A fairly quiet week in regards to the unusual or unexpected. We still had a few surprises as one might conclude with 191 young missionaries, but nothing earth shattering. We are grateful for weeks such as this.

Monday morning we played basketball (a now regular event). The difference was that Elder Kraig Loveland joined us about 8:15 and played for 30 minutes or so. He has a knee that he has to be cautious with, but despite that he was on fire from three point land. Kraig and I played a lot of Church basketball together when we were in High School and it was so fun to be able to play with him again.

Last week I talked about Elder Mabini from the Philippines who came to the mission on Monday afternoon. We spent about two hours with him, fed him dinner and then sent him on his way to be trained by Elder C. Beck in Aboabo. He will be a terrific addition to the mission!

On Monday night, we held our now regular MLC Meeting over Zoom. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the status of the 6 key indicators for the previous week. We had started receiving feedback that quite a number of missionaries were unsure about how to enter data into Area Book each day. This was reinforced by the numbers that we were seeing in the spreadsheet. Our agenda consisted of three questions. 1) Are we making progress inputting the names of the people to whom we are teaching a second lesson? 2) What are we doing to help our missionaries find more elect to teach? 3) What did you learn in the process of setting the 6 key indicators. At the meeting, I recorded three key resulting discussion points. First, we need the MLC to help their missionaries have more confidence in their calls as missionaries. When members of the MLC call companionships, there should be a lot of encouragement and support offered to the missionaries. Second, when the transfer goals are set, they need to cover not only what we want to accomplish this transfer, but also into the next one. If we only set a goal to find those we will baptize this transfer, we will not have any people ready to be baptized early in the next transfer. Third, all agreed that a mission wide training on Area Book would help the mission significantly. We agreed to do something Saturday morning at 10:30 am.

We started the interviews for the transfer on Tuesday, May 30th by visiting the Dichemso district in the Dichemso Zone at the Dichemso Stake Center. Elder Lawson is the district leader there. We did two interviews before the meeting and 10 more afterwards. The other district that meets at that building is the Asowkwa District so we snapped a picture of everyone and then went back to the interviews.

On Wednesday, we drove to Effiduase and Kwamo to do the first half of the University Zone. We now have 6 missionaries in the Effiduase District, where Elder Kalombo is now the district leader. He and Elder Rawson are serving in Seniagya. We placed a new companionship in Daddease where the University Stake recently open up a Group. Elder Kunzler is training Elder Colati (from Fiji). Elder Udo and Elder Sorvari continue to serve in Effiduase.

From there we drove to Kwamo and interviewed 10 more. We finished up before 3 pm and made it home in time for a 4 pm zoom call with Rod and Melanie Hillam. The Hillam’s were our mentors prior to arriving in Ghana and we have continued to stay in touch with them because they have become such great friends.

Following our visit with the Hillams, I held my bi-weekly presidency meeting with President Obeng, President Asante, Elder Loveland, and Eugene Ghorman. Lots of moving pieces right now as we recently received approval to split the Dunkwa Branch to create the Dunkwa 2nd Branch. split the Bibiani Estates Branch to create the Hwenampori Branch, and split the Asonkore Branch to create the Kwabenakwa Branch. In addition, we are currently nurturing Groups in Bosomioso (Waiwso), Nkoransa 2 (Techiman), and Akrofuom (Obuasi) which we hope to turn into Branches with a year (or sooner). We are also hoping to create a new Group in Ayanfuri (near Dunkwa), once the mission boundaries have been realigned and it has been brought into the Ghana Kumasi Mission. We also discussed the dedication of the new Duayaw Nkwanta Branch building on the 25th of June (a new “First” for me). We took some time and reviewed the 1st quarter reports for all of the districts. Some have made significant improvements over last year and others are essentially the same. It was a good exercise for us as a presidency to review them and see where the help is needed to increase the momentum of change.

On Thursday, we drove first to Atafoa and interviewed Sister Ilulu, Sister Lalugba, Elder Edwards and Elder Kabeya (it was raining so I did them inside the ward building). We then drove to Suame and interviewed 5 more companionships. The setting for these interviews was good, as they were outside underneath one of the walkways. The rain earlier in the morning gave way to a cool breeze and it was a very comfortable day for interviews.

On Friday, we were back in the University zone at the stake center doing 10 more interviews. I really fell behind doing these as there were a few I needed to spend some extra time with that day. The opportunity to minister 1:1 to these missionaries is priceless. I am grateful for the blessing it is to meet with each of them every six weeks and learn from them as well as provide needed encouragement and counsel and sometimes priesthood blessings.

On Friday afternoon I met with Peter Amoah-Ohenakwa, our Facilities Manager for the North. I cannot say enough good things about the work this man does for us. He is always on top of issues and when we ask him to respond to a problem, it is usually done quickly. We are grateful to have such a capable and responsive facilities manager on our team.

On Saturday morning, as mentioned earlier, we held training for Area Book, going through the process for updating each of the 6 key indicators. We spent just under an hour and recorded the training for future missionaries and sent out the slides we used in a PDF format to the entire mission. Overall, it was an hour well spent.

On Sunday, we attended Church in the Obuasi 2nd Branch. It was a fast and testimony Sunday and a new branch presidency was called. During the second hour, I interviewed two prospective missionaries. Kenneth Frimpong and Joseph Kwame Smith. Both will be excellent missionaries. I spent about 45 minutes with them going over every one of our 17 points of consecrated obedience, committing each of them to live these expectations, regardless of where they serve or what other missionaries around them are doing. I want to make sure we send out the same kind of missionaries that we want to receive in the Ghana Kumasi Mission.

Following the interviews, we held a membership council to determine the status of a brother who had been disfellowshipped in the past and is now eager to return to his full membership privileges. Because of the nature of the transgression, we can only make a recommendation to the First Presidency, something we concluded we will do as a result of the council. Days like this are extremely rewarding.

We continue to be grateful for the now 191 missionaries serving in the Ghana Kumasi Mission. We are grateful for their desire to become even more devoted disciples of Jesus Christ. We are grateful for the young men and young women from our member districts who are working hard to qualify as full-time missionaries. We are grateful for the members and leaders of the districts and the stakes who are moving forward, learning and applying the gospel doctrines and principles so that Zion can be established. We join each of these “groups” whose desires are only to do the will of the Father and His beloved Son as we gather Israel, one last time, Together in Ghana.