Africa: From 19 members to more than 270,000 members

Since 1978, when 19 Africans were baptized members of the LDS Church,

more than 270,000 people on that continent have become Latter-day

Saints, and the estimate of black membership worldwide is pegged at

about 1 million.Currently, Africa hosts 46 LDS stakes, 19 missions, 41 districts, 336

wards, 466 branches, three temples and two missionary training centers

(in Ghana and South Africa.)Those numbers are not only cause for celebration, but they will likely

grow in the future, according to Elder Sheldon F. Child, a member of

the First Quorum of the Seventy, reflecting on what has happened to the

face of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in three

decades since the priesthood was extended to "all worthy males."On Sunday, the church will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the June

8, 1978, announcement that then-President Spencer W. Kimball had

received a revelation lifting a ban on priesthood ordination—and

thus, temple ordinances—for black Latter-day Saints worldwide.The 7 p.m. service in the Tabernacle will feature Elder Child and Elder

Earl S. Tingey of the Presidency of the Seventy, along with two stake

presidents who preside over several LDS congregations in New Jersey and

Atlanta. Tickets for the event are gone, but standby seating will be

available on Temple Square.Elder Child, a former mission president in New York, said he was

contacted Thursday night by one of his former missionaries, Phoenix

attorney Dustin Jones, who had heard about the event and was asking if

he could find tickets. He has made plans to fly in Sunday to attend.As a missionary in the early '90s, Jones was one of a handful of

African Americans who served under Elder Child. "He was just a great