An African (Kenya) Mormon Story - Dr. Joe Ngatia | Ep. 2070

Mormon Stories Podcast

Dr. John Dehlin

Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 278 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this powerful and first-ever interview with a Latter-day Saint convert from Kenya, we explore the remarkable faith journey of Dr. Joe Ngatia (pronounced “ga-tia”). Africa has become one of the fastest growing regions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, yet Joe’s story reveals the complexities behind that growth – from faith and miracles to history, race, and resilience.

Joe shares his encounter with the missionaries and how his family first reacted having only heard rumors about “Mormons being devil worshippers.” His story moves from Nairobi to Rexburg, Idaho, BYU-Provo, and on to medical school in Florida, chronicling his faith, struggles with racism in America, and developing cracks in his testimony. Joe reflects on questions of revelation, truth, miracles, and identity – asking what it means to remain true to one’s own spiritual experiences while confronting painful history?

This is one of our most profound and far-reaching conversations yet – bridging continents, beliefs, and experiences in search of understanding.

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At Mormon Stories we explore, celebrate, and challenge Mormon culture through in-depth stories told by members and former members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well as scholars, authors, LDS apologists, and other professionals.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories Podcast. I'm your host, John DeLinn. It is October 7th, 2025. And today we are super excited to have with us for the first time in Mormon Story Studio, a human, a person who joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the country of Kenya. His name is Joe Gatia. Hey, Joe, how's it going?
0:23.1	Doing great. Thank you for having me.
0:25.1	Thank you so much for coming to our studios to be on Mormon Stories.
0:28.4	Absolutely. Thank you for inviting me.
0:31.1	And there's several reasons why we're super excited to have Joe on the podcast.
0:35.6	Number one, his outline is just fantastic. He's got a great story.
0:39.3	We've also, as far as I know, never interviewed anyone from Kenya before. Joe's also a medical
0:44.4	doctor here in the United States. And his Mormon journey begins in Africa and it continues to present day in whatever flavor it now is here in the
1:00.4	United States.
1:01.8	But for those of you who don't know much about the LDS Church or the Mormon Church, the
1:06.6	single continent that is experiencing by far the most growth in all of the LDS Church is the
1:13.5	continent of Africa, and specifically sub-Saharan Africa. And so we have certainly not had enough
1:21.5	Africans on Mormon Stories podcast. And now is a better time than any to do that. And I'm really excited to
1:30.8	hear Joe's perspective on joining the church in Africa and the church's growth in Africa.
1:36.6	But we're going to be talking about all sorts of things, including Joe's faith journey.
1:42.8	And the final thing I'll say is that here on Mormon Story Studio,
1:46.9	our motive is to build bridges, to help build understanding, to help promote peace,
1:55.8	and to help provide support for people who want to learn more about Mormonism or the church,
2:02.6	to hear people's stories, to develop empathy for all the different types of Mormon and
2:08.6	LDS experiences that there are.
2:10.6	So without any further ado, Joe Gatia, welcome to Mormon Stories Podcast.
2:14.6	Thank you very much.
	...

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