The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone

Technopedia Center

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
S1 Informatics S1 Information Systems S1 Information Technology S1 Computer Engineering S1 Electrical Engineering S1 Civil Engineering

faculty of Economics and Business
S1 Management S1 Accountancy

Faculty of Letters and Educational Sciences
S1 English literature S1 English language education S1 Mathematics education S1 Sports Education

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Freetown Sierra Leone Temple)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted.
Find sources: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources.
Find sources: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone

Area	Africa West
Members	31,080 (2023)^[1]
Stakes	9
Districts	2
Wards	66
Branches	24
Total Congregations^[2]	90
Missions	1
Temples	1 Under Construction
FamilySearch Centers	15^[3]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Sierra Leone refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and its members in Sierra Leone. In 2022, Sierra Leone ranked as having the third most LDS Church members per capita in Africa, behind Cape Verde and Liberia.^[4]

History

Membership in Sierra Leone^[5]^[1]
Year	Membership
1988	12
1989*	200
1995*	2,400
1999	3,564
2004	5,712
2009	8,054
2014	13,078
2019	22,787
2022	28,867
*Membership was published as a rounded number.

The first official meeting of the LDS Church in Sierra Leone was held in Goderich in January 1988, with the first LDS missionaries arriving in May of that year. They were under the Liberia Monrovia Mission. A district was organized in Freetown in 1990. At various times in the 1990s, missionaries were withdrawn due to the civil war in the country. In 1991, the Liberia Monrovia Mission was discontinued and Sierra Leone was placed under the Accra Ghana Mission. The first LDS-built meetinghouse in the country was completed in Bo in 2004. In 2007, the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission was created covering both Sierra Leone and Liberia.^[6] In December 2012, Jeffrey R. Holland created the first LDS stake in Sierra Leone in Freetown. In 2013, Liberia was split off to be its own separate mission.

Stakes and districts

The Freetown Sierra Leone Stake was organized on December 2, 2012, making it the 3,000th stake in the LDS Church.^[7]^[8] As of November 2024, Sierra Leone had the following stakes and districts:^[9]

Stakes and Districts

Stake/District	Organized	Mission
Bo Sierra Leone Durba Stake	20 Oct 2024	Sierra Leone Bo
Bo Sierra Leone East Stake	1 Jun 2014	Sierra Leone Bo
Bo Sierra Leone North Stake	27 Nov 2016	Sierra Leone Bo
Bo Sierra Leone West Stake	28 Feb 1992	Sierra Leone Bo
Freetown Sierra Leone Stake	5 Nov 1991	Sierra Leone Freetown
Freetown Sierra Leone East Stake	3 Dec 2017	Sierra Leone Freetown
Freetown Sierra Leone Hill Station	10 Dec 2023	Sierra Leone Freetown
Kenema Sierra Leone Stake	25 Nov 2012	Sierra Leone Bo
Kissy Sierra Leone Stake	21 Aug 2011	Sierra Leone Freetown
Kossoh Town Sierra Leone Stake	16 Mar 2014	Sierra Leone Freetown
Makeni Sierra Leone District	21 May 2017	Sierra Leone Freetown
Moriba Town Sierra Leone District	26 Jun 2022	Sierra Leone Bo
Wellington Sierra Leone Stake	10 Oct 2021	Sierra Leone Freetown

Congregations in Sierra Leone not part of a stake or district include:

Kapeteh Branch
Koidu Branch
Moyamba Branch
Sierra Leone Freetown Mission Branch

The Sierra Leone Freetown Mission Branch serves families and individuals in Sierra Leone that is not in proximity of a meetinghouse.

Missions

Sierra Leone Freetown, organized on July 1, 2007^[10]
Sierra Bo, organized in June 2024

2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak

After two of its members died during the 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the LDS Church required its missionaries to remain in their apartments as a precautionary measure.^[11]^[12] Then on August 1, 2014 the LDS Church announced that it would transfer all of its 274 missionaries out of Sierra Leone and Liberia, thereby closing the Sierra Leone Freetown Mission for the duration of the outbreak.^[11]^[12]^[13]

Temples

On October 5, 2019, the Freetown Sierra Leone Temple was announced by church president Russell M. Nelson.

	216. Freetown Sierra Leone Temple (Under construction) Official website News & images		edit
	Location: Announced: Groundbreaking: Size:	Freetown, Sierra Leone 5 October 2019 by Russell M. Nelson^[14] 19 March 2022 by Hugo E. Martinez^[15] 18,000 sq ft (1,700 m²) on a 2.9-acre (1.2 ha) site

References

^ ^a ^b "Facts and Statistics: Statistics by Country: Sierra Leone", Newsroom, LDS Church, retrieved 15 June 2023
^ Excludes groups meeting separate from wards and branches
^ Sierra Leone Family History Centers Map, familysearch.org, retrieved 15 June 2023
^ Membership statistics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
^ Wendall J. Ashton; Jim M. Wall, Deseret News, various years, Church Almanac Country Information: Sierra Leone
^ Church News, 2010 Edition, p. 571
^ Historic milestone: Sierra Leone stake marks LDS Church's 3,000th, Deseret News, December 2, 2012, archived from the original on December 6, 2012, retrieved 2012-12-03
^ "Country information: Sierra Leone", Church News, Deseret News, December 2, 2012, retrieved 2012-12-03
^ "Accra Ghana Temple District", churchofjesuschristtemples.org, retrieved February 21, 2022
^ "New missions bring total to 347 missions", Church News, Deseret News, February 10, 2007, retrieved 2012-12-03
^ ^a ^b "Official Statement: Missionaries Serving in Two African Nations are Reassigned". Church News. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
^ ^a ^b Stack, Peggy Fletcher (August 2014). "Mormon missionaries leaving Sierra Leone and Liberia". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
^ Walch, Tad (1 August 2014). "Ebola outbreak prompts evacuation of LDS missionaries from two African nations". Deseret News. Archived from the original on August 3, 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
^ "President Nelson Announces Eight New Temples at October 2019 General Conference", Newsroom, LDS Church, 5 October 2019
^ https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2022-03-19/freetown-sierra-leone-africa-temple-groundbreaking-ceremony-beginning-of-construction-246748

External links

LDS Newsroom (Sierra Leone)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Official Site
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Visitors Site

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Africa

Countries

Temples

Congo, DRC	Kananga Kinshasa Lubumbashi Mbuji-Mayi
Ghana	Accra Cape Coast Kumasi
Nigeria	Aba Abuja Benin City Calabar Eket Lagos
South Africa	Cape Town Durban Johannesburg