Meet brother Brou Baah! He has been called by the Area Presidency in Accra to teach and promote family history throughout all the church units of Côte d’Ivoire. He often spends time in the mission office to have access to a computer and the internet. We met together this week to talk about ideas for a new training based on our latest instructional video (February) from Salt Lake.
We listened to the training and talked about it and planed ways he might teach these beautiful concepts to the members here. Then I showed him how to enter a memory into FamilySearch for his grandfather. He was excited to try it. He spent the rest of the afternoon writing memories and labeling and tagging all of the photos he has added to FamilySearch.
As we were working together, Pres Sossou phoned him asking if today, on our worldwide day of fasting, he might come visit his family to teach them about family history. He said “Yes!”
Here are some of the photos Pres Sossou sent me today of Bro Brou Baah teaching his family the things we talked about today. Both were so excited. I was so happy. Oh, how I love Family History work!!
Things have calmed down a bit here in the Abidjan East Mission. Missionaries are settling in to their new areas. Pres & Sis Binene spent a couple of days out visiting apartments, checking on missionaries, making sure they’re healthy and safe and making sure they have food stored in case things get more troubling here and we have to stay in.
We had 2 days of missionaries coming here to the mission office for interviews. We are getting to know our new missionaries who have arrived from other countries. We are happy to see many we thought would have to leave are still here.
Sister Binene is reminding these Elders about good hygiene practices. You can see they are practicing social distancing!
Can’t find any scissors here.
John and Eveque Mel are taking care of business, every day, all day.
And Pres Binene is always here to approve and sign checks.
John and I had our weekly Humanitarian meeting with Mahmud in Accra, the Dadys in Yamoussoukro, the Collettes in Dakar and the Shepherds in Utah. We talked about initiatives we can work on to help during these trying times.
We had a day filled with Sister interviews.
And John continues to plow through the piles of paperwork surrounding the work. It’s all good.
“During times of deep distress, as when illness reaches pandemic proportions, the most natural thing for us to do is to call upon our Heavenly Father and His Son—the Master Healer—to show forth Their marvelous power to bless the people of the earth. …
“As part of our April 2020 general conference, I am calling for another worldwide fast. For all whose health may permit, let us fast, pray, and unite our faith once again. Let us prayerfully plead for relief from this global pandemic.
“I invite all, including those not of our faith, to fast and pray on Good Friday, April 10, that the present pandemic may be controlled, caregivers protected, the economy strengthened, and life normalized. …
“Good Friday would be the perfect day to have our Heavenly Father and His Son hear us!”
Here is the Mission Board as it looks today. These are the Elders and Sisters who have remained in the mission. We are still waiting to receive the photos of the missionaries who have returned to the Ivory Coast from other missions where they were serving.
This is our Mission Doctor Do, our Mission doctor. He’s always available to help our missionaries. He’s a kind and good church member living here in Abidjan.
Pres and Sis Binene have been on the road the last few days, visiting missionary apartments. They’re checking the food supplies and hygiene practices of the missionaries, making sure they are prepared for whatever the future brings here.
So far there are only about 250 cases of COVID-19 in the Ivory Coast. We are hoping the numbers here stay low. Sis Binene is taking hand soap and sanitizer to the apartments when they visit.
We have been looking forward to and preparing for this weekend for months. We were grateful to be here in Abidjan in a comfortable place with a television and a laptop as a means to participate. This year families watched General Conference isolated in their homes as the COVID-19 rages throughout the world. Who would have guessed that in just a few weeks the world as we’ve known it would change so drastically.
Here is a post many have been reposting on their social media this week so it will pop up in memories of this day in years to come:
Just so I NEVER forget….. April 3, 2020
-As of today, “Stay at Home” has been extended until at least May 1 as we await to see when the peak will happen
-Gas price a quarter mile from home was $1.55
-Schools closed – going to online learning – since 3/16
-Social distancing and self quarantining measures on the rise.
-Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
-Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
-Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
-Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
-Entire sports seasons cancelled.
-Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events – cancelled.
-Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings have been cancelled.
-No masses, churches are closed.
-No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 5 or more.
-Don’t socialize with anyone outside of your home.
-Children’s outdoor play parks are closed.
-Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
-Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
-Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.
-Shelves are bare.
-Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
-Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
-Fines are established for breaking the rules.
-Stadiums, recreation facilities, college dorms open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
-Press conferences daily from the President and state Governors
-Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
-Barely anyone on the roads.
-People wearing masks and gloves outside.
-Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
-Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.
This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.
Why, you ask, do I write this status?
One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious and not to take the things we dearly love for granted.
We have so much!
Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other – love one another – support everyone.
So with these things happening in the world around us, and with changes reaching even here in Abidjan, we settled in to listen to the words of our living prophet and his helpers.
The meetings were broadcast from a room in the Church Office Building. The Brethren were seated far apart from each other, and only those speaking in the current session were in the room. All of the choir music was pre-recorded or taken from previous conference gatherings. The setting and the surroundings were simple but the messages were Powerful!
President Nelson announced a new symbol to identify our faith. This new emblem emphasizes the name of Jesus Christ and His central role in all the Church does.
With the time change, we watched the Saturday morning session at 4:00 p.m. here, followed by the afternoon session and evening session from midnight until 2:00 a.m.
On Sunday we invited a few of the missionaries over to watch with us. We are only allowed to gather in groups of 10 or fewer. Missionaries throughout the mission were left to find places to watch if they were able. No church buildings broadcast the sessions.
Here is another exciting thing that happened:
As the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles contemplated “this significant time in the history of the world, and the Lord’s charge to gather scattered Israel in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ,” they issued the following proclamation:
The Restoration of the Fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: A Bicentennial Proclamation to the World
The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
April 2020
We solemnly proclaim that God loves His children in every nation of the world. God the Father has given us the divine birth, the incomparable life, and the infinite atoning sacrifice of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. By the power of the Father, Jesus rose again and gained the victory over death. He is our Savior, our Exemplar, and our Redeemer.
Two hundred years ago, on a beautiful spring morning in 1820, young Joseph Smith, seeking to know which church to join, went into the woods to pray near his home in upstate New York, USA. He had questions regarding the salvation of his soul and trusted that God would direct him.
In humility, we declare that in answer to his prayer, God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to Joseph and inaugurated the “restitution of all things” as foretold in the Bible. In this vision, he learned that following the death of the original Apostles, Christ’s New Testament Church was lost from the earth. Joseph would be instrumental in its return.
We affirm that under the direction of the Father and the Son, heavenly messengers came to instruct Joseph and re-establish the Church of Jesus Christ. The resurrected John the Baptist restored the authority to baptize by immersion for the remission of sins. Three of the original twelve Apostles—Peter, James, and John—restored the apostleship and keys of priesthood authority. Others came as well, including Elijah, who restored the authority to join families together forever in eternal relationships that transcend death.
We further witness that Joseph Smith was given the gift and power of God to translate an ancient record: the Book of Mormon — Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Pages of this sacred text include an account of the personal ministry of Jesus Christ among people in the Western Hemisphere soon after His Resurrection. It teaches of life’s purpose and explains the doctrine of Christ, which is central to that purpose. As a companion scripture to the Bible, the Book of Mormon testifies that all human beings are sons and daughters of a loving Father in Heaven, that He has a divine plan for our lives, and that His Son, Jesus Christ, speaks today as well as in days of old.
We declare that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized on April 6, 1830, is Christ’s New Testament Church restored. This Church is anchored in the perfect life of its chief cornerstone, Jesus Christ, and in His infinite Atonement and literal Resurrection. Jesus Christ has once again called Apostles and has given them priesthood authority. He invites all of us to come unto Him and His Church, to receive the Holy Ghost, the ordinances of salvation, and to gain enduring joy.
Two hundred years have now elapsed since this Restoration was initiated by God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Millions throughout the world have embraced a knowledge of these prophesied events.
