Elder Joseph W. Sitati

This amazing man is from Nairobi, Kenya is the first Black African General Authority of the church. Other church leaders of Black African descent have served in the Seventy quorums but they were from Brazil and America. He and his wife, Gladys have 5 kids. They joined the church in 1986.

Elder Sitati has served in numerous callings, including branch president’s counselor, branch president, district president, mission president’s counselor, stake president, Area Seventy and mission president.

I got all this info off of http://www.blacklds.org/



Anyways, He spoke at the adult session of our stake conference last night. Lucky for me Trisha called me up 5 minutes before and asked if I'd like to carpool because I had totally forgot!!! (So I'm sorry for not inviting you to it Sage, you would have LOVED it!!)

HE SPOKE WITH POWER!

IT WAS AMAZING!!

Here's some highlights from the notes that I was feverishly writing, "in quotation marks" are actual quotes from him:

We need to be reinforced all the time.

Why do we go to church.. to reinforce our witness of Christ.

We need to follow the prophet in his 4 "Hallmarks of a Happy Home":

1.Establish a pattern of prayer...

"would you leave your home with out your shoes?" It should be "unthinkable" to go out in the day or go to sleep at night with out our prayers. It will

2. Establish a library of learning.

Drink from the fountain of truth...read the scriptures daily. Our children need to be taught all the principals of the gospel from OUR LIPS!

Only when we have a store of virtue will we only love virtuous things & we will reject the vulgar.

3. Leave a legacy of LOVE

[this was the most powerful part of the talk]

"The most powerful attraction of the human mind is love."

Why do we love Christ? Because he first loved us.

WE all need and crave to be loved.

When we love, we give and serve and we leave a part of ourselves in that person.

"Love is a powerful magnet."

"There is NO ONE who can escape it or resist it. This is truth."

When a wife says to her husband "I love you" she reinforces part of her in him.

Love should be found more abundantly in our homes.

He tells a story:There was an insurgent in Afghanistan making a bomb to kill U.S. soldiers that accidentally blows up and drives a metal piece into the bomb makers brain. When he regains consciousness he is in a U.S. military hospital. When he realized that those he was planning to kill saved his life he wept and put his arms around that doctor and was changed forever.

"This is what love can do."

{We need to believe in love and it's power to change us and all those around us for the better. }

4. A treasury of testimony.

We also need to organize our homes in a gospel culture.

Family Home Evenings and meal times...let us share ourselves with our children and they with us.

The part about love was stunning to me.

We forget how a simple thing can be the answer to fix our most hurtful problems.

If I could just become more loving even just a tad I believe I'd be happier.

ps. I just love it when Sitati says in his accent: "This is truth." Totally my favorite Seventy.

WHAT A WONDERFUL NIGHT!!