“In this audio interview, BYU graduate Yeah Samake shares the story of his father’s vision for education which raised an entire family from hunger to prominence.  We’ll hear how his actions eliminating corruption as Mayor of a small town brought him to the attention of national leaders in Mali, and what he hopes to accomplish if elected President of Mali in April of 2012.  You’ll also learn what it’s like for brother and sister Samake and their children to be the only members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a country with a population which is 90% Muslim.”

See also http://ldsmag.com/church/update/article/9047?ac=1

“The beauty of the country is only exceeded by the beauty in the hearts of these gentle people which is then deeply enhanced as they learn to climb the path of the restored gospel of Christ.”

This is Part 2 of “The Real Elder Price and the Mormon Boys.” Read Part 1.

Disclaimer:  Obviously, The Book of Mormon Musical is intended to entertain, not to serve as a primer on Mormonism.  This series of essays is offered simply as a view of what missionary life is actually like for Mormon missionaries in Africa, not as a direct response to the musical—though there are a few responses.

Go to this link to read Part 2

Go to this link to read Part 3

Go to this link to read Part 4

Go to this link to read Part 5

Also here is another article related to the topic:

http://www.jweekly.com/blog/full/61975/comparing-broadways-mormon-hit-to-lds-missionary-reality/

Click here for video and story

“… As I reflected on all that time spent parodying this particular target, I also wondered what was really going on with Mormons in Africa during those same seven years.

So I checked.

•The World Health Organization estimates that 884 million people worldwide don’t have access to clean water. This is a huge problem in Africa, not only because of water-borne diseases but because kids who spend hours each day walking to and from the nearest well to fill old gasoline cans with water cannot attend school. According to church records, in the past seven years, more than four million Africans in 17 countries have gained access to clean drinking water through Mormon humanitarian efforts to sink or rehabilitate boreholes.

•More than 34,000 physically handicapped African kids now have wheelchairs through the same Mormon-sponsored humanitarian program. To see a legless child whose knuckles have become calloused through walking on his hands lifted into a wheelchair may be the best way to fully understand the liberation this brings.

•Millions of children, meanwhile, have now been vaccinated against killer diseases like measles as the church has sponsored or assisted with projects in 22 African countries.

•More than 126,000 Africans have had their sight restored or improved through Mormon partnership with African eye care professionals in providing training, equipment and supplies.

•Another 52,000 Africans have been trained to help newborns who otherwise would never take a first breath. Training in neonatal resuscitation has also been a big project for Mormons in Africa.

•Then, of course, there is the tragedy of AIDS. A couple of weeks ago I attended a dinner where the Utah AIDS Foundation honored James O. Mason, former United States Assistant Secretary of Health. When he was working for the Center for Disease Control in 1984, a project to research the epidemiology and treatment of AIDS was established at the Hospital Mama Yempo in Kinshasha, Zaire. After visiting the hospital and examining the children and adults with AIDS, Mason described the death rate and the associated infections from AIDS as “horrific.” Mason, a Mormon, knows quite a bit about AIDS and a great deal about Africa.

•None of this includes responses to multiple disasters, like the flooding in Niger, where the Church provided clothing, quits and hygiene items to 20,000 people in six inundated regions of the country.

Of course, parody isn’t reality, and it’s the very distortion that makes it appealing and often funny. The danger is not when people laugh but when they take it seriously – if they leave a theater believing that Mormons really do live in some kind of a surreal world of self-deception and illusion. …”

“Africa has been held in reserve by the Lord,” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in an October 2010 visit to Burundi. “Africa will someday be seen as a bright land full of gospel hope and happiness.”

Africa is one of the fastest growing areas of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with some 320,000 members, the majority of whom have joined the Church over the past 30 years. They have found that hope and happiness spoken of by Elder Holland by embracing the teachings of Jesus Christ.

For the full article see:

http://ldsmag.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=article&ac=1&id=7547

SALT LAKE CITY—This month, millions of individuals of African descent are celebrating Black History Month by exploring their family history roots. In the U.S., FamilySearch volunteers have been busy helping digitize historic documents and create free, searchable indexes to them online. Throughout Africa, from Accra to Zimbabwe, where irreplaceable family information and traditions are at risk of being lost due to neglect, war, and deterioration, FamilySearch volunteers are also helping preserve this valuable history so Africans can connect with their roots. Researchers can search the millions of African-related records as they are published online at FamilySearch.org.

For the full article, see:

http://ldsmag.com/index.php?option=com_zine&view=article&Itemid=147&ac=1&id=7566

The Tales that Bind: How an African Oral tradition Resonates with the Gospel

By Johnell DeWitt

Our first Sunday in Uganda I watched Brother Onyango Odongo, the uncle of our soon to be Patriarch, reverently sit as he was confirmed a member of our little branch, now a ward. His beautiful face read like an epic.  Each line told a story of great hope and great tragedy and I knew I had to learn his story.

Brother Onyango

Brother Onyango is “80 something” years old, as he told us. No one knows the exact date of his birth or even the exact year, and the closest he can get is he was born sometime in the 1920s. He has witnessed events we can only imagine in our worst nightmares. He lived through the corruption of Milton Obote, the madness of Idi Amin, and more recently the savagery of Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This last tragedy seems to have affected Brother Onyango the most, understandably as Kony is a member of Brother Onyango’s tribe, the Acholi in Northern Uganda. …

http://www.ldsmag.com/church/article/7455?ac=1

See:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50983387-78/uganda-church-lds-nearby.html.csp

See this link for the rest of the story:

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/60188/Burundi-Pioneers.html