Emmanuel Abu Kissi

Since joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February 1979, my testimony has grown a lot more. I was initially very impressed by Joseph Smith’s testimony. His search for the truth and the findings that he came up with ended the need for me to search further for the truth. I did not need to “re-invent the wheel.”

Following those early days of my introduction to the testimony of Joseph Smith I have had time to look more closely at his contribution to the scriptures and the information that God has spoken to several people in many places over the earth spanning all the centuries of these several dispensations of time since Adam. I have been influenced to be like Abraham when he became aware, and convinced, that God practically walked with him and had his hand in everything that happened to Abraham. In his much excitement and appreciation of God, Abraham said, “Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee” (Abraham 2:12, 13).

Joseph Smith’s contribution to the scriptures has brought to light records that were hidden since Adam, which records contained God’s communication with his prophets in various places and various dispensations. These records contained details of the works that God had made by his hands. The Bible, indeed, does not contain these accounts. God has said, “Wherefore, because that ye have a Bible ye need not suppose that it contains all of my words; neither need ye suppose I have not caused more to be written” (2 Nephi 29:10).

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tell about the creation. The Book of Moses chapters 2 and 3, and also The Book of Abraham chapters 4 and 5, both in the Pearl of Great Price, relate the account of the creation. These are additions to the scriptures through the ministry of Joseph Smith. Again, in Doctrine and Covenants 29:30-32 further revelations to Joseph Smith himself bear witness of the truth of spiritual creation before physical creation as it is vividly stated in the Pearl of Great Price. Without very close examination of these accounts, one may not easily find the precise meaning of the accounts as they are presented to mankind. I believe that, as this information is coming to us from one source only—the Almighty God who created all things, who spoke separately to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, in their various dispensations and locations—we must collate them into one continuous coherent flow with clearer meaning and easy understanding.

God has said, “For I command all men, both in the east and in the west, and in the north, and in the south, and in the islands of the sea, that they shall write the words which I speak unto them; wherefore I speak the same words unto one nation like unto another. And when the two nations shall run together the testimonies of the two nations shall run together also. The testimony of two nations is a witness unto you that I am God” (2 Nephi 24:8). In this our dispensation, which is the dispensation of the fullness of time, the Prophet Joseph Smith is at the head. Evidently he has been commissioned to restore all things. As many as will believe, will embrace the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. Messages that God wanted to be written in various places to be brought together have been brought together.

Nephi was told, “Behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb, and in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb and my rock and my salvation” (1 Nephi 13:35-36). Moses was told, “Behold, I will raise up another like unto thee; and they shall be had again among the children of men among as many as shall believe” (Moses 1:41 and Deuteronomy 18:18). I testify that Joseph Smith is that prophet of the restoration of the fullness of the gospel. We must do everything to understand and heed the restoration that has come through him. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Amen.

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Emmanuel Abu Kissi studied medicine in England and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while completing training in surgery in London, in 1979. After his return to Ghana, Dr. Kissi and his wife Elizabeth, who is a nurse, established a medical clinic in Accra, which they named Deseret Hospital. He also served as a professor at Legon University Medical School and as a general surgeon at Korle Bu Hospital.

In the Church, he has served as a branch and district president, president of the Ghana Accra Mission, patriarch of the Accra Ghana Lartebiokorshie Stake, and, from 2002 to 2007, as an area authority. When, in June 1989, the then-government of Ghana suspended all meetings of the Church and expelled all foreign church representatives, Dr. Kissi was designated the official head of the Church in Ghana, a position he held until “The Freeze” was over in November 1990. He has worked intensively to increase interfaith relationships in Ghana.

He is the author of Walking in the Sand: A History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ghana (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 2004) and of “Book of Mormon Principles: Our Eternal Choices,” Ensign (February 2004).

Posted June 2010