Sixteen Thousand Unbaptized Believers—'Nothing Like This in Any Dispensation' (Nigeria & Ghana, 1950s–1970s)

From the 1950s through the 1970s, a great host of devout Christians in Nigeria and Ghana gained a testimony of the restored gospel from the Book of Mormon and Church literature, and they pleaded with Church headquarters for baptism. What began as a trickle of letters became a flood; more letters requesting literature were received from Nigeria and Ghana than from all the rest of the world combined. Because there were no priesthood holders to preside, those asking for baptism were told, 'The time is not yet. You must wait.' As they waited, they organized their own congregations—in the 1960s more than sixty congregations with more than sixteen thousand participants, none of whom were baptized. E. Dale LeBaron, who gathered this story from the oral histories, observed: 'As far as is known, nothing like this had occurred in this or in any other dispensation.' This remarkable waiting is a faith-promoting witness of the Lord preparing a people in Africa for the restored gospel long before His servants could come—a people who believed, bore testimony, and built chapels without yet receiving the ordinances.