus Christ pain will go away or not.” When all is their works, whether they be good or in waiting for His Father: “His prepara- said and done, there has never been whether they be evil” (3 Nephi 27:14). tion began in the premortal life as He nor ever will be anything so pow- In the subsequent days after my waited upon His Father, saying, ‘Thy erful, so majestic, so wondrous as a experience with my mother, she passed will be done, and the glory be thine clear conscience that one has done away in a hospital in Harare, peacefully forever.’ Beginning in that moment his very, very best. ◼

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OUR HERITAGE

A People Prepared—Joseph W. “Billy” Johnson Taken from an article by Elizabeth Maki

hen The Church of Jesus Christ

Wof Latter-day­ Saints officially sent representatives to bring the Church to in December 1978, the gospel was already well-established­ there. Fourteen years earlier, the man most responsible for the preparation of the Saints in Ghana had been converted to the Church after reading the and other tracts. Beginning From the Left: J.W.B. Johnson, Emmanuel Abu Kissi, B.A. Dadson with a pamphlet containing the testi- and Brother Sampson-Davies mony of Church founder Joseph Smith, Joseph William was im- mediately touched by what he learned. “Oh, I wept when I read the testi- Johnson’s compulsion to spread and a few Church pamphlets that mony, and I felt the Spirit. I became the word came in large part from a Mensah had received from a woman convinced immediately. . . . So I calling he felt he received shortly after in Europe. The men wrote to Church started reading the books, all the reading the Book of Mormon. He re- headquarters in Salt Lake, asking for books. I couldn’t stand; I couldn’t lated that one early morning following missionaries to be sent to Ghana to sit without sharing.” his conversion, he “saw the heavens baptize them and establish the Church Indeed, Johnson’s conversion open and angels with trumpets sing- there, but because of restrictions that launched him into a missionary career ing songs of praise unto God. I heard didn’t allow men of African descent to that didn’t waver in the face of persecu- my name mentioned thrice: ‘Johnson, be ordained to the priesthood (making tion at home and an at-­times-­frustrating Johnson, Johnson. If you will take Church organization there impossible), brand of long-distance­ support from up my work as I will command you, their requests went unfulfilled. They Salt Lake City. Johnson was tireless in I will bless you and bless your land.’ were encouraged by Church President spreading the message of the restored Trembling and in tears, I replied, ‘Lord, David O. McKay (1873–1970) to con- Church in Ghana, going from street with thy help, I will do whatever you tinue studying the scriptures and to be to street, day after day, preaching the will command me.’” faithful—officials at Church headquar- gospel. “I was constrained to do it,” he Together with R.A.F. Mensah and ters helped by sending magazines and said. “Despite opposition I met on the Clement Osekre, Johnson organized literature to help the fledgling congre- way—I was highly, really opposed. But a congregation based on the teachings gations—but for the time being, they still I went on. I couldn’t stop it at all.” found in a single Book of Mormon were essentially on their own. In time,

September 2015 A3 Johnson moved his proselyting efforts knowledge to me. He said that if I send missionaries to Ghana and to from to and did his didn’t believe him, he would sing a other parts of Africa to receive the best to organize the Church, eventu- song from my church, and he sang priesthood,” he remembered. “I was ally establishing several branches with “Come, Come, Ye Saints” [Hymns, so happy indeed.” When missionaries hundreds of members. no. 30]. That was the first time I had finally arrived a few months later, they For years, Johnson led the mem- heard that hymn. He said, ‘Don’t leave were directed to Johnson’s chapel in bers in regular fasts, pleading for the Church, my brother. . . . Please Cape Coast, Ghana, where they found missionaries from Salt Lake to come see that I am baptized.’ It was my “a large statue of the angel Moroni and establish the Church among brother who enlightened me about standing on a ball and blowing a them. “The Lord knew we had no baptism for the dead and brought trumpet. There were also pictures of one to help us, so he helped us it to my knowledge. . . . Most of my the Bible and the Book of Mormon, through revelation, daily revelation,” relatives appeared to me in dreams Joseph Smith, the Tabernacle Choir, Johnson said. “[We were] trying to do [saying] ‘Reverend Johnson, do you and other Latter-day­ Saint scenes.” the little that the Lord taught us to know you have a work to do for us? Many of the members of Johnson’s do. We were really depending upon Our great grandsons and daughters congregations requested baptism, the dictates of the Spirit.” At a time will be in your church soon. See that and on the first day 34 people were of great trial early in his ministry, we are baptized.’ I learned these interviewed for the ordinance. The Brother Johnson’s deceased brother doctrines before the missionaries ar- missionaries spent an afternoon and appeared to him in a dream and said: rived. Nothing they taught us seemed into the evening hours baptizing new “Don’t worry . . . you have chosen the strange. They simply confirmed what members, with several more arriv- only true church on earth . . . and I we had heard.” ing at Johnson’s home in tears that am now investigating your church.” The lack of direction and the mem- night, having walked from a distant Brother Johnson reported that he bers’ inability to be baptized was a village in hopes of being baptized was surprised. “I never knew that the challenge both for the Church and that day. Within a few days, the Cape Church extended to another world. for Johnson, but for fourteen years Coast Branch had been organized It was my brother who brought that he pushed through the opposition, with Joseph William Billy Johnson believing Ghana’s time would come. as . In 1978, it did: President Spencer W. Emmanuel Kissi, a native of The cocoa shed Kimball (1895–1985) announced a rev- Ghana who joined the Church in that served elation extending the priesthood to all England in 1979 before returning to as the first worthy males. Johnson heard the news his home country to help build the meetinghouse around midnight at the end of a hard Church there, credited Johnson with in Cape Coast day when he was compelled to tune the rapid growth of the gospel in before the first missionaries his radio to BBC before going to bed. Ghana and with the sure foundation arrived. “I jumped and started crying and the missionaries found when they rejoicing in the Lord with tears that arrived. “I believe it was because of now is the time that the Lord will him that the Church grew faster in

