Monga

This weekend we went to Kolwezi to preside at a member district conference. We invited our friend and African mentor, Brother Monga, to accompany us as our guide and driver because of the unique challenges of surface travel in the Congo. He knows the road to Kolwezi better than anybody. As the director of Seminary and Institute in this area he goes there about once a month. That alone makes him amazing! But he is our great friend and helper and everybody in the area knows Monga. Anything you want to know or do people say, ask Brother Monga.

Frere Elie Monga

I want to record his story, which we learned on our trip. You can learn a lot about a person in 10 hours in the car.

When Monga was 21, he was looking for answers to important life questions. At that time he met, what he called, "an old man" who told him about a church and a special book. He loaned a copy of the Book to Mormon to Monga for three days. Monga read it straight through and said that, as he read, all the questions about the meaning of life were answered for him. He knew that he needed to find this church. At that time the church didn't exist in Kolwezi, but he learned that it was in Lubumbashi, which is 300 km away, about 180 miles. So, Monga went to work in the silver mines to earn enough money to go to Lubumbasi. When he finally got there, he studied and was baptized. He wanted to serve a mission, but by that time he was beyond the age limit (27), but somehow he got special permission to go. He was called to the Kinshasa mission and served in Brazzaville for a few months when terrible political problems arose and there was much killing and war in Brazzaville. The mission was closed. They sent the missionaries to the Ivory Coast, where he worked for a few months. Then the Kinshasa mission was opened again and he returned to Brazzaville, although the mission president in the Ivory Coast wanted the elders to stay because they were so devoted and the work increased with them there. He worked in Brazzaville again for only a few months and again a bloody civil war began. Again the missionaries were preparing to be sent home, when the mission president from the Ivory Coast asked to have them returned to his mission. So, Monga was able to return there and finish his mission. While he was on his mission his parents, who had objected to his baptism, were taught the missionary lessons and joined the church. When Monga returned from his mission, he wanted to bring the church to Kolwezi, so he went there to teach. He taught 82 people about the gospel in just a short time. They were all baptized. They went to the river and baptized all 82 people in one day. He said they baptized continuously from 4:00 pm until 8:30 pm that day. This group of saints grew to be a strong branch in Kolwezi until unrest between two tribes caused many of the members to move away. Most of the group moved to Luputa, where there are now several very strong branches of the church.

So, everybody in Luputa knows Monga too. Kolwezi suffered from this mass exodus and now only three branches have survived. Monga told us that he still had a few relatives in Kolwezi.

Soeur Monga

This is the second person that I met when we got to the chapel. She is the first counselor in the District Relief Society and is Monga's sister-in-law.

The next person I met was his brother...then an uncle...then another brother... his cousin..another sister-in-law, his niece, his nephew, his wife's brother, a person baptized by Monga, a person whose father was baptized by Monga and so it went all day long. Everybody was related to, baptized or taught in Seminary by Monga. Monga later went to the Univesity of Lubumbashi and graduated with a degree in English. He has translated for most of the General Authorities who have come to the Congo. What a difference one young man, who was searching for truth, has made here in the Congo. And what a difference it makes to us to have Monga in our African world. He is a man of honor, wisdom, charity and humor to match anybody that we have ever met. And he is one crazy driver. When I am recovered enough to write about the trip to Kolwezi, there will be much more to tell about our friend, Monga.