On Sunday morning we traveled to the Asonkore Branch in the Obuasi District where the new Kwabenakwa Branch was formed from the existing Asonkore Branch. This is the second time a branch has been created from the Asonkore Branch since we have arrived in the mission. The first branch to be formed was Adansi Asokwa and now Kwabenakwa. President George Alhassan Serebour was called as the Kwabenakwa Branch President with Emmanuel Kwaow Faithful as first counselor and Slater Wisdom as the clerk. These are wonderful men. Slater was only baptized 6 months ago by Elder Miller who is now serving in Nkawkaw. It brings a smile to a missionary’s face when they see one of the people they helped to the covenant path begin to be builders of the kingdom.

For the Asonkore Branch, Ike Mensah (2C District Presidency) is the acting Branch President. There have been some issues in the branch and President Mensah is there to get things back on track and then they will call a new Branch President. In the meantime, we authorized Elder Bonnett to serve as the second counselor in the Branch Presidency and Elder Meteke to serve as the Executive Secretary. We love this missionary companionship and are excited to see the support they can give President Mensah as the branch starts to grow again.

Right after sacrament meeting, I drove President Tabi, President Obeng, President Serebour, and Brother Faithful the 10 minutes to Kwabenakwa to look at a potential meeting site for the new branch. In fact, we looked at two. The first was a former restaurant that would have been perfect, except that there was a church next door with drums, microphones, and blaring music. That would never work. The second was a hotel on the main road, but they had the same problem as a small church next door was making all kinds of noise. We are back to the drawing board on a place to meet. We are confident we will find something soon. After all, this is the work of the Almighty Father and His Son. They will help us.

As I mentioned last week, we traveled to Wa on Sunday for their branch conference. After the conference on Sunday afternoon we drove to Tamale and stayed in the Steinmetz’s apartment and Monday enjoyed a day of catching up. It was so much better being able to spend that day in an apartment with furniture that is comfortable rather than a hotel room that is dark and uncomfortable. At 4 pm, we started interviews with the four sisters who serve in Tamale and the six elders from Bolga. Tuesday morning we held the Tamale Zone Conference. We started at 9 am and finished right at 4 pm. It was a very good day!

Here is the outline for the conference:

• Welcome, recitation, birthdays
• Health and Safety by Elder and Sister Loveland. Focus was on apartment cleanliness and water filter awareness
• Vision Refresh. This round of conferences we are speaking about the Doctrine of Christ, beginning with Faith. We discussed 6 scriptures and had marvelous discussions about the evidences of our faith in Jesus Christ.
• In Tamale the zone leaders gave an instruction on “Seek the Spirit”. In Sunyani, Sister Johnson and Sister Kabama gave instruction on “Having Faith to Find” in the new Preach My Gospel.
• We then heard testimonies from the department missionaries
• LaDawn then provided instruction on the blessings of living inside the “box of righteousness”. She showed a video of a cattle round-up and the video we took of the topi being attacked by lions in the Serengeti.
• We then moved into 1 minute drills using the new bullet points followed by a review of Chapter 2 both from the new Preach My Gospel.
• After lunch the Assistants gave an amazing instruction titled “Call for Courage”. It was wonderful. At the end of their instruction, they shared this powerful video of a man training for a 100 mile desert run.
• I finished the day with a discussion on the importance of focus. My favorite statement in the discussion was from President Nelson, “Nothing invites the Spirit more than fixing your focus on Jesus Christ. Talk of Christ, rejoice in Christ, feast upon the words of Christ, and press forward with steadfastness in Christ.” If we want to have a greater portion of the Spirit in our lives, then we should increase our focus on Jesus Christ. One of the ways to do this is to study the 1,796 scriptures under “Jesus Christ” in the Topical Guide (another invitation from President Nelson).

Here are a few additional pictures from the Sunyani/Techiman Zone Conference

While in Techiman, I interviewed Dennis Opoku for his mission. He has had some struggles with his passport. He applied for it and received a call from the Sunyani Passports office that it was ready and he could come and pick it up. But when he went there they told him they were out of pamphlets to print his passport and that it would be September before they would have them again. The problem is that he turns 26 in August and his papers need to be submitted before he turns 26. And he is supposed to have his passport before I submit his papers. I did a final interview and submitted the papers suggesting he be assigned to a Ghana mission. Hopefully it will all work out.

On Friday morning before interviews started at 9 am, I interviewed another prospective missionary. Alfred Kusi is a good young man from the Nkwabeng Branch who has desired to serve a full-time mission for a very long time. It was wonderful to meet with him and feel of his desire and commitment. We have one missionary coming home next month, leaving 25 still in the field, 1 in the MTC and four with calls. These two will bring our total missionaries from the mission up to 32. Still lots of work to do to increase the number who are serving, but we are headed in the right direction.

After returning home on Friday after being gone for 7 days, we went to dinner with the Loveland’s and the Pack’s at Piri Piri. We were honored to have Elder and Sister Mellor, our Area Medical Advisors join us. Elder Mellor and I served in the same mission as young men, the Germany Munich Mission. As we compared notes, it is likely he was one of the office elders that picked up Elder Holley, Elder Taylor, and myself from the airport when we arrived in October 1976.

We should also mention that on Saturday morning, July 22nd, Sister Kanu came to our mission. Sister Kanu has been serving in the Sierra Leone Mission as she was awaiting a visa to Ethiopia. Due to some issues with her seminary and institute documentation being in the wrong last name, she could not qualify for a visa. It is a long story and while it is unfortunate for the Ethiopia Mission, we are the beneficiaries. She is a wonderful addition to the sisters of the Ghana Kumasi Mission.

And just to keep things interesting, we had a water leak early Saturday morning. Fortunately it was outside, but it did impact the water in the house. Fortunately, Richard Oti Asare, one of the Facilities Manager’s handymen, was able to come in the afternoon and get it fixed.

And lastly, I cannot resist but post a few pictures of the missionaries in Sunyani that we interviewed on Friday morning (July 21). The zone leaders (last picture in the series) came to Kumasi for an exchange with the Assistants and were gracious enough to come to the Mission Home on Friday evening for their interviews.

The week during each transfer that we go to the North for zone conferences is always a very busy week for us. We do what we can to strengthen the mission branch and the districts when we go there. We are so grateful for the Thompson’s and the Goodrich’s who serve selflessly in Techiman and Sunyani respectfully. We have 48 missionaries serving in Sunyani, Techiman, Tamale, and Wa that I interview and for which LaDawn performs phone checks. We are grateful for their consecrated effort to spread the gospel as they themselves come closer to Jesus Christ. We had wonderful zone conferences and felt the efforts of the missionaries to become more and more committed to this work as we gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.