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that district,” Kissi wrote. “President on to serve as a district president, a has only seen them a couple of times Johnson, more than anybody else, full-time­ missionary, and as patriarch during Folly’s life. was active on the missionary front.” A of the Cape Coast Ghana Stake. After Little Folly remembers well the lack year after the first baptisms in Ghana, 14 long years of opposition, mockery, of clothing and food as a child. They missionaries were instructed to keep and ongoing cries that he was wast- lived in a one-room­ house without baptisms to a minimum until the ing his time with an American church electricity. He and his siblings and Church could be firmly established that would never do anything for his grandmother were always hungry. in Africa. The counsel, however, proved people, Johnson’s faith was ultimately His sweet grandmother was often ill. difficult to follow thanks in large part rewarded. “It was a day of jubilation At the age of ten, he would go to the to Johnson, whom the missionaries when they came,” he said. “I was so market and beg for money to go to dubbed the “St. Paul of Ghana.” happy that they came and so happy school and run errands for people After serving as the Cape Coast that the Church is not brand-­new; it’s for money. His little sister sold small Branch’s first president, Johnson went on its feet in Ghana.” ◼ bags of water. Using this money, and fending for themselves, he and his siblings attended school when they could. At the age of 17, Folly would MISSIONARY work for one year and then go to school for one year, and thus com- His Member-Missionary­ pleted high school in seven years when it should have taken three. He Friend Touched His Life recalls that during his childhood, life By President Reid Robison seemed pretty bleak and was merely Ghana Missionary Training Center President a matter of survival. During those high school years, the missionaries hen Folly Ama-­Gbodonon another country. He did not wish to found his older sister, and she wanted Wwas four years old, his mother have contact with his children and him to listen to the discussions with became ill and passed away. His her, but he was not interested. Life dear mother left behind a seven-­ Elder Folly was not good to him, and he did not year-­old daughter, four-­year-­old Ama-Gbodonon­ see how religion could help. Folly, a little sister age two, and a At the end of his high school ex- little eight-­month-­old baby boy. His perience, in order to go on to col- father felt he could not face raising lege, he was required to pay for the the four children, so he sent the exams. Folly decided once again to oldest daughter to live with an aunt ask people in his neighborhood for in a different town, left the other help. This time he asked a very kind three children with their 65-­year-old­ man named Joel Lawson-­Kiniadga ailing grandmother, and moved to for help. It just so happened that

