Today I sustained and set apart Emanuel Oduro-Boateng as a 2nd Counselor in the Asunafo Branch Presidency. He is 67 years old and has a wonderful story of love. Born in the Volta region yet lived in the Eastern region from age 1 to the present. “This is home” he says. His birth mother died and he was given to his Aunt to rise who did not have a child at the time. She was 14 and the 4th wife of an older man. Emanuel was never afforded a formal education due to money and circumstances. Rather he was raised on a Cocoa farm as a laborer from age 5. He never saw an automobile until he was 40 he says for he lived 2 hours from the nearest road through the bush. He traditionally married at 23 to a 20 year old girl from their village “who I always loved from the first time he saw her”. They had no children during their 27 years of marriage. She died when he was 50 and has lived in a family compound he built, block by block after coming home from the farm. When he was married for 15 years, his step father died leaving all of his goods and earthly possessions to his first wife who promptly dismissed the other families to leave her land and their homes. “She had no love for any other person that herself” he said. Emanuel moved his wife and mother and 2 aunts to Asunafo where he began to sink down roots. Asunafo, 30 years ago, was a bandit hide-out for those on the run from the law or family judgments of death. There was one small path leading through the bush for over 10K. It was a forbidden place for most, and feared by those who heard stories of the village. Emanuel wanted to settle in an area where they could not be found from family members who threaten their lives. He staked a plot of land, an hours walk outside the village, and began to clear the bush for farming. His wife, mother and 2 aunts all worked together to clear, plant and harvest the goodness of Mother Earth that made up that plot of cherished land. It was their refuse, their labor, their livelihood and solace for their souls. 12 years later his beloved Beatrice died of snake bite on that very plot that gives life to he and his family even today. Mother and aunties worked the farm for the next year before Emanuel returned to his farm. He tells of his first time to return and how his heart was pounding and the anguish he felt as he walked even closer to the very spot he held her lifeless body in his arms. It was at that very moment his heart was stirred to find a way to be with his beloved wife. They were God fearing people who knew of God and his mysterious ways, but formal church goers, they were not. To find what is after this mortal life was his quest and constant desire for the next 15 years.
One day he heard of a “golden bible the Mormons preach” and was intrigued to find this book. Could it be truly a “golden bible”? Why was it called that by some disbelievers? His ability to read English was limited yet he could understand the language well due to his wife’s teachings during their marriage. Within days he had a copy of the Book of Mormon and began to read its pages. Mosiah 16:8 records the prophet Abinadi teachings, “…the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.” No other words pieced his heart as those he had just read. He search was over and his pre-mortal life stirrings once again beckoned him to partake. Baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 3 years ago, he has always been faithful and true to his covenants. He was endowed in the Accra Temple December17th 2011 and will be sealed to his beloved Beatrice on May 11, 2012 with Sister Dalton being Beatrice’s proxy and I as one of his witnesses of that sacred ordinance. United in life for 27 years by man and on May 11th they will be Priesthood sealed in God for the eternities.
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