In 2001 I was staying with my cousins in Zimbabwe. They encouraged me to meet with the missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with a possible view to being baptised into the LDS Church. I agreed to meet with them.
At the time I was an extremely shy 16 year old. The missionaries who came were sister missionaries. I particularly remember Sister Mira whom I thought was from Zambia. I don’t really remember what they taught me, but I joined the LDS Church.
About 4 years later I developed a real testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Elders who were serving as missionaries in my branch often asked me to fetch the investigators whom they were teaching, for Church. Then the time came for me to serve my own mission. I was called to serve in the Kenya Nairobi mission.
While I was in Kenya I kept hoping to be assigned to serve in Sister Mira’s branch but that never happened. Instead I was assigned to serve as a zone leader in a zone which included the area from which Sister Mira came. I just couldn’t wait for exchanges to happen so that I could meet with her. I wanted to assure her that her mission had been a success.
When exchanges finally happened, I got to visit her in her home. She was now a wife and mother. She had married in the temple. The joy of the meeting between a convert and his missionary in unexpected circumstances was just too much for me. I felt quite overcome. When she had taught me I had been a very shy missionary and I wondered if she would remember me. She did, and had wondered what had become of me. Now here I was teaching the gospel she had introduced me to!
“And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!” (D&C 18:15)
