Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Love This.

Excerpt from Missionary Moment: Blacks and the Priesthood, an African Perspective

 Elder Lihle Sphelele Mngoma, an African mormon shares this experience while growing up in Durban, South Africa:

In our ward we had a little "house rule". Anybody who either passed, prepared or blessed the sacrament had to have a suit jacket on-- no exceptions. Despite the heat and humidity of Durban, South Africa, it just looked good! Uniformity was key, even in our appearance. And so it was for many years, even before I was even born. Things were always done like that in our ward.
Well, as you may have guessed this all changed. There was a young deacon who moved into the ward with his family. They were an extremely large family and had little means. They were as poor as anyone could be in the city of Durban without actually being homeless. One of the sons was 12 and wanted so very much to participate. But he did not have the attire that all the other boys did, and so he sat back the first few Sundays, while we went about our duties. I am not exactly sure who noticed this, but we were alerted to the matter, right before the Sunday service was to start. We felt ashamed for neglecting him, and we didn't know how to react. We just stood around the sacrament table, the hymn was about to be sung  and people were starting to notice that we hadn't moved. We looked at each other and without a word, we all just took off our suit coats (yes there were a few gasps. A 40 year tradition just broken!). One of the older priests invited the young deacon to come join the rest of us at the sacrament table, and he was able to come join us and assist. There we were, with our white shirts and ties, and more importantly with clean hands and a pure heart, ready to officiate for the Lord in this ordinance. It was the most spiritual sacrament meeting ever. I learned again, that this gospel is for everyone (2 Nephi 26:33), and that a quorum is only a quorum when all are involved, and no one is left behind.