Our Mission Call
Our motivation for serving senior missions began about 30 years ago when at General Conference we met Elder Robert Sackley, of the Seventy, who was the father of childhood friends. He gave us this advice: ” Plan your life so that when your children are gone from home you can retire early and go on missions.” He said that life after 60 (the best years!) would be the most rewarding for us by serving together as missionaries. Both sets of our parents served as senior missionaries so we had great examples.
Our first mission was served in the Accra Ghana Mission and lasted 23 months. We loved that experience although it didn’t come without adjustments and minor trials. We loved the people of West Africa who came to the temple, and about 40% of those spoke French. As we returned home we knew we wanted to see all our family members and do some traveling, and then we wanted to serve another mission.
As we were traveling in May, we had a note from the Ferraras in Minnesota. They knew the Shermans who had been called to preside over the new Yamoussoukro Mission and who were looking for couples who could assist with the work in the districts and branches. As we explored that opportunity through emails and a FaceTime call with Pres. and Sr. Sherman, it seemed like this would be a very good fit for us. Sue knew that using French would be a challenge but she did not shrink.
In our application we requested that assignment and received our call letter on July 21. We report to the MTC for the week of Jan 14, 2019 and fly to Abidjan on Jan 21. We will travel to Yamoussoukro by car.
Côte d’Ivoire Yamoussoukro Mission
Our mission was opened in July 2018 to become the third mission in Côte d’Ivoire, in addition to the Abidjan East and Abidjan West Missions. In the mission boundaries are two stakes, Yamoussoukro and Daloa, and several additional districts and branches. See mission map above. It shows the Yamoussoukro Mission in relation to the surrounding missions and countries.
Note that the distance from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro is about 235 km, or just under 150 miles. Abidjan has a population of about 5 million, and Yamoussoukro, the political capital, has about 400 thousand population. Overall the population of the country is about 25 million.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa
Let us share some brief comments about the history of the Church in Côte d’Ivoire from the LDS Newsroom website:
“In the early 1980s two families returned to Ivory Coast after having joined the Church in Europe, and in 1987 there were 16 members in the country.
Branches (small congregations) were organized in Abidjan in 1988 and in Bouake in 1989, and with the arrival of missionaries in 1988 the Church continued to grow. It received official recognition in 1991.
In 1993 the Cameroon Yaounde Mission headquarters were moved to Ivory Coast and this became the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission. The mission concentrated its resources in the Abidjan area to establish a center of the Church here for French-speaking Africa.
The first meetinghouse in Ivory Coast was dedicated in 1997 with two more completed in 1998.”
Sue and I have met the couples who started the Church in Côte d’Ivoire and have listened with great admiration to their stories of personal sacrifice. We have also shared their tears of joy at seeing some of the fruits of their labors.
There are now almost 45,000 members in Côte d’Ivoire. By our most recent count there are 15 stakes in the country. A temple was announced in April Conference, 2015. The groundbreaking for the temple in Abidjan took place on November 8, 2018 with Elder Neil L. Anderson presiding.
