A Good Life

When Gladys Nangoni met Joseph Sitati at the University of Nairobi, she discovered that they had grown up in the same rural area and attended the same primary school. Both had parents who raised them to work hard and take responsibility for others. As a young boy, Joseph had risen at 5:00 a.m. to help his father, an agricultural extension officer, with their family farm and cattle. Gladys, as the oldest child in her family, studied hard at the direction of her father, an English and math teacher, and eventually taught her siblings.

Gladys went on to study education, and Joseph studied engineering. In 1976, they married. Gladys worked as a teacher and for the Ministry of Education, and Joseph worked as an engineer. In late 1985, a friend introduced them to the small group of Latter-day Saints in Nairobi. During one Church meeting, Joseph felt the Spirit powerfully. He turned to Gladys. “This is a new experience for me,” he said. “These people are different.” They were baptized the following year.

In 1987, Gladys began to have health problems, leading to a surgery and a slow recovery. She was exhausted with the demands of her job and her growing family. “On the days I went to work, I just came back home and lay down,” Gladys remembered. “I didn’t feel well. I was tired.”

Joseph suggested Gladys leave work. “President Benson had been saying, ‘Mothers can stay home,’” Gladys recalled.

“It was not easy to decide,” Gladys remembered. “I knew that if I stayed home, I would be more useful for my children because they were still young. But also in those countries,” she explained, “most men were not responsible. For me to just leave work, I just couldn’t imagine what would happen to my children.” She discussed the decision with her siblings, who urged her to keep working.

She discussed the decision with Joseph. “We decided if this is what the prophet says, that’s what it’s going to be. And it will help me and help our family,” Gladys said. “After I left work, I recovered very fast.”

Gladys and Joseph carefully budgeted together. Like her father, Gladys made sure her children mastered English and math. When three nephews and a niece were orphaned, Gladys and Joseph raised them along with their own five children. To promote harmony in their large household, they relied on morning scripture study and family councils.

After service at the district, stake, and mission levels, Joseph was called as a General Authority in 2009. Gladys traveled with him, drawing on her skill as a teacher in speaking assignments. She often directly addressed youth, speaking from her own understanding as child and parent: “This is what I would like you to remember: how hard your parents work to sacrifice for you, how they want you to live a good life.”