We gladly declare that the promised Restoration goes forward through continuing revelation. The earth will never again be the same, as God will “gather together in one all things in Christ.”
With reverence and gratitude, we as His Apostles invite all to know—as we do—that the heavens are open. We affirm that God is making known His will for His beloved sons and daughters. We testify that those who prayerfully study the message of the Restoration and act in faith will be blessed to gain their own witness of its divinity and of its purpose to prepare the world for the promised Second Coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
At the conclusion of a general conference already rich with historic moments, President Russell M. Nelson delivered happy news: eight new temples would be built in nations across the globe.
New temples will be built in:
Bahía Blanca, Argentina
Tallahassee, Florida
Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Benin City, Nigeria
Syracuse, Utah
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
President Nelson acknowledged “it may seem odd to announce new temples when all our temples are closed for a while.”
But more than a century ago, one of President Nelson’s predecessors, President Wilford Woodruff, “foresaw conditions such as ours” in his dedicatory prayer of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893:
“When Thy people shall not have the opportunity of entering this holy house … and they are oppressed and in trouble, surrounded by difficulties … and shall turn their faces towards this Thy holy house and ask Thee for deliverance, for help, for Thy power to be extended in their behalf, we beseech Thee, to look down from Thy holy habitation in mercy … and listen to their cries. Or when the children of Thy people, in years to come, shall be separated, through any cause, from this place, … and they shall cry unto Thee from the depths of their affliction and sorrow to extend relief and deliverance to them, we humbly entreat Thee to … hearken to their cries, and grant unto them the blessings for which they ask.”
President Nelson reminded his vast audience Sunday afternoon that even during times “of our distress when temples are closed,” Latter-day Saints can still draw upon the power of their temple covenants and endowment.
At the conclusion of the Sunday morning session (afternoon here), we all participated in a Solemn Assembly in our homes with the glorious Hosanna Shout.
They told us this conference weekend would be “unforgettable.” There is no question that we have been exposed to His words and to Heaven this weekend. Oh, what a gift!
This weekend would have been our Washington Yakima Missionary Reunion. The very last of our missionaries came home in the last transfer, so all of our beloved “family” members are home now, but we are here.
Here’s a little message we sent them this weekend to let them know we love them and are thinking about them.
Now that the dust is settling around us, we’re finding new jobs to do here in Abidjan. Elder Ilori from Nigeria was the Mission Financial Secretary. He departed with all of the Nigerians Sunday the 22nd. John has taken over his job, managing the affairs of the mission here.
In a society that is strictly run with cash, check and hand written receipts, there is a lot of work to do to keep things running smoothly. Every request for mission funds must be put in writing, then approved, then the cash is given and the receiver must sign for it. Any receipts involved are stapled to these papers and filed. There are 2 main accounts the funds are issued from. There are ledgers and journals where every transaction is logged in and recorded.
Here’s what the paper files in the office look like:
And here is John trying to make sense of it all.
At the time, we didn’t understand why so many mistakes were made by the travel people at the time we were trying to return to Bamako, which resulted in our staying here in Abidjan. Now we think we know why that happened. Put simply, we were needed here.
We came with one suitcase of our belongings and we had no food in our apartment. Now we are staying until the borders open again–who knows how long. It’s a good thing. We’re happy we are here to help Pres and Sis Binene and all of the missionaries who are still here, serving with all of their hearts. It’s a troubling time. It’s good we can help some.
Before he left this week, I asked Elder Brown if he would teach me how to make some of his favorite Ivorian sauces. These are 2 of the favorites that our missionaries love to make and serve with rice.
This week the tower for the spire is going up. We can see the crane from our apartment living room windows. This building gives me great hope.
This temple will be a fortress of love–for families and for our Heavenly Father.
I was also comforted just to be inside the stake center today. The chapel was locked, but there were workers here fixing things. It’s amazing how much you can miss a building when you can’t go into it as often as you might like. Being here today was good.
Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission 