Area-Wide YSA Training Prepares Service Missionary Couples to Support YSA Programs Across West Africa

A group of 26 service missionary couples recently traveled to Accra, Ghana from various countries across West Africa to participate in a conference where they received training for their callings as Young Single Adult (YSA) service missionaries. These missionary couples serve at the coordinating council level in the Africa West Area of the Church, where each oversees YSA activity ranging between 4 – 12 stakes.

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The conference, held September 20-21, 2024, opened with a message from President Alfred Kyungu, president of the Africa West Area of the Church. He and Sister Kyungu shared their love, encouragement and counsel for the attendees.  The conference then proceeded with a focus on preparing these service missionaries to support their local Stake Presidents as well as their local YSA leaders to set up and strengthen Gathering Places, to assist young single adults who are interested in participating in BYU-Pathway, and to help transition returning missionaries.

Another significant focus of the conference centred on training these YSA missionary couples to serve and teach in unity as couples, encouraging them to be examples of a strong, covenant marriage. The need for strong YSA leaders who lead and support strong and available programs is critical since YSAs are the largest and fastest growing group of Church members in the Africa West Area. These young single adults today face challenges ranging from finding spouses, staying active in the Church, to finding jobs and supporting themselves.

According to Sister Ngozi Lambert, a service YSA missionary from Nigeria who attended, the programs and services she’s preparing to support are designed to help young single adults “become spiritually self-reliant, they can also get on the covenant path, be married in the temple, and be sealed for time and for all eternity.” Referencing programs such as The Gathering Place, she added that they can also “help them find a job to make a living.”

Open to young single adults of any faith, and free of charge, the Gathering Place program offers classes taught by qualified professionals who provide technical and vocational training for the purpose of helping participants become self-reliant.  Additionally, says Elder Zachary Poulter, a senior YSA missionary serving in the Africa West Area offices who, with his wife Rebecca, has been instrumental in establishing and building the YSA program in the area. The Gathering Place is a lot more than skills training: “It’s Pathway, it’s self-reliance, it’s family search, it’s institute.”

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Addressing Pathway, Elder Stanley Ngene, who related that he and his wife are Zone Leaders for BYU-Pathway Worldwide in the Enugu Coordinating Council, lauded the success and appeal of the Pathway program.  He noted that not only degree seekers, but people who already have advanced education degrees are coming to BYU-Pathway for additional education.  After raising the question of why these degreed individuals would come and what they are looking for, he explained that not only does the program offer education that is creative, innovative, and ennobling, “it’s the first time that education is mingling with spirituality, and that is the attraction.”

Sister Angela King, who not too long ago served as a young sister missionary in the Congo Kinshasa West mission, came from Sierra Leone to attend the YSA training with her husband Samuel.  Her presence there now as a YSA service missionary represented the full cycle of the missionary transitioning services available through the YSA programs. 

Often, returning missionaries come back to their home countries with no home to go home to, no job, some with no family to welcome them back and help them with the challenges of day-to-day life, and others with no friends to engage with socially. They need help, and the YSA program helps transition these missionaries.  So when Sister King returned from her own mission, a YSA couple reached out to her regularly, helping her deal with the challenges of leaving full-time missionary service. She relates that “their messages really helped me” and expressed excitement for her new calling in being the one to now help transition missionaries. She explains, “I have been there before. Someone has helped me, and now it is my turn. I need to give back what I have received. So I’m more excited and really to help.”

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Addressing another aspect of transitioning returning missionaries, which is to have opportunities for healthy interaction with other young single adults, Elder King recounted his own experiences with the YSA program in Freetown.  He noted that every YSA activity he participated in after joining the Church was carried forward with the slogan “mingle and tangle,” meaning a “tangle that will lead us to the temple.” He then summarized his and his wife’s commitment to their calling as service YSA missionaries:  “We are excited to be part of this great work.  We are also happy to be in that same position to help inspire [young single adults] to enter into this covenant path.”

Setting the example to follow the covenant path, participants in the conference were blessed with the opportunity to attend the Accra Ghana temple before the conference ended.  One couple was able to have their marriage sealed for time and eternity, and other couples were able to complete ordinance work for parents or grandparents.  Finally, the training was over and the conference concluded with an address from Elder Adeyinka Ojediran, first counselor in the Africa West Area Presidency.  All 26 couples then returned to their homes to implement the training they received.

These service YSA missionary couples are called to 2-year missions and serve 20-25 hours each week in that capacity while simultaneously holding down their full-time time jobs, raising a family, and holding ward- or stake-level callings in the congregations where they attend church. Their dedication and service is not only an inspiration, it is helping thousands of young single adults across the Africa West Area.