Sunday Feb 24, 2019

It has been a good week for us.  We received a new stove which is larger and has an electric igniter for the propane.  We also officially met our waste disposal team from the Mairie (city hall) - a very important group.

As usual, in our travels to and from Saioua we have seen some interesting sights.

   These are mud bricks drying for use building another home in the compound that you see.  Many homes are still built like this although cinder block is more popular and sturdy if you can afford it.

Here you see a grove of rubber trees.  They are a common site on our route.  Note the small buckets hanging from nails.



 


This is a group of "free range" pigs feeding in the town of Issia.  Like sheep and goats, you have to watch for them while driving. We saw a sow with a dozen smaller piglets crossing the road near the market yesterday.  It had rained overnight and several potholes were full of water.  Half of the piglets jumped into the potholes and rolled around with joy.


On Wednesday we visited two villages north of Saioua where members live, accompanied by our branch president.  For most there, in order to attend meetings they have to walk several miles to get to “town”.  In Niakia we met with three members and their families.  As they told the story, the church in that area first started in their village from people who moved back from Abidjan, and spread quickly to friends and neighbors.  However, when the mission president came from Abidjan to start a branch, he chose Saioua because it is so much larger.  There are several families still there who would possibly be active if there were a group there.  We met with the three families and then Sue and  I had separate tours of the village - a beautiful, peaceful spot.

Preparing cassava

View of some homes in Niakia

 

While we were touring, the branch mission leader rounded up a group of youth and Elders Belley and Donkoh, who were with us, started teaching them about prayer.  It was a great example of “teach when you find, and find when you teach" (from Preach My Gospel). 

The active members are very dedicated, but for many their only experience has been in this small branch.  Also, we found out today that three sisters speak only Bété, one of 78 official languages currently spoken in the country.  

 

Feb. 17, 2019 Changes and Travels

Although we have only been here 3 weeks we were sad to lose 4 people out of our district on transfer day: the Sisters from Nigeria and Ghana,  Elder Mau our district leader from Tahiti and Elder Johnson from Moab Utah. Other representative countries were Madagascar and DRC. We have an extremely diverse mission.

I was very excited to maneuver the market by myself this week.  This is what it looks like. Thought the onion lady was adorable. Money 1000 franc bill = $1.75   Learning to count thousands.  If I listen carefully, I can hear how much things cost.

 Before the market opened

The market is now open!

We drive two hours each way to our assigned branch Saioua. Besides the huge potholes and motorcycles that we watch for, we are careful that we don’t hit any of these.

Wood to make charcoal for cooking

Always lots of people walking along the road

There is a small unofficial group in Godoua which is dependent on Saioua (and about 6 km north) and which is authorized to hold Sacrament Meeting when one of the branch presidency can go.  Most members walk to church here.  Last week we went with the Branch President and met in a house bulging with friends of the church. Inside there were 21 of us and outside the door and peering in the  windows [no glass] at least that many again. I bore my testimony with Tom translating and he spoke on being pioneers in the church in West Africa. It was a humbling experience.

We returned to Saioua on Thursday when Pres. and Sr. Sherman, the mission president, could be there on their way to other meetings (they are traveling constantly).  We trained the branch presidency and the branch council for about 1 3/4 hours on basic principles.  The branch has only been organized about 18 months and is not in a district, so the mission president is responsible for training and supervising.  There are a few leaders with experience but many members are new.  When Elder Nash was here, he told us to think of the church in the villages like 1833 in the history of the church.  This makes the situations we are finding less frustrating. We are trying to be cheerful, patient, diligent, and consistent in being there and supporting the members.  

Feb 10, 2019 MissionTour

On Thursday we were part of a Mission Tour by our Area President and companion, Elder and Sister Nash.  It was wonderful to see them again and recall our association  from Accra.  He and Sister Nash gave us big hugs as soon as they saw us.  These are amazing people, full of love and praise.  It was also great to see  Pres. and Sr. Sherman and the office couple, the Solomons.  Half the mission gathered in Daloa for the conference.  Elder and Sr. Tanner, the other MLS couple in the mission who are serving 5 hrs. away, stayed at our house.  Although they have a different assignment than we do, it was inspiring to hear what works for them.  The three senior couples in the mission are all from Canada.

