Story of Beginnings

 Sherri Despain, (church historian missionary) was telling me how the church came to be organized in Ghana. I was fascinated. Here is my interpretation of what I heard:

R.A.F. Mensah was in England and met up with a woman who was spiritual though not a member of our church. She had however, been approached by the missionaries and been given literature and the Book of Mormon. She gave the materials to Mensah because she felt he should have them.

He came home to Accra and read them, but put them under his bed and ignored it.

Billy Johnson had a dream where he was told that Mensah had the literature under his bed and was suppose to be sharing it. Johnson went to his door early in the morning and knocked on it and told Mensah he had a book and things under his bed that he was suppose to be preaching about. Mensah was surprised! Here I can't remember if Johnson pulled the literature out from under the bed or Mensah, whomever, dusted it off and they started reading and preaching the truths they found there. 

The Book of Mormon was a light blue with the angel Moroni on the front and at meetings people would read a few verses and pass it on for someone else to read. The rumor is that it is dogeared and the pages are blackened by so many people using it.

A little while later there was tension between Mensah and Johnson, so Johnson was told by the Lord to go to Cape Coast. 14 years later there were between 10 and 15 branches of the church set up waiting for the mother church to send missionaries. The people in Ghana had prayed for many, many days (and years) for the missionaries to come. The priesthood was restored in June of 1978 and in December the first missionaries came to Cape Coast and started baptizing and in four days has baptized over 200 people. They told the members they were already organized, there were just a few changes - such as girls passing the sacrament that needed tweaking. The men were given the priesthood and official positions were given. The Lord can do His own work. We just have the choice of jumping in or not.

(picture comes from ebay advertisement)