During his global tour, President Russell M. Nelson became the second prophet to visit the country of Kenya. During his stay in the African nation, he told the Latter-day Saints, many who traveled for hours or days to see him, that tithing breaks the cycle of poverty. Elder Holland encouraged the African Saints to prepare for the temple. "Nothing will bless you more," he said, "nothing will unite your family more, nothing will bless your children more, nothing will bless your ancestors more."
To listen Monday to an LDS Church president's voice in person for the first time, East African Mormons traveled hundreds of miles in dust-covered buses, bouncing and swaying over dirt roads, broken streets and omnipresent speedbumps that keep speeds under 50 mph.
They received a message tailored for eastern Africa, where many tribes continue to insist that grooms or their families provide a dowry or pay a price for a bride.
"That's not the Lord's way," President Russell M. Nelson told about 2,000 Kenyans and other Africans Monday night inside a large, oval, wooden event center styled after traditional huts in Nairobi, Kenya. "The Lord's way is to be married in the temple, for time and all eternity, with your children sealed to you."
He added that if he'd had to pay for his wife, "I would have missed five children, because only with my last five was I out of debt."