Over the weekend we traveled to Sunyani, leaving Saturday morning at 6:30 am and returning around 4:00 pm on Sunday. The event was the Sunyani District Conference. The title of the blog is taken from the strong impression I had as the counselor in the District Presidency, Benjamin Kittson-Mills was reading the names of those who had been interviewed and found worthy to be ordained elders. The number was 17! While we have attended conferences where more in number were presented to be ordained, we have not seen it here in one of our districts. In fact, 6 months ago the number in this district was six. This theme stayed with me for the entire meeting and when I spoke at the end of the conference on Sunday, this was my topic. The more temple recommending holding Melchizedek Priesthood holders in a District, the greater the power of Godliness of the District itself. These 17 men represent real growth and real strength being added to the Sunyani District. With 1332 members, we are still 5 years away from sufficient enough membership to form a stake, but even more important than numbers is the strength of the leadership. Right now, everything is moving in the right direction. We had a spirit filled conference and clearly the best one the Sunyani District has held since we have been here. We loved our nearly two days there. The members are wonderful and the District Presidency is really working hard to move the work forward.

Monday was Elder Loveland’s birthday. He now joins Elder Pack, Sister Goodrich, and me, in the same age year. Believe me, it is much younger than you think! We had a wonderful meal with the Loveland’s and the Pack’s and then enjoyed some rare cake and ice cream.

On Monday evening after dinner, we again held our weekly MLC meeting. I have no doubt that these meetings are helping to change the mission as the MLC becomes more unified in moving the work forward. Here is the agenda that we used for the meeting. It turned out to be excellent. We were happy to welcome President Morgan, his assistants, and his office elders to the meeting to observe to see if there is anything of value here that might benefit them. President Morgan is the president of the Ghana Cape Coast mission and is a good friend. We are constantly exchanging ideas back and forth. This may well have been our very best meeting yet. Elder Clegg did a great job keeping us on time and getting everyone involved. Elder Mba followed up with excellent notes.

On Tuesday morning, I received a call from Alex our mission driver, informing me that Kenneth Frimpong from Obuasi was there to be set apart. Yikes! I thought it was to be on Wednesday, so I finished getting ready and rushed over to the office to both interview and set him apart. He has been called to serve in the Nigeria Abuja Mission, one of the new ones formed in July. His mission president is Dennis Ocansey, a stake president from Accra. These settings apart are wonderful experiences for me and something I do whenever I am available. I am grateful for two great counselors that help me when I cannot.

On Tuesday, we sent home 21 missionaries at the conclusion of their missions. All but two came into the mission office in the afternoon and at 4:15 pm, Elder and Sister Loveland reviewed the Self-Reliance presentation with them. The remaining two came from Sunyani and were late arriving. This presentation informs the missionaries on all of the resources available to them once they are home to become and remain self-reliant.

After the presentation on self-reliance, we gathered together and had a wonderful dinner of ground nut soup and rice (my favorite Ghanian dish). Following dinner, we played some Preach My Gospel jeopardy (this was a sharp group) and then took our final farewell pictures.

Wednesday was an important day, as it gave us time to prepare for the Mission Leadership Council. We have started holding these meetings on Friday after transfers so that we don’t have to bring the zone leaders and sister training leaders back to Kumasi the following week. We start at 1 pm and end at 7 pm, with dinner around 5:30 pm. These are absolutely my favorite meetings in the mission. We have powerful leaders in this mission, committed to fulfilling their missionary purpose and helping missionaries over which they have stewardship to do the same. Here is the agenda of the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, I spent some time with a vision refresh, this time on the topic of Repentance. There were 7 scriptures which we discussed. I love these discussions where I ask questions and the MLC explores for possible answers. It was wonderful! I had another 6 scriptures on Repentance I wanted to discuss, but there simply was not enough time.

And here are the questions we explored:

• Why or How does the goodness of God lead us to repentance?
• What are evidences of a broken heart and a contrite spirit?
• How do we witness to others that we have truly repented of our sins?
• Why is it important to witness this to the church?
• Why is it we need a probationary time to repent?  Why is repentance such an important part of the plan?
• What are the conditions of repentance?
• How do we know to whom we must confess our sins?
• Why is the penalty for not repenting so great? (see D&C 19:15.  CR D&C 88:89-91)
• How do we reconcile ourselves to the will of God?
• How do we humble ourselves?  How do we teach someone else to humble themselves?
• How do we teach someone to be meek and lowly of heart?  Why is it so important?

After the vision refresh, I presented two questions for the MLC to ask themselves: 1) What will I do to reconcile myself to the will of God? 2) What will I do to witness to my companion, other missionaries, and leaders that I have truly repented?

The Assistants gave instruction on The Great Teacher. While much was focused on teaching in the Savior’s way, they also pulled content from Chapter 10 of Preach My Gospel II. We are still refining how to combine a role play with the instructions. Overall, another great meeting. It got dark before we managed to snap a picture, so we did it inside this time.

On Thursday, we received in 5 new missionaries from the MTC. We received in a 6th on Saturday who was delayed a couple of days due to funeral leave for a family member. We are really grateful to have these 6 amazing missionaries join us, all 6 from different countries!

After spending most of Thursday orienting them to the mission, we let them get some rest after dinner and then started again at 8 am on Friday with trainers. I used to spend time with the trainers while the Assistants spent time with the new missionaries, teaching them how to love, serve, teach, and baptize the Elect. Now we do it all together so that the new missionaries hear the expectations we have of the trainers and vice-versa. We have found this to be a much better approach. I also tried something else new this time; it still needs more development, but it feels like it is moving in the right direction. It is almost completely taken from scriptures in John 15 and John 16. The instructions Christ gave to his apostles right before his atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection, seem like the right guidance to give these new missionaries and their trainers. I created 10 points along with scriptures to support each point – with help from heaven. How grateful I am as inspiration flowed the very morning of the training meeting. We finished about 10:15 am, and headed to the transfer grounds at Bantama where the majority of missionaries had already come and gone. By 11:30 am we were on our way back home for a quick lunch before starting MLC at 1 pm.

Transfer weeks are always filled with early mornings and late evenings. They are filled with sadness to see great missionaries leave and joy as we receive in eager new missionaries. This transfer we sent home 24 (3 went home before the transfer date due to school) and received in 6. The result was the combining of 9 areas. It hurts when the mission contracts. We have been promised that we will eventually get back to 200 missionaries, but it may take some time. As I have said before, this is all part of the gentle rhythm of a mission and we have learned to move with it and enable it to press forward with encouragement and effort on our part as we gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.