This morning the Bendixsens and office Elders met with these new missionaries for their orientation meeting. Some of their companions who lived near were able to come as well.
After the meeting, we gave out lunches and then the 2 mission vans were loaded again with missionaries, more bags and more supplies.
I’m posting these pics so someday we can laugh about them. John has been totally consumed this transfer week with keeping all the parts moving and organized. His mastermind holds every detail and he sees those details in spreadsheets. It’s hard to imagine where we’d be without his help. He really has the gift of administration and organization and understanding every logistical detail needed to keep a mission running smoothly.
These are just a few of this week’s spreadsheets and lists. They started turning yellow when the printer started running out of ink.
These next pages explain the movement of missionaries during this week’s transfers, showing each missionaries departure from and arrival in their areas.
We sometimes joke about John’s obsession with the details, but honestly, he kept all the balls in the air and helped everyone get through this very complicated transfer. It’s good to have him here!
We took Elder Fleinde to the airport early this morning for his flight to Uganda where he’ll be serving. He came to us from the Yamoussoukro area to wait for his visa and travel documents. We hoped we’d get to keep him longer. He’s going to be an outstanding missionary.
Then John and I got our COVID tests so we can return to Bamako on Monday.
Then we returned to the airport to greet these three, from Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, who have joined our mission ranks.
The airport people must not have enjoyed the weaver birds. All the trees that used to have nests in them were hacked to bits.
This afternoon at the Mission Office the movement continued with missionaries all over the place coming and going.
Again, we prepared sack lunches for those who would be traveling. They had chicken sandwiches, chips, a banana, some candy and water.
John with Eveque Mel and Bami, our mission drivers.
Those who lived closer took public transport to their new areas.
We will really miss Elder Houlele, who has been a fantastic Assistant in the mission.
The 2 mission vans were loaded to the gills with missionaries, luggage and apartment supplies. About 10 new apartments have been opened or re-opened. The mission is growing!
The office was filled with missionaries today. This evening the new arrivals stayed for a special welcome dinner. This group of 11 arrived today from the DRC.
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Here is Elder Wright making orientation booklets for the new missionaries.
Tonight Elder Card stayed at our apartment because all the missionary apartments in the area were full. This was a treat for us because Elder Card’s sister married one John’s Assistants who served with us in Yakima.
There were a lot of comings and goings today at the office. John has created spreadsheets with all the movements, coming and going, to keep us organized. There are about 5 pages of them! Not only are missionaries flying in and departing, missionaries here in the mission are also moving, transferring from one area to another. It’s an exciting and exhausting time!
Here are a few pics from the office today.
Elder Hanks has come to serve as a new Assistant to the President.
Overseeing a pizza delivery:
Sis Seihi was released from her mission this afternoon and she took public transport to her home in Blankro.
This week is full of MOVEMENT! There will be eleven different airport trips in just a few days. There are 6 going home who completed their missions, 2 Elders are going home to the DRC for medical reasons. One temporary Elder came in for a couple of days, then flew to Uganda where he was called to serve. One Sister serving in Ghana returned to home here. A Bamako Elder returned to Abidjan and another went to Bamako. We received 11 new missionaries from the DRC and we received one American missionary, Elder Bair late one evening.
These pictures are of the DRC arrivals.
Here is Sister Siehi who has returned home from serving in Ghana.
Duolingo is my friend. Duo is a little owl who teaches me French. I spend an hour or so with Duo every day learning and practicing my French. I’ve never used an online language tool before when I’ve studied German, Afrikaans, Efik, Zulu or Spanish.
They say more people use language tools like this than there are people enrolled in language classes. Duolingo is free, until you get serious about it and then it’s really helpful to pay for Duo Plus which allows you to do all sorts of extra things that are really helpful.
When you click on the Duolingo app, here’s what happens. First Duo pops up like this:
There are so many levels to work through. I’ve been working seriously on Duo for a year or so and I’m half way through level 4. Right now, there are 9 levels, but things are always being added. Every level has 25-30 topics and every topic has 5 lessons with 5 levels in each lesson to pass off. If you make mistakes, you have to clear those mistakes. Once you pass off a topic, you regularly review it in extra practices. There are also timed lessons you can race through to win points. Every time you complete a lesson you receive points and Duolingo keeps track of your daily and weekly progress.
These are the topics I’m working on right now:
This screen shows the levels in each lesson you work through. When you master a level or lesson, you can do it again with more difficult exercises. The lessons use all sorts of language tools to build and help you memorize vocabulary and grammar. Most of the work you do uses sentences you build, translate, or organize. Some of the work is listening and repeating orally.
Here’s an example of translating a sentence. First you hear it, then you can say it, then you translate it using the suggested or possible words listed below.
Here’s another example of an exercise. Each lesson has about 10-15 exercises. Some are timed like this one below. If you get all of the answers right within the short time limit, you get 40 points.
Another fun way to learn in Duolingo is by using the story features. You can work your way through these conversations whenever you want to. Each lesson repeats three times–the first you read and translate, the second you listen and the third, you repeat the sentences.
Duolingo is a great tool for language study. It’s easy to use and conveniently in my phone, so I can study whenever I have access to wifi. Many of the missionaries use the free version to help them learn French or English. I’m grateful for this tool. Duo has become my companion and friend here.
This evening we stopped by some of our favorite produce stands to pick up some bananas and mangoes for missionary lunches this week. This woman was selling cashews, raw and roasted.
Following my nose, as I looked closer, I found her working over a small gas stove roasting the cashews right there. They smelled so good!
Here is Sis Bendixsen trying to find the best price to pay for the fruit.
I love visiting produce stands to see what’s in season and what our neighbors and friends are preparing at home.
We had a few moments of calm before the storm today and we used those moments to continue the transfer planning and going over the logistics with the office Elders.
This is the electronic transfer board in the church’s missionary computer system called IMOS.
We had an office meeting today to go over all of the charts and spreadsheets and instructions John has put together to get us through this transfer period. Hopefully everyone is on the same page now, with all of the comings and goings and movement in the mission.
Afterwards the Elders had some lunch–attieke and aloco with hard boiled eggs.
Mel brought something different from the street vendors–some deep fried fish pockets and something made from sweetened milk and millet.
This afternoon we heard screaming from the President’s office. Sis Bendixsen was on the phone with her sister, Mary K Fortie. She and her husband just received their mission call to come serve here! Sis Bendixsen was in tears as Sis Fortie read the email letter to all of us. They will go into the MTC in November and will be assigned to work in the office here. What a blessing they will be here!
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 