We had hoped that we would never have a 2.0 version of our first Screeech! post back on April 12, 2022. Fortunately for us, this one was not as severe, although the damage to our Fortuner will still take some time to repair. Fortunately, with two of our senior couples returning home, we have access to a vehicle to drive until it is fixed. We were coming back from our regular transfer trip to Nkawkaw, Juaso, and Konongo for interviews on Wednesday August 9th, and it was starting to get dark. The time was 6:15 pm. We were about 20 minutes away from the Mission Home. Two cars in front of us was a small car came that came to a complete stop to navigate a large hole in the road where the pavers had started to come up where the asphalt ended and the pavers started right before a major intersection. The car in front of us was accelerating, perhaps to make the green light, not expecting the car in front of him to stop abruptly, and so I was accelerating as well. Suddenly the car ahead of us also stopped so as to not hit the car in front of him. I could see however, that I would not be able to avoid hitting him, so I swerved to the right onto the shoulder and missed him. However, there was a Tro Tro (a mass transport van) behind me that was also surprised. When I looked into the rear view mirror I could see he was not going to be able to stop. Unfortunately, he decided to follow me to the right and slammed into the back of us instead staying on the road and hitting the car in front of me. Where the intersection started, a sidewalk also started and the shoulder ended. The collision pushed me up onto the sidewalk and down about 80 feet before I could stop. The Tro Tro was filled with people, and miraculously no one was hurt in the van, nor LaDawn or me in our Fortuner. It all happened very quickly, and I think the outcome was about as good as it could have been considering the circumstances. I felt sorry for Antony Yeboah, the driver (not the owner) of the Tro Tro. We were both caught in a bad situation. The culprit was the gaping hole in the road with no warning. We are grateful that all turned out as well as it did. It did cause us to arrive home late for my presidency meeting, but everyone graciously accepted a 20 minute delay and the work pressed on.

This was our last week of interviews for the transfer, something we know we have to complete before much progress can be made on the transfer board. We had the Daban district (Assistants, Office Elders, Aboabo Elders) and the remainder of the Konongo zone (I interviewed Domeabra/Agogo after their zone conference) left to interview. That was our major focus of the week.

On Monday late afternoon, I met with Aaron Allotey (Southern Facilities Manager) and then later in the evening hosted the weekly virtual MLC. Here is the agenda. We have said it before, but will repeat it here. This is a game changer in terms of working together to move the mission forward. I have also seen a new sense of bonding and unity among the MLC. The Assistant’s do a great job each week preparing, conducting, and writing notes for each meeting. It’s been great. In addition, our encouragement for the companionships to set a goal of finding one serious person a day is also paying dividends. As a mission we are finding almost twice as many serious people as before. This makes for happier, more productive missionaries, and more of the family of God who are finding their way to the covenant path. We are grateful for the things we learned from President and Sister Proudfoot in the Benin Cotonou Mission about how to move the work forward at a faster pace. And are grateful for a Mission Leadership Council who have embraced the new direction and process.

On Tuesday morning we attended the Daban District Meeting led by Elder C. Beck. It was another great meeting. Our discussion on Preach My Gospel II centered on Chapter 5, The Book of Mormon. Such a rich discussion!

Prior to the meeting, I interviewed Elder Mabini and Elder Beck. Afterwards, I interviewed the rest of the district. These are some powerful missionaries!

On Wednesday, prior to the accident, we left early around 6:45 am and traveled to Nkawkaw, then Juaso, and then Konongo, doing interviews along the way. I managed to get behind schedule which contributed to us getting home later than we had planned.

