Breaking a Twenty-Four-Hour Fast: Missionaries Arrive at a Rain-Forest Congregation the Very Hour They Were Prayed For

Following the 1978 revelation on the priesthood, Elder Rendell N. Mabey — one of the first two missionaries sent to Africa — traveled a great distance through a Nigerian rain forest to find one particular congregation of unbaptized Book of Mormon believers. Arriving on a Saturday, they found a small village church with a sign that read "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" — built by people who had never seen a missionary. The excited pastor ran out and rang the assembly bell, and all the people came back.

After the meeting, the pastor stood up with tears in his eyes and thanked the Lord for answering their prayers: that very Saturday, the congregation had been assembled to break a twenty-four-hour fast — specifically asking the Lord to send them missionaries. "We've listened to you for an hour and we all believe what you tell us is true and we want to be baptized!" the pastor declared. Elder Mabey reported the scene in his account of the West African mission; such ready congregations, found already gathered under the Church's name, were why 149 converts were baptized in a single 24-hour period and more than 1,700 members in 35 branches within one year.