Juliana Anno Finds the Church at Joseph Smith's Birthplace in Vermont, Then Searches Two Years to Find It Again in Ghana (1980s)

Juliana Anno's path to the restored gospel began in an unlikely place: the birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith in Sharon, Vermont. Visiting the historic site, she discovered the Church and was baptized only a short while afterward. Sensing the truth of what she had found, she felt the gentle but persistent prodding of the Spirit to share it with the rest of her family, and she returned home to Ghana. She told her children, "What you have been asking all the time I have now found the answer to... If there's a church like that, then we are all going to join." But there was no organized congregation for her to return to, and it took Juliana two years to locate the Church again in Cape Coast, Ghana. One of the truths that impressed her most was learning how to pray: "When we attended the conference they taught us simply how to pray. Maybe I didn't listen to my parents but nobody had taught me how to pray... They taught us how to pray and that impressed me very much." Learning to talk with her Father in Heaven became a lifelong strength — she later served as a district Relief Society president, helping Ghanaian sisters learn and grow in the gospel.