Ghana MTC is the Center of the World

The point at which the equator (0° latitude) and the prime meridian (0° longitude) intersect is in the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, about 380 miles (611 kilometers) south of Ghana.  This means the Ghana MTC is in the center of the world.

How did the Church begin in Nigeria?

Anthony Obinna, 1988

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.

One of the earliest African converts and pioneers was Anthony Obinna in Nigeria. 

He related the following story that occurred in the late 1960s: “One night I was sleeping and a tall man came to me [in a dream], took me to one of the most beautiful buildings, and showed me all the rooms.” In 1970 he read an article in an old 1958 Reader’s Digest titled “The March of the Mormons,” which included a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. “It was exactly the same building I had seen in my dream,” he said. Brother Obinna wrote to the Church for LDS literature.

In 1978, when the Obinna family learned of the revelation on the priesthood, they wrote to the First Presidency: “We are happy for the many hours in the upper rooms of the temple you spent supplicating the Lord to bring us into the fold. We thank our Heavenly Father for hearing your prayers and ours. … We thank you for extending the priesthood, … to prepare us to receive every blessing of the gospel.” When the missionaries arrived in Nigeria, they found many people prepared for the gospel as a result of Brother Obinna’s teaching and leadership. The first LDS chapel built in Nigeria is near the Obinnas’ home in Aboh Mbaise, of the Imo State.

When the first LDS missionaries arrived in Nigeria in 1978, there was very little need for proselytizing. For more than thirty years, Nigerians who had encountered the Church in one way or another had been writing Salt Lake City requesting literature and missionaries. When those missionaries came, they found multiple congregations eager to be baptized virtually the day they arrived.



Anthony Obinna had been writing Church headquarters for several years by the time Rendell and Rachel Mabey and Edwin and Janath Cannon sought him out a week after their arrival in Nigeria in November 1978. The two senior missionary couples set off in a cab from Port Harcourt with only a general idea of their destination. Like many in Nigeria, Obinna lived in a numberless house on a nameless street, but the missionaries knew his village, county, and state from the letters he had written. After a three-hour ride including several stops to ask for help, they turned down a road lined with banana and palm trees that ended at a small church.

“Near the roof in blue letters were painted the words, ‘Nigerian Latter-Day Saints,’” Rendell Mabey later wrote. He found one set of doors labelled LDS and another labelled Missionary Home. "It was a curious experience encountering the name of our own church," wrote Mabey, "where no missionary had ever before set foot.”

The missionaries found the area filled with people, but not Obinna. Upon learning who their visitors were, Obinna’s son went in search of his father while the missionaries explored the church.  The Mabeys admired the small chapel with its neat blue door and shutters, then explored the classroom which doubled as an office in the other half of the building. In the classroom, the program for the next day's services were already carefully written up on a blackboard. A copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and several copies of the Book of Mormon were available for student use, and shelves were stacked with old issues of the Ensign and Church News.

It took a couple of hours for Obinna, who had built up this place over thirteen years of waiting, to arrive and finally shake hands with someone prepared to bring him the LDS Church in full.  Indeed, Obinna taught the gospel to his family and had amassed a congregation of seventy-one members by the time the Mabeys and Cannons arrived five months after President Spencer W. Kimball announced a revelation removing the priesthood restriction that had long been an impediment to missionary work in West Africa.

 

Patience Rewarded

When Anthony Obinna arrived to greet the missionaries on that November day in 1978, his demeanor was serious, even thoughtful.

Elder Mabey was struck by how “solemn, gentle, and dignified" Obinna was as he entered the small church, “as though an overt display of enthusiasm at such a moment might be almost sacrilegious. Our eyes, however, were moist. We all felt movingly the richness of God’s Spirit.”


Said Obinna, “It has been a long, difficult wait, but that doesn’t matter now. You have come at last.”

Yet even Obinna’s patience had its limits; when Mabey told him there were other congregations the missionaries needed to visit and estimated that it would be six weeks before they could return to perform baptisms, Obinna’s waiting was done.

