Newcastle

Akinyemi Gbenga

Today we had an assignment in the Newcastle branch about 3 hours away.  We arrived an hour early to the church for a meeting with the branch president. A brother was in the kitchen filling sacrament cups with water. He heard us coming down the hall, peeked out and said with a big smile "Welcome to your Heavenly Fathers House."

We introduced ourselves to each other and he told us he was from Nigeria and has been a member since 2009.

I asked Br. Gbenga how he found the gospel. His words:  "Its all started when i just moved to a new area i needed to worship at a new church to fellowship with my God.  I remember praying to God about this quest" 

He explained to us that his mother was visiting the US and discovered the Church there.

Benga's family had been Methodist for 29 years.When his mother returned from the US she brought some pamphlets with her and told her family that she had found a new truth that really touched her heart. She wanted to tell them about it, which she did, and she said they should all pray about it.

His words: "while I was reading the plan of salvation booklet I felt I have never been a christian all the while, all the things I read I have never heard it nor read it before in my life.  It touches me alot and I felt the truthfulness of that message contained in it."

Bengas mother had arranged for the Elders to come and teach them.  Benga was so shocked to find how young the Elders were when they arrived. He had expected old men walking with a cane.

His words: "my knowledge about elders was someone very old, bald headed, big tommy, gray hair and probably using glasses and walking stick with a big jeep.  As my family and I waited patiently for these elders to come I became anxious of their coming because of the messages I want to hear.

     Surprisingly,i heard a nock on the door.  With a speed to open - low and behold i saw these two young and smartly looking guys dressed in white shirt and black trousers greeting me with a smile then i asked are you the elders? I asked with lots of surprises on my face."

Benga paused for a moment and tears rolled down his face.He told us that he too was touched by what his mother had told them and he prayed sincerely about it.That night he had a visionary experience where he saw a building and someone brought him a certificate.He saw himself there with a wife and children. He described the dream to the bishop and was told that the building he saw was a temple of the Lord. He had never seen a temple before.

His words: "my first two days of the book reading nothing happened until the third day while reading first nephi something did happened to me which i have never experienced before in  my life.  While i was reading,a deep sleep came upon me and i saw myself in a place,a very clean house particularly in a room where i was with my wife and two children. A man dressed in a white and black walked up to us and said to us to hold ourselves together as he conducts the session and while we held on to one another i was still looking around to find something to say the place was dirty i findeth not and then after the session the man handed to me a certificate and i did collected and then i woke up.  "

Since that time, Br. Gbenga has gotten married in the temple and has two children, which fulfilled what he was shown in that vision.

His words:  "a year later i went to the temple in ABA,Nigeria as a married man with my darling and eternal companion ANGELA with a child in hand named Nephi for the love of the gospel with few months old pregnancy of our now Angel. We were endowed and sealed for time and eternity with the priesthood of God.  A testimony that gave me and my family a firm foundation of the divinity of the book of mormon and truthfulness of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints."

It is so sweet to hear Br. Gbengas own words.  After returning back to Joburg I emailed him and asked if he would mind emailing me his testimony and that is how I have his words above.

Elders Mukonda and Johnson

I took this picture of the elders serving in Newcastle Branch so I could email it to their mothers.

Elder Mukonda sang and spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  He sang "Come to Zion, come to Zion, for your coming Lord is nigh" and asked "How do we come to Zion?  By doing what a Zion people would do - and what is that?  We come to Zion by choosing to do that which draws us closer to the Lord.  Serving others, going to church, reading our scriptures, saying our prayers.  Reading the Book of Mormon draws us closer to God than anything else on Earth."

He quoted from the Book of Mormon: 2NE 33:10 & 11:   "And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.

     And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness."