Back to Mali and a Visit to Ouelessebougou!

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.

Visiting the Deux Plateau Sister’s Apartment

After church we took the Sisters back to their apartment.  What a great place this is!  They gave us the grand tour.

Soeur Guei is a master tie maker.  She is hoping to go to her mission in London some day.  Here are the ties she’s working on.

What lovely Sisters and what dear friends.  They make me wish I were a young Sister again so I could live here with them!

The Deux Plateau Ward Primary

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:

Visiting the Deux Plateau Ward in Abidjan

Today we got to attend church with the Deux Plateau Ward here in Abidjan where two of our outstanding STL Sisters are serving.  We had a fantastic morning and loved being with these good Saints.

These 4 beauties were confirmed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints today!

This is the YSA Sunday School class.  There are lots of returned missionaries in this ward.

Here is the adult Sunday School class:

Our fabulous Sister Training Leaders:

Overflow area outside of the chapel:

The baptismal font:

The Relief Society Presidency:

The young women:

The young single adults:

The wonderful Bishop:

The Primary Presidency:

Visiting with an investigator:

The Relief Society President:

After the meetings John and I got to help teach the investigators who came today.  That was so fun–a wonderful way to end our Sunday services.

Zone Conference in Grand Bassam

Today we enjoyed a Zone Conference in Grand Bassam.  It was great to be with these stellar missionaries.

These are our new Assistants, Elder Dombeti and Elder Houele.

Outside the Grand Bassam Stake Center today a big soccer tournament was being held.  The young men used the parking lot for their field.  There were dozens of boys and teams having a great time!

The Bats of Abidjan

Today between our airports we had a few hours to go get our COVID tests in downtown Plateau.  We tried first at the Marcory and Cocody testing sites, but the lines were so long, we knew we wouldn’t have enough time to wait several hours.

It was way more exciting downtown because we got to watch the BATS!  Take a look at these trees overhead–they are full of bats!  They were flying and swooping and hanging upside down right over our heads.  And they were loud!  They cheep and chirp like cackling birds.  There were thousands of them.  As we drove into Plateau, we saw clouds of bats swarming in the sky.  They seemed to hover over certain huge trees.  When we got to the testing site, we found ourselves under more of those huge kinds of trees.  It was pretty exciting.

Here’s a bit of information I found about Abidjan’s bat population:

Ecologists estimate one million fruit bats live in Abidjan, giving a decidedly gothic edge to a city whose 3 million people have learned not only how to live with the creatures, but also how to hunt them, cook them up in sweet stews and put them to use in voodoo.

They’re fruit eaters (“frugivores”, in French – a lovely word), mostly eating mangoes. they roost in colonies in a couple of different kinds of trees, having a marked preference for a specific type of mango tree.

The noise and the amount of bat poop on the ground were pretty amazing!

Here are some short videos of the bats taken from the car as we drove into Plateau:

Here’s the COVID testing center where we spent most of the afternoon:

A Departure and More Arrivals

This morning we took Elder Oba to the airport.  He will be reporting to Sierra Leone, where he was originally called to serve.  We are grateful for his  7 months of service here.

This afternoon we were back at the airport to pick up another group of arriving missionaries who will be serving in all 3 Cote d’Ivoire missions.  They are coming from Sierra Leone and Nigeria.   Our 2 Elders were in this group.

Elder Ayat and Elder Peter will be staying here in the East Mission!  We’re thrilled to have them.

Arrivals from Nigeria, Ghana and Benin

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.

Zone Conference with the Cocody and Dokui Zones

Today we met with the Cocody and Dokui Zones in the Cocody Stake Center for Zone Conference.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be having some changes here in the mission.  Missionaries who have been called to the Abidjan East Mission, but who have been serving in their own countries will start coming to us and missionaries here who have been called to other missions will start departing for those missions.   Next month we are expecting some of our American missionaries to return to us.  We are excited and sad all at the same time for these changes.  It’s hard to see our missionaries leave.  We have amazing missionaries here and we love being with them.

Today we enjoyed being with this group.  Come see the light in their eyes!