A day to remember for the Mbale Branch of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On March 31, 2018. President Collings, mission president, received permission to create an official group for the Saints in their own Village of Mile 5. There is a group of 70 members and about 20 of them have for years faithfully attended church meetings with a 1 ½ hour walk to the Mbale Branch meetinghouse.
- Mbale Branch
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| Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. | 1 / 2 |
President Collings made the decision to have a fireside in the village so that he could get a feel of how many people would attend the Church in their own village. The fireside was well attended and a request was made to the area presidency to create a group for these saints in their village. Once the requests was approved, President Collins scheduled the meeting to call a new group leader and get group organized. Following this news, the members invited neighbors, friends and family members to come and be part of a fireside were a church group would be created.
Without being asked the members pooled their money and rented a tent and sound system so they could sit in the shade and hear the proceedings. They also made food to share. By the time President Collings arrived at 4:00 pm, there were 250 people waiting for the meeting to start.
President Etiang the branch president of the Mbale branch conducted the meeting. He conducted the business as the congregation sustained the new group leader, Brother Lebekia Mpande. The missionaries shared the story of the Restoration, and taught about the Book of Mormon.
Sister Collings was given the opportunity to speak to the saints. It was the day before General Conference, but her talk was about how members need to minister to those around them. President Collins also spoke about ministering and how Jesus Christ was the perfect example of this. He then invited those who have not been baptized to talk to the missionaries, learn of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited them to be baptized.
For the past 3 weeks the saints in mile 5 have enjoyed church meetings in their own village. There has been over 100 people attending each week. Many of which are being taught and 30 have scheduled baptism dates. “We obviously want to wait for them to show stability, but believe they will qualify to be a branch in just a couple of months’’ said Sister Collings.