On Sunday, June 11th, we traveled to Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Obuasi District where we created a second branch from the existing Dunkwa Branch. Elder Walker has been the branch president there since the end of October. When I gave him the assignment, we had no idea who might step in to fill his shoes when his mission was over. We simply believed that the Lord would do His part if we did ours. The missionaries who have served in Dunkwa have been extraordinary. Elder Walker as the Branch President and Elder Heaton as the senior companion of the other companionship. They have been there a long time and have made such a huge impact. There have been 9 missionaries who have served there in the last 8 months. Below is a picture. So many men have been baptized and ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. The new branch president of the Dunkwa I branch was posted by the government to come and work in Dunkwa. The Lord can do His work! Now we need a few more miracles over the next two months before Elder Walker’s return home to find a replacement for him as the Dunkwa II branch president. We have no doubt we will find him. Such a wonderful and amazing day!

After the meeting we held a membership council to reinstate a member who has been under restrictions for some years. Another tribute to Elder Walker was his effort to go and find this man and rekindle his hope in Jesus Christ. We still have a few more steps to take, but we are definitely moving things in the right direction.

Okay, now to back to the first of the week.

On Monday, I was able to play some basketball again. Elder Loveland arrived a bit late (to save his knee), but once he came our team did much better 😊. Always fun to play the greatest sport on the face of the earth! I bought a new “international basketball” from ChinaMall like what we used in the Philippines. Okay, well it is not really a Molten official FIBA ball, but it does look like one. Seems like old times!

Early Monday afternoon we were able to connect with Waldo and Rebecca Ray. They are from Richfield, Utah and simply amazing wonderful, dedicated, and humble disciples of Jesus Christ. We are so happy to have them join us at the end of September. Our plan (coupled with their eager willingness) is to put them in Tamale to replace the Steinmetz’s who will leave next month. We have worried a lot about supporting the district once the Steinmetz’s go home and the Ray’s are an answer to our prayers. We are grateful that the Lord was kind enough to send them to us and the amazing members in Tamale.

Monday evening we held our weekly MLC meeting. Each week I see more and more progress in recording the actual numbers associated with the six key indicators. After our training the prior Saturday, the zone leaders and sister training leaders were upbeat about the missionaries over whom they have stewardship and their ability and desire to keep Area Book current. Meeting each Monday night has turned into quite a treat. I have given the meeting over to the Assistants who monitor and assist the gathering of the data and as well as running the meeting. I am grateful for these capable young men who love the Lord and faithfully fulfill responsibilities that do not require my full attention. We have issues with internet strength on the phones in some apartments, so many do not transmit video unless they are speaking. They do all participate and since revelation is scattered, this becomes a revelatory meeting each week as we counsel together. I continued to be excited about the difference this will make across the mission.

On Tuesday, June 6th, around 11:45 am, we locked up the mission home and headed north to Sunyani, Techiman, and Tamale. We arrived in Sunyani about 2:15 pm and began interviews. I interviewed 12 missionaries and LaDawn did the phone checks on the 6 phones before going to the hotel and having dinner. On Tuesday evening I had a TEAM video call with Michael Jensen, a service missionary who lives in Salt Lake. As a service missionary, Michael works with the Office of General Counsel for the Church on an initiative focused on Human Rights Education which includes an article on religious freedom.

A couple has now been called to our mission who will focus on this initiative, visiting with elementary and secondary schools to train teachers on how to teach a curriculum based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles).” (https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights). Since we were unfamiliar with the initiative and the resolution, Michael was kind enough to meet with us and explain what it is Elder and Sister Samuelson from Sandy, Utah will be doing as part of our mission. We are looking to the arrival of the Samuelson’s in late August!

The next morning (Wednesday) we arose and held zone conference for the Sunyani and Techiman zones. Following zone conference I did 8 more interviews.

Here is the outline for this round of zone conferences:

• Birthdays (oops, we forgot the birthday box)
• Health and Safety (Elder and Sister Loveland). Sister Loveland used the example of receiving a car that would need to last one’s whole life. The care we would give that car is similar to the care we should give our bodies so that it too can last our entire lives.
• Vision Refresh – This time I did a study of people in the scriptures (primarily Book of Mormon and New Testament) who can be classified into each of the four quadrants representing Love and Expectations. Here is what our finished whiteboard looked like. It was a great exercise to help the missionaries understand that we can actually assess where we are based on how we are currently living our lives. These quadrants really do represent scriptural people and perhaps of most importance, was the long-term outcomes. If we are not living our lives in the miracle quadrant, the long-term outcome is simply not very good.

• Zone Leader Instruction – In this round of conferences, the zone leaders were given 30 minutes to teach their zones about the power of setting and achieving goals that fulfill our purpose (around the 6 key indicators). We have become concerned that in some companionships the goals are not helping to drive them, often because they do not believe divine help will come if they do their part. Every single presentation at the zone conferences held thus far have been excellent and spirit filled.

• Following the zone leaders, LaDawn talked about the importance of clean apartments where the Spirit of the Lord can dwell. She followed that with some quotes from Elder Clayton’s talk on “The Finest Homes”. A part of her instruction, she had the missionaries close their eyes and do a virtual walkthrough of their apartments. It was wonderfully done and the missionaries felt the difference between a clean apartment and a dirty one.

• Next up were our one minute drills. Here are the three we did: “The Creation”, “The Gift of the Holy Ghost”, and “Obedience”. In Sunyani, the one that needs the most work is “The Gift of the Holy Ghost”. The other two were done extremely well. In Tamale all three were done well.
• We then did role plays on two of the questions from Chapter 5 in Preach My Gospel classified as “Questions of the Soul”. The two we discussed were 1) Does God know me? and 2) How can my family be happier and more united? After doing the role plays, we debriefed about how the missionaries used the scriptures referenced in the questions. This had to be one of my favorite parts of zone conference.

• Somewhere about now we broke for lunch. In Tamale it was a bit earlier than in Sunyani, but both schedules worked out great.
• The Assistants then led a discussion on the Book of Mormon, titled “This is It!”. It was absolutely wonderful. I loved the discussions and the insights from the missionaries. One of the things the Assistants did was put a picture up of Samuel the Lamanite and then asked what characteristics and attributes this prophet possessed. They then invited the missionaries to pick one of the attributes and apply it in their own lives. The point of the exercise was that we can do the same exercise with every prophet in the Book of Mormon as we strive to become more and more like Jesus Christ.

• The last discussion of the day was from me focused on receiving personal revelation. It was based on an instruction I gave in December of 2021, but now changed a bit. The reception of the doctrines was significantly more pronounced this time. The instruction was called, “Eyes to See” “Ears to Hear” “Hearts that Understand”. I shared with the missionaries that the more willing we are to place our wills on the altar, the greater the personal revelation we will receive. I also discussed the Light of Christ and how it is used by the Holy Ghost to deliver gifts and miracles to each of us. If you are interested, you can find the presentation here.

From there, we took a picture, did a few more interviews and we were “on to the next”.

On Friday morning, I was able to get up early enough to go on a 2 mile walk. It is often difficult when we travel to get much exercise, so when the opportunity presents itself I try to take it. As I walked that morning I came across a “stone crushing machine”. I did a quick search on the internet and identified a blue machine that was similar but different. Here in Ghana, you don’t see many stone crushers, unless they have a hammer in their hand. The man was good natured when I asked if I could take a picture.

On Saturday morning we interviewed the four sisters in Tamale before returning to Kumasi. That meant 50 interviews, two zone conferences, and 16 hours of driving in 5 days time. It was busy but extremely rewarding. Upon leaving Tamale, we again faced rain for much of the way home, starting and stopping (the rain that is) as we drove. It was almost like it was chasing us, as once we returned to Kumasi it started raining here. We love the rain though. Water is life here and the rain cools everything down. It is just not fun to drive in it on pothole filled roads.

We arrived back home around 4 pm and really enjoyed sleeping in our own beds Saturday night. As mentioned earlier, we were up early on Sunday morning to drive to Dunkwa (90 minute drive). After we returned back home, we met with our Assistants to review the logistics and plans for our meeting with Elder Gong the next morning. After they left, we received a call from Elder Nielsen and Elder Gong where we discussed the state of the mission so Elder Gong could get a feel for what the Lord might have him teach the missionaries. Stay tuned to next week’s post where we will share the great experiences we all had with this powerful Apostle of Jesus Christ as we continue Gather Israel, one last time, Together in Ghana.