(This post covers the week of August 28th – September 3rd)

On Sunday, September 3rd, the Ayanfuri group was officially formed and established. We had received approval from the Area Presidency to create the Group to be attached to the Dunkwa 1st Branch. Our plans were to get approval from the headmistress of the school in Ayanfuri to get a room in which to meet. With that plan in place, we announced the Group would meet the first Sunday in September. And then a week and a half before the Group was to meet, the headmistress got cold feet and it didn’t look we were going to be able to start meeting. And then on Sunday, August 27th, Benjamin Kofi Ayeh, a member of the Church originally from Ayanfuri and a former member of the Ghana Parliament, pulled up to the branch building in Dunkwa, sought out the leaders who were there, and offered them a place for the Group to meet. Since he is from Ayanfuri, he has a house there, but because he lives in Accra, the house is not being used. A sweet miracle because of the faith of the Saints in Ayanfuri and the Obuasi District Presidency.

Ayanfuri is about 30 minutes (14 km) west of Dunkwa. The time to get there tells you something about the quality of the roads. We think the Group will grow quickly as there is already a small group of faithful Saints living there.

The rest of the week was consumed with zone conferences and interviews. On Tuesday we held the Konongo / University conference at the University Stake Center. Tuesday we were at the Bantama Stake Center with Bantama / Bibiani / and Obuasi Zones. Thursday was spent doing interviews and Friday we were at the Dichemso Stake Center for the Dichemso / Suame Zone conference.

Here is a high level summary of the zone conference agenda

• Opening, Recitations, Birthdays
• Health and Safety (Elder & Sister Loveland)
• Vision Refresh (Repentance as part of the Doctrine of Christ)
• The state of the mission and our accountability to Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts
• Zone Leaders Instruction
• Sister Kunz Instruction (Simplicity of Prayer)
• Testimonies of departing missionaries
• Review of Chapter 8 / 9 of Preach My Gospel Second Edition (depending on the week of the conference)
• One Minute Drills (review of three principles at each conference)
• Assistants Instruction (The Great Teacher)
• President Kunz’s Instruction (Experiencing God’s Love)

For our vision refresh, we discussed 7 scriptures on repentance:

Here are the questions I asked the missionaries. The resulting answers were inspired! At each conference we spent over an hour discussing these 10 questions.

• 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 do 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?
• How do we reconcile ourselves to the will of God?
• How do we humble ourselves? 

For each zone conference, the zone leaders had 30 minutes to discuss the topic of their choice from the new Preach My Gospel. Here is the list of instruction topics:

• Konongo: Elder Akrashie and Elder Reynolds – “Helping People Make and Keep Commitments”
• University: Elder Niacadie’ and Elder Patterson – “The Power and Authority of our Calling”
• Bantama: Elder Utley and Elder Prah – “The Good Shepherd”
• Bibiani: Elder Panton and Elder Akwa – “Keep Your LInes in the Water”
• Obuasi: Elder Fuller and Elder Kazadi – “What Made the Savior a Great Teacher”
• Dichemso: Elder Alger and Elder Udoh – “The Book of Mormon, Power for Conversion”
• Suame: Elder Negone and Elder Gilbert – “Seek, Recognize, and Rely on the Spirit”

Each of these instructions was excellent. We are grateful for these wonderful zone leaders who carefully and prayerfully prepared for these messages specifically for their zone.

LaDawn spoke about both the power and the simplicity of prayer. She talked about why we pray and why it is sometimes difficult to feel like we are truly talking to our Heavenly Father. She also talked about the virtues of effective prayer including the language of prayer, which many of our missionaries do not fully understand. She also talked about the kinds of things that should be prayed for in private and not in public. it was inspiring, informative, and helpful!

During the Assistants instruction, we did some role plays on asking questions to test for spiritual maturity. We initially taught the missionaries how to profile people to identify any barriers that would keep them from being baptized during the transfer. We have now realized it is not enough. Sometimes we find people with barriers who are so prepared for the gospel that they are willing to work through the barriers very quickly. On the other hand, we have also found people with no barriers, but they are simply not ready to make a commitment to God. With this instruction we are beginning to teach the missionaries how to ask questions that will help them determine the “spiritual sensitivity” of the people they meet. While these questions may not work for everyone, these are the kinds of questions that give the missionaries a sense of the spiritual sensitivity of the person to whom they are speaking. We will now make these a part of the mission toolbox.

