This Month in Church History
June 1991: First baptisms in Republic of Congo
In the 1980s, Latter-day Saints who had been baptized abroad began returning to the Republic of the Congo. In 1991, those in Brazzaville began meeting together and, under the direction of the mission president across the Congo River in Kinshasa, began organizing the Church in the Republic of the Congo. In January 1991, Hyacinthe Massamba-Sita, who had joined the Church in France, was called as the group leader in Brazzaville and was authorized to hold sacrament meetings and search out other Church members. The first missionaries serving in the Zaire Kinshasa Mission arrived in April 1991 and met Hyacinthe and Veronique Massamba-Sita and their family.
The first baptisms in the Republic of the Congo took place in June 1991. Hyacinthe Massambe-Sita baptized and confirmed the first 14 members of the Church in the Republic of the Congo, including his wife, Veronique. The Church was officially recognized by the Congolese government in October 1991. By the time Elders Russell M. Nelson and Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles visited in 1992 to dedicate the country for the preaching of the gospel, the first district had already been organized in Brazzaville.
Thirty years have passed since the first baptisms took place in the Republic of the Congo. In that time, the Church has grown to include four stakes and the Republic of Congo Brazzaville Mission which was created in 2014. The Kinshasa Democratic Republic of the Congo Temple was dedicated in April of 2019, bringing a temple closer to the members in the Republic of the Congo.