April 28, 2019

We have had an interesting week getting to know better some of the leaders in the second branch that we are working with.  We met the first couple in their city of 85,000 to join the Church.  He was a pastor in a different church when his younger brother gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and he began reading and studying it.  After a couple of years he had gained his own testimony and decided with his wife that it was time to talk with the missionaries and perhaps get baptized. 

In order to do that they traveled 250 miles (400 km) to the capital, Abidjan.  There they sought out the missionaries and were taught.  They were formally married, then baptized, then they returned to the town where they lived.  That was 4 1/2 years ago.  Their five adult children have all joined the Church also. 

He of course had to retire from his pastor position and has become a rice farmer, like so many others in the town.  It’s hard work and not lucrative but it supports his family.  His first contact once he returned was with a friend with whom he shared the message of the restoration.  His friend gained his own testimony quickly and even before he could be baptized would put on a white shirt and tie and they would go together to preach to other neighbors and friends.  As soon as they were able, the friend and his wife went to Yamoussoukro, about 110 miles (166 km) or a three hour drive away, to be baptized.

They started meeting together in the first brother’s home and in a short time had about 50 people attending.  Then they connected with the mission president to come and organize the branch, which occurred just a little over 4 years ago.  Now they have 200 members and meet in  a very functional meeting house with a baptismal font, offices, classrooms, etc. and are preparing be divided.  In that 4 years, a stake has been organized in Daloa, where we live, and many other branches and districts have been created with very similar stories.  Most of the branch leaders have traveled the 15 hours to Accra to the temple and some have been more than once. 

When we hear the expression that “the Church here is like the restored Church in 1833” you can understand what that means.  There are many wonderful members.  In Abidjan, the capital, where there are at least 13 stakes, some members are 3rd generation, but in our area, most have joined much more recently and many are the first in their families to join.  It is a great opportunity and blessing for us to work with them and share some of our experience while we try to absorb their faith and diligence as they “pioneer” the Church here.  

A typical home kitchen in the village

Women getting water from a well

April 21, 2019 Bonne Fête de Pâques!

It has been a good week leading up to Easter. Tom and I read all the scriptures in Come Follow Me.  We listened to the Messiah with the Toronto Symphony [our favorite rendition at the moment] also Mozart’s Requiem, the Easter Concert from Temple Square and the Spoken Word from this morning which concluded with  “Worthy is the Lamb .“   Hugh reminded us of the inspiring words of Elder Holland  found here: https://www.lds.org/study/ensign/1986/08/i-stand-all-amazed?lang=eng  We are so grateful that the internet works at least part of the time. We have seen all the Conference Sessions, some two or three times and can Skype with our siblings and kids. Although we live in a different world, we can connect to the one we are familiar with occasionally.

This week at the market I found fresh eggplant. I have only cooked eggplant once in my life and that was under supervision for an authentic French dinner we had auctioned off at Honors Choirs in Minnesota. I think Candice made us eggplant parmesan once in Florida but I thought I would try it. I pulled up a 5 star recipe on line to see if we had access to the majority of the ingredients. We had homemade marinara sauce in the fridge, fresh grated mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, basil, no panko breadcrumbs but I made my own by drying our French bread in the oven.  Anyway, Tom said it was superb so we have added one more thing to our limited menus.

Singeing the hair on a recently deceased goat - definitely not on our menu!

I have set a goal to walk a minimum of 20 miles per week. I try to walk Mon-Sat. sometime  between 6-8:30 am. After that it is just too hot.  Today it was 100 F by 11 am. When we travel in the morning, it is very difficult to walk far because it doesn’t leave time to cool down and get ready.  I am trying to keep up with Tom who is trying to be active into his 80’s (whatever that means!).

Note the Singer sewing machine

 Our day-to-day life is occupied by many of the same things as if we were at home: exercise, cleaning, cooking and eating, studying, washing clothes, sleeping, etc. but our time as missionaries is punctuated by remarkable experiences with the members and non-members who live here.  We met a man this week who joined the Church in 2014 and has already served as a branch president.  HIs friend would put on a white shirt and tie even before he was baptized so they could go preaching together.  Devoted men and women who love God were exposed to the truths of the restoration and the Book of Mormon and have accepted them with open minds and hearts because they feel the affirmation of the spirit. 

We met another man who hasn’t been baptized because he is waiting for his wife who, at the moment, prefers to attend a different church.  As we were talking with him about the Book of Mormon I referred to Mormon’s statement that he could only write a hundredth part of the records and the man replied that yes he knew that was found in the Words of Mormon.  People like to read and most only have the scriptures so they tend to know them well.  Television in a home is rare, as are computers.  Most people don’t earn enough to spend on “worldly” stuff like fancy clothes or cars or entertainment. 

 

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Three helping their tiny cousin to ride

 

 











There are many miracles that we celebrate at this time of the year.  Certainly the atonement and the resurrection have to be at the top of the list.  However, the aspect that we often see is the miracle of changed hearts.  It appears as forgiveness, as love, as humility, as acceptance of God’s will, as gratitude for blessings, and as endurance in doing good when blessings are temporarily withheld.  We don’t have the power to bring that about, but we do try very hard to have the spirit and to bring others to the spirit through the scriptures and prayer.  The Father and the Son, working through the Holy Ghost, do the heavy lifting and the changing while we become witnesses of their sacred power.

