After Moses had wandered 40 years in the wilderness, the Lord said unto him “This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.” Sister Badger and I had a similar experience. After riding in a crowded bus for over 36 hours we arrived at the little village of Ekok on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. We had all the papers that we were told to bring but it was not enough. Seven hours later after much pleading and appeals to the top officials, the Nigerian Police remained firm on their decision: the two Americans could not go on. No visa, no entry. The Cameroon citizens were permitted entry on the strength of the Letter of Invitation but the Americans had to remain in Cameroon. Tears were shed and a meeting was held with all of the members. Cameroonian francs were exchanged for Nigerian nira and 40 of our Cameroonian brothers, sisters and children set off in two small busses on what was supposed to be an easy 8-hour trip to Aba.
Little did anyone realize the difficulty a bus with Cameroonian license plates would have traveling the roads in Nigeria. It was 18 hours later when our exhausted travelers finally arrived at the Aba Temple. All totaled it was just over 64 hours of travel time. Everyone said it was worth the effort. Endowments were preformed, families were sealed and baptisms were performed.
When the members continued on to Aba, we made arrangements to stay in a little African hotel named the Bruce. It was only 2,000 cfc per day ($4.00). This included breakfast. Water was carried up to our second floor room in large pails on the head of our host. Our host, Evaristus, explained this was necessary because water does not flow up hill. The generator kicked on at 6:00 p.m., the Sonel power (Public utility) took over at 8:00 and continued to midnight. Breakfast was always an egg omelet with thick slices of bread with no butter, jam, or honey. It was prepared below in the kitchen and carried up to the day room. One morning there were African oranges picked fresh from the tree in the yard. For supper we walked down the muddy street to a nice little café for some very tasty African dishes. Two full-course meals of fish, noodles, rice, potatoes and a bottle of purified water came to about 3,200 cfa ($6.40). After our first visit to the café we sent our host Evaristus down to the café with our order about one hour before meal time in order to avoid the hour wait for the preparation. Our order would be something like “please prepare exactly what we had last evening except without the fish. It was exciting to arrive for supper to see what had been prepared. It was always a totally different meal. This was not surprising because even in high class restaurants the orders are mixed up 9 times out of 10.
It was indeed a true African vacation. I suppose there would be some who would pay much money to experience a genuine African “Trend West” time share vacation at the Bruce Hotel. Personally, I enjoy running water, electricity, towels and sheets. Africa is a noisy place. Sound proofing is not part of the building codes. Windows are open. Walls are thin. Roosters start to crow long before daylight. Children are up early playing simple games of tag, football, or just teasing one another. For over five days, we were the village celebrities. When we walked the streets there was a chorus of children calling out “whites, whites.”
One afternoon I asked our host, Evaristus, if he or any of his friends would like to see a movie that would tell a little of why we were in Africa. That evening we showed the DVD “Restoration” and some other clips to about 10 or 12 villagers. Not much interest but we did witness the fulfillment of a promise given to the Prophet Joseph Smith. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon Joseph Smith was told that “his name would be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples.” Surely no one in the small village of Ekok had ever heard the name “Joseph Smith.” It is about as far away from civilization as you could get. Yet, after the movie, a young man started talking with Sister Badger and introduced himself as Brother Oku. He had joined the church in Calaba, Nigeria and was visiting his folks in Ekok. The next day he returned with two of his sisters, who were also members. We had a wonderful time visiting with them. As we talked, a handsome young man in his late 30’s joined in our conversation. He appeared very knowledgeable about the Bible. I invited him to join us and tell us a little more about himself. He agreed and after we introduced ourselves, he said he was Pastor Waingoh Sylvester of the Full Gospel Mission. He was a graduate of the divinity college.
Four hours later, some of our members straggled in from Nigeria so I had to bring our discussion to a close in order to see to their needs. He promised to do some research on Paul’s teachings in 1st Corinthians, chapter 15 regarding baptism for the dead and our premortal existence as mentioned in Jeremiah chapter 1. He was very interested and had other questions that had not been covered in divinity school. He came back again Sunday as we were preparing to leave to bid us bon voyage. We had nothing to leave for him to read but I think the Spirit has moved him to the point that the time will come when he will have the opportunity to find out more about the Church. … More to follow. Let me know if the pictures come through.