We made a couple of stops on our way home this afternoon to check in on some member families. Here are the children of Mariam and Tomba who live with Josephine in Bankoni. Sitan, the oldest here was baptized 2 weeks ago. They were so happy to see us and we were so happy to see them!
We also stopped to visit Rose and her family, but they weren’t home today.
Several years ago when we were in Ghana, we met Wisdom, a wood carver here who makes beautiful Nativity sets. We bought one from him then, and we were able to find him again this week. We hoped to purchase another Nativity for our Ouesessebougou benefit auction coming up in a couple of months. We were happy that the missionary couples serving here knew how to contact him.
Here is some of his work:
This morning we met with Pres Sekou and the Elders and spent a few hours orienting them to their new area and the good members here. We are so excited and so are they!
There is a lot to learn!
Pres Sekou with Elder Bah and Elder Koffi:
We first started coming to Ouelessebougou in 2010 with humanitarian expeditions. We’ve been involved with the Ouelessebougou Alliance in Salt Lake and Mali for all these many years, enjoying trips to Mali most years. When we come we stay at the Alliance compound in Ouelessebougou.
This morning we left Abidjan and returned to Bamako, then drove straight (by taxi) south 2 hours to Ouelessebougou to our home away from home. We love being in Ouelessebougou. We met our visiting Alliance friends there and settled in for a couple of days.
Anounou, Teningnini and Djiba are our Malian staff here. We also reunited with some of our translators and our friends– Judy Hut, Carl Dempsey, and Dick and Roger Loomis.
What a treat today to attend Primary in the 2 Plateau Ward! These children are amazing and beautiful and I loved being with them! There were 17 children here today, happily engaged in singing and learning with their good leaders. It was a joy to watch. 
These beautiful women are the counselors and secretary in the Primary Presidency.
These 4 beautiful girls were baptized this week and confirmed today in Sacrament Meeting. They are bright and beautiful.
Lesson time. Today we learned about the First Vision.
I love being with the children. They are a bright and sure future for the Saints of Abidjan.
Here are a few fun video clips:
Today we expected to receive 19 missionaries from Nigeria, Ghana and Benin. All but 2 arrived. Those two will come tomorrow after having some COVID test issues today that have been resolved. These Elders and Sisters have been called to serve here in the Abidjan East Mission, but until now, they’ve been serving in their home countries. Of the 19, four started their missions here, then were evacuated to their home countries. They are happy to be back!
We’re so happy to see our numbers beginning to grow again. We have so many wards and branches waiting for missionaries.
Of this group of 19, all are English-speakers, except for our Elder from Benin. They will have to brush up on their French quickly!
We brought them to the Mission Office for an afternoon of orientation and some lunch.
Our fine Assiatants: 
This evening the missionaries spent the night at a local hotel near the Temple. They’ll have dinner and breakfast here in the morning, then come to the office to meet their companions. Tomorrow the last two will arrive.
It may not sound like a big deal, but cleaning the church every Saturday IS a BIG DEAL. When you live in a place like Mali, it only takes a few hours for every surface to be covered in dust, and when people come and go (like at the Christmas party yesterday) things are quickly covered in dirt.
We go to the church every Saturday morning to help clean and prepare for the Sabbath. Our good and faithful member, Dustin, and his nephew also come to help. Today they did the entire downstairs while we tackled the upstairs and the party aftermath.
Here’s where we get our water for washing the floors.
Dustin even cleaned the area around the church! He is such a good worker.
We spent the rest of the afternoon working with Pres Sekou on branch business. He does such an excellent job taking care of things here.
Outside the church compound, I caught these two girls stopping to play with the futbol game on the corner.
A passing vendor–I would guess there are more “stores” here on vehicles, bikes or heads than in buildings.
Yesterday on our way to church I found Rudolph!! He was under our taxi driver!! Today was a fun day. We met with Ibrahima, our new EQ President to help him set up his LDS account so he can access the branch information. Then we went into town to make a bank deposit for the branch. Below are a few of the interesting things I saw today.
