followHIM - A miracle encounter at the temple • followHIM Favorites • Feb 26 - Mar 3 • Come Follow Me

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Decades of separation and heartache ended when the Lord brought a father and a son together in the temple.Please rate and review the podcast!Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/follow-him-a-come-follow-me-podcast/id1545433056YouTube: https://youtu.be/mOiRzErn4-IInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/15G9TTz8yLp0dQyEcBQ8BYThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Cofounder, Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignAnnabelle Sorensen: Creative Project ManagerWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com

Hello, my friends. Welcome to this week's Follow Him Favorites. This year, we are telling a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, this week, we're in this huge chunk of 2 Nephi in the Isaiah chapters, and I have a story I think you'll like. Are you ready? Yes, absolutely. All right. You know, in chapter 12, where Isaiah talks about many people flowing to the house of the Lord, right? The mountain of the Lord. Yeah. The mountain of the Lord. Let's go to the, go to the temple. I want to tell you a story about a miracle. At least I believe it's a miracle that happened in the Accra Ghana temple about 10 years ago. There's a man named John Eco Mensa. He's in his eighties. He joined the church 10 years previous to this. So 20 years ago, lived alone in a town called Nakaka. I think that's how you say it.

He'd been a member of the church, I think for 10 or 15 years. And now he's making trips to the temple. He's in a waiting area at the temple. Another man sits down next to him and they strike up a conversation starting with, oh, where are you from? And the man says, oh, I'm from Secondi. And he said, oh, I'm from Secondi. What part of Secondi are you from? And the man said, oh, I'm from right where the schools are. And there's this growing sense of recognition to where the man says, what is your name? This is the younger man.

He says to John Ecomensa, what is your name? And John Ecomensa, our convert, he said, oh He says to John Ecomensa, what is your name? And John Ecomensa, our convert, he said, oh, I'm John Ecomensa. The younger man says to brother Ecomensa, that is my name too. What? So what had happened is that years and years and years ago, decades previous to this, John Ecomensa senior had had a falling out with his mother-in-law, who was also like a matriarch of his tribe, his town. And she had exiled him and he had to leave behind his wife and infant son. Over the decades, he had moved far away and been working when he ends up joining our church. Wow.

On the other side of this is his son, John Ecomensa Jr., who grew up never knowing his father. Right. Never. They never talked about him. He ends up getting married to his wife, Deborah. He was at the University of Accra in Ghana, and he picked up a Liahona magazine. So get this, John, when he gets home from school talking to his wife, Deborah, she says, now, John, this is the same day that he picks up this magazine.

She says, I want to tell you about a church I learned from a friend. She told him the name of the church was the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And John said, hey, that's the same church I read about in this magazine, the Liahona. So they were both baptized. And then John, the same day in 2012, John Ecomensa Sr., who had joined the church, John Ecomensa Jr., who had joined the church, found themselves sitting next to each other in the waiting area of the Accra Ghana temple. Tears came as father and son were reunited. Their joy was compounded by their understanding that they had separately joined

the church and both found their way into the temple that beautiful morning. It's almost like the temple is to unite families. It's almost as if, John. That was all orchestrated. Yeah. Isn't that just a wonderful story? I love it. Come join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him.

You can get it wherever you get your podcast. We're with Dr. Sean Hopkins this week, walking through these Isaiah chapters, and we think you'll love what he does. And then come back next week. We'll do another Follow Him Favorites.