Month: March 2021

This evening our second group of Americans arrived!  This week has been like Christmas!  And tonight Elder Lindsay was leading the pack!  We’ve had some huge miracles here.

Only a few of this group ever got to set foot in Cote d’Ivoire last year.  Some were reassigned from the MTC or straight from home after receiving their initial call to serve here.

Sis Bendixsen was thrilled to see Elder Lindsay arrived safely.  Stay tuned for his story.

What a great bunch of Elders!

We brought this group to the hotel to get some rest after a long day of travel.  They each got a sack lunch/dinner and we sent them off to bed!

This morning after breakfast at the hotel, the missionaries went to the Mission Office for their new missionary orientation with the Bendixsens.  What a great group!  We feel like Helaman’s 2000 just showed up to assist our little army over here.

It’s been fun to see old friends reunited.

We had a traditional Ivorian lunch.

Preparing new phones for the new sectors:

Here’s a peek at a few of the pages from the orientation booklet that might be of interest to families at home:

The Elders learned where they will be serving.  Only a few of their companions were able to come to the office today–most will meet each other in their areas.

Everyone was give a new pillow, sheets, a mosquito net and some malaria meds.

And then this afternoon, the Elders headed out to their new assignments all over the mission.  Eveque Mel and Fr. Bami loaded the mission vans with Elders and luggage and we waved good bye for now!

These Elders waited for the next wave of departures–

This has been a great day.  We are thrilled that missionaries are returning to us.  Tonight another batch will fly in.  Oh happy day!!

This morning we received this photo sent from the Paris Airport.  Our Americans are beginning to return to Cote d’Ivoire!!  We are so excited.  Our beloved African missionaries have been amazing here, holding down the fort while so many were evacuated during the COVID pandemic.

We’ve recently been sending missionaries serving here temporarily to the countries of their original assignments so our numbers, in the last year since COVID struck, have gone from 180 missionaries down to about 76.  We are slowly building back up again and this week we’ll reach about 115 or so.

We spent most of today staring at the transfer board, helping the Bendixsens figure out the best place to put each arriving missionary.  It’s a big job with so many variables to consider.

Then tonight we went to the airport to greet the 16 arriving missionaries.  What an exciting time–for them, for their families, and for us!

We were missing one Elder this evening–Elder Lindsay.  He is still in Paris with quite a story to tell.  I’ll share that story in an upcoming post.

After all the luggage and missionaries were loaded (think tetras) into our 3 mission vehicles, we took the Elders to the hotel in our neighborhood where they spent the night, armed with sack lunch/dinners.  These are a happy bunch of worn out travelers, come home.

This evening we had our departing dinner for the next group going home.  Six of these Elders few home to the Congo late tonight and the rest will go home next week at the end of the transfer.  Tonight we celebrated all of them!

Signing a piece of fabric for Sis Bendixsen:

Here’s the full group:

Weighing luggage:

Last financial transactions for the trip home:

It’s getting close to midnight at the office:

Going over travel documents:

Good byes to those staying until next week:

And then they were off to the airport for a 3:00 a.m. flight.  Good night all.

Tuesdays everyone in the mission has district meetings.  It’s a time to come together with those you are serving with to talk about the work, the friends of the church and our goals for the coming weeks.  We also enjoy gospel discussions on various topics, usually from Preach My Gospel.

Here is our District.  Elder N’zi has been our District Leader.  He is finishing his mission next week and will return to his home in Abobo.  He’s done such a good job.

Elder N’zi has also served as the Financial Secretary for the Mission.  He’s really busy and he’s always energetic and excited.  He also laughs a lot and keeps everyone around him motivated and happy.  We will really miss him, but his home is not far from here

These are our APs and office Elders and Elder Ewell, who will be heading to a new area in a few days.

We fit all the Elders into our truck and gave them a ride home.

Later this afternoon John and Elder N’zi had to exchange some money for the departing missionaries at Cap Sud so we took Elder N’zi and Elder Kouame for a late lunch at BURGER KING!!  A little farewell gift!

We spend a lot of time when we’re in Abidjan helping the Bendixsens navigate the workings of the mission.   John is the king of creating spreadsheets and lists of logistics.  He knows this mission inside out and he’s a great help here.   His brain was made for this kind of work and he’s very very good at it.  He never misses a single detail.  He has spent hours working on the plan for the movement of the missionaries coming and going this week.  It will be a great help as we send missionaries off and receive some large groups in the coming days.

Tonight Elder Ewell begged for a haircut.  The Elders dropped by later this evening and we got that taken care of.