Baptismal clothes and towels drying in the sun.

April 14, 2019 Palm Sunday

 

It has been a good week for getting supportive things done.  We now have the triple filter water system for our kitchen.  It is very convenient and saves us about $7 a week. 

We have our air conditioning units now functioning.  It took three days[about 20 hours].  The main unit in our living/dining area just needed a good cleaning.  However, the unit in our bedroom had a broken plastic connection at the drain hose which had to be replaced.  Even with that, it still leaked lots of water into the bedroom.  Eventually our brilliant technician figured out how to punch a hole in the wall for the drain tube, something which probably should have been done at installation years ago.  It doesn’t look pretty but it works!

Today is Palm Sunday, of course, and we saw many, many people carrying fronds as we drove to Issia today.

We both spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  For Sr. S. it was her first talk in French and done very well without any reading!  I said in my intro that although we don’t come from the same village, we are from the same tribe - the tribe of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The culture we are striving to adopt and live is not from here or from the US.  Rather it is a celestial culture revealed to apostles and prophets.  I then read Mosiah 18:18-29 (Mormon’s description of Alma’s nascent church) and asked them to see what they could recognize in their branch.  It really is a good ideal: priests and teachers ordained by one having authority, who support themselves; preaching of faith in Jesus Christ and repentance; no contentions; being unified in their faith and love for each other; keeping the Sabbath; meeting often; walking in righteousness before God; giving from and to each one according to needs and resources, both temporally and spiritually.  I also talked about the parable of the workers from Matt 20.  I compared myself (an old member) and one of the new converts who taught with us, to the workers who started early and late in the day but yet were all paid the same wage.  What are our wages?  The gift of the Spirit and the promise of eternal life. (Apparently there have been some issues in the branch between the “old” members and newer ones.)   The branch is large with an adequate building, offices, classrooms, and a baptismal font.  They are well-organized and have experienced members as well as new converts. 

In lessons today we discussed a conference talk from October, Sr. Cardon’s entitled “Become a Shepherd”.  When we walked out of the church gate, here is what we found in the street!

 

 We had a minor medical emergency this week.  One of the missionaries who lives within 1 km of our house had an incident where his tooth had punctured the cheek and he had a lot of bleeding which wouldn’t stop.  I was able to clamp my thumb and index finger over a gauze inside and outside the cheek and stop the bleeding.  I taught the other three in the apartment that although bleeding from the face and head is scary because of the amount of blood, it usually stops with simple pressure in the right location.  He needed a couple of stitches but should recover once the swelling goes down.

 


Earlier in the week: A mother (with baby) and son gathering wood to make charcoal.

April 7, 2019 General Conference

 We were asked to start working at Issia this week and met with the branch president there one afternoon.  Issia is an hour drive south on the way to the branch of Saioua.  We were looking forward to attending the meetings there today.  Wednesday night as we were preparing for Zone Conference on Thursday we had a call.  Bro. Gbalo (one of the mission drivers) wanted to take the truck to Abidjan to get the permanent license plates, and then return it on Saturday.

Zone Conference was great.  We have 22 missionaries in the Daloa Zone plus ourselves.  Pres. and Sr. Sherman stayed with us the night before and we had a good opportunity to visit.  They have a very rigorous schedule, spending more time away from the mission home than there, but they always have a driver so that helps.  Yesterday we had a call that the truck wouldn’t return until Monday.  Not a big problem, although it delays starting our work in Issia.  We were planning to watch General Conference sessions at 4PM and 8 PM, since we are six hours ahead of MST.

So today we are spending a different kind of Sunday. We went to church right next door for the first time. One of the members had recorded the Priesthood Session and hooked it up at the church for all to see.  Of course it was in French—my first session ever in French. Most I could not keep up with but could pick out words and phrases. Some of the other missionaries were there, in addition to many members from other wards.  It felt very organized being in a ward rather than a branch but it was more like a small district conference with all who came.

After the conference.  Notice how many members have gone underneath the tree on the right.  It's an African reflex to be in the shade even on a cloudy day.

General Conference has been great!  Our A/C has been problematic, with two window devices (out of four) leaking water if they are left on more than 10 minutes.  The drains need to be blown out probably (tomorrow!).  So we run the one in the living room for about 8 minutes then off for about 5.  Not only does it keep the temperature tolerable but I had to jump up every few minutes to turn the A/C on or off and it kept me awake!  We loved the Saturday focus on spiritual improvement, Come Follow Me, ministering, and other topics.  The Sat. afternoon music was really sweet (thanks Sr. Hall!).

Man in front of the Grand Mosque

Father and son.  We see a lot of kids like this on the road.

 

I love this Mona Lisa smile!

This afternoon we were watching the Sunday morning session when the doorbell rang.  Surprise!  Sixteen elders and sisters in our zone came to see if our computer was working.  Unfortunately at the chapel next door the broadcast wasn't happening.  So they joined us and we watched with the French translation.