March 31, 2019

We had a very interesting return visit this week to a village where we taught a group a couple of weeks ago.  There we met with two inactive brothers, their wives, extended family, and two friends.  We were again outside in the shade on benches and chairs in a circle.  The active brother translated back and forth into Bété.  His one inactive brother had lost a young daughter (8 or 9 years old) not too long ago, and eventually told us that at the time he really needed help and comfort from the branch, he didn’t get it, and that caused him to stop attending.

We talked about the power (that comes from the Savior) to forgive.  We formally apologized on behalf of the church for failing to meet their needs and asked for his forgiveness and invited him to return, that we loved and needed him.  It was touching meeting, directed by the spirit.  The one friend who we met with before was very interested in all that was said about the plan of salvation, eternal families, etc.  We gave him a B. of Mormon and invited him to read it and pray to know if it was true.  He had felt the spirit during the meeting.  The other friend asked who was Mormon, so we explained that and gave him a pamphlet to read.  It was a very sweet meeting filled with a spirit of reconciliation, love, and pure doctrine.  After the closing prayer we gave a blessing to a baby who was sick.

On one of her morning walks, Sue went wandering through the rice fields.  It was a fascinating place because she had never seen in person how rice grows.  Interestingly, later in the week she found people winnowing rice and hand picking out the debris as we visited a village.  Several people here grow their own rice as part of their food supply.  It is back-breaking work.  

Winnowing the rice

Picking out the little rocks and sticks

 

We went to a baptism of three sisters from our branch yesterday.   They had to take a taxi about 40 km to Issia, where the nearest font is located.  The temperature hit 107F yesterday.  Much cooler today at 95F!

The baptismal font and chapel at Issia.

Sr. S. with three new members

March 24, 2019

To begin we must share our culinary excitements of the week.  Thanks to Elsa Dubois, we took our tough chicken and boiled it on low heat for four hours.  It was tender enough to shred and use in chicken soup.  To our amazement we also found frozen peas this week at the supermarché and threw some in the soup.   We now have a fourth regular menu item for dinner. 

We successfully made Tom’s favorite banana cake.  To show you how hot our oven is, the recipe calls for one hour in the oven at 275F.  With our oven set at the lowest heat, the cake was cooked in 20 minutes!  Sue found raw peanuts at the market and we roasted them ourselves.  This was not as easy as it is supposed to be, given our gas oven, but we will do better next time.  We are grateful for small blessings.

A highlight of the week was hosting President and Sr. Sherman Thursday evening.  They arrived after a day of interviewing and travel and set off the next morning for more of the same, followed by a district conference Saturday and Sunday before arriving home.  They actually spend more time on the road most weeks than they do at home.

We went to visit a member who has lived for 17 years in a small village that is 45 minutes from the branch.  He is a returned missionary and has stayed faithful, teaching his family about the church.  He gathered 22 people under a shade tree to hear the gospel message from the branch president and 2 branch missionaries and was delighted to have us tell them what he has been saying for a long time.  We left them some things to read and study after a wonderful time together.

We love mango season and mango trees

 







Favorite street scenes

                                                                                                          FYI we always ask permission before taking a photo.

If you look carefully, how many sheep can you see on top of the van?

March 17, 2019 Couples Conference

What a week we have had!  It was our Couples Conference in Yamoussoukro.  We drove Tuesday to the Mission Office and then checked into our hotel.  It is a very large hotel on the outskirts of the city [looked Arabic] originally built for the legislative delegates who come. 

Wednesday we spent most of the day together - Pres. and Sr. Sherman, Elders and Srs. Tanner (who work in San Pedro), Solomon (who work in the office) and ourselves.  We ate together at the hotel for the breakfast buffet, which included spaghetti, beef, and a tomato sauce in addition to yoghurts, cereal, pastries, and fruit.  We drove to the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, the largest Basilica in the world by some measures, and 2nd to St. Peter’s in Rome by others.  It was built about 30 years ago by the president of the country and then given to the Vatican.

L to R Tanners, Spackmans, Shermans, Solomons

Looking down from the balcony.  The benches seat 7,000 people.

 







Following the tour we drove north of the city for about 30 minutes to the villages where the strip cloth weavers work.

Weaver working

Finished product after the strips are sewn together

 







After a great lunch of shwarma and humus we met together for 3 hours to discuss various aspects of the work.  That was our favorite part of the conference - being together to share testimonies and stories.  The Lord is pouring out his Spirit on the mission and the church is growing rapidly - but hopefully not faster than the leadership can grow.  There are seven districts now in the mission and more to come.  It is not unusual to have members who join the church in one location and then move to another where the Church isn’t yet organized. They share the gospel and before you know it there are 50 people who want to be a branch.  We could use many more couples to help train Branch Presidents, EQ Presidents, RS Presidents, etc. 

We enjoyed  socializing, eating in real restaurants and actually had ice cream. This is the first we have seen in the country.  

