Mormon Missionaries Head Back to West Africa after Ebola Outbreak

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Missionaries from The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints will return to Liberia now that the West African country has been declared free of Ebola.

KUTV-TV reports that Elder David Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles recently visited the country with his wife to discuss the area being safe. No new cases have been reported since June.

The LDS church removed missionaries from Liberia and Sierra Leone in August 2014 as the Ebola virus outbreak began. The missionaries were reassigned to other missions in different parts of the world.

Missionaries began returning to the countries in the beginning of September.

There are currently 53 LDS missionaries and four senior missionaries serving in Liberia. The Church is looking to increase the number of missionaries there to 100.