Dreams

One of our African missionaries told me of a dream he had. In his dream he saw a church within a compound, a church he had never seen before. A few days later, a friend invited him to go with him to sacrament meeting. When they approached the church together, he immediately recognized the building from his dream and believed it to be a sign from God. A missionary at the church offered him a Book of Mormon, asked him to read it, and pray to know if it was true. He said he didn’t need to. He already knew it was true from his dream. He took the missionary lessons, was baptized, and signed up to serve a mission as soon as possible. He is a wonderful missionary.

Another missionary told us he went to sacrament meeting with a friend and didn’t like the talk. He decided not to go back. But then he dreamed that the person whose talk he did not like came to him and told him he had to go back to church, which he did the next week. He liked the second talk and after lessons from the missionaries, joined the Church and volunteered to serve a mission.

Here is a fun one. A missionary told us before his mission he had a dream in which he saw himself flying through the air dressed in a white shirt, tie, and missionary name tag. He joined the Church and flew on an airplane to serve his mission in Sierra Leone.

Stories about dreams from our African missionaries are common. We love hearing about them. Some are too personal to share. But here’s one that still has me thinking.

All missionaries are asked to write a letter to their mission president once a week. I was reading a letter from a new missionary and noticed in his profile that we share the same birthday, only I was born 40 years before him. That’s fun, I thought. I must tell him. I wrote, “I hope you’re having a wonderful day! I just discovered we have the same birthday. Except I was born 40 years before you.” I also complimented him for his progress learning English.

He responded three hours later. “Good evening president Wyatt, I’m doing very well, now I see my ingles [English] grow small small [improving slowly]. Yesterday night I dreamed about this we have the same birthday so today president sent me message confirm it. I’s surprised. Have a good night.”

I called him. He told me again that he dreamed we had the same birthday and after he woke up, he told his companion, and then he read my letter telling him we had the same birthday. Hmm. Not sure what to make of this dream. Except this elder and I now have a connection.