It took 1.5 hours for John to make the bank deposit. I sat outside on the steps of the bank watching people go by and watching people in the line to go into the bank. This was my view. Shoe wearing is interesting here. Most wear sandals and most sandals are a bit short. They seem to prefer it that way.
It’s watermelon season here. This gal passed by with 6 or 7 huge heavy melons on her head. Unbelievable, the burdens carried here.
We were looking to buy some small speakers for our laptop, so we went in and out of a few stores looking for electronics. We didn’t have much luck, but I love seeing what’s for sale in these small shops.
Passing by a construction site, we watched some men with their horse and cart picking up the rubble. Usually donkeys are tasked with this job. We see donkey carts all over the place, picking up trash that’s been piled up.
Most furniture stores here are outdoors. The inventory is too big to fit in a small shop. It requires a bit of dusting during the day to keep the furniture looking its best.
Here’s a cart full of fresh dates. I think they come from up north.
I love looking on the shelves in the stores to see what’s put where. Here you’ll see mosquito poison right next to the edibles and food. There is often no rhyme or reason –here we have imported (Sam’s Club and Costco) black pepper and catsup, then mosquito repellant, then tomato paste, spices, canned okra, garlic, Maggi and more mosquito repellant and zappers.
I bought 2 kg of beautiful green beans from these cute vendors.
And here is a bicycle held together with plastic bags next to a gas station for motorcycles. What an interesting world we live in!
Today was a special Sunday in Bamako. We celebrated the birth of our Savoir, Jesus Christ. All of our Malian members came together for this special Sabbath day–from Bamako, N’gomi, Mountougoula, and Diatoula. As the transport vans arrived, everyone needing a mask was given one and all the proper COVID protocols were followed.
These are the children from Diatoula waiting so reverently for almost an hour for our meeting to begin. We listened to Tabernacle Choir videos and they were entranced.
Members and friends kept arriving.
The group from N’gomi:
Waiting for the meeting to begin:
President Sekou conducted the meeting. After the sacrament we had 3 speakers–13 year-old Esther taught everyone about Jesus’s birth and the things that happened that holy night. She did a fantastic job. Then the older Bamako Primary children did their special musical number. We had about 5 go up front to sing “Angels We Have Heard on High.” I led them from the front row and Valerie and I helped with the singing.
Then Frere Rich spoke on the doctrine of Christ (2 Nephi 31) and the things Jesus taught. Then after another Christmas song, Frere Biggo spoke about loving as Jesus taught. Love is the key.
The meeting lasted an hour. After the closing prayer, John conducted the mission business, sustaining the 2 new EQ counselors, then we split for short classes. Sekou wanted the men and women to meet in their groups, so they took their chairs and went to rooms and I stayed with the kids in the side room off the chapel where Esther and I taught the story of Samuel the Lamanite. Then we taught them to sing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” to sing at our Christmas Day party.
While we did that Frere Biggo was setting up the projector in the main room and we showed the children the film while the adults continued meeting in the other rooms. Once the kids were set up watching, I slipped out to see the RS and EQ groups. There were 14 women in Relief Society and about 30 men in the Elders Quorum.
Pres Sekou with Chiaka (N’gomi group leader), Dramane (Mountougoula group leader) and Elder Lewis.
Members and friends visiting after the meetings:
Yesterday we organized our piles of church magazines to give out today to anyone who wanted them. Many, both young and old, are grateful for something to read or look at.
My dear friends:
This morning we showed the Bendixsens around town on our way out to visit one of our groups in N’gomi. We stopped at the Artisan’s Market so Sis Bendixsen could do a little Christmas shopping! It was interesting to see how the market has changed since COVID. It was quiet and calm and there were fewer vendors than ever before.
We also went out into the streets where African fabrics are sold.
Sis Bendixsen found a beautiful simple necklace she loved.
After this market experience, we took the Bendixsens to meet Pascal and his team of our favorite wood carvers.
These men do beautiful work.
After this stop we went to Mr. K’s Burgers where we met Sekou for lunch before driving north to visit our little group in N’gomi.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 