“’No, please,’ he said quietly,” Mabey later wrote. “‘I know that there are many others, but we have been waiting for thirteen years.’ His eyes were filled with longing. ‘Please, if it is humanly possible—go ahead with the baptisms now!’ For a few seconds we merely sat there looking into each other’s eyes. ‘Are most of your people ready?’ I asked at last. Anthony nodded emphatically. ‘Yes—absolutely yes! They know, as I do, that the gospel has been restored, but we must have guidance and direction. Let us baptize those strongest in the faith now and teach the others further.’ The Spirit was very strong, the man’s goodness and testimony clearly evident. ‘In that case,’ I said, ‘we will conduct the baptism as soon as possible.’”


The men decided on a date just three days away,  and on Tuesday, November 21, 1978, nineteen Nigerians were baptized in the Ekeonumiri River. Anthony Obinna was first.  The photo below was taken at that baptism and has become an icon in African Mormon history.

 

A branch was soon organized for the new converts, with Anthony Obinna as its president, his brothers Francis and Raymond as his counselors, and his wife, Fidelia, as Relief Society president.7
After many years of waiting and hoping, Obinna penned a different sort of letter to Salt Lake soon after his baptism.

Obinna served faithfully in the Church for many years, and in 1989 was sealed to Fidelia in the temple during a visit to Logan, Utah, where their son was living. Obinna died in 1995, leaving a legacy that was not limited to the dozens of family members to whom he had brought the gospel.
“The seed of the gospel which you sowed will grow into a giant tree,” he wrote to Rendell Mabey when his time in Nigeria was nearing its end. “The Church in Nigeria will surprise the world in its growth. The number of baptisms, confirmations, and ordinations you performed in this country show only a beginning.”

In January of this year, Elder Bednar sent us a New York Times article showing that the projected population of Nigeria would surpass China by the year 2090.  Nigeria continues to be a country rich in potential growth for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Ghana MTC Welcomes the Daytons!

Donny Dayton was one of my assistants when we were the mission president couple in the West Indies 4 1/2 years ago.  He returned home to Rexburg, Idaho where he met and married Preslee.  Now he is in Ghana as a legal intern as a BYU law student and Preslee is helping out at the MTC full-time during the month of June.

Brother Dayton was a legend in the West Indies where among other accomplishments, he and Elder Travis Mundy turned around missionary work in Rose Hall, Canje, Guyana.  Previously Rose Hall had been a place no missionary wanted to serve because of lack of success.  About 6 months later, Elders Dayton and Mundy trained two brand new missionaries in Rose Hall, Elders Jones and Westover.  Then on their second transfer, Elders Jones and Westover were put together and lived with their trainers, who had become the new zone leaders.  During that transfer, these new elders baptized three families at one time totalling 18 new members.  You can imagine how proud their trainers were.  And the legend lives on.

Ghana MTC Slideshow of 16 May 2014 Group

Elder Dube Addresses May 16th Group in Area Devotional

Elder Edward Dube was sustained a member of the First Quorum of Seventy on April 6, 2013 at the age of 50.  He served as a young missionary in Zimbabwe after joining the Church at age 22.  Later he and his wife presided over the Zimbabwe Harare Mission as a mission president couple.  The focus of the Area Devotional this week was on working with member leaders to advance the work of hastening within each ward or branch.

Africa West Area DTA Captures MTC in Photos

Last Sunday, Brother Phillipe Kradolfer, our Africa West Area Director of Temporal Affairs spoke to the missionaries about the apostasy.  He has written a book on the subject.  The missionaries were very attentive and fascinated.  Prior to the presentation, he took a photo of our May 16th group of 77 missionaries as well as two of our Sister Missionaries.  Seated in the center of the bottom photo are Sister Robison and her two counselors, Sister Acquaye on the left and Sister Obeng on the right.  On the far right is Sister Kradolfer and on the far left is Sister Watson, our family history consultant.

