January 1990: The First Mozambiquan Joins the Church

When Chico Mapenda entered the waters of baptism in January 1990, he became the first Mozambiquan member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Brother Mapenda, who was attending school in the former East Germany, first met missionaries on Christmas Day in 1989 as he walked to a religious service. He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of its truth even before he had received the formal missionary lessons.

When he returned to Mozambique, Brother Mapenda began teaching his family and friends about the gospel, although the Church was not then established in the country. By the time Elder Earl C. Tingey, a member of the Africa Area Presidency, visited Mozambique in November 1991, Brother Mapenda was leading and teaching informal congregations of up to 150 people.

The first Church group was organized in Maputo in February 1995, with Samo P. Gonçalves as presiding elder. He had been baptized in 1992 while studying in Portugal. The following year, in February 1996, the Church received official recognition and thereafter began to blossom.

Today there are five stakes, one district and two missions serving over 15,000 members in Mozambique, and in April 2021, President Russell M. Nelson announced the construction of the Beira Mozambique Temple. —Sister Kathleen Irving, Church History missionary, Africa South Area