Francisco Dique Sousa

Francisco Dique Sousa was in many respects the organizer of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in Mozambique.

Sousa's son-in-law, Chico Mapenda, had joined the LDS Church while studying in the German Democratic Republic. In 1990, when Germany was reunified, Mapenda was sent back to Mozambique. Francisco Dique Sousa had previously been a Protestant minister. He and Mapenda shared the message of Mormonism with people in Marromeu. Due to these efforts, when LDS Church missionaries arrived in Mozambique in 1998 they found 500 people in Marromeu waiting to be baptized. When a branch was organized in Marromeu in 2000, Sousa became its first president.

When a branch was organized in Beira, the branch president was Augusto Cherequejanhe, another son-in-law of Sousa's who had been introduced to the LDS Church by Sousa. When the Beira Mozambique District of the church was organized in April 2003, Augusto Cherequejanhe was the president with Chico Mapenda serving as his first counselor.

References

*"2008 Deseret Morning News Church Almanac" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Morning News, 2007) pp. 423–424
*Garr et. al "Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History", pp. 802–803