Ten Great Facts About the Country of Ghana

Source: Blog.Tonation.com

The country of Ghana is filled with vibrant beauty that can be found everywhere, from its sandy beaches to the people who live in it. Its history extends as far back as 1500 BC, starting off as the Kingdom of Ghana and evolving into the beautiful country it is today. Here are ten interesting facts about the country of Ghana.

1. Before Ghana became an independent country, it was a British colony in the 15th century called the Gold Coast. The colony derived its name from the abundance of gold deposits in the country’s soil. Gold, diamonds, ivory, cocoa, and timber were among the many natural resources the Gold Coast had to offer to the British colonists, who exported the goods and profited greatly from it. To this day these natural resources continue to bolster Ghana’s economy.

2. After years of war and conflict, Ghana won its independence on March 6th, 1957. Ghana was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence from the United Kingdom. This day has since been turned into a national holiday, and parades are thrown to celebrate the day in the country’s capital.

3. Kwame Nkrumah became the country’s first prime minister on the day Ghana gained its independence. He held his position until July 1, 1960, at which point he was then made Ghana’s first president and remained so until February 24, 1966. During his time as the president of Ghana, the Soviet Union awarded Nkrumah the Lenin Peace Prize. After passing away on April 27, 1972, Nkrumah was buried in downtown Accra. His resting place has become the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum and Memorial Park, where a statue and museum was erected in his honor.

4. Ghana favors diversity of all kind in its people. Though the country’s national language is English, there are over 50 additional African languages spoken throughout the country. Ghana is also known for religious freedom, allowing its people to choose and practice the religion of their choice freely without prosecution. Multiple ethnic groups, like the Akan and Ewe, live in Ghana, and speak their respective languages and dialects.

5. Accra is the capital of Ghana, where over two million people live. The city is a hub of activity for both local residents and tourists. In addition to the many Western styled stores and malls, Accra houses the Makola market, an open air market of the traditional African style. Accra provides access to several beaches, including the famous Labadi Beach. The American author W.E.B. Dubois once lived in Accra, and his residence is now a part of the W.E.B. Dubois Memorial Centre that honors his work as an activist in Ghana.

6. The Independence Square in Accra, which is also called the Black Star Square, was built in 1961. It is the second largest square in the world, and the chosen site for the country’s Independence Day parades. The Black Star Gate and the Independence Arch are major draws for tourists, however the Independence Arch can only be photographed from afar. Guards have been posted to prohibit any close up photography of the Arch without prior obtained permission. Within the square is the Eternal Flame of African Liberation, which was lit in 1961 by Kwame Nkrumah and has continued to burn brightly ever since.

7. Ghana is the world’s second largest producer of cocoa beans, seconded only by the Ivory Coast, which is directly west of Ghana. As the country’s cash crop, cocoa’s export to other countries is one of the major contributors to Ghana’s thriving economy. In recent years, oil has been discovered in Ghana and consequentially exported, adding it to the country’s natural occurring economic supply.

8. Founder’s Day is a national holiday in which Ghana recognizes and celebrates its founding fathers. The holiday was originally conceived by President John Evans Atta Mills, who wished for Ghanians to pay honor to Kwame Nkrumah and other leaders like him who shaped Ghana into the country it is today. Founder’s Day takes place every year on September 21st, which was Nkrumah’s birthday.

9. Ghana’s national currency is the cedi, which can be broken up into one hundred pesewas. The cedi was first introduced as currency in 1965 and is printed on paper, while pesewas are distributed as coins. Prior to the cedi, the British pound was Ghana’s currency. The front of the cedi banknotes are generally consistent on the front with each denomination save for the color, while the back features a different image of various national monuments. ‘Cedi’ is a local word that means cowry shell, which was once used as currency. Approximately 2.85 cedi convert into one US dollar.

10. As of 2013, the Global Peace Index lists Ghana as the 58th most peaceful country in the world. Ghana is listed as a country with a high state of peace, and has maintained its status as a peaceful country for the last few years.