Kenneth Stuart Armstrong remembers as a young boy walking to Sunday School beside his mother. In a baby "pram" (stroller) pushed by the young mother was her baby daughter and riding on the running board of the pram was her younger son.
The little family was making its way to the small Springs Branch near Johannesburg, South Africa. En route, the young man realized he had forgotten something and returned home - with the intention of joining his mother later at the tiny shoe shop where branch members met for Sunday services. Once home, however, he decided he'd just stay."I never made that mistake again," Brother Armstrong said, laughing, referring to his mother's reaction when she came home after meetings. His mother's influence remained strong throughout his life. Today, he continues faithful in the gospel and in building the Church in the southern-most country on the African continent. He was recently released as president of the South Africa Cape Town Mission - the first South African mission president called to serve within the country.
Brother Armstrong and his wife, Muriel, were in Salt Lake City for the October 1996 general conference. They met with the Church News to discuss the growth of the Church in South Africa and his experiences as a local Church leader. The soft-spoken man discussed the various events in his country that proved an impetus to growth, such as the organization of the Johannesburg South Africa Stake in 1970, the 1978 revelation on the priesthood and the dedication of the Johannesburg South Africa Temple in 1985.
"A highly significant thing in the growth of the Church here was when President
Marion G.T Romney came out and organized that first stake. That was a major event in all of our lives," Brother Armstrong recalled.
Speaking of "the opening up of the gospel to all races," he explained, it "has had a massive impact upon the membership of the Church here."
He noted that in Port Elizabeth, on the eastern coast of South Africa and where Brother Armstrong served as district president more than once, three of the five branches are made up of black members. In nearby Queenstown a district serves black members and has a black district presidency. A black branch president was recently called as a counselor in the presidency of the East London district, up the coast from Port Elizabeth.
The resulting growth in leadership among all members - regardless of race - is significant in a country once plagued with political and racial strife over now-abolished apartheid, a term describing the "separate development" of races and cultures. The "melting pot" of South Africa includes whites of mainly English or Dutch descent, blacks of several African tribes, others of mixed parentage, and Asians. Although tribal languages are common in South Africa, the predominant languages are English and Afrikaans (a combination of Dutch, German and French).
As to having a temple in the country, Brother Armstrong said once members go to this sacred edifice, "their vision of the Church expands. The temple increases their commitment."
The influence of the Church in South Africa expanded about the same time - it seems - that Brother Armstrong was growing from boyhood to manhood. He was born Oct. 12, 1937, to Ernest and Phyllis Futter Armstrong in Springs, a small gold mining town.
To this day, he credits his mother for providing the building blocks of Church activity in his family. As a non-LDS girl growing up in East London, she attended Primary with her brothers and sisters. Her mother, Brother Armstrong's grandmother, became concerned her children were attending a "strange Church, so she went to Church one day and ended up being baptized. Then my grandfather was later baptized."
It was during the Great Depression that his parents moved to Springs, where his father obtained work as a carpenter in the gold mines. During these years, Brother Armstrong's mother ensured her children were active in the branch. "It was my mom who pulled us through. She was rock solid."
Brother Armstrong's father was not LDS. "He was bitterly opposed to the Church. He mellowed later on, and when he died [in 1980], we were great friends."
When Brother Armstrong was about 22 years old, a woman working in a grocery store in the basement of the same building in which he was employed began talking to him about her 16-year-old daughter, Muriel Dorothy Dalldorf. Eventually he and the daughter began dating.
It was through Brother Armstrong that the young woman was introduced to the gospel. While they were dating, Brother Armstrong would purposely drive past a local LDS meetinghouse. Once was on a Tuesday evening, and the young woman wondered aloud why cars were parked there on a day other than Sunday. "He'd tell me all about the young people's programs. Then he'd take me out on a Thursday, and I'd ask, `Why the cars on a Thursday?' And he'd tell me all about the Relief Society," Sister Armstrong explained.
She was later baptized and the two continued dating. They were married in 1962. The young couple immediately began saving to travel to the London Temple to be sealed. "We couldn't buy a home because we wanted to get to the temple," Brother Armstrong said. "It took a lot of savings, so we didn't get to the temple until 1967."
The little family, then including 3- and 2-year-old boys, traveled by steamship to England and received their temple blessings. Today, they have five children.
After the Johannesburg stake was created in 1970, Brother Armstrong was called as bishop of the newly organized Springs Ward. Then, in 1971, his work as a training manager for General Motors resulted in a transfer to Port Elizabeth, where he was called as branch president. "Port Elizabeth was just a branch when we first went there. The branch president in East London and I started having combined events for the young people and combined for seminary."
As a result, a district was created that included the two cities, and Brother Armstrong served as both branch and district president. Eventually, Port Elizabeth and East London became separate districts.
During this time, membership in Port Elizabeth grew from 30 members to some 160. "It was a period of tremendous growth," he recalled. He described members' hunger to learn Church organization and procedure.
"We set up a system that every Saturday before Fast Sunday we'd gather all the members together for leadership, and we'd take them through the training program. We set about developing people."
The Church in South Africa continued to grow, and in 1990, the Africa Area was created, and area offices were established in Johannesburg.
In October 1992, the Armstrong's son, Russell, and his family were involved in a serious car accident. Brother and Sister Armstrong were preparing to leave for Cape Town, where the young family was in the hospital, when Elder J Ballard Washburn, then of the Seventy and a member of the area presidency, telephoned. He requested they meet with him in Johannesburg as soon as possible.
Sister Armstrong recalled: "My mother's heart said, `I need to be with my children.' My spiritual heart said we must listen to the servant of the Lord."
The Armstrongs decided to leave immediately for Johannesburg. Brother Armstrong related: "We drove through the night and went to his office, and he dropped a bombshell on us about my serving as a mission president."
Then, with great emotion, they both spoke of visiting Brother Armstrong's mother, who was also in the hospital, but in Johannesburg. As the elderly woman was anemic, she was frequently in the hospital for blood transfusions, and, thus, her condition had not been considered serious.
But this time proved different. Upon arriving at her bedside, they discovered she was very weak. "We were able to share with her the fact that her son was in the process of being called to be a mission president, which made her happy," Brother Armstrong said.
Ten minutes later, his mother died. "If we hadn't gone to see Pres. Washburn for that interview, I wouldn't have seen my mom and she would never have known about my calling in this life."
Brother Armstrong served as mission president from 1993-96. He and his wife speak with great love for their mission, and especially of their missionaries. Today, two of their elders, one being the first black zone leader in South Africa, now serve as branch presidents. And, most ironically, one of his assistants is now the Armstrong's branch president in Port Elizabeth.
The Armstrongs see developing leadership as a "primary task" of mission leaders. And with their experience growing with the Church in South Africa, they, indeed, know of what they teach.