“My Joy Is Too Much”

By R. Stanley Swain

One day while my wife and I were serving in the Nigeria Aba Mission, my wife was giving organ lessons to some branch members when Elder Uwaifo and Elder Akagha brought an exuberant man to meet us. Tears were running down his face. “My joy is too much!” he exclaimed. “God is too good!” Intrigued, we invited the man, Dr. Pius C. Ozoemena, to tell us his story.

In August 1988, Dr. Ozoemena, a senior lecturer in physics at Anambra State University of Technology in Enugu, Nigeria, received an invitation to attend professional meetings in Italy. During the course of these workshops, he often visited rooms set aside for meditation, where he would pray and read.

“On one of those occasions,” he recalled, “I scanned through the holy books on the reserved shelf and found, among others, two curious books: first a volume containing the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price and second a copy of A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, by Elder LeGrand Richards (1886–1983) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Of all the books there, those two made the greatest impact on me. For the first time I read about religious truths that explained to me several previously misunderstood passages of scripture from the Bible.

“My excitement was so great I paid to have both volumes photocopied and professionally bound. For almost a year I read them faithfully and compared their messages with other scriptural texts. Intuitively I knew that the messages were inspired.

“In December 1989 I returned to my village to celebrate Christmas, as is the custom among my people. There I met my cousin O. C. Ekufu, from Lagos, Nigeria, who had also returned to our home village for Christmas.”

Dr. Ozoemena noticed his cousin no longer smoked or drank beer. When he asked his cousin about it, he learned he had joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“My heart throbbed with joy,” said Dr. Ozoemena. “We hugged each other, and I related my own experiences and showed him my treasured volumes. He showed me many Church books he had brought with him from Lagos, including those I had photocopied in Italy. I expressed my desire to join the Church, and he promised to help me get in touch with missionaries serving in Enugu, where I worked. I was overjoyed, for I did not know the Church could be found outside the United States.”

True to his promise, Brother Ekufu sent his cousin’s name and address to the Nigeria Aba Mission office. However, Dr. Ozoemena did not wait for someone to contact him; he set off to search for the missionaries on his own. After much searching, he located the missionaries, who invited him to meet my wife and me.

Elder Uwaifo and Elder Akagha began visiting the Ozoemena family and taught them the gospel. Dr. Ozoemena and his wife were baptized on 4 February 1990.

“I have found in the revealed books of the Church a great and consistent design for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ,” explains Brother Ozoemena. “I am thankful to Heavenly Father that I have found the gospel!”