Month: October 2020

Office Meeting and Interviewing the West Mission Office Elders

On Mondays we have our office staff meetings in the West Mission.  We are stilling going back and forth a bit between the missions, taking care of business.  We are really enjoying getting to know these Elders.

Here is our office group of faithful workers.

We sat with each of these Elders this afternoon and visited with them about their lives and families and backgrounds.  This mission is a wonderful melting pot of cultures and nationalities.  In this group we have 2 Filipinos, one from Samoa, one from Togo, one from Haiti, one from the DRC and one Ivorian.

Elder Unasa  is helping with special assignments like the emergency food preparation.  He has been here for about 29 months and we finally have a flight home for him next Monday.  Elder Yrie is the mission financial secretary.

Elder Casupanan and Elder Flecher are our technical specialists.  Elder Flecher has been here almost 31 months!  We hope to send him home soon.

Elder Balbutin  is the travel secretary and Elder Kabeya is the mission secretary.

Elder Tshibanda and Elder Agbahounzo are the Assistants to the President.

As part of the interviews, John will be checking everyone’s financial budget which was recently taught and implemented.

We are so grateful to get to be here now with this team.  They are so good.

A Visit to the Prodomo Ward

Today at noon we attended the Prodomo Ward in the West Mission.  It was so great to be among the members gathered there who were excited to be able to meet together again.  Local leaders have been instructed to respect COVID protocols and precautions as wards and branches begin meeting together again after this long COVID lockdown period.

This meeting house also serves as a Stake Center and it sits in the heart of a busy neighborhood.

There are 4 wards who meet in this building every Sunday!  We saw Elders going and coming.

We had a lovely Sacrament service centered on the sacrament and the sacramental prayers as we renewed our covenants with our Heavenly Father.   Instead of singing, we were able to listen to beautiful recorded music.  There were 9 fans mounted up around the rooms, so it was a little difficult to hear the speaker (no microphone), but when you can’t hear, you can imagine their words, so the sermons are always wonderful!

After the sacrament service, we had a Sunday School lesson from the Come Follow Me manual about the gathering of Israel.

There was extra seating in interesting places around the room where we had sacrament meeting.

This electric keyboard was in a room just off the main room.  We didn’t use it today, but the children were enjoying playing on it after church.

These are some of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen.

There is no place in this world I would rather be than with my brothers and sisters here, right here in West Africa.

Visiting the Prodomo Elders’ Apartment (West Mission)

We gave the Prodomo Elders a ride home after work.  Their apartment was quite far from the church building.  It was fun to visit and receive a tour of their living quarters.  You can learn a lot about missionaries by seeing how they live.  I loved this visit and the evidences here of focused missionary work.

Bedroom and study areas:

A tie collection:

The kitchen:

Laundry area:

 

 

 

Here is the mirror where they can  shave and make sure they are good to go as they leave their apartment.

Barbells for exercising:

In the neighborhood.  Many homes or apartments have these small A/C units in a room.  Our missionaries usually just have fans pointed at their beds in their bedrooms.

I call these transport vehicles handcarts.  Many young men walk the streets with their handcarts, hoping to be hired by someone needing help moving something.

A local shoe store.

Women’s underwear for sale!

These men are traveling sewing machinists.  If you have mending, they will come to you and set up shop to repair your clothing for you.

Zone Conference with the Abobo 1 & 2 Zones

 

This morning we went to the Abobo Stake Center to meet with our 2 Abobo Zones.  We had a full day of activity with these Elders.  It was a great day.

This conference followed the same agenda as the previous conferences.  John taught again about the mission support funds and the changes we are making in how they are distributed and accounted for.

A short break.

Then we had our training from Fr Oro on keeping our apartments clean.

Fr Ebick is our sound technician and technology support.

Then it was time for lunch.  Chicken and rice in a box!

After lunch we played a really fun game.  Four companionships were invited to the front.  One companion in each companionship left the room, leaving the other.  They had to answer 4 questions, guessing how they thought their companion would answer.  They wrote their guesses on a slip of paper.  Then their companions were invited back in and each was asked the same questions.  The game was to see how well you knew your companion.  It was a lot of fun and everyone cheered the companionships on!

After the conference, we took our group photo.

 

And then cleaning supplies were distributed for each apartment.  What a great day!

Interviews with the Port Bouet Zone, Abidjan West Mission

Today was the beginning of our interview cycle in the West Mission.  We began with the Port Bouet Zone.  We had them come to the Cocody Stake Center instead of the office because we were helping with the Cocody Zone Conference here.  Here are the 8 fine companionships we met with.  As we sat with each missionary, we learned so much about who they are–where they come from, about their families, their conversion stories and how they came to serve as missionaries.

I am taking notes and recording these incredible stories.  I’d publish them to the world if I could so everyone could see and feel the faith of these amazing young servants of God.  They truly are remarkable.

At the end of each interview, John is reviewing their budget and finances.  These missionaries are learning some very important skills here.

We stopped by the office this evening to finish some work there just as these good office Elders were leaving.  We love these missionaries!

Zone Conference with the Cocody Zone

Today was the Zone Conference for our Cocody Zone!  We love these missionaries.  This is the zone we belong to, so we are especially close to this group of missionaries as they come and go.

Look how beautiful these missionaries are!

We began with a welcome from our leaders and some thoughts from Sis Bendixsen about the promises found in the title page of the Book of Mormon.

Then John taught the missionaries about the changes we are making in their missionary support funds.

 

Elder Amani gave a great talk on being a wise steward and following the example of the wise virgins who kept their lamps full.

 

Then Fr Oro did his part, teaching the missionaries about keeping their apartments clean.  He brought samples of the cleaning supplies that are given to each apartment.  He showed slides with good and not so good examples of clean apartments and he demonstrated how to use the supplies and cleaning tools.

 

 

 

 

After that, John and I excused ourselves to go to our other assignment with the West Mission.  We spent the rest of the day doing interviews with the missionaries there.

Mission Leadership Meeting, Abidjan East Mission

This morning the East Mission held their monthly Mission Leadership Meeting (MLC) with all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.  These are always such fun meetings with our outstanding leaders.  We broke away from the West Mission for a bit to join our friends here.

John taught the missionaries about the changes we are making in the way the soutien (missionary support funds– MSF) are administered here.  These changes have been in the works for several weeks and they will implemented the first of November.  The plans will be rolled out in our zone conferences in the next few days.  Today the leaders were taught.

Other things discussed today were the emergency preparedness, keeping apartments clean and preparing for using the area book planners in our cell phones for our missionary work.

 

 

 

Yesterday, Elder Noonga arrived on a flight from Brazzaville where he was temporarily assigned.   He has been called to serve here in the Abidjan East Mission.  We were happy to have him join us today. 

Bits and Pieces of Interest

Here are a few random photos taken this week of interesting things.  These are a few of the COVID signs we see around here and a hand washing station outside of a store.

Wow, Halloween comes to Africa!  Here’s a display in the Orca department store!

And here are the road improvements made on our street this week.  We got new dumps of road base!!

Here is a billboard of the current President of Cote d’Ivoire.  He is running for a 3rd term.  There is a lot of excitement around town these days and some demonstrations surrounding the 31 October elections.