The eighty of us met in the Orly chapel. It was bright, the fans were humming and we were sweating [98 degrees and no air conditioning]. All were filled with anticipation. Sister Sherman reminded us to recognize the hand of God in our lives each day. Pres. Sherman reviewed scriptures about teaching with power. Sister Nash referred to the gathering of Israel and answered the question “What do I need, to be ready for the second coming?”  1. become completely converted and 2. be ready to work.

Elder Nash spoke for 3 hours with a short lunch break in-between his two talks. He is a master teacher because he carries such a spirit of love, asks inspired questions, and tells stories.  He started out by asking ”Who are you?” and walked the missionaries through what it means to be a son or daughter of God, and how we become like him.  He then asked “Can you teach the doctrine of Christ if you don’t live it?” and then the big question of the morning, “Do you live the doctrine of Christ?”  It seems there are problems with rule-breaking and not working very hard, and he explicitly promised that keeping rules and working hard will bend us into the shape God wants us to become. 

In the afternoon he told some personal missionary experiences before turning to a question/answer session.  A few tidbits: be bold, speak the truth.  The Holy Ghost is your companion!    One question was, “How can we find more people to teach when we are so busy teaching that we don’t have time to do contacting?”  He stopped and said that first the missionary should offer prayers of gratitude that he is here in West Africa, because most missionaries in the rest of he world don’t have that problem.  Then he reminded us about the Preach My Gospel training to find when you teach and teach when you find.  Another missionary asked about preparing for post-mission life and he responded by teaching Matt 16:25, “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”  The best way to prepare for post-mission life is to give it all you have now.  Hold nothing back from the Lord. 

Elder Nash spoke through a translator most of the time but shared his testimony in French and used occasional French mixed with some Spanish.  The effort was appreciated by the missionaries.  The translator was exhausted at the end.  It was a wonderful day with lots to learn and remember.  

 

Feb 3, 2019 Adjustments

This week it rained twice.  The first time we were at home in the evening and could watch it pour down.  The temperature dropped 25 degrees.  Two nights later it rained again.  Today on our  2 hour journey to Saioua Branch we found new ruts in the roads and mud holes in some spots where we used our 4WD for the first time.  Our average speed on the trip was about 30 mph because we have to slow down frequently to dodge potholes or really slow down to go through them.  Pictures don’t seem to do them justice.  Sunday seems to be a popular day for markets in the little villages en route. 

We have been getting to know some of the other leaders in the stake and young missionaries and trying to get a better sense of the culture here.  Bishop Djédjé of the Orly Ward also presides over a group that we will help with.  He has been home from his mission for four years and has a wonderful presence about him.  It takes time to understand differences, but we feel like we’ve already been here for a long time.

Our menu is expanding.  Today we had squash and carrot soup, with a healthy dose of ginger.  Really good!  We also tried our flatbread pizza and it wasn’t too bad but the salami from Denmark was questionable.

We did find cleaning powder for the bathrooms and bug spray for the ants but Tom is still the hero for killing the roaches. Several of the sockets don’t work and none will accommodate my blowdryer so I have cut my hair shorter and let it dry naturally. We set up a new stove this week and now have access to an oven. I am trying to figure out the heating. It has numbers 1-8 but 3 burned our first dinner and I thought it was on low.  The handle on the oven gets almost as hot as the inside.

Every night Sue tries to think what she is grateful for in Cote d'Ivoire.  This is what she wrote this week:  Je suis reconnaissante pour les tomates, les oignons, les oeufs, le pain, et l'eau.  Ceux-ci m'aident à sentir à l'aise ici.  Je suis reconnaissante pour les les gens qui me disent,"Bonjour!" le matin quand je marche, et pour les oiseaux dans les arbres. 

We are looking forward to meeting the Tanners in person this week.  They are the other MLS couple serving in the mission, in San Pedro, a long 5 hour drive south.  They will come to stay with us for two nights to attend the Mission Tour by Elder Nash, our Area President.  We know and love the Nashes from our time in Accra. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our house and courtyard inside the wall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Two interesting people on the street.