President Junior Banza, president of the Kinshasa North Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and his wife and fellow mission leader, Sister Annie Banza, have been busy working nonstop since arriving at the mission’s headquarters for assignment in late June.
“We haven’t sat down since and we love it,” President Banza said.
The Banzas returned to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where they serve as mission leaders in the country, where their families are pioneers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Forty years ago, as a young man, President Banza was the first person to be baptized on the border of Central Africa. Sister Banza was baptized about six months later.
The church began in this country in 1986 with three members. Today, we have approximately 160,000 members, seven missions, a missionary training center, a dedicated temple, and three more Houses of the Lord under construction or in the planning stages.
“In my opinion, this is the greatest miracle of our time,” an emotional President Banza said. “The Lord has given me a front row seat to the greatest miracle.”
last floor, last door
President Banza’s parents were raised as active believers in different faiths, and their church provided his father with a scholarship to attend university in Switzerland. Musioko and Regine Banza and their two young sons moved to Geneva, where an event occurred that led them to discover the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.
For example, every day the bus passed a building that said “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” Later, a friend and fellow student told Vanzas about meeting a church missionary while on vacation in Spain.
Meanwhile, two missionaries in Geneva, Switzerland, Elder Dixon Cole and Elder Todd Clement, were assigned to the area where the Banza family lived. Then, what happened was described by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, current acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, in his October 2016 general conference talk, “The Fourth Floor, the Last Door.”
President Banza said the two missionaries visited all the buildings, but felt they needed to go back to certain buildings and start over.
“They came to our building and started from the bottom up. We were on the sixth floor. They reach the sixth floor, the last door, and knock,” he said. “My father opens the door. Two missionaries are standing there. ‘Who are you?'” “We represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” That was no coincidence. He knew he had to listen. ”
Musioko and Regine Banza were baptized within two months, on October 2, 1979, in Geneva. However, the scholarship was quickly revoked. With no means to continue school, the Banzas and their young son returned to Kinshasa that month.
3 members required
Upon returning to Kinshasa, President Banza’s parents connected with a Latter-day Saint family working at the American Embassy and met Nkitabungi Mbuyi, who had joined the Church in Belgium before returning to Kinshasa.
They wrote a letter to church headquarters asking for help in establishing the church in the country then known as Zaire. Finally, in 1986, the elements were in place for the church to be recognized by the government.
Under the law at the time, for a religious denomination to be recognized, at least three Congolese members of the church had to sign a decree before the president would allow the establishment of a church.
“And look what the Lord did. There were three of them, exactly the number needed,” President Banza said – his parents and Mbuyi.
This official document was signed on April 12, 1986, and the first missionary couple assigned to Zaire, Elder R. Bay Hutchings and Sister Jean Hutchings, began teaching Banza’s two sons.
On Sunday, June 1, 1986, then 14-year-old President Banza became the first person in the country to be baptized. His younger brother followed, about five minutes behind him.
“I was baptized in a swimming pool not far from where I am,” President Banza said in a video call with Church News from his mission. After being baptized, they drove to Mbuyi’s house, where they met under the carport on Sundays, and were confirmed as members of the church.
friend gets married
Sister Annie Banza’s family joined the Church in January 1987 at the invitation of a friend of a friend invited by President Banza’s father. Therefore, President and Sister Banza often belonged to the same congregation, district, or stake, as their families knew each other and as the Church grew and units divided.
President Banza served as a full-time missionary in what was then known as the South African Mission. After returning home, Sister Banza became one of the first sister missionaries to serve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and she and two other sister missionaries served in a trio in Kinshasa.
President Banza and Sister Banza were friends and wrote letters during their mission. They were dating each other’s best friends.
“She told me in the correspondence that things didn’t go well, and I’m like, ‘Things didn’t go well here either,'” President Banza said. “One day, as I was reading her letter, I realized she was right in front of me. So I wrote her a letter and said, ‘What about you and me? Do you want to get married?'”
He had to wait about 10 days for her to reply. “That was the craziest proposal,” he said. But she agreed, and three months after returning from her mission, they were married.
“They love the Lord.”
About 26 years ago, the Banzas immigrated to the United States, where they have raised their three children. When they were called as mission leaders, they were ready to serve anywhere in the world.
“When the mission to Congo was decided, we were very happy to be able to return home and be with our family, friends and acquaintances,” President Banza said.
He said the high level of growth of the church in this country is exciting to watch, but it also comes with challenges. Many join the Church at the age of 19 or 20, serve a mission, and then return to lead new branches or new wards.
“The leaders are very new and inexperienced,” he said. “But they love the Lord. They are a happy people. They love the Lord and they love the church.”
Young people gather in church buildings to socialize with each other, and marriages occur among these groups of friends.
Most of the missionaries currently participating in his mission come from the center of the country. Many are first-generation members of the church and the only members in their families. They are very faithful, he said, joining churches and serving missions in large numbers.
“It’s really amazing to be with them and witness their faith and how much they love the Lord.”
