This week we were very happy to receive in Elder Wayne and Sister Marianne Samuelson who joined us on Thursday for what is another one of many firsts for the Ghana Kumasi Mission. The Samuelson’s have been called as Human Rights Education Missionaries, although in their role of teaching teachers how to teach Human Rights, they do not wear the Church’s name. This is an effort focused, among other things, on religious freedom, something that is falling under attack in many parts of the world. They will be educating elementary and secondary education teachers, so they in turn can educate the students.

Here is a brief summary of the foundational document called the The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) signed in 1948. The UDHR is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, it was accepted by the General Assembly as Resolution 217 on 10 December 1948 in Paris, France. Of the 58 members of the United Nations at the time, 48 voted in favour, none against, eight abstained and two did not vote. Today there have been 192 countries sign this document, and while not binding by international law, it has become an important document to guide the governments of these 194 countries in regards to human rights. The Church has placed wonderful senior missionary couples in a number of these countries to help educate the rising generation on what these rights are…what THEIR rights are. It is an amazing program and while the Samuelson’s will report to Michael Jensen in Salt Lake City, we are pleased to host and support the Samuelson’s in this amazing effort. If you want to learn more, you can go to their website at Go-HRE.org.

This week was mostly spent doing interviews, with the exception of Friday since we left that open to help the Samuelson’s get settled. On Tuesday, we attended the Atafoa District Council where Elder Edwards is the District leader. It was a great meeting as we reviewed Chapter 7 of Preach My Gospel, Second Edition. From there, we drove the 30 minutes to the Suame Stake Center and interviewed all of the missionaries in the zone that meet at the Stake Center for District Council. There were twelve of them.

On Wednesday, we drove out to Effiduase and then back into Kwamo where we interviewed 14 missionaries who serve in the University Zone. I failed to take snaps of Elder Byansi and Elder Davis as well as Elder Dibatayi and Elder Tupou. These are some excellent missionaries doing their very best to gather Israel.

Wednesday night I held my Mission Presidency Meeting. President Asante was unable to join due to a trip he needed to make to Accra so it was a short meeting, but still productive.

On Thursday, we interviewed the rest of the University Zone except for Daban District (this is where the office elders, Assistants, and the Aboabo elders serve). We got a bit behind on these interviews and finished around 2 pm, just in time to travel to the airport which was 15 minutes away and meet the Samuelson’s as they arrived. I missed taking a picture of Elder Hoyt and Elder Andabo before they left. I had not yet met Elder Tapatuetoa since we were in Sunyani for the District Conference when he arrived so that interview was a bit longer. At the University Stake Center, I interview the missionaries on the side of the building where the noise is less and the echo non-existent (a cement block building echoes really bad). The picture of Elder Tapatuetoa was taken “in” my “interview office”.

After picking up the Samuelson’s, we drove to the Mission Home, unloaded their luggage (they spent the night with us) and then drove them over to get a look at their apartment where they would be staying. We think they were pleased, and we were certainly happy as the apartment looked great. Without much time to find and then prepare a new apartment, it was nothing short of a miracle that Jude Jonfiah, our Mission FM, was able to pull this off. One more thing we should mention. The Noble House Restaurant and Hotel now has an ice cream “bar” in its lobby. Not just any ice cream, but Pinocchio’s gelato. It is excellent, as we had it once before in Accra. This is actually quite an upgrade for Kumasi! We are grateful for this small delicacy on days when nothing else will do!

Thursday evening I spent some time trying to get the Samuelson’s iPhones setup with a mission SIM card and the directory of missionaries. I managed to get Elder Samuelson’s phone working, but Sister Samuelson has an iPhone 14 with only an eSIM. At the time of this writing, I am still working with our IT guy in Accra (Abizi Buah) to figure it out. Thursday evening was also one of those days when a phone call comes that you wish wouldn’t come. There had been some bad decisions by two missionaries that needed attention. I am happy to say it was all worked out by Monday afternoon, but it did cause some stress. We want nothing more for these elders and sisters to realize how much God loves them and how much we love them, and that means from time to time we need to help them change. It is one of the most magnificent experiences we have when we see a missionary choose to turn to God and away from the world. To see two missionaries turn on the same day was even more of a miracle. All credit goes to Jesus Christ. This is His work and His glory. We joy in being invited to participate with amazing front row seats.

Friday morning I was inundated with phone calls (mostly associated with the call from the previous night – coupled with continued work on Sister Samuelson’s eSIM problem) and so we didn’t get out until just after 10 am. We drove the Samuelson’s to Shop Rite and helped them get their first batch of groceries. From there we drove over to Palace, where the Loveland’s came and we did a tag team tradeoff. I was still in need of significant time to prepare for zone conference so we were grateful for the Loveland’s willingness to help the Samuelson’s finish up at Palace and then take them to Nadville and back over to their apartment. I love the camaraderie of all of our senior couples and how everyone works hard to help each other have the best possible experience. Friday night we all ended back together at Piri Piri for our weekly “date night”.

Saturday was spent at home. From early until late we worked on our preparations for zone conference along with other mission business. LaDawn worked on an instruction taken from her in-depth study on prayer, and I worked on an instruction titled “Experiencing God’s Love”. In addition, I still had missionary letters I needed to answer and I also prepared the weekly letter for the Missionaries, this time titled, Go! Don’t Go! Go!. I am happy to say that by the time we went to bed Saturday night, we were feeling a lot more comfortable with our plans for the zone conferences that would start the upcoming Tuesday.

On Sunday, we attended the Abuakwa Ward in the. Bantama Stake. The building is roomy and the land where it sits is quite large. Unfortunately it sits right next to a very noisy church, that started at 10:00 am. At least sacrament meeting was without significant interruption. Elder Ramiadamanana and Elder Tshimanga serve in this ward. They were to have a baptism of Brother Bwah that day, but it turned out he was ill and could not make it. We enjoyed our visit, although the sound system in the chapel was very difficult to hear due to one of the speakers near us not working and the other one being on the back wall of the L shaped room. This meant a lot of echoes. The spirit was there, we were able to partake of the sacrament, and met a number of members. A good day. President Appiah, the stake president was also in attendance.

After church, we drove back home and Elder Sosu, our new Area Seventy came by to talk about the Districts and how he might help grow and develop them. We spent almost 2 hours together. Elder Sosu is one of the finest men we know here in Kumasi. We are grateful for his leadership and his desire to help accelerate the work of establishing the Church across the entire mission.

Sunday evening, I met with our Assistants and finalized the plans for Zone Conference and then we discussed the agenda for Monday’s night MLC meeting. Following that meeting, I joined a zoom meeting with three friends from back home and we had an amazing gospel discussion from 9:00 – 10:00 pm. It was in that discussion, that D&C 88:35 came up and was discussed. As we talked about it, the Spirit whispered to me that this was the very scripture I would need to share with the missionaries I would be talking to the next day. I can only say that scripture became the key by which hearts were softened. I love how the Lord works and answers prayers. We are grateful! After the meeting, I spent another two hours answering missionary letters so that I only had 15 left to do on Monday.

We now move into two of our busiest weeks of the transfer. Next week we will have the three Kumasi conferences on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The following week we will travel north for Tamale and the Techiman/Sunyani zone conferences. How we love this work in which we are engaged! How we love the opportunity to be tutored in so many ways by a loving Savior. How we love these young missionaries as they transform into consecrated disciples of Jesus Christ. Truly this is His work in which we labor, gathering Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.