We had a lovely evening with friends here in Abidjan. Elder Martinez, our Area President is visiting and is attending the Grand Bassam Stake Conference this weekend.
Seated at the table with us are the Bendixsens, Koffi Priva, Elder Martinez, Pres & Sis Lewis and our new friends, Elder and Sis Eddington who are serving with the Lewises in the West Mission office.
We spent most of the day at the office. Elder Wright is the new mission secretary. Elder Kouame is still looking after the finances for the mission.
The Elders enjoyed some lunch down in the kitchen this afternoon.
This afternoon we met the new office couple in the West Mission–the Eddingtons. They are delightful. They are serving as the mission secretary and finance clerk there.
This evening we had dinner with the Bendixsens.
Today we traveled to Grand Bassam for the 2nd multi-zone conference this week. Yesterday the other half of the mission met in Abobo as we were flying to Abidjan. It’s nice to be back and it’s great to see these missionaries again! We have so many new missionaries now–the flow of missionaries arriving is getting back to normal.
Missionaries in American are now required to have the COVID vaccination before they can leave to serve in a foreign mission. We have 35 American missionaries serving here now with our African stalwarts.
Our lovely Soeurs:
Our Assistants:
Here’s a look at how the meeting unfolded today:
John and I had 150 COVID masks made for our missionaries here. We are trying to encourage the missionaries to obey the laws of the land and the counsel of the Brethren to always wear masks when in public. We should be the best examples of that at all times. It’s hard to do in a hot busy country. We hope this gift will help them unite and be obedient.
Here are some more beautiful missionary faces.
We broke for lunch when the food arrived after 1:00. We were all hungry!
After lunch Sis Bendixsen talked about the new pilot program called EnglishConnect. We are the first West African country to introduce this program to the missionaries. It’s going to be wonderful for our African missionaries to have an hour each day to study English. They downloaded the program on their phones and registered to use it.
A special musical number:
Pres Bendixsen was the concluding speaker in the conference. He talked about finding joy in the work and he showed lots of pictures of happy missionaries and baptisms.
After the conference, the gift bags from parents were passed out to the missionaries. 
We really enjoyed being back with our friends here. There was a lot to catch up on and many new missionaries to meet. We will enjoy our 2 weeks here among friends.
Today we flew back to Abidjan where we’ll stay for a couple of weeks. This will be our last trip back before we return home in September.
Today was our last District Meeting with Elder Bah here in Bamako. He has received word that he’ll be transferred back to Cote d’Ivoire next transfer. So today after our meeting we presented these two Elders with their Chiwaras, a gift we give to every Elder who serves in Mali. The Chiwara is the symbol of Mali and its meaning has a special significance here. 
We are so grateful for these Elders who are Pioneers in Mali. There aren’t many who get to come to us here and the work here is not easy, but it’s a huge blessing to our Bamako Branch to have these Elders serving here. We love them.
This will be a sensitive post, but important post. Today we passed by this billboard showing a young girl being cut. It’s called FGM or Female Genital Mutilation. If you are brave and strong, read on. If you stop here, please say a prayer for our young girls in this part of the world who are abused in this way. This is a serious and heartbreaking problem here in Mali, where most girls and women have been cut.
Here are a few quick facts about FGM in Mali:
88.6%1 of women have been cut.
The prevalence of FGM in women aged 15–49 is 88.6% (excluding the rural regions of Kidal).
75.8% of women and 74.4% of men aged 15–49 believe that FGM should continue.
The regions with the highest prevalence are in the south and south-west of the country.
FGM is most likely to take place before the age of 5.
‘Cut, flesh removed’ is the most common type of FGM practiced.
91.5% of women aged 15–49 were cut by traditional cutters.
You can read more about it here:
My heart aches when I look into the faces of the beautiful girls here, knowing what atrocities they’ve endured. Let’s all pray this will end someday.
Here are a few pics taken as we drove to Binabougou today for church. This is life in Mali, real life.
We drove by a row of shops that make footbol games for the kids to play.
Here is a carwash: 
Children washing a bike in the street: 
A tidy home: 
Doing the dishes: 
This was when our taxi wouldn’t start and some guys had to push it to jumpstart it so we could go home.
Market areas:
Traditional stoves for sale: 
Washing motorcycles: 
We traveled to Binabougou today for church. This small village is about a hour northwest of Bamako, at the end of some pretty rough roads. It’s always so fun to arrive at the little school where we’ve been holding church, where we are greeted by the local children.
Not many white faces travel in these places, so we create a bit of a sensation when we are there. The children are intrigued with the hair on John’ arms and with our pointy noses.
This little boy had a can full of rocks–his toy today. He was shaking it to make noise.
And these boys had a bow and arrow.
Chiaka and his son, Oumar brought our “church in a box” and helped to set up the small school room.
While we waited for church to begin, we noticed Oumar had his little green French Hymnbook and he was singing, “Israel, Israel, God is Calling.” He was happy to sing it again just for me. He is a bright light in this place. Oumar will be 8 years old in October.
Today for our meeting, we had 2 investigators and a gaggle of children. We partook of the sacred sacrament emblems. John and I gave talks, followed by Chiaka. Then we showed them a video about King Benjamin and we talked about the things he prophesied about Jesus Christ who would be born in a future day.
Afterwards, we talked about how those prophecies were fulfilled, how Jesus came to earth, and how he prepared the way for us to know how to return to Him and our Father again.
Chiaka showed our visitors where the account of King Benjamin is found in the Book of Mormon, testifying of Christ.
We had a great meeting. The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and pure. It’s not complicated or hard. It’s the perfect plan for us.
The school children in this class are learning a recitation for Mother’s Day which is held here on May 30th:
Here are the stats for this little class: 51 students, 31 boys and 20 girls. They had 0 absent Friday.
The children helped clean up the last pieces of bread after church.
When our son, Aaron came a couple of weeks ago, he brought a few white shirts that were donated by kind friends. We gave one to Oumar and he was thrilled.
Today after church we talked about the future of the church here in Binabougou, N’gomi. After attending here the last few weeks and discussing this with Pres Sekou, we all feel that it’s time to discontinue holding Sunday meetings here. Instead, we will encourage the members here to join us in Bamako where they can have the full church experience with all of the organizations and leadership support. Chiaka is really excited about this change. It will be a great opportunity for him and for his son to be surrounded by the rest of the members there.
We had a lovely evening out with our dear friends, Anounou and Goundo Sissoko at Guido’s. Anounou is one of our oldest and best friends in Mali. We first met him many years ago when we first came to Mali. He is the Field Director of the Ouelessebougou Alliance and a legend here in Mali. He will be retiring from this position in a few months. We are so grateful for all he has done for the people of Mali and for us personally.
Last night Pres Sekou met with a landlord in a neighborhood within a 30 minute walk to the church. They negotiated rent payments. They struck a deal. Sekou was up All Night Long moving into this new place, before his dear Dina and their baby arrive from Accra tomorrow after noon. We helped Sekou take a few more things over and we got to see the new place. The landlord and his workers were there, fixing bathrooms and painting today. Soon this place will be turned into a beautiful home for our dear friends.
This is the best feature of this apartment–the balcony and view!
This apartment has 3 rooms and 3 bathrooms. One of the rooms could be a kitchen.
The neighbors.
This afternoon Dina flew home with the baby. Oh, happy reunion in a new place!!
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 