During a busy 10 days in West Africa, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve met with the vice president of Ghana, spoke to members and missionaries and visited two temple construction sites. He found members of the Church there to be optimistic and enthusiastic, "particularly as the blessings of the temple are within sight."
"For so many years, that possibility seemed remote, almost beyond their expectation. There is a great spirit of gratitude and enthusiasm," Elder Nelson said during an interview in Salt Lake City upon his return. He was accompanied in West Africa by his wife, Dantzel, and members of the Africa West Area presidency, including Elder Sheldon F. Child and his counselors, Elder H. Ross Workman and Elder R. Conrad Schultz.
During assignments to Ghana and Nigeria, Elder Nelson visited the construction site of the Aba Nigeria Temple on Feb. 18, and the Accra Ghana Temple site on Feb. 19. He said the progress on the temples is going "very well. I broke ground for the Accra Ghana Temple in November 2001, so we are 15 months under way there."
Ground was broken for the Aba Nigeria Temple in February 2002. "They're both moving along nicely," Elder Nelson added.
"The Church is doing very well in western Africa," he said. "The leaders are very capable, well educated, with a remarkably good understanding of the doctrine. They're prayerful and doctrinally well-informed, so they make good decisions."
Amidst firesides, conferences and missionary meetings, Elder Nelson was greeted in the Osu Castle in Accra by Ghanian Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Feb. 19.
Elder Nelson said, "I had a nice meeting with the vice president. We have a very good relationship. Earlier, he and I broke ground at the temple [in Ghana] simultaneously. Before we left the recent meeting, he asked me to offer a prayer in his office."
Hundreds of excited Church members greeted Elder and Sister Nelson in member and missionary meetings in both countries. He presided over the Lagos Nigeria Stake conference Feb. 15-16, which was attended by 1,857 members and friends. On Feb. 17, he met with missionaries in the Nigeria Lagos Mission. During the week, he met with members and missionaries in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and spoke at a morning fireside Feb. 18 in Aba, attended by 800 people. "We were greeted by a chorus of Primary children," he said, smiling.
According to Elder Michael Kirkpatrick and Sister Marged Kirkpatrick, public affairs missionaries serving in the Africa West Area, the Primary children also sang "Happy Birthday" to Sister Nelson, who celebrated her birthday Feb. 17 with the saints also singing to her.
On Feb. 22 in Takarodi, Ghana, Elder Nelson dedicated a new stake center and addressed nearly 1,000 members. "The stake president [Kenneth K. Andam] sat in his new chair for the first time that day. They had just opened the box with the furniture. It is a beautiful stake center and I was honored to have the privilege of dedicating it."
Elder and Sister Kirkpatrick reported that Elder Nelson offered members at the dedication three simple steps to prepare for the temple. "They are so simple I'll call them the ABCs," he said in his address.
He said A was for ancestors. "Prepare to take your ancestors' names to the temple." B, he continued, means to "be personally prepared," and C stood for children. "Let them see and understand what it means to be a member of the Church and to be worthy of the blessings of the temple.
"Love your children and never whip them. In public we praise them, then privately correct them by teaching them the doctrines so that they can govern themselves."
On Feb. 23, the day before returning to the United States, Elder Nelson addressed 1,856 members in the Accra International Conference Center. According to Bobby Ash-Quaynor, a member of a multi-stake public affairs council, Elder Nelson told members that the Church is to gather Israel in these last days "as has been foretold in the scriptures."
Two days later, during the Church News interview, Elder Nelson spoke of the growth of the Church in West Africa. "The missionary work is going very well," he noted. He also praised the work of senior couple missionaries. "The special help given by our senior couple missionaries is of incalculable worth. Those couple missionaries are thankful for the privilege of serving there. They love the people."
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