Hello and welcome to the Latter-day Saint Women podcast, where we share the legacy of women of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You'll get to know the faithful women who shaped our past and hear from inspiring women of faith today.

I'm Shailen Back. And I'm Carly Geiman. We are your co-host. And today,

we are so excited to welcome Amelia Ahaji to the podcast, who is joining us remotely from Ghana.

Hi, Amelia. How are you?

Hi. I'm so glad to be with you too.

We're so glad that technology allows us to have this conversation

today and to learn from you and from your experiences. To introduce Amelia quickly, Amelia Ahaji

is the church communication director in the Africa West area, where she is employed full-time

by the church to oversee outreach and relationship building

with media, government, and interfaith opinion leaders in the area.

And she just told us that includes 16 countries in the region, 10 of those countries where the church is active.

Amelia has worked for the church in various capacities since 1988 when she was hired as the first female

employee of the church in the area. And she has a master's degree in governance and leadership.

So Amelia, again, welcome to the podcast. We're so excited to get to chat with you.

Thank you so much for coming to Africa this time.

Of course. We're so lucky. Emmy, to begin, you're a convert to the church, and we would love for you to share your conversion story. You've told us that

growing up, you were quite religious and that you were actually ordained a preacher of another religion as a young

adult. And when Latter-day Saint missionaries started teaching your cousin, you weren't very

interested in listening, but you said your heart changed when you learned about the plan of

salvation. So can you just share more about your conversion to the gospel and why was it that learning about the

plan of salvation had such a big effect on you? Thank you, Charlene. This is a wonderful

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