Full-Time Missionaries Temporarily Withdrawn from Liberia

The Church announced yesterday that the remaining 99 young, full-time missionaries in the Liberia Monrovia Mission will be temporarily reassigned to other missions given the deteriorating economic situation in Liberia. On February 2nd, the Church reported that 23 missionaries who served in the mission that were nearing the end of their missions would return home early given the economic situation. Prior to these changes, there were 122 missionaries assigned to the Liberia Monrovia Mission.

The Liberia Monrovia Mission President has reported significant problems with a lack of supplies, particularly with fuel. The mission has been unable to obtain adequate amounts of gasoline to perform basic travel within the mission. As a result, the mission withdrew all full-time missionaries from cities outside of Monrovia earlier this month, including Buchanan, Cotton Tree, Ganta, Gbarnga, Greenville, Harbel, and Totota. This resulted in all missionaries being assigned to Monrovia where they were within close proximity to the mission home and the vast bulk of Church membership in Liberia. The onset of the current economic crisis in regards to the availability of gasoline appears to have occurred suddenly. For example, the mission just weeks ago underwent an exploratory trip in the Robertsport area. Although economic conditions have been poor for multiple consecutive years, these conditions have not significantly interfered with missionary work until the past 1-2 months. For more information about current economic problems, click here.

The Church in Liberia has had a significant history of disrupted missionary efforts due to war, disease, and political and economic turmoil. The original Liberia Monrovia Mission opened in March 1988, but full-time missionaries were reassigned to Sierra Leone in 1989 and the mission closed in 1991 due to civil war. Missionary activity was intermittent in the next two decades due to civil wars. Many Liberian Latter-day Saints fled the country, such as to the United States and Ghana. In Ghana, a congregation was organized specifically to administer Liberian members who lived in the Buduburam Refugee Camp. There are a significant number of Liberian Latter-day Saints in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, some of whom appeared to enter the United States during these civil wars. The Church organized its first stake in Liberia in 2000, but closed the stake in 2007 due to inactivity problems, leadership development challenges, and the departure of many active members to other countries to escape political turmoil and war. Missionaries were again withdrawn due to the Ebola outbreak from August 2014 until September 2015. In late 2017, approximately 60% of the full-time missionary force were Black Africans.

The Church has experienced membership and congregational growth in Liberia during the past decade that has ranked among the most rapid in the worldwide Church. Improvements in local leadership development and member-missionary activity appear primarily responsible for this reversal from slow growth rates to rapid growth rates. For example, one stake president shared that the area presidency's emphasis on preparing youth to serve full-time missions was a major catalyst that led to reestablishment of stakes in Liberia due to a surge in qualified leaders. Membership has nearly tripled from 5,251 in 2009 to likely over 14,000 as of year-end 2019. The number of congregations (i.e. wards and branches) has mushroomed from 12 in 2009 (all branches) to 53 in 2019 (38 wards, 15 branches). There are now five stakes in Liberia - all of which have been organized in Monrovia within the past four years. Sacrament meeting attendance is high throughout the mission and conferences are well attended. For example, the first stake conference of the Gardnesville Liberia Stake had 1,700 in attendance in November 2019 - only a few hundred less than total Church membership for the newly organized stake (most stakes in Liberia have the minimum of 1,900 members when they are first organized). Church attendance for most wards is between 100 and 200. Monrovia is a strong candidate for a future temple announcement given steady growth.

The Church's presence in Liberia has also significantly expanded. For example, the Church only operated in Monrovia from 1987 until 2008 when the first branches were organized in Harbel and Kakata. Additional cities and villages where the Church has organized its first branches include Buchanan (2018), Cotton Tree (2018), Totota (2018), Gbarnga (2019), and Greenville (2019). Member groups also operate in several additional cities, including Ganta, Harper, Kingsville, and Zwedru. Ganta was the most recently opened city to missionary work where the first missionaries opened a member group in October 2019. At most recent report, there were plans to have the group become an official branch due to rapid growth (50 people in attendance for Church meetings).

Although the temporary withdrawal of full-time missionaries will significantly disrupt missionary efforts in Liberia, this crisis provides an opportunity to test local leadership's self-sufficiency and ability to operate with minimal-to-no outside support. The current situation also presents opportunities for local members to find, teach, and prepare prospective members for baptism rather than rely on full-time missionaries for these responsibilities. Local leaders report that they have been given authority to prepare and baptize new converts while the full-time missionaries and mission president are evacuated. Nevertheless, the transfer of all full-time missionaries out of the country presents significant challenges to expand outreach into previously unreached areas as the Church strongly depends on full-time missionaries to accomplish this. Also, the current economic crisis may result in political instability if not properly resolved, and could therefore have long-term impacts on the growth and stability of the Church if another civil war arises. Local Liberian members have expressed the greatest challenge they have had has been in regards to a lack of employment opportunities in the country in order to become more financially self-sufficient. Further deterioration of the economy may result in another wave Liberian members who flee the country in search of better living conditions.