First LDS Temple in West Africa Dedicated

January 17, 2004

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/Jan/01172004/saturday/saturday.asp

On January 17, 2004 The Salt Lake Tribune reported, "[F]or decades, West African-born missionaries have been among the few to serve The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints without ever stepping inside one of its temples, putting on its sacred undergarments or taking its special vows. The nearest LDS temple was in South Africa. Given that the annual income of an average Ghanaian is about $300, traveling to Johannesburg was about as possible as booking a flight on the Concorde. Few of these missionaries could afford to venture beyond their town or village, let alone across a continent. Now the temple has come to them. On Sunday, LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated a temple in Accra, the capital of Ghana. It is the first LDS temple in West Africa; indeed, in all of sub-Saharan Africa."