Testimonies at Fast and Testimony Meetings

June 6, 2009

When giving a talk, teaching a lesson, offering prayer, or bearing testimony, the Ghanaians tend to speak loudly, forcefully, and dramatically. I think it is the pentacostal background of many of them showing through. I am seldom able to understand them because they almost always speak in their African dialects, but I find myself watching them closely as they speak and imagining what they might be saying.

A few months ago a young woman gave what appeared to be a passionately vibrant, almost urgent testimony accompanied by tears. She was so focused and so sincere, so beautifully intent on sharing her testimony I thought. I turned to the counselor seated next to me and asked him what she was saying. He said: "Oh, she is talking about how wonderful her three year old daughter is."

Today a middle aged woman came to the stand and launched into her testimony with marked enthusiasm. Before long she and the entire congregation were laughing and then exchanging comments with each other as she left the stand. I learned later that she told of taking two pieces of sacrament bread rather than the usual one at last month's meeting, being both hungry and thinking that the extra piece of bread would sustain her through some personal problems she had been experiencing. By mid afternoon her stomach was hurting, she said, and she concluded that the Lord was trying to tell her that one piece of sacrament bread was enough.

Elder Turner