September 2015 A5 Joel was a member of The Church of sister, and in appreciation to the Jesus Christ of Latter-­day Saints. Joel member missionary who brought and his wife had a small child, and him the light of the restored gospel. he felt prompted to help the plight He left the missionary training center of Folly and his siblings. He also on March 3, 2015, to serve his mission invited Folly to church. Folly took in Cȏte d’Ivoire. ◼ the lessons from the missionaries and joined the Church in 2013. His older sister, who was still interested in the Church, encouraged him to serve a From Orphan mission. She had just married and Elder Tatenda and had a baby. However, early in 2014 to Missionary President Robison she was taking a taxi to work and was killed in an auto accident. in Ghana Brother Lawson-­Kiniadga offered By Elder Tatenda Ndunduma three years old and his brother was to not only support Folly on a mis- seven, his father became very ill. At sion but to also help him and his lit- hat joy Elder Tatenda the peak of his sickness, he could tle brother and sister through school. WNdunduma experienced not stand or eat, and he could hardly As we read in James 1:27, “Pure reli- as he was sealed to his deceased breathe. His mother entered his hospi- gion and undefiled before God and parents in the . tal room and upon viewing her hus- the Father is this, To visit the father- Missionary training center missionar- band in his weakened condition, she less and widows in their affliction, ies, Elder and Sister Malmrose, stood collapsed to the floor and died. His and to keep himself unspotted from in as proxy for his parents. The day father, because of his comatose condi- the world.” Brother Lawson-­Kiniadga, before, two missionaries had per- tion, was not even aware that his wife a member of the Be-­Kpota Ward in formed the baptisms for his parents had died. He died just two days later. the Lomé Stake, truly did this. As a in the . He knew that it was his Tatenda, as a new orphan, was result, Folly and his family have been responsibility to make certain that his then sent to live with his aunt (the sis- blessed. Many others will also be parents were both baptized by proxy ter of his father) and his grandmother. blessed as Folly teaches and shares in the temple and sealed together Two years later his grandmother also the gospel of Jesus Christ while on as a forever family. Now that dream passed away. His aunt took on part-­ his mission. has become a reality. This happy day time work to provide food, and her Elder Folly Ama-Gbodonon­ is stood in stark contrast to many sad two children and Tantenda were of- filled with the light of the gospel. His experiences in his young life. ten left alone, even though they were future and that of his siblings is now Tatenda’s arduous journey to the young. When Tatenda was 10, his bright. He feels honor-bound­ to serve temple and the mission field began aunt took him to a small town called a wonderful mission in gratitude to January 26, 1994, when he was born Bindura, where he finished primary the Lord, in tribute to his deceased in Harare, Zimbabwe. When he was and secondary school.

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When he was sixteen, Tatenda’s impossible goal for him because of applications, studying Preach My sweet aunt died, and so he was left the expense involved in getting the Gospel, and obtaining passports. to live with her husband and a son required medical and dental exams, With hard work and helpful mentors, who was his age. Life was hard, and passports, and clothing. Tatenda was able to realize his dream Tatenda would often cry, wishing that The way was opened for him of serving a mission. his parents were still alive. He had because Reeve Nield, a professional He entered the Ghana Missionary already buried four caregivers. He was golfer and member of the Church Training Center in September 2014 eventually sent back to Harare to live from Zimbabwe, felt inspired to and is now serving in the Ghana Cape with another aunt, and there he was help the young adults in her country Coast Mission. His desire is now to finally able to be reunited with his prepare for missions. She and two bring many souls unto Christ so that brother, who was then 20. of her friends met with more than they will be able to enjoy the same Tatenda now knows that this 100 young adults every week for blessings he is enjoying. Tatenda is move to the capital city of Harare several months. They helped them fond of saying, “I know the Lord will was also for a divine purpose. with many things such as getting always watch my back throughout Simbarashe, the son of his aunt, birth certificates, filling out their my mission.” ◼ was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day­ Saints, and he invited Tatenda to attend some

Church meetings. Tatenda was soon YOUTH introduced to the missionaries and listened intently to the missionary My Favorite Quote on Keeping Covenants lessons. However, it was not until By Prosperity Sunday P. he heard the lesson about the plan Ikot Ebo First Ward, Etinan Nigeria Stake of salvation that he was completely converted to the restored gospel. he following quote by President It was the sweetest message he TSpencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) had ever heard in his young life, always sticks in my mind: and it changed his tears of sorrow “When you look in the dictionary to tears of joy. He had previously for the most important word, do you thought that he would never see his know what it is? It could be ‘remem- parents again, having never heard of ber.’ Because all of you have made Prosperity life after death. Feeling the Spirit of covenants—you know what to do and the Lord, he asked to be baptized on you know how to do it—our great- I like this quote because it serves as November 17, 2012. From that point est need is to remember” (Circles of a reminder for me to always keep the on, he was a changed man. Serving a Exaltation [address to religious educa- commandments of God and also to full-time­ mission became one of his tors, , 28 June remember that I will one day give an goals. However, that seemed like an 1968], 8). account of my deeds. ◼

September 2015 A7 VISIT NEW AREA WEBSITES!

PRIMARY My Favorite Quote Daren K., 7, Lake Branch, San-Pédro­ District, Côte Ivoire

ne of my favorite quotes on work a good job when I grow up. President Ois in 2 Nephi 5:17: “And it came Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) also to pass that I, Nephi, did cause my said that: “Children need to work people to be industrious, and to labor with their parents—to wash dishes with their hands.” Nephi is telling with them, to mop floors with them.” us to work if we want to be happy. That’s why I help my mother do the Africa West Area Websites: That’s why I do good in school to get laundry. ◼ English: africawest.lds.org French: afriquedelouest.lds.org

Mormon Newsroom Ghana: www.mormonnewsroom.​ com.​ gh​ Daren Mormon Newsroom Nigeria: www.mormonnewsroom.​ org.​ ng​ ◼

Daren and his family ENGLISH—AFRICA WEST

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