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Ivory Coast ambassador meets with First Presidency members in Salt Lake City

Visit also includes tour of Welfare Square and Humanitarian Center

The Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States, Ibrahima Touré, met with leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and toured Church sites in Salt Lake City this month.

Ivory Coast — officially the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire — is a country located on the south coast of West Africa and is in the Church’s Africa West Area.

President Dallin H. Oaks shakes hands with the Ivory Coast ambassador to the U.S. at Church headquarters as President Henry B. Eyring and Elder D. Todd Christofferson look on.
President Dallin H. Oaks greets Ibrahima Touré, Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States, in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. | Cody Bell, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

On Nov. 8, Touré met with President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring, counselors in the Church’s First Presidency, as well as Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, according to a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

Touré — who took office Dec. 14, 2021 — also visited Welfare Square and the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake City.

Associates can learn English while receiving job training at the Humanitarian Center, while Welfare Square includes a 178-foot grain silo, dairy processing plant, cannery, bakery, Deseret Industries store and Employment Services offices.

The Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States, right, visits Salt Lake City’s Welfare Square on a tour with an associate.
Ibrahima Touré, Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States, right, hears about the Church’s self-reliance program during a visit to Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The first baptisms in Ivory Coast took place in 1987. Statistics from ChurchofJesusChrist.org show just over 60,000 Latter-day Saints in 267 congregations, with the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple under construction.

Several Church leaders have visited the country over the past decade for ministry and outreach, including Elder Christofferson in February 2022. In February 2011, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ministered in the country and visited with government officials.

Then-Relief Society General President Jean B. Bingham and then-Young Women General President Bonnie H. Cordon also spent time in Ivory Coast in March 2019 meeting with leaders, speaking to members and missionaries and training Relief Society and Young Women leaders.

Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States, Ibrahima Touré speaks around a table with President Dallin H. Oaks, President Henry B. Eyring and Elder D. Todd Christofferson.
Ivory Coast’s ambassador to the United States, Ibrahima Touré, left, speaks with President Dallin H. Oaks, President Henry B. Eyring and Elder D. Todd Christofferson during a visit to Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. | Cody Bell, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring smile as they sit around a table with the Ivory Coast ambassador to the United States.
President Dallin H. Oaks and President Henry B. Eyring speak with Ivory Coast Ambassador to the United States Ibrahima Touré during his visit to Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. | Cody Bell, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
President Henry B. Eyring, Ivory Coast Ambassador Ibrahima Touré, President Dallin H. Oaks and Elder D. Todd Christofferson stand together for a portrait at Church headquarters.
From left, President Henry B. Eyring, Ivory Coast Ambassador Ibrahima Touré, President Dallin H. Oaks and Elder D. Todd Christofferson in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023. | Cody Bell, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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