When nothing out of the ordinary happens during a week, I often turn to the weekly letter to the missionaries for a blogpost title. And this week that letter was titled “hesed”. Many of you already know this term. It is a term that President Nelson used in 3 talks last year. It started with a talk titled “The Everlasting Covenant” that he gave in the leadership session of general conference on March 31, 2022. That talk was later published in the October 2022 Liahona. It was in that same general conference in April 2022, that his talk titled, “The Power of Spiritual Momentum” referenced the word in a footnote alongside scriptural references to Isaiah 54:10 and 3 Nephi 22:10. In May of 2022, President Nelson then spoke to the Young Single Adults on the topic of “Choices for Eternity”, and again referenced the word in a footnote that focused on covenantal love. It makes perfect sense that the prophet would be using this word repeatedly, especially since his statement that the ““That gathering is the most important thing taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude, nothing else compares in importance, nothing else compares in majesty.” Why is the Lord gathering his children? Because of the hesed or lovingkindness that He has for Israel going all the way back to the covenant made with Abraham. This is the perfect word to describe the work we are engaged in here in the Ghana Kumasi Mission. God wants to gather His children so that they can have the magnificent blessings He has promised the faithful. The kindness, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and joy that He offers us is all built around the atonement of Jesus Christ and is only available in its fullness to those who willingly make covenants with Him. The letter written to the missionaries can be found here.

Monday evening we held our regularly scheduled weekly MLC meeting over zoom. These meetings are so good and I am grateful to President Proudfoot of the Benin Cotonou Mission for sharing the idea with us. Highlights included the impact on recent converts when the missionaries visit and teach them during the week. Also we have more and more missionaries who are knocking doors instead of just talking to the people on the street and around their homes. Missionaries are having a lot of success with those who are behind locked gates and doors. We have come to understand that when we know where someone lives, they are much more likely to keep that second appointment. That surprised us a bit at first but we are happy to be surprised by it! It seems to be especially effective for our sister missionaries.

On Tuesday, we attended the Bantama District Council. Normally the meeting would be held at the Agric building, but the missionaries lost the key to the building and the bishop will not give them another (I understand). Therefore, the meeting was held at the Bantama Stake Center. Elder Page is the district leader and he did a nice job of getting everyone involved and having robust discussions.

We then interviewed each missionary and did phone checks.

On Wednesday we made the trip to the Konongo zone. We always drive to Nkawkaw and hold interviews at the Nkawkaw 1st branch building. When we came through Konongo we were sent on a detour that slowed us down about 35 minutes. It was definitely a scenic route and LaDawn snapped a picture out the front windshield.

We never really managed to catch up the rest of the day, but we did manage to interview all 16 missionaries. Because we were running late, we asked the 4 elders who live in Juaso to come to the Ahenabronum building which they graciously did. It helped us claw back some of the time we had lost. Wednesday was one of those days when there were a lot of “dead” trucks on the road. On the way back, we had to take another small detour because a truck had turned over (it was overloaded and the load likely shifted). There was a tow truck trying to set it right again and the entire road was closed. Fortunately it was a divided 4 lane highway and we were able to drive the wrong way on the other side for about a mile and then cross back over. We were grateful there were men there to block oncoming traffic so that it would be safe.

Even though we were running late, we still stopped at Starbites and had a delicious meal of mini tacos and a chicken ceasar salad. We threw in some fries for good measure.

Wednesday night I held my mission presidency meeting. This one was about 90 minutes in duration. We covered a lot of really great topics that we are hopeful will keep things moving in the districts.

On Thursday, we drove to Dunkwa, back to Obuasi, and then over to Asonkore. Another very long day, but so rewarding.

On Friday, we interviewed the Assistants and Office Elders at the Mission Office. That made for a light day of interviews after the two previous days. These elders have been stellar in their service to the mission.

Elder Clegg has been released as an Assistant and will go back into the field for his final transfer. He will be replaced by another stellar missionary, Elder Baldwin. We will miss Elder Clegg.

After the interviews I met with Francis Sosu and Emmanuel Forson, who came to Kumasi to work with us a bit on our financial reporting and journaling. The good news is that the last two weeks the time I spent on the spreadsheet is paying off as Elder Pack has had two perfect weeks of balancing. It brings me joy to see that we seem to have the process more in control and the spreadsheet is now reflecting that process. Thank you Elder Pack!

On Saturday we had the Kumasi Coordinating Council meeting with Elder Sosu at the Mission Office. It was going to be at the University Stake Center, but was changed on Thursday to the Mission Office. It is a great place for a meeting as it is quiet and there are no people around to interrupt us. The meeting was really good. Elder Sosu is filled with energy and the Spirit of the Lord and has such a great love for this work. It is a joy to labor with him. The topics covered included the following:

• Follow-up from our last meeting on Interviews, Missionary Work, and Seeking out the Poor and Needy
• Elder and Sister Yeboah joined us to discuss YSA Gathering Places and the training of couples called to support them.
• From the leadership training at general conference we covered three topics: 1) Showing How to Help Friends and New Converts. 2) Ye Shall Have Joy with Me (The connection between worship at home and church). 3) Reverence, Joy, and Power in Partaking of the Sacrament.
• The importance of properly preparing Patrons who attend the temple, especially for the first time.
• Missionary Commitment and Missionary Coordinating Council.
• Development of Leaders
• Think Celestial (the importance of focusing on the principles behind the statement)

We finished the meeting shortly after 1 pm and I made it back home by 2 pm. I spent several hours working on the weekly missionary letter (mentioned above). The Assistants came over at 8:30 and we reviewed the transfer board and made a few changes. Later that night I watch the first half the BYU game against West Virginia. It was ugly.

On Sunday, we attended the Kwanwoma branch where Elder Clegg and Elder Mba baptized 7 (see picture above). It took 6 tries to get one of the candidates completely under the water as she was extremely scared of being immersed. We were so impressed with her courage to keep trying. She really wanted to make this commitment with God. Ultimately, Elder Clegg got back into the font (he had baptized the first three) as the other brother doing baptisms was at a loss of how to get her submersed. Fortunately it all ended well. We returned home from Kwanwoma and I spent the rest of the evening up until the Assistants arrived at 7 pm responding to missionary letters from the previous week. I was able to finish them before going to bed.

There were a few other activities that I worked on during the week including an analysis of food prices in Ghana over the last year or two and the amount of subsistence we provide to the missionaries. Prices have been rising consistently the last year with a 50% increase showing up in the Ghana Statistical Report published online by the government. This requires a thorough analysis and then preparing a letter to the Area Presidency and the Controller. We are also working with the area on getting MoMo accounts for our MLC members. MoMo is Mobile Money on the phones and it would really help our young leaders be more productive.

As the week comes to a close, we are preparing for transfers next week starting on Tuesday as the missionaries going home come to the Mission Office. We will send home 21 this transfer and bring in 19. That makes for a very busy and rewarding week. How grateful we are for the hesed of a loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son. We are grateful for the covenants we have made and continue to refresh and renew each week in Sacrament Meeting and each time we have an opportunity to attend the temple. We see the powerful and mighty hand of God through our leaders and in our own work and efforts as we gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.