Members Voices
Choosing a Different Religious Path
For Donath Banamwana, his life’s path was very clear to him from an early age. His family was Catholic, the predominant religion in his home country of Rwanda. “Most Rwandan’s are very religious and over half of them are Catholic,” Donath noted.
It was a tradition in his village that every family would have at least one priest and he was very happy to take that responsibility for his family. “From the time that I was very young all I ever wanted was to be a priest,” he said, adding that all his education and life preparation was in anticipation of spending his life serving God in the priesthood.
During his late teenage years, he became confused by some of the things he heard and the feelings of doubt that continued to consume his thoughts. “I realized that I could not continue on this path, and I was devastated. I had spent my entire life preparing for this, and somehow God was preparing me for something else,” he said. But he did not know what path to take.
Donath struggled to determine what he would do with his life. Almost in desperation he decided that he would become a soldier in the Rwandan army. This was devastating for his family who were still disappointed that he had chosen not to enter the priesthood, and they were determined to do whatever it took to make sure he didn’t become a soldier.
They sent Donath to the Rwandan capital of Kigali where he had an uncle he could stay with. They hoped that he would take some time to think about his decisions. He got a job and settled into the area with his uncle’s family. One Sunday, his uncle asked him if he would like to attend church with him and his family. “I asked him what church and he said, ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.’” He told his uncle he had never heard of this church but would like to attend.
He noticed how friendly the Church members were in the Kigali 3rd Branch. He wasn’t used to that type of church experience. “The opening hymn was number 136, I still remember the number, ‘I Know that My Redeemer Lives.’ It had a tremendous impact on me, I really didn’t hear or understand much else at the meeting. I had to find someone who could tell me what that song meant.”
He began meeting with the missionaries and having discussions with his uncle and began to recognize the truth of the gospel. He had moved back with his family, and going to church was very difficult because they lived nearly 10 hours away from the Kigali Branch. He was able to attend church a couple of times per month and made the decision to be baptized. He was baptized in the Kigali 3rd Branch, Kigali District in 2018.
Donath knew that he wanted to serve a mission and began preparing himself. After years of working toward this goal, Donath was called to serve in the Accra Ghana Mission in early 2022. Elder Banamwana served a very successful mission, finishing his last few months as an assistant to President Ben Beeson and Sister Julynn Beeson, mission leaders in Accra.