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Church Growth in Angola Reaches Important Milestone
December 2, 2018 was an important milestone date for members of the Church in Angola when the Luanda Angola Stake was organized—the very first stake in that country. Elder Joni L. Koch, General Authority Seventy and Second Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency, presided at this unprecedented stake conference, and—along with Elder Artur J. Miranda, Area Seventy—conducted the business of organizing the new stake and the new stake presidency.
President Isidro Luís Narciso Baptista was called as stake president, with President Sebastião Dombaxe Quiame as first counselor, and President Amândio de Alméida Feijó as second counselor. All three of these brothers have served in various Church leadership capacities in the years leading up to the creation of the new stake.
The history of the Church in Angola has been a story of struggle, optimism, and tremendous blessings.
In 1992—at the time that the Church became officially recognized by the Angolan government—the country was still being torn apart by civil war. Many Angolans were fleeing to European countries to escape the tragedy. Some of those became acquainted with and joined the Church. Over time, stirrings were being felt by those displaced members and plans being laid to return to their homeland in Angola.
By 1996, the first branch of the Church was organized in Luanda, with 86 people in attendance at the conference—25 of which were Church members. Many of the early members and leaders were those who were converted and trained up in European units while in exile. An example is Vuamina Tshaka Mbenza, who had been baptized and who had received the Melchezidek Priesthood in France. He was called as the first Luanda Branch President.
Unfortunately, further outbreaks of civil war prevented contact between the Area Presidency—operating from the area offices, which at that time were in London—and the members of the Church in Angola for nearly two years. And for several years afterward, there was sporadic communication with the Saints in Angola.
In 2005, the Mozambique Maputo Mission was organized and included the Portuguese-speaking countries of Mozambique and Angola. Three years later, the first young missionaries, Elders Bell, Tarwater, Muocha, and Estevão were assigned from Mozambique to serve in Angola. These missionaries noted the strength of Church members and leaders. The missionaries’ early investigators were nearly all from member referrals.
In 2008, the Cassequel Branch was created by dividing the Luanda Branch, and Emílio Joaquim Albuquerque Barroso was called as branch president. By the next year, the Cassequel Branch began holding Sunday services in a new rented meetinghouse in Luanda.
A year later, Artur J. Miranda was called as a counsellor in the Mozambique Maputo mission presidency to serve exclusively in Angola, where he had moved with his family from Portugal. (Today, Elder Artur J. Miranda serves as an Area Seventy and assisted Elder Joni L. Koch in conducting the business of organizing the Luanda Angola Stake.)
On 20 October 2010, at 6h30, as reported in the Church News, a small group of Church leaders and members gathered at the base of a large, several-hundred-year-old baobab tree on a quiet hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean to the west, with the capital city of Luanda to the north, where Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve formally dedicated Angola for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
While offering the dedicatory prayer in Portuguese, Elder Christofferson called to mind the two and a half centuries of slave trade and the 25-year-old civil war that had ended just a decade beforehand. He prayed that the suffering and conflicts of the past would have an end and that the yoke of poverty and ignorance would be removed. Recalling Angola’s long tradition of religious freedom, Elder Christofferson prayed that religious liberty would endure and become a foundation for future strength and stability as the gospel is preached without hinderance and that the kingdom of God would go forth to bless individuals, families, and the entire country. He further invoked a blessing on government leaders that they would seek to serve the people and he further prayed that persons of ability and integrity would be drawn into public service.
Six months later, the Luanda Angola District was organized, with Artur J. Miranda as district president, Isidro Luis Narciso Baptista as first counselor, and Kussy Suku Machado Setas as second counselor. (Today, Brother Baptista serves as stake president in the newly-formed Luanda Angola Stake.)
In July 2013, the Angola Luanda Mission was organized, with Danny L. Merrill as the first mission president, and separated from the Maputo Mozambique Mission. At that time, the mission included the Luanda Angola District, with five branches—plus three additional mission branches.
At the April 2017 General Conference of the Church, Elder Artur J. Miranda was sustained as the first Area Seventy from Angola.
The Church continues to grow and flourish in Angola and the organization of the Luanda Angola Stake is a testament to the courage of Church members, leaders, and missionaries who have shared—and continue to share—the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with so many Angolans. As prophesized by Daniel—and recorded in the Old Testament, Daniel chapter 2, verse 44—“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” The kingdom of God will surely stand ‘for ever’ in the beautiful country—and the hearts of the beautiful people—of Angola.