Who said the MTC is just for young missionaries?

Actually, we train senior couples as well.  Meet Elder and Sister MBele from the DR Congo.  Four years ago they were encouraged by my dear friend, Don Livingstone, who was their mission president, to serve a senior couple mission.  Today that dream became a reality.  This valiant couple has raised 12 children and will be endowed and sealed on Tuesday in the Ghana Temple.

Besides the Ivory Coast, what is the other French-speaking Mission in the Africa West Area?

It is the Benin Cottonu Mission that is made of of Togo and Benin - remember, our own Brother Eguko was the pioneer who opened up the Church in Benin.

Benin

1,439

Total Church Membership

1

Missions

11

Congregations

1

Family History Centers

When war erupted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 1998 all non-Congolese missionaries were evacuated from that country. Among the evacuated was a missionary couple, Normand and Sharon Langevin. They were reassigned to neighboring Benin for one month in September 1998. It was here that the Langevins taught the final discussions to and baptized Claude P. TOze in October 1998. Toze was the first citizen to be baptized.

Benin was assigned to the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission in January 1999. Demoine A. and Joyce Findlay were the first of several missionary couples assigned to support Church members in both Togo and Benin and work for legalization of the Church in those two countries.

In January 2001, Verne and Kathleen Davis become the first missionary couple assigned to live in Benin full time. They continued the work to gain legalization of the Church in Benin, and they also gave support to Church members in the capital of Cotonou.

The BYU Singers toured Benin in May 2001 and were so impressed with the members that they donated blue ties and blue dresses to be worn when legal recognition came. In March 2003, after years of working with government officials, the Church finally received legal recognition. That Sunday the blue ties and dresses wee worn in celebration. The following month four young missionaries, Reid Schellhous, Brandon J. Smith, Jean-Boscoh Kouassi, and Ambroise Gbahouo, were assigned to Benin.

Reorganized from the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission to the Ghana Cape Coast Mission in July 2005.

Togo

Total Church Membership - 2,307

Stakes - 1

Congregations - 12

Family History Centers - 1

African Area President James O. Mason organized the Lome Togo group in July 1997 with Agnon Ameri Didier as presiding elder. There were by this time about 25 Latter-day Saints living there. In October 1998, 12 dancers from Togo joined the Church while at a dance festival in Bountiful, Utah. Due to unrest in the country, they had difficulties returning to their homeland.

In February 1999, Togo came under the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission. That same month, the first missionary couple, Dermoine A. and Joyce Findlay, began missionary work in Togo and in February 1999, the Lome Branch was organized. Legal recognition of the Church was granted in July 2000. Church Educational System classes began to be taught in the late 1990s.

What is the furthest West country in the Africa West Area where the Church is found?

Many missionaries from the United States are assigned to serve in Sierra Leone, unlike Nigeria where there are none.  The preceding four photos are among our favorite that represent this work in Sierra Leone.  (Photos Courtesy of President and Sister David Ostler)

13,078

Total Church Membership

1

Missions

30

Congregations

2

Family History Centers

Sierra Leone

Church members who had been baptized in the Netherlands and Ghana formed a study group in Freetown in 1988. That same year two missionary couples arrived, and in June they took part in a service in which the first 14 converts were baptized.

The Goderich Branch (a small congregation) was organized in August 1988, and in 1989 the first local full-time missionary was called to serve in his country. In May and August 1992 two missionary couples were temporarily removed from Sierra Leone because of unrest. By year's end 1993, 89 Sierra Leonians were serving full-time missions, including 41 from the six branches of the Freetown area.

In 1994, quilts from the young women of the Frederick Maryland Stake (diocese) were shipped to Sierra Leone through the Church's Washington, D.C., welfare complex. With each quilt was a letter, signed by the young women, that explained that individual pieces of the quilt represented acts of love and service.

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.