On Thursday, we dealt with a number of issues that consumed time without a lot of progress to show for the time spent. Audit issues, missionary travel arrangements, Temple Patron Fund (forms were late and not filled properly), working with MTN on a MOMO account (ability to transfer funds from a phone). I also spent time updating our Welcome booklet (Akwaaba) to match the new Preach My Gospel. This new version is so good that much of what we had put together for our “Finders of the Elect” was no longer required, except the transfer planning of the key indicators. Everything else is well explained in the new manual, for which we are grateful. Rewriting those instructions for the 7th time over the last year was satisfying as it is now much more succinct. We spent the evening with Elder Dredge who went home mid-transfer because of a commitment to participate in YSA conference. We purchased some take out food from Aboude’s and enjoyed a nice meal together at the Mission Home. He stayed at the Mission Office Bunkhouse and the office elders took him to the airport the next morning.

Much of Friday morning and early afternoon was spent on the transfer board. Now that interviews were complete, it was time to figure out how to accommodate losing 24 missionaries and getting in 6. Somehow it always works. We will have to close 9 areas to accommodate the drop in missionaries. Hopefully it will only be temporary. On Friday afternoon we held our “transfer” couples council. We really missed the Steinmetz’s and Thompson’s, as they were in our last one but are now gone. It was fun to have the Garrison’s join as part of the backdrop behind the Pack’s. Here is the agenda we followed:

1. Opening Prayer: Sister Pack
2. Spiritual Thought: Sister Goodrich
3. State of the Mission: Kunz’s
4. Status of Couples who will arrive this year
5. Personal Insights from your recent scripture study
6. Status of and process around Apartment Inspections
7. What are we doing to increase the number of callings in the branches (follow-up)
8. Topic on which to counsel:
9. Ideas for improving the personal studies of the missionaries
10. Closing Prayer: Elder Pack

In that meeting we learned that another Couple has been assigned to our mission. Not exactly sure how it all worked, but the Goodrich’s received an email from Jim and Brenda Walton who will join us in December. They are from Boise, Idaho and as of now we plan to have them serve in Techiman. They will come at the same time as Ron and Katy Kirk, who are from Blanding, UT. We hope to have the Kirk’s serve in BIbiani, another first for the mission. By the end of December we will have 7 senior couples which has to be some kind of a record for the mission. These amazing senior couples help us so much in moving the work forward. We would be completely lost without them. The good news is that when the new mission president arrives next year in July, six of the seven will still be here. Now that is leaving an area better than we found it!

Friday evening at 8:30 pm the Assistants came by and we went through the transfer board, made a few tweaks and then prayed to confirm we had it as good as it could be. I love working with Elder Clegg and Elder Mba.

Saturday, I worked on the Mission Toolbox so that we could get it printed in the new Akwaaba book for the missionaries coming next week. I also worked on the weekly missionary letters and then spent an hour in the afternoon with a missionary who had made a bad decision. Gratefully I think we managed to work it out with a new commitment to be better. We had a water mystery at the Mission Home and I spent about 2 hours with the plumber (Otoo) troubleshooting the problem. In the end, we concluded we had two independent problems that originally we thought were only one. Fortunately, it turned out to be two instead of one and the mystery was solved! (The mystery involved two pumps that would not shut off automatically as intended).

I also spent a considerable amount of time on the weekly letter to the missionaries, this time on the topic of Hope. For anyone interested, you can read it here.

On Sunday we attended the Kwanwoma Branch. This is where the Assistants serve as well as Elder Beck and Elder Mabini. It is always fun to go there. The two companionships baptized and confirmed 7 that day. It was a glorious day for them and such a rewarding day for us. The work rolls forth at an accelerated pace!

I spent much of Sunday trying to finish the missionary letters from last week. That ended up dragging into Tuesday of the next week. Sunday night we met with the Assistants to plan the face to face MLC as well as discuss the virtual meeting we hold every Monday night.

After the Assistants left, we joined a Zoom call with our mentors, the Hillam’s from Idaho Falls, ID. We have really come to love this exceptional couple who have helped us so much in our preparation to come here and even continue to do so now that we are here. We really loved the time we were able to spend with them.

Next week is transfer week and the cycle and rhythm continue. We are so grateful to be here, to experience the ups, downs, and sideways of being mission leaders. Still the hardest thing we have ever done and without question the most rewarding (even with a “Screeech!” now and again) as we gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.