Church members who had been baptized in the Netherlands and Ghana formed a study group in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1988. That same year two missionary couples arrived, and in June they took part in a service in which the first 14 converts were baptized.
The Goderich Branch (a small congregation) was organized in August 1988, and in 1989 the first local full-time missionary was called to serve in his country. In May and August 1992 two missionary couples were temporarily removed from Sierra Leone because of unrest. By year's end 1993, 89 Sierra Leonians were serving full-time missions, including 41 from the six branches of the Freetown area.
In 1994, quilts from the young women of the Frederick Maryland Stake (a geographic area similare to a diocese) were shipped to Sierra Leone through the Church's Washington, D.C., welfare complex. With each quilt was a letter, signed by the young women, that explained that individual pieces of the quilt represented acts of love and service.
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