{"id":3627,"date":"2026-07-13T08:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3627"},"modified":"2026-07-13T08:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T08:36:59","slug":"first-latter-day-saint-baptized-in-democratic-republic-of-congo-returns-as-mission-president-40-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3627","title":{"rendered":"First Latter-day Saint baptized in Democratic Republic of Congo returns as mission president 40 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Junior Banza \u2014 president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Kinshasa North Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \u2014 and his wife and mission leader companion, Sister Annie Banza, have been busy nonstop since arriving at the mission home in late June for their assignment.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe haven\u2019t sat down ever since, but we love it,\u201d President Banza said.<\/p>\n

The Banzas have returned to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to serve as mission leaders in the country where their families are pioneers of the church. Forty years ago as a young man, President Banza was the first person baptized in the borders of the Central Africa nation. Sister Banza was baptized about six months later.<\/p>\n

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The church began in the country with three members in 1986. Now there are around 160,000 members, seven missions, a missionary training center, a dedicated temple and three more houses of the Lord under construction or in planning. <\/p>\n

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To read the full story, visit TheChurchNews.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The Lord has given me a front-row seat to His biggest miracle\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-jesus-christ"],"yoast_head":"\nFirst Latter-day Saint baptized in Democratic Republic of Congo returns as mission president 40 years later - American Movers Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3627\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"First Latter-day Saint baptized in Democratic Republic of Congo returns as mission president 40 years later - 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