Where the Lord Needed Me

By Noel Cohen, Nairobi, Kenya

I had hoped to be called to Africa on my mission, but the Lord needed me in another part of His vineyard.

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Photograph by Cody Bell

Both of my parents joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kenya, and both served full-time missions. Ever since I was young, they taught me that I should serve a mission too. I looked forward to it.

Nine months before I received my call, I moved from Kenya to New Jersey, USA, where my mother was working. When I turned in my mission application, I thought it would be cool to go back to Africa on my mission. In fact, I hoped to be called there.

But when I received my mission call, I learned that I would be going to the Washington Spokane Mission in the United States. I didn’t even know where that was, but the first thought the Spirit spoke to my mind was, “That is where the Lord needs you.”

When I landed in Spokane a few months later, the mission president greeted me and asked me a question: “I was looking at your application. Do you really speak Swahili?”

“Yes,” I replied. “I grew up speaking Swahili and English.”

“Well, then,” he said, “your mission call has been changed from English speaking to Swahili speaking.”

He had been praying for a missionary who could speak Swahili. Some elders in the mission had even tried to learn Swahili on their own. I soon found out why.

Spokane had received a large group of refugees from the east African nations of Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda. Many of those refugees originally came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their Swahili was a little different from what I spoke, but we could understand each other. I ended up spending my whole mission in the same ward in Spokane teaching those refugees.

Love Was the Biggest Thing

Members of the Church often say, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” During my mission, I learned how true that statement is to missionary success.

In their home countries, many of the refugee families we taught had seen awful things in conflict and war that are hard to imagine. They truly had witnessed hate and what bad things human beings are capable of doing to others. Many had lost hope in humanity and had to flee their homes.

When we missionaries began to teach them, it was not necessarily how much we knew about the gospel that helped them come unto Christ. It was more how much we and the ward members showed them Christlike love. When we showed them love and cared for them, they felt hope again. They saw that there were still good people in the world and that the good people they had come to know in the ward were linked to the gospel of Jesus Christ. They wanted to feel that love, to be part of it, so they would come to church and return to church.

“Your church is full of love,” one man we were teaching told me.

Before we could even ask for help with fellowshipping, members of the Lincoln Heights Ward, overseeing the Swahili group, would ask what they could do. The refugee families would often tell us, “This person helped us with this and this person helped us with that.” The ward even started a Sunday School in Swahili.

It was wonderful to see the ward members loving the Africans into the Church. Love was the biggest thing that led to our success among the Swahilis. Some members would give rides to church, some would host families, some would visit families, and some would do things for families behind the scenes. And the ward bishop, Philip Huber, who worked hard to learn Swahili, was always there showing his love and support too. I couldn’t have asked for a better ward to work with.

This Is His Work

We are all children of God. He knows us and will use us in areas where we can best serve Him with our unique abilities. This is His work. It is not our work. He puts us where He knows best. When missionaries get their call, they may not be going where they wanted to go, but the Lord is for sure sending them where He wants them to go. The place He sends them is the land where He has prepared people to receive them.

When I arrived in Spokane, I felt like I didn’t have to go to Africa after all. In Spokane, I felt like I was brought to a little Africa in America.

Sometimes I think about my mission and say, “That was too big for me to be a part of. Was I really supposed to be a part of that?”

I’m humbled and grateful to think I was.