In our Neighborhoods Today

Here are a few photos I took today as we traveled.  These first ones are of the new dumps of road base on our own road.  They are starting to be crushed into the potholes by cars passing by.

It’s not a ball, it’s a coconut. 

Hot drink carts.

Tree trimmings

The rest of these are in Yopougon.

Snacks for sale.

Wheelbarrows for hire.

Furniture stores line the roads here

 

Wheelbarrows for hire
Satelite dishes for sale

School girls

Low hanging fruit

Kids were walking home from school

A lumber yard and carpenters

Popular chairs for sale

Refrigerators for sale

A hardware store

These bakkies are everywhere–one of the main modes of transportation here.

Interviews in the Niangnon Stake Center in Yopougon (West Mission)

Our 16 interviews today were in the Niangnon Sud-Cent Stake Center in Yopougon.  This stake center is large with a large parking area and a grass field where young men were playing soccer when we finished. There are 2 stakes who use the building and 22 wards in these 2 stakes.

Here are the companionships we met with today, beginning with these beautiful Sisters.

 

It was another fantastic day, filled with inspiring stories of how this group of missionaries came to be in this place at this time.  There are many miracles happening around us.  Most we will never know or see.  Today we learned about some of them.

West Africa Area Mission Leaders’ Seminar

This week the Mission Presidents from the West Africa Areas gathered online for their twice a year seminar.  Sadly, because of COVID, we were not able to meet together in Accra.  Instead we met on ZOOM.

Pres and Sis Lewis tuned in for much of the seminar from the States and I was able to sit in this morning.  I wish we had time to listen to more, but we’ll be out with the missionaries, doing interviews.  It was fun to see our fellow servants today on my computer screen.

John spent the morning at the US Embassy working miracles.  He came away with 3 visas for our Haitians who have been trying to get home for months.  It’s finally going to happen!

Interviews in Toit Rouge (West Mission)

We had a full morning of interviews in a new place new to us called the Toit Rouge Stake Center. It was about 30 min away. Our driver, Eveque Miliate, drove us after meeting him at the Mission Home this morning.

The stake center is large with huge grounds around it–a full soccer field to the side and a full basketball court in the parking lot with all the lines painted and hoops with backboards.  It feels like a wonderful place for youth and friends to gather. As we left this afternoon, there were 2 soccer teams in the field practicing.

We had 14 missionaries today and it was great.  Their stories are incredible.  I’m taking lots of notes to transcribe into my journal.  Everyone has amazing stories to tell.  Remarkably amazing.

Here are today’s companionships:


This District Leader and his companion also dropped by today.

Here are the ball fields behind the church and today’s soccer practice.

The basketball court:

Office Meeting and Interviewing the West Mission Office Elders

On Mondays we have our office staff meetings in the West Mission.  We are stilling going back and forth a bit between the missions, taking care of business.  We are really enjoying getting to know these Elders.

Here is our office group of faithful workers.

We sat with each of these Elders this afternoon and visited with them about their lives and families and backgrounds.  This mission is a wonderful melting pot of cultures and nationalities.  In this group we have 2 Filipinos, one from Samoa, one from Togo, one from Haiti, one from the DRC and one Ivorian.

Elder Unasa  is helping with special assignments like the emergency food preparation.  He has been here for about 29 months and we finally have a flight home for him next Monday.  Elder Yrie is the mission financial secretary.

Elder Casupanan and Elder Flecher are our technical specialists.  Elder Flecher has been here almost 31 months!  We hope to send him home soon.

Elder Balbutin  is the travel secretary and Elder Kabeya is the mission secretary.

Elder Tshibanda and Elder Agbahounzo are the Assistants to the President.

As part of the interviews, John will be checking everyone’s financial budget which was recently taught and implemented.

We are so grateful to get to be here now with this team.  They are so good.

A Visit to the Prodomo Ward

Today at noon we attended the Prodomo Ward in the West Mission.  It was so great to be among the members gathered there who were excited to be able to meet together again.  Local leaders have been instructed to respect COVID protocols and precautions as wards and branches begin meeting together again after this long COVID lockdown period.

This meeting house also serves as a Stake Center and it sits in the heart of a busy neighborhood.

There are 4 wards who meet in this building every Sunday!  We saw Elders going and coming.

We had a lovely Sacrament service centered on the sacrament and the sacramental prayers as we renewed our covenants with our Heavenly Father.   Instead of singing, we were able to listen to beautiful recorded music.  There were 9 fans mounted up around the rooms, so it was a little difficult to hear the speaker (no microphone), but when you can’t hear, you can imagine their words, so the sermons are always wonderful!

After the sacrament service, we had a Sunday School lesson from the Come Follow Me manual about the gathering of Israel.

There was extra seating in interesting places around the room where we had sacrament meeting.

This electric keyboard was in a room just off the main room.  We didn’t use it today, but the children were enjoying playing on it after church.

These are some of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen.

There is no place in this world I would rather be than with my brothers and sisters here, right here in West Africa.

Visiting the Prodomo Elders’ Apartment (West Mission)

We gave the Prodomo Elders a ride home after work.  Their apartment was quite far from the church building.  It was fun to visit and receive a tour of their living quarters.  You can learn a lot about missionaries by seeing how they live.  I loved this visit and the evidences here of focused missionary work.

Bedroom and study areas:

A tie collection:

The kitchen:

Laundry area:

 

 

 

Here is the mirror where they can  shave and make sure they are good to go as they leave their apartment.

Barbells for exercising:

In the neighborhood.  Many homes or apartments have these small A/C units in a room.  Our missionaries usually just have fans pointed at their beds in their bedrooms.

I call these transport vehicles handcarts.  Many young men walk the streets with their handcarts, hoping to be hired by someone needing help moving something.

A local shoe store.

Women’s underwear for sale!

These men are traveling sewing machinists.  If you have mending, they will come to you and set up shop to repair your clothing for you.

Zone Conference with the Abobo 1 & 2 Zones

 

This morning we went to the Abobo Stake Center to meet with our 2 Abobo Zones.  We had a full day of activity with these Elders.  It was a great day.

This conference followed the same agenda as the previous conferences.  John taught again about the mission support funds and the changes we are making in how they are distributed and accounted for.

A short break.

Then we had our training from Fr Oro on keeping our apartments clean.

Fr Ebick is our sound technician and technology support.

Then it was time for lunch.  Chicken and rice in a box!

After lunch we played a really fun game.  Four companionships were invited to the front.  One companion in each companionship left the room, leaving the other.  They had to answer 4 questions, guessing how they thought their companion would answer.  They wrote their guesses on a slip of paper.  Then their companions were invited back in and each was asked the same questions.  The game was to see how well you knew your companion.  It was a lot of fun and everyone cheered the companionships on!

After the conference, we took our group photo.

 

And then cleaning supplies were distributed for each apartment.  What a great day!