What is the most well-known Market in Accra?

It is Makola Market.  Thursday is generally market day, but every day it is quite crowded.

Meet Boubacar Barry, the First Member & First Missionary from Guinea

Last August while at BYU, I met and interviewed Boubacar Barry in order to help him find an internship as a new OBHR MBA student at BYU.  Yesterday, Boubacar visited the Ghana MTC with a tour group from the Marriott School visiting Ghana.  Bobacar was born crippled in Guinea.  Because of this he was taken in by a Utah family and raised.  When he was 8 years old he joined the Church and at age 19 was called to serve in the Fort Lauderdale Mission as a missionary.  Now as an MBA student, his dream is to work in Africa and bring the gospel to Guinea.  He was the first person from Guinea to be baptized and also to serve a mission.  Just recently he landed an internship with GE, which upon graduation, will likely have a spot for him in Africa.

The Church is not yet located in Guinea, a country that is 98% Muslim.  His family is still in Guinea where his mother knows he is a member but his father does not, nor does the rest of his family.  When he lived in Guinea from 1989 to 1995 he was unable to attend Church, but kept his testimony alive by reading the scriptures and praying.

BYU MPA Tour Visits Ghana MTC

Today we welcomed the 19 members of the 2014 BYU MPA Program Ghana tour group to the MTC.  They attended the three-hour block of meetings with us and assisted in teaching Sunday School, Priesthood and Relief Society.  The group is lead by colleagues of mine from the BYU Marriott School, Drs. Jeff Thompson and Monte Swain.

Looking Forward to the Kente Festival

Visitors to Ghana remember at least three things about this part of Africa:  the colorful fabrics, the wide assortment of baskets, and the variety of beads.  This picture shows off the array of colors in Africa fabrics.  In September each year, there is a Kente Festival featuring Royalty in Ho - north of us in Tema.  There are many spectacular festivals in the Fall of each year.

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.