In his vision of the tree of life in the Book of Mormon, the prophet Lehi started out “in a dark and dreary waste” (1 Nephi 8:7). Praying for mercy from God, Lehi came across a tree “whose fruit was desirable to make one happy” (verse 10). After Lehi tasted of the fruit, he began searching for his family, desiring them to “partake of it also” (verse 12).
Lehi’s vision of the tree of life is one of many different witnesses of Christ found in the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. This vision also tracks onto the life of Amos Makulu, a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Makulu fled from his home in 2006, finding safety in a refugee camp in Lugufu, Tanzania. While there, he met a man named Mchumbe, who also fled to safety from Nairobi, Kenya. Makulu became friends with Mchumbe and asked him if he had anything that Makulu could read while they were in the refugee camp. Mchumbe gave Makulu a copy of the Book of Mormon.
Mchumbe had been given the Book of Mormon by missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Nairobi, Kenya, and took it with him when he fled his home. However, Mchumbe had lost interest in the Book of Mormon and was looking for someone else to give it to.
According to Elder David Olson, a missionary who worked with Makulu, Makulu knew that the Book of Mormon was true the moment he first read it. He had been a preacher for Jehovah’s Witnesses before fleeing his home, but upon reading the Book of Mormon with another friend from the refugee camp, Denis Akulu, they both “started to learn, and we were very happy,” Makulu said.
Like Lehi before him, Makulu started to share what brought him so much happiness with others in the refugee camp, building a “family” of interested learners. While the Book of Mormon was an excellent teaching tool, he and “his family of 11 people” had many questions. “We had to find out the answers to those questions with the missionaries and Church leaders,” Makulu said.
You can read this full story on Church News here.
For more incredible stories of faith from around the world, check out the following articles:
► A member in Ivory Coast has become an unbelievably effective missionary—here’s how he does it
► The first sister missionary from Gambia enters the MTC
► ‘We had to know more’: Family from Florida joins the Church after meeting members while camping in Utah