• Are you happy?
• Do you feel that God wants you to be happy?
• What would make you more happy?
• Tell me about your baptism?
• How do you feel about your baptism?
• Have you heard about the gift of the Holy Ghost?
• Have you received the gift of the Holy Ghost?
•  What do you love about your family?
• What do you want for your family?
• Would you want to be together forever?

Here are some pictures of the role plays from the zone conferences this week.

In my instruction I covered how we experience God’s love and what the impact is of feeling that love. I loved this quote from President Nelson. “While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional. The word does not appear in the scriptures. On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us—and certain divine blessings stemming from that love—are conditional.” This was taken from a February 2003 article in the Liahona from then Elder Nelson. Teaching the missionaries that God’s higher levels of love are conditional was new for many of them. We discussed some of the “IF/THEN” scriptures that reinforce conditional nature of God’s blessings. I started the instruction by playing Rob Gardner’s song, “My Kindness Shall Not Depart from Thee” and ended it by showing the 18 minute movie titled, “The Master’s Touch“. I used the Apostle Paul as an example of someone who completely consecrated himself to preaching the gospel after his experience on the road to Damascus.

On Wednesday evening, LaDawn got up out of a chair wrong and twisted her ankle. This kept her from attending interviews on Thursday for the Bibiani Zone and zone conference on Friday with the Dichemso and Suame Zones. I am happy to say that with the help of a “boot” she has been able to participate fully since Saturday. The ankle is still very sore, but improving with every single day. It is no fun being a mission president without your companion.

We had the Bibiani zone stay overnight at the mission office and then I interviewed the entire zone before they went back Thursday afternoon. I started at 7 am and finished before noon. Following those interviews, I met with two of our sisters who were having some struggles. Sometimes it happens when missionaries get out of sync with their companions. I am amazed how easy it is to talk through the troubles and get back on track when both missionaries have a desire to fulfill their missionary purpose and forgive each other. Such was the case on Thursday. I was able to get back to the mission home around 3 pm.

Two other things I will mention about the week. We have been having water pump trouble for over a month now. For the longest time, the pump just runs and runs and never shuts off. On Saturday evening, the plumber came (Alex – bishop of Asouyeboa First Ward) and replaced the pump. It was getting pretty late and they couldn’t get it to work. I went out to see if I could help them figure out the problem. Returning back inside to get my voltmeter, we figured out that they put the incoming power line into the “power line out” side of the regulator. We figured it out, changed the connections and managed to get the pump working. These men are plumbers and not electricians and it causes them trouble from time to time. Unfortunately, even the new pump did not solve our problem. As of this writing (Friday, Sep 8) the problem is still unresolved. I think (hope) we are beginning to narrow down the potential causes.

The other thing I will mention is the smell of dirty socks in the kitchen. It has been growing in intensity and we could not figure out where it was coming from. LaDawn insisted that it seemed to be coming from the refrigerator, but we checked for a drip pan and there wasn’t one. I finally unscrewed the plate on the bottom of the back and there we found the problem. There is some sort of drip pan there that is screwed in and cannot be removed. There was a brown crusty gunk in the bottom of the pan. Because the fan and lines to the compressor ran through the plastic “pan”, it was difficult to get to it. We decided to put some Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds concentrate into a glass of water and then pour it in the pan with the hope of vacuuming it out with our semi wet/dry vac. I may have been a bit generous with the concentrate, for after letting it sit for over an hour, when I vacuumed it out, I was surprised by the suds machine I had created. It took some effort to get it all cleaned up but the good news is that the smell is gone!

The two weeks each transfer we devote to zone conferences are far and away our busiest times. The great news is that we absolutely love meeting and being with all of the missionaries across the 10 zones. We are grateful for the increasing consecration, obedience, unity, and success we see across the mission in fulfilling our purpose to gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.