NAIROBI,
Kenya — To listen Monday to an LDS Church president's voice in person for the
first time, East African Mormons traveled
hundreds of miles in dust-covered buses, bouncing and swaying over dirt roads,
broken streets and omnipresent speed bumps that keep speeds under 50 mph.
They
received a message tailored for eastern Africa, where many tribes continue to
insist that grooms or their families provide a
dowry or pay a price for a bride.
"That's not the Lord's
way," President Russell M. Nelson told about 2,000 Kenyans and other
Africans Monday night inside a large, oval, wooden event center styled after
traditional huts in Nairobi, Kenya. "The Lord's way is to be married in
the temple, for time and all eternity, with your children sealed to you."
He
added that if he'd had to pay for his wife, "I would have missed five
children, because only with my last five was I out of debt."
President Nelson also said
tithing can break cycles of poverty in poor nations and families.
"We preach tithing to the
poor people of the world because the poor people of the world have had cycles
of poverty, generation after generation," he said. "That same poverty
continues from one generation to another, until people pay their tithing."
The law of the tithe was
followed by ancient peoples as taught by Old Testament prophets. LDS faithful
believe God restored the law and its blessings for those who follow it by
giving one-tenth of their income to the church.
Many Africans began saving money and planning their travel more than a month
ago to attend what was billed here as a special devotional. It also was the
third stop on President Nelson's first international trip since he became the
church's leader in January.
"You folks are pioneers
right here in Kenya. You might not think of yourself as pioneers, but you're
just as much pioneers now as Brigham Young and the Saints were, following the
martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith."
His 35-minute address was
worth 16 hours of rough travel, said Palaasi Charles, 49, of Jinja, Uganda. "Oh, much so. Much
so," said Charles, part of a group of 29 Ugandans who left Jinja by bus at
2 p.m. Sunday and arrived in Nairobi at 6 a.m.
They spent the day on a nearby
lawn watching and photographing warthogs and baboons and waiting in line to
secure seats closest to the podium. "I wish I'd come with my family,"
said Charles, a first counselor in the Jinja LDS Stake presidency. He said he
will return home and relay the special devotional's messages to his family and
the Mormon congregations in his area.
"I will share with them
the importance of us having temple recommends," he said, "that
tithing is going to break the cycle of poverty, the importance of educating our
children and doing away with dowry as part of our culture."
He and others are looking
forward to construction of an LDS temple in Nairobi, announced in April 2017.
Church leaders have not announced the temple site yet.
"I
don't know how long it will take to build that temple," President Nelson
said, "but let's have a little contest: See if you can build your lives to be
ready and your ancestral documentation to be ready for when the temple
comes."
He said it is easier for
church leaders to build a temple than it is for them to build a people ready
for the temple.
He also emphasized the importance of
prophets, the Book of Mormon, the Restoration of the priesthood, family and
worshipping Jesus Christ. He said one of the great lessons of his 93-year life
is that people are God's children and he speaks to them.
"It's no different for you than
it is for me," he said. "You can get personal revelation for your own
circumstances, just as naturally as I can for my circumstances. You get it for
your family and yourself, and I get it for the whole church."
Another speaker on Monday night, Elder Jeffrey R.
Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, also encouraged east Africans to
prepare for the temple. He asked them to qualify, receive and carry the temple
recommend required for entrance, even before the temple is built.
He also asked them to begin
recording their family histories and to attend the temple in Johannesburg,
South Africa "as often as the circumstances and the finances and
transportation will allow."
"Nothing will bless you
more," he said, "nothing will unite your family more, nothing will
bless your children more, nothing will bless your ancestors more. Quite
frankly, there is nothing that will bless you in any way more than your
attendance at the temple, a place of peace, a place of revelation, a place of
joy, a place of comfort, a place of purity, all the best things in life."
Sister Nelson said the
Book of Mormon prophet Nephi built a boat, LDS Church founder Joseph Smith
oversaw construction of circular Nauvoo Temple windows and President Nelson
pioneered heart surgery by living "not after the manner of men," a
Book of Mormon phrase.
"We need to live our
lives, build our marriages, increase our means of livelihoods by increasing our
knowledge and skills according to the way the Lord would show us, not after the
manner of men." Nephi, Joseph Smith and President Nelson instead followed
eternal laws, she said.
"Think about something you
need," she added. "What would make your life better right now? What
are the eternal laws that govern that blessing? What eternal law would you need
to live so that you could receive that blessing?"
The eternal law that governs
finances is tithing, Sister Nelson said.
Then she said dowry and bride price
are manners of men. She relayed a message from one of her African friends, and
said "You, the Saints of Kenya, could set an example of joyfully freeing
our young people from the chains of this practice and thus begin living 'not
after the manner of men.'"
This is amazing!! So profound and prophetic! I love that it’s cutting through the traditions of men and giving a better way for all of us to live.
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