AFRICA WEST AREA LOCAL PAGES AFRICA WEST AREA LOCAL PAGES 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 district 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, mission, 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 priesthood 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. ◼ A2 Liahona AFRICA WEST AREA LOCAL PAGES 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 Ghana 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 Book of Mormon 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 Billy Johnson 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.