September 2020 – Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission

The Affairs of the Mission

We spent the morning with the Assistants and the office Elders discussing the affairs of the mission. We went area by area, district by district and zone by zone, analyzing each area and its needs. There has been so much change in our mission these last few months. It’s time to re-group and make sure our missionaries are in the very most effective places for the work to go forward. This is an exciting time to be here and this is a wonderful work to be involved in. Good things are happening around us.

Elder Joseph’s Departure to Haiti

Today was our second try at getting Elder Joseph on his way home to Haiti. Today it worked! All of the papers and documents and COVID tests were acceptable. This time his flight went to Lome, Togo, then to Newark, NJ, then to Ft. Lauderdale, FL and then to Port au Prince, Hait.

Elder Joseph is an outstanding missionary. We will miss him here.

Church Meetings Resume. Today in N’dotre with the Blankro Branch.

Today we traveled to N’dotre to visit our branch there. We have 6 Districts and 3 independent Branches in our Abidjan East Mission. The Blankro Branch in N’dotre is part of the Agboville District. President Sossou is a member of this branch.

Here is where the Blankro Branch meets.

When we arrived, these members were waiting, sitting reverently, listening to hymns. All of the COVID rules were followed perfectly, with a young man at the door welcoming us and checking our temperatures. Everyone used hand sanitizer and wore a mask. The chairs were safely spaced to keep everyone safe. What a beautiful group of Saints!

Here is our faithful Branch Presidency in N’dotre:

And here they are with our Mission Presidency:

One of our fairly recently returned missionaries, Sr Blesson, lives in N’dotre now. She was the first speaker and did a beautiful job. Then we heard from Elder Lewis, Sis Bendixsen and Pres Bendixsen. I enjoyed the meeting very much and the peaceful feeling here. Oh, it’s good to meet again, together at last!

After the meeting, there was lots of visiting and catching up to do.

After our sacrament meeting, everyone was invited to return home to continue their Sabbath worship and study with their families.

Heading home–

Here is a cassava patch near the branch building.

I am grateful to be in a place like this with friends like these. It makes me feel happy and whole. Happy Sabbath!

Elder Joseph’s Departure, Almost

This evening we loaded up Elder Joseph and his luggage and headed to the airport to see him off. He had a flight from Abidjan to Paris to JFK to Haiti.

After some time in the terminal, Elder Joseph came back out to where we were waiting to be sure he got on the flight. He didn’t. Something was wrong with his US visa. We will have to try again, another way. We are learning to expect the unexpected here.

Mission Leadership Council with Elder Kacher

This afternoon our mission leaders met for continued instruction with Elder Kacher and Pres Bendixsen.

Elder Joseph from Haiti shared his departing testimony.

These are very fine leaders. It’s a blessing to be here with them.

A Multi-Zone Conference with Elder Kacher (Cocody, Dokui, Abobo 1 and Abobo 2)

Elder Kacher returned today to meet with the rest of our missionaries. It was a great day for all of us! We love having visiting authorities with their wives and appreciate all they do to help.

Here’s a fun look at this fantastic group of missionaries today.

Elder and Sister Kacher:

John is helping with some new smartphones for the new missionaries.

In the Neighborhood

This morning before our Multi-Zone Conference, we had a few errands to run, including picking up a supply of water for the upcoming meetings. Here are a few interesting things we saw along the way.

Home security systems for sale: barbed wire and electrical wire:

A hardware store:

Vans full of people and produce are everywhere:

Grilled plantain and a dancing darling:

New Missionaries Arrive!

These are interesting times to be a missionary! Today we welcomed 6 new missionaries to the Abidjan East Mission. Only one of the 6 has been called to serve in this mission, the others are “temporary,” with calls to serve outside of Cote d’Ivoire.

These are our new missionaries:

Sis Ahi, Ketoura Bernice going to Owerri, Nigeria
Elder Ahui, Djiragbou Ake going to the DRC
Elder Houphouet, Ernest Jr. going to France, Lyons
Elder Konan, Jean Serge 21 going to Brazzaville, RC
Elder Konan, N’da Jean (twins) going to the DRC
Elder Kouassi, Kouame Jean-Jacques staying HERE.

Today they had their new missionary orientation where they received instruction on policies and procedures in the mission.

Waiting for everyone to arrive.

The Konan twins saying goodbye to their parents.

Once everyone was here, they all went over to the temple to talk about why we’re here and what our end goal is. A year from now we hope this sacred building will be completed and these missionaries will be able to receive their own temple blessings along with those they will be teaching.

Back at the mission office.

We had Pizza Hut pizzas for lunch!

The delivery man:

John explained about mission finances and money matters.

Bro Brou-Baah taught them about family history and how to enter their photos and memories into FamilySearch. He added photos of the Konan family this morning.

This afternoon the missionaries got to find out who their trainers would be. These trainers had joined the meeting this afternoon.

Our new group and companionships:

Elder Konan’s companion was too far away to come in today, but they will meet up in Adzope.

A little more family history:

And taking care of finances:

And now the fun for these 6 begins! We’re so happy to have them here!

Sister Mahunda and Sister Mahunda Depart

This morning early we picked up Sis Mahunda to take her to the airport. She opted to travel today so she could fly home with her sister who has been serving in the Abidjan West Mission next door.

These beautiful sisters met again after 18 months of service here at the airport.

They have a brother living here in Abidjan who also came. What a fun reunion for this family!

Pres and Sis Lewis from the West Mission and Pres and Sis Lewis from the East Mission.

There were four missionaries departing today from the West Mission. Farewell to all!

Church Meetings Resume! and Temple Progress

Today was a great day! We’ve received permission to start holding church meetings again here in this area. It’s been 6 months since we’ve been able to meet together. Here in the stake center, we had one ward meet this morning at 8:00 and our ward met at 11:00. The building was cleaned well and precautions were taken as we entered, with a hand washing station and a temperature taker.

As friends arrived, we spread out, honoring social distancing and COVID protocols.

After sacrament meeting we had a gospel doctrine class and after the class, we celebrated the marriage and baptism of a new member family with some delicious cake.