How long have missionaries been serving in Liberia?

.... Missionaries have been in Liberia since 1987

Liberia

Total Church Membership - 8,081

Missions - 1

Congregations - 22

Family History Centers - 2 

Members and nonmembers who were interested in Church teachings met in homes during 1985-1986. Missionary work was opened in 1987 and the first convert was baptized in August. A few days later 47 people were baptized in a lagoon. The New Kru Town and Congo Town branches (small congregations) were organized that day.

The Liberia Monrovia Mission was created March 1, 1988, when missionary couples were working with some 133 members in Congo Town and New Kru Town. By 1990 several newly converted young men served full-time missions, but all missionaries from Liberia were transferred to Freetown, Sierra Leone because of the civil war that started in December 1989. The mission was closed in April 1991.

During that time, about 400 members remained, 400 fled to neighboring countries and another 400 were unaccounted for. When the war began to abate, some of the members returned. While conditions remained unsettled, no missionaries were assigned to Liberia.

Members started regrouping in 1991, however, and by the spring of 1993, seven of the eight branches had been reorganized. With a renewal of hostilities in 1992, Liberian members experienced additional hardships and suffering.

In April 1996, war again broke out, resulting in considerable destruction in the capital city of Monrovia and other parts of the country. Many members again fled the nation. Peace has gradually been restored since that time.

Currently there are two districts in Liberia, the Bushrod Island District and the Monrovia District, with more than 2,000 members in nine congregations.

 

It is all about baptizing families: 

The three missionaries standing behind the family are from Tonga, England, and South Africa.  They are the Assistants to President Kirkham. (April 2014 Baptism)

It is all about teaching and service:

 (Photos:  Courtesy of President and Sister Kirkham)

What Africa West Country Sends its Missionaries to the Ghana MTC and is French-speaking?

Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)

22,576

Total Church Membership

1

Missions

72

Congregations

9

Family History Centres

Branches (small congregations) were organized in Abidjan in 1988 and in Bouak in 1989, and with the arrival of missionaries in 1988 the Church continued to grow. It received official recognition in 1991.

Isolated families who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints lived in Ivory Coast in the 1970s and earlier. In the early 1980s two families returned to Ivory Coast after having joined the Church in Europe, and in 1987 there were 16 members in the country.

In 1993 the Cameroon Yaounde Mission headquarters were moved to Ivory Coast and this became the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission. The mission concentrated its resources in the Abidjan area to establish a center of the Church here for French-speaking Africa.  The first meetinghouse in Ivory Coast was dedicated in 1997 with two more completed in 1998.

What African Nation Has the Most Members of the Church

Nigeria

In Nigeria the restored gospel took root spontaneously in the two decades before it was formally preached in that country. From the 1950s on, some Nigerians learned about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through magazine articles and acquired Church literature. Groups of people began meeting unofficially in the Church's name.

Through the years, some of them wrote to Church headquarters requesting missionaries. Glen G. Fisher, returning from service as South Africa Mission President, visited Nigeria in 1960 and reported that the groups were sincere. Attempts to send missionaries, however, were thwarted because visas were unavailable.

The 1978 revelation on the priesthood, allowing all worthy males of any race to hold the priesthood, was the catalyst for the start of missionary work in Nigeria. In 1978, two couples were sent to Nigeria as special representatives of the Church's International Mission. The first baptized member was one of those who had waited many years for the coming of the missionaries.

In 1987, less than 10 years after the Church's establishment in Nigeria, membership approached 10,000. In January of 1997, when the Africa Area of the Church baptized its 100,000th member, membership in Nigeria had reached 30,300, the highest of any nation in the Africa Area.

In February 1998, 12,000 members met in Port Harcourt at a regional conference presided over by Gordon B. Hinckley, the President of the Church.

Teaching and baptizing in Nigeria

What About the Church in Ghana?

Members have been in Ghana since 1978. In the 1950s the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, a companion scripture to the Bible, along with various pamphlets about the Church found their way to Ghana. These were read by many Ghanaians who were converted to the gospel and used them as a basis to start their own Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregations. In 1964 Joseph W. B. Johnson gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and provided leadership in organizing and directing congregations consisting of hundreds of followers. In 1978 two missionary couples entered Ghana from Nigeria and baptized many of Johnson's congregations. A building program began in 1979.

Within a year more than 400 people had been baptized and branches (small congregations) were organized. By 1981 seven branches were functioning in Ghana. All converts were taught the gospel in their own language and trained in leadership skills.

On June 14, 1989, Ghana's government expelled the missionaries and banned the Church. Members were permitted to hold services in the privacy of their homes, however. Eighteen months later the government expressed satisfaction that the Church teaches members to be obedient to government laws and promotes racial harmony, and on December 1, 1990, Ghana permitted Church activities to resume. By the end of 1990, membership was more than 9,000.

In 1998, Church President Gordon B. Hinckley met with Ghana's Head of State, Mr. Rawlings, who apologized for the action taken by the government in 1989. President Hinckley informed Mr. Rawlings that the Church would build its first temple in West Africa in the capital city of Accra. He also met with thousands of members in Accra and announced the plans to build the temple.

In the 1990s humanitarian efforts have focused on member self-reliance. A number of projects were undertaken through local initiative by members in districts and stakes (dioceses). Some 90 percent of LDS Church buildings in Ghana include some form of gardening activity.

The first missionary training center in Africa, located in Tema, Ghana, was dedicated on 17 May 2002.

How Do They Do It in the Congo?

My friend Bryce Cook and his wife Karol, are serving in the DRC where he is the mission president.  President Cook served with me as a young missionary in France.  For every door we knocked on in Paris, they baptize a person in the Congo.  How do they do it?  They baptize 51 at a time as you can see here.

This morning we said goodbye to our missionaries.  Seventeen of them were headed for the DRC.

Ghana MTC Slideshow of 18 June 2014 Group

       They Truly Are the Army of Helaman and Sisters in Zion

Gabon Opened Up for Missionary Work Last November

Here is a landmark photo of a baptism earlier this year in Gabon.  One of those baptized had waited 16 years for that ordinance.  Gabon was just  barely opened  last November, when Elder Bednar came to dedicate it.   It has taken this long to get visas for  missionaries to get into Gabon and to get a portable baptismal font.  

The DRC Kinshasa has 6 countries: Republic of Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic ( no missionaries yet but has been dedicated in  2013), Cameroon, DRC and Equatorial Guinea (not yet dedicated - no missionaries.)  This mission  was just divided effective July.  A major reason for the split is that the people of this area are very receptive to the message of the restored gospel.  Everyone will talk to you about the Savior and want to come to Church to see for themselves.

All of the outlying countries are now in the new Brazzaville mission with a native mission president from Lumbumbashi.  It is in this new mission where only American missionaries will serve.  Kinshasa has 7 stakes and a branch in Matadi DRC.  The current mission president and his wife, President and Sister Bryce Cook,  travel 50% of the time to  care for the branches and missionaries. (He is pictured in the baptism photo).  Only the local missionaries serve in Kinshasa (120). 

This post is made because often more missionaries trained in the MTC at one time are from the DRC than any other country.  Although this mission is not in the Africa West Area, it plays a significant role in the program for this missionary training center.

Note that Gabon is just to the South of Cameroon and is located on the Coast of Southwestern Africa.