Thursday we headed back home on the very rough road.  Just outside Bouaflé we heard a funny noise, and then the truck started driving differently.  A vehicle passed us with windows down , passengers waving and pointing to the back of our vehicle. We stopped to take a look and found the R rear tire deflating rapidly.  A young man beside us pointed across the road so we turned around and went back 75 meters to a flat spot, which just happened to be next to an auto repair business.  While I started to study the truck manual, the young men there quickly jumped into action and replaced the flat with the spare, which rides underneath the bed of the truck.  One young man offered to take us to a tire repair business just a couple of km into town.  There they fixed the tire, finding a huge metal spike that had pierced the rubber.  That tire now  serves as the spare.  We happily paid the small sum to have it fixed, with a generous tip to them and the young men who changed it originally.  We were off again after only about 50 minutes.  Had it happened elsewhere on the road, [most was under construction] we might have figured it out but it would have taken much longer and I would have been very hot and very dirty.  What a blessing these young men were to us! It was a recognizable tender mercy.

 
 

The tire repair "shop"

The next morning we were off again to Saioua to do some training with 2 priesthood leaders there to help them administer the Sacrament in their group.  We returned again today for regular meetings and Branch Council. 

Sue's favorite tree on the way to Saioua

Visitors in our Branch Council Meeting

March 10, 2019

We have been watching the new safety videos for missionaries this week and have been both sobered and impressed.  Sobered by the stories of real accidents and near misses that have occurred, and impressed by the quality of the presentations.  Even though young men and women are statistically safer to be serving a mission than being a young adult at home, there are still tragedies that occur to missionaries and the Church is committed to reducing or ideally eliminating those occurrences.  

We also loved watching the Roots Tech presentation by Elder and Sr. Bednar this week.  The clarity of the teaching about the Abrahamic Covenant and our role as laborers in the gathering of Israel is being emphasized in helpful ways.  

Our week has been relatively quiet, but life on the street here is rarely quiet.

These ladies do their laundry on the street.  Oh to be so happy with washboards and clotheslines hanging next to a major road!  They were delighted that I wanted to take their picture.  We are surprised that most women here don't have back problems from all the bending that they do.

Some try to grow their own vegetables where the jungle has been cleared.  We have seen few gardens in town but this one is across the street from one of our chapels.

Sue walks between 6:15 and 8:30 AM.  There are women on the street selling food by 6:45 AM - usually a baguette of bread sliced diagonally with a filling inside.  Many people get their breakfasts at these little stands.

                                 Sometimes these stands are used for things other than selling food!

                                         There are several mosques in Daloa and this is the largest.

                                                   Counseling with the Branch President in his yard.  

March 3, 2019

There is a remarkable young man in our branch. He is 18, not out of high school and is named Herman.  He and Bro. B, a convert of 4 weeks who is a teacher by profession, accompanied us and the Br. Pres. to two small villages.  The village the greatest distance away was Nahio, 13 km on a hilly dirt road from Saioua. it took 30 minutes to get there in our 4 wheel drive and would take us several hours on foot. This was the village where Herman spent his childhood. We met with some members and friends on his grandfather’s porch.

Two young men from Herman’s boarding school in town were there [all the schools are closed because of a month-long teachers strike].  He had introduced Eric and Didier to the gospel and they had been baptized. They were listening with real intent and we could feel their spiritual strength and humility. Their father had come to see who we were and their grandfather also. Neither were members.

After Tom shared  the story of the First Vision, Bro. B shared his conversion story about the Book of Mormon, and Herman his testimony, the father asked if it would be possible to get a group organized in Nahio.  This brought tears to my eyes - the example and courage of a friend, and the example of two sons to their father and grandfather. 

 
Another member, a returned missionary had walked 6 km to meet with us. He had lived in the bush for the last 16 years and was 20 km from Saioua.  Too far to walk and attend meetings. The Pres. gave him a copy of Come Follow Me, introduced him to the new prophet and told him about the changes of the last year.
 
The next village, Digbam, was the Pres.’ home village. He had arranged with the branch clerk, who lives there, to invite some neighbors  to sit under a tree and discuss the gospel. We ended up with two different groups with a total of 15 adult men listening to our message. Between Nahio and Digbam we gave away every pamphlet we had and could have given away more. The gospel of Jesus Christ gives these people hope and their lives meaning.
  
On Thursday we found out  about a place that sold chicken. Sister G told us she would take us there the next morning at 7:15. We have not cooked chicken since we arrived in Africa. We were very excited. I figured we were going to the market but I was not expecting a  holding pen with live chickens (a few hundred) to pick out the ones wanted, watch as their heads were cut off, steamed in boiling water, plucked, and chopped into pieces. For you who think chicken comes from the store, this was not the place for you. 

 










When I got home with my bag and looked inside, I had the feet, the internal organs and the head. Surprisingly, there were parts I did not recognize. As a child I had watched and helped clean the birds that my dad shot. Several years before I was 10, I was his hunting dog. This really flooded me with memories.

Tom and I were excited about fasting on a fried chicken dinner. I had found green beans at the market to go with our baked potatoes and carrots and tomatoes. It all looked great but it was not to be. The chicken was so tough that we could not cut it even with a paring knife. We will not be making many trips to the hen house.