Halfway

(This post is based on a letter we sent home to our ward today.)

December 28, 2025

We landed in Sierra Leone 18 months ago this evening, June 28, 2024. With the help of senior missionaries, local leaders, and Church members, we opened a new mission in rural West Africa, the Sierra Leone Bo Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our mission is based in the city of Bo and includes half the country, the Southern and Eastern Provinces. I’m told the total population of Sierra Leone is 8.8 million and that our mission has 3.2 million of them. The largest city in our mission is Bo with 174,000, the next largest is Kenema with 143,000, and then Koidu with 88,000. The rest of our mission consists of hundreds of small towns and villages scattered among the jungles of this beautiful, tropical country.

The majority of Sierra Leonians are Muslims; perhaps 75-80%. The Muslims and Christians get along famously. They have been wishing us Happy Christmas all week. A lot of the people who join our church come from Muslim families.

We see miracles every day. We are one of the miracles. We have grown in humility, faith, and gratitude. We serve with 158 amazing young missionaries from countries around the world, including 21 African countries, the Philippians, Pacific Islands, Australia, Canada, and the United States.

Most of our African missionaries are big on faith and new to the gospel. Most are the first in their families to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They followed spiritual promptings as teenagers and made sacrifices—some deep sacrifices—to start a new life. Some were Muslims two or three years ago. Every one of them has an inspiring story.

Like Alma in the land of Zarahemla (Alma 4:5) and Peter in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41) we have seen thousands of people enter into the waters of baptism. Our tiny band is hastening the Gathering of Israel and preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Here is a brief story. One of a thousand stories. I serve as “stake president” for 4,200 members living in our 24 mission branches. I interviewed a new member for the Melchizedek Priesthood and asked him, “How much does your membership in the Church mean to you?”

With the deepest gratitude in his eyes, he said—before joining the Church, I smoked and drank and broke the Law of Chasity regularly. I left my family every weekend to be with friends in a village away from home. Now that I am baptized, I quit drinking and smoking. I am faithful to my wife. I take care of my family. I haven’t missed a single Sunday going with them to Church. We have never been so happy in all our lives.

To our friends who pay tithes and offerings, you made this family’s happiness possible with your donations. In 100 years, these friendly and humble people will not be able to pay more than a widow’s mite toward the cost of missionary work and the growth of the Church in this war-and-disease-ravaged country. They need the blessings of the gospel more than anything in this world. And they are ready to receive it. We are grateful to have a front row seat to the Marvelous Work and a Wonder that is happening here.

As missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ, we bare witness of His divinity. We testify that he broke the bands of death and atoned for our sins, sorrows, and heartaches. There is no injustice He will not right; no wound He will not heal. He restored His gospel. And by following Him, we will find joy and peace now and in the eternities that follow. We pray that God’s blessings will continue with you and your families in the new year.

With our love,

Sister Kathy and President Scott Wyatt