Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission

This afternoon we got to attend a baptism in Abobote, about an hour from here.  It was a beautiful afternoon for this sacred event.

The font with a rock holding the water in:

Here is the chapel.  We held the baptismal meeting outside.

The Zone Leaders taught this young man.  The Sisters were the witnesses for his baptism.

Today Herve became the first Pioneer member in his family.  This is a day he will always remember.

This afternoon we got to attend a baptism in Abobote, about an hour from here.  It was a beautiful afternoon for this sacred event.

The font with a rock holding the water in:

Here is the chapel.  We held the baptismal meeting outside.

The Zone Leaders taught this young man.  The Sisters were the witnesses for his baptism.

Today Herve became the first Pioneer member in his family.  This is a day he will always remember.

Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East Mission Presidency has been re-established.  Today Pres Bendixsen set apart his counselors–Pres Sossou and Pres Lewis.  These are good men who love serving together.  And the rest of us love cheering them on.

Pres Sossou has 4 children.  We were glad part of his beautiful family could be here today.

Such beautiful women:

Today we took 8 missionaries to Cocody COVID testing center.  We are hearing rumblings of airports opening soon and we need to be ready.   It is required that anyone traveling out of the country test negative for COVID within  a week of their travel date.  This batch of missionaries includes our overdue-to-return-home Congolese.

John has done a huge amount of homework on what will be required to get our missionaries home.  Several countries around us are saying that they’ll update their airport status on August 15th (in 3 days) and we are hopeful that many of our neighboring countries will open their borders so missionaries can return home.

We arrived at the testing center (after a driving through a fair amount of traffic) at 9:15 this morning to find a lot of people already waiting.  Everyone was given a numbered ticket, then seated in order of arrival.  It was a warm balmy day.  We realized, as we saw how slow the line moved, that we would be here for a good part of the day.

Today we learned that there are now 13 testing sites in Cote d’Ivoire.  That’s 10 more than we had last week.  That will be helpful, as we need to have everyone tested who will be traveling home or possibly to the countries of their assignments in the future.

At 11:00 they cut off the line.  There were too many coming to test before closing today.

We received warnings from the Government and from the Embassy that today there would be rioting in the streets here.  All the missionaries were asked to stay in (except for these 8).  Things around town were pretty quiet in most places.  We had one parade of protesters march by, followed by a police car.  It may have been worse in other areas.

The day wore on.  We bought water and bananas for everyone.  We were all hungry.

The line moved so slowly.  And there were many who showed up who were given preferential treatment.  It seemed the longer we were there, the farther we moved to the tail end of the line, until our little group was at the end.

Studying vocabulary while we waited:

The end of the line at the end of the day, Five and a half hours later. . . .

Our faithful, tired and hungry tested missionaries:

Everyone was instructed about the next step before we loaded up to take everyone home.  They each received a ticket with a bar code that we collected.  In the next few days they should each receive a text with their positive or negative results.  We have to take the bar code ticket and a printed copy of the text they’ll receive to the lab at the university hospital where the certificates are given out that will allow travel.   We hope we’ve planned correctly in case the airport announces its opening this week.  If that happens, these missionaries may be able to fly home next week!

There is movement in the mission today!  It’s transfer day!  Transfer drama is always exciting and sad at the same time.  This morning we stopped by the Sister’s apartment to pick up Sis Ahoulou who’s moving to Dokui.  In Dokui we picked up Sis Koenig who is flying home today to Monrovia, Liberia!

In these photos you can see the excitement and sadness in the air around us:

Goodbyes to Sr Ahoulou:

Next stop:  Dokui to drop off Sis Ahoulou and to pick up Sis Koenig.

This is Sisterhood at its best:

Final instructions at the airport.  We were not allowed to go inside.  Farewell dear Soeur Koenig, faithful and true to the end!  We learned that Sr Koenig is a 3rd generation member of the Church.  Her grandparents were taught by missionaries, and now her father is serving as her Branch President.  There are 3 stakes in Liberia today.

Meanwhile, back at the office,  we welcomed 3 new office Elders who will start working here with us next week.  We are so excited for this next era of goodness in the Abidjan East Mission!

This morning we had lots of errands to run, including picking up sandwiches on the other side of town for the new missionaries and their new trainers who came today for training.   We brought the food to the mission office just in time for lunch.

John helped with some training this afternoon about the missionary support funds and procedures for health care.

At the end of the training meetings the missionaries were introduced to their new trainers.  Being a trainer is a big deal.  For 12 weeks, a trainer teaches their new missionary companion how to be an amazing and effective missionary.

One of our trainers lived too far to come in today for this training.  He’ll do it virtually.

Here are some of the new companionships:

Old friends, reunited:

And then they were off!