On May 25, 2025, Elder Ronald A. Rasband of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated the Abidjan Ivory Coast Temple, calling Côte d’Ivoire a “gathering oasis” for its rapid growth through missionary work and the members’ deep commitment to temple and family history service.
“Ivory Coast — Côte d’Ivoire — is a gathering oasis,” he said. “Of all the people I have been around in the world, they understand the gathering here.”
More than a year later, Latter-day Saints and missionaries in the area are living up to that vision.
In his final months as president of the Côte d’Ivoire Abidjan East Mission before being released July 1, Pascal J. Budge reported rising temple attendance among members from neighboring countries who now have a house of the Lord closer to home.
He also reported that through technology and members’ efforts, large groups of people were taught and baptized over several months in a growing branch in Bamako, the capital of Mali, north of Côte d’Ivoire.
Budge wrote there is little else that contributes more to strengthening one’s faith than to witness so many in humble circumstances living lives full of faith.
“In many instances, they have very little to nothing of any temporal value. But you would never know there was anything missing when you see and feel the light the gospel of Jesus Christ produces in their lives,” he wrote in an email to the Church News. “This is certainly one of the ways the Savior’s light is shared with the rest of the world. The profound nature of how that light transforms them, and by extension anyone in the circle of their influence, simply can’t be overstated.”
Bamako Branch
Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles went to Mali in May 2017, and the Bamako Branch was formed in July of that year. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints received official recognition in Mali in January 2019. The Church sent the country’s first sister missionary to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and she began her service in June 2023.
As of July 1, the Bamako Branch was realigned to the newly formed Senegal Dakar Mission.
Travel to the temple
According to Budge, about 30 Latter-day Saints from Bamako traveled to Abidjan in February 2026, many to attend the temple for the first time and others to be sealed.
While at the temple, one member’s spouse was baptized in the neighboring Cocody Côte d’Ivoire Stake meetinghouse — a moment that became a spiritual highlight for the entire group.
First wave
Budge wrote that for some time, Bamako Branch members have encouraged people from three nearby areas — Farako Mountougoula, Diatoula and Ngomi — to hear the gospel message. Many showed interest, but it was not possible to send missionaries, Budge wrote.
In February, Budge instructed Abidjan East missionaries to make contact with Bamako Branch President Ibrahima Togola and use online video chats to begin teaching those interested in the gospel.
Budge oversaw the first teaching session remotely from the mission office in Abidjan. His second counselor in the mission presidency, Sery Koné, traveled to Bamako with the mission clerk to set up the technology so the interested friends could participate from the same chicken farm where Elder Bednar visited in May 2017.
The first group was so large — upward of 40 people — that missionaries split it in two and taught each group twice a week.
The teaching continued for several weeks until the group accepted the invitation to be baptized, with a service set for April 18. Before that date, President Togola arranged civil wedding ceremonies for several couples in the group so they could be legally married prior to baptism.
While missionaries conducted 78 baptismal interviews, a tailor in the branch measured each candidate, and Relief Society sisters helped sew all the white clothing.
The Frako and Diatoula villages are about 10 miles east of Bamako, and Ngomi is a more than a two-hour drive to the north. Mission and branch members also arranged for transportation needs, including food and water, for those involved.
Before the service, Koné trained local priesthood leaders to perform the baptisms and confirmations — for many of them, their first time officiating in either ordinance.
On April 18, 74 entered the waters of baptism; four more followed on April 19. Confirmations were performed in two different rooms. Thanks to careful planning and support by the members, all ordinances were completed in less than four hours.
On April 19, 45 of the male candidates were interviewed and received the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a “historic and significant event” for the branch, said Budge, noting the following:
- All contacts were made by the members — young missionaries have not been in Mali for three years.
- Each ordinance was performed by worthy, local priesthood holders.
- All teaching and interviews by young missionaries took place with the use of technology.
“This was all done by local members, with the support of Ivorian mission presidency counselors,” Budge wrote.
Second wave
A second wave of 36 baptisms in the Bamako Branch took place in May. Some of the men ordained to the office of priest in the Aaronic Priesthood in the first wave of April converts participated in performing the baptism ordinance. Among the converts were two drivers hired to help transport people when lessons were being taught.
“They were so impacted by the lessons they received that they decided to be baptized themselves,” Budge wrote.
Eyewitness to Lord’s hastening
Reflecting on the first two waves of baptisms in Bamako, Koné said it was a “miracle” to see how the restored gospel is touching lives in a predominantly Muslim country. It reminds him of Elder Rasband’s April 2025 conference talk in which he spoke about being an eyewitness to the Lord hastening His work.
“I am watching it with my own eyes,” he wrote to the Church News.
Reflecting on the teachings of “Preach My Gospel” and every step of the process, he said he had “not seen the work of bringing people to Christ move the way it moved when every part was rowing together — leaders on the ground, missionaries online and members carrying the work between us.”
Koné said the new converts are now learning about the temple.
“They have never been there, but they speak of it often,” he wrote. “They are eager to attend and to experience for themselves what Elder Rasband called ‘a gathering oasis.’ The Abidjan Côte d’Ivoire Temple is more than a thousand kilometers (621 miles) from them, and yet it is already shaping their hearts. That, more than anything else, is how I know the Lord is hastening His work in Mali.”
A coming third wave
A third wave of more than 50 people are being prepared for baptism during the summer. Members are learning about ministering, educational opportunities, self-reliance and temple and family history service. New branches may soon be organized.
For Budge, it’s been a “deeply inspiring” experience.
“It is a constant reminder about how important it is for us to remember to focus on the things that matter most,” he wrote. “What I see from them is that when life’s circumstances limit what can be done, they only do what matters most. But that’s not the end of it. Like Nephi, their choices reflect a ‘brightness of hope’ (2 Nephi 31:20) in a world where there seems to be very little reason for optimism.”
He continued: “They know in whom they can trust, and when that truth is shared with them, they insert themselves without reservation. The energy with which they embrace the gospel seems to say, ‘O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation’ (2 Nephi 4:30). It is evident in the way they choose to live, and a great inspiration and encouragement to me to do the same.”
