Month: May 2020

What a great Saturday morning!  We headed over to the Cocody Stake Center to help with the distribution of the CHICKENS!!

This morning 500 more chickens were delivered for distribution here.  Three hundred of the chickens went to our Ivory Coast Abidjan East missionaries.  We are so grateful.  The other two hundred went to local members.  More chickens will be delivered on Monday.

You can learn more about the fundraiser that is helping to provide the means to purchase the chickens to bless lives here.  If you are able, please chip in a bit.  The cost of a chicken in the markets here is between $4 and $5.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-feed-families-in-the-ivory-coast?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&fbclid=IwAR0o9jS9UuEQgXNl35r5_yS-gol8HwXzkrthI7tS1DhI_ssK28MpHgC1tZ4

The chickens were put in sacks, 5 or 10 to a sack.  Each missionary apartment received 10 chickens.  Members from the stake also came to receive this aid which was organized by our local bishops and priesthood leaders.  These are great men.

These leaders know their members and love them.  This will be a great blessing to so many.

Throughout the morning, members and ward leaders came to pick up chickens to help deliver them to others.

With many helping, the 20 coolers were soon emptied and the chickens were bagged.

Some of our missionaries came by to help and to pick up their chickens.

Cleaning up afterwards:

Our mission helpers spent the afternoon delivering chicken to the missionaries who lived farther out.

We had 3 delivery trucks full of chicken!

By evening, the missionaries had received their gift.  Thank you to all who have helped and who continue to help with this project.  It’s not over yet.  There are so many with needs here.  Please take a look at the description in the Go Fund Me link if you’d like to learn more.

 

 

When the first fears of the COVID pandemic struck, extra supplies of rice were purchased and held at the mission office for the missionaries.  When restrictions were put on travel and meetings, we had no easy way to get the rice to the companionships.  Yesterday after the MLC, we sent rice home with those Zone Leaders for their districts.  Today we tried to deliver the rest to the companionships here in Abidjan.  Each companionship is receiving 5 kilos of rice to help get them through these trying times.

John, Fr. Oro and Eveque Mel–our office staff helping with the distribution.

 

We have another big project happening this weekend:  CHICKENS!  These local priesthood leaders came to the stake center this afternoon, anticipating a delivery of chickens for the members (and missionaries) here.  Things were a little behind schedule, so we all came back to receive the chickens in the morning.

Today was our second MLC here at the Mission Office.  We had the rest of the mission leadership come for training–3 more Zone Leader companionships.  The training was the same as yesterday for this group.

Reporting key indicators for their zone:

We slipped out before lunch to run to the store to buy sandwiches for lunch.

Here is a sample schedule for missionary work during these COVID times and suggestions about ways to use the smart phone technology we will soon have here.

Much of the afternoon training and discussion was about using smart phones.

A closer look at the schedule:

Everyone also received a laminated copy of the new Proclamation:

What a great day!  It’s a bit of a challenge to gather these days, but we’re figuring it out.  Once we have smart phones, it will be a lot easier to communicate and have virtual meetings.  We’re excited for that.

This morning we had our first of 2 MLCs here at the Mission Office.  We used to have 9 Zones, but the ones farthest away are emptied of missionaries right now.  Other zones are down to just a few missionaries.  We currently have 6 sets of Zone Leaders and 2 companionships of Sister Training Leaders.  Instead of one large MLC, we’ve divided them into 2 groups for our meetings this week (because of COVID).  Our total number of missionaries right now is 103.

The Assistants gave great trainings on obedience and faith and Pres and Sis Binene spoke to us about how to navigate during these COVID times with so many restraints and how to work effectively with members.

Pres Binene encouraged the Zone Leaders to be good leaders and watch out for everyone in their districts.  The 3 biggest challenges, he said, for missionaries are pride, selfishness and disobedience.

While Sis Binene did her training, we slipped out to go pick up sandwiches for everyone from the deli at the near by supermarket.  This is the handwashing station outside the store:

Here are some of our faithful mission leaders:

Here are a few of the things going on today here at the office.  Bro Brou Bah, our Family History specialist was teaching the APs a few family history tips:

The Mission Presidency had a meeting today.  Here is Bro Brou Bah, who popped in on the photo, along with Pres Sossou, Pres Lewis and Eveque Mel in front:

Soeurs dropping by for some help after they were robbed at knife point this afternoon:

A look at our mission office bathroom:

John continues to sort, organize and clean out the mission records:

He is emptying the cupboards of the old records to make room for the more recent ones.

The piles to be shredded are growing:

Dr Do, our Mission Doctor, dropped by today:

The work here continues.  There is not much change in the world around us.  People continue to be out and about.  Many wear face masks–maybe as many as 30%.  Public transport continues.  Some shops are closed and many are feeling hardship of less work, interrupted income, and travel restrictions in and out of Abidjan.  That’s the worst effect of the COVID-19 pandemic here–people are getting hungry.

Here is our weekly temple progress report.   Work on the temple continues during these crazy times.  There are lots of workers and this week they brought in truckloads of dirt/sand.  There is some big equipment moving it around. It’s piled up against the tin walls keeping us out, spilling out underneath.

The workers smile and wave at us when we watch them.  There is a good spirit here.

This morning we met with our District in Cocody for our weekly meeting.  We continue to practice social distancing in small groups.  It’s hard to sing with a mask on and it’s hard to hear and understand everything said, but we get along as well as we can.

Key indicators looked better this week.  Everyone is finding opportunities to teach, although it’s challenging to be out and about in these COVID times.

Soeur Adangniso taught a great lesson on effective personal study from PMG chapter 2.

We always have good discussions and there is lots of participation.

I admire and honor these young missionaries.  They are here willingly, doing hard things.  It’s not easy, it’s not comfortable, it’s not sure.  They have faith and desires to serve.  They testify and they lift me.  It’s good to be with them.

We live now in the financial secretary’s office, which is in the mission office.  We have this nice place with a window, a small fridge and A/C.  Here’s a pic of our office after we found a ladder:

Before the ladder, John just climbed the mountain of rice in the corner to get to the cupboards and storage areas above that haven’t seen the light of day in years.  We found all sorts of things up there, including about 24 pillows and towels and hand water pumps and filters and thermos bottles and paper supplies.

This office has also been full to the brim with financial records dating back to 2011.  We’ve learned that we only need to keep 3 years of records behind the current year, so everything from 2017 forward.  Today we started pulling the old stuff out.

Here is the pile of records that will need to be destroyed.  We’ve ordered a shredder to help with that job.  This will give us a little breathing room in our office to organize the records we’ll be keeping.  Bit by bit, we are getting organized here as we prepare for an upcoming audit and the arrival of a new Mission President in July.