The week running up to Christmas brought a bit of relief from the torrid pace of the last two weeks although there was still a lot going on Monday and Tuesday. Monday morning I went to play golf with Elder Pack. We arrived at the course at 6 am and were back home before 10 am. Though it was a beautiful morning, I learned all too quickly that I probably should have stayed home. I guess we all have days like that, at least I know I do. For some reason, I just don’t move as quickly as I used to and my body does not like it when I push it harder than it wants to be pushed. Live and Learn.

After returning back home, I spent time catching up from the last week’s emails from the missionaries. That is two weeks in a row when I have had to spend significant time on Monday to get through all of them and respond to a few of them. These letters are amazing and I make sure that I read every single one of them. While I was reading letters, LaDawn was bustling around the Mission Home doing her weekly cleaning, washing, and preparing the bedrooms for the Kirk’s who would come new to the mission later that day and the Ray’s who would come down from Tamale on Friday for a couples retreat over the weekend in celebration of Christmas. At about 4:50 pm, we left for the airport and there we greeted the 8 American Elders who came from the Provo MTC on Friday, but needed to stay the weekend in Accra in order to get their medical checks for their resident visas on Monday. They were joined by Elder and Sister Kirk from Blanding, UT who will be serving in the Bibiani District.

Because we had spent time on Saturday and Sunday with the American Elders over Teams while they were in Accra, we were able to expedite their orientation and training. We had a nice meal on Monday night at the Mission Office and then afterwards did our devotional on obedience and integrity (keys and bananas). We finished up around 9 pm.

On Tuesday morning, we arrived at the Mission Office at 7:30 am with the Kirk’s (they stayed with us at the Mission Home) and fed the elders breakfast and then interviewed all of them before our 10:30 am District Council where Elder Risenmay serves as District Leader. We decided to give them a District Council experience before bringing in their trainers at 1 pm for a “train the trainer” session. 

After District Council, we ordered pizza and at 1 pm we began the train the trainer session. That lasted just shy of 2 hours. One of my favorite parts of this training is when I ask the trainers to finish this sentence. In the Ghana Kumasi Mission we ….. It is so rewarding to see so many of the Vision points embedded in their souls. We also talked becoming a Finder of the Elect. The Assistants have done a nice job summarizing the Finders of the Elect document into four points so it is much easier to review in less time. We also talked about the new 12 week training program which is getting good reviews even though it takes a lot of effort to get through it. We are beginning to get feedback that the missionaries desire more role plays. Something we will work on.

By 3:00 pm, we were finished with the training and the new missionaries and their trainers were on their way back to their areas. It was good to finally put some closure around the transfer!

LaDawn left Wednesday open (no interviews) as we thought we might take the Kirk’s to Bibiani and get them settled in their apartment. As it turned out, there was a miscommunication and we did not tell them that they needed to have an international drivers license here in order to drive. As soon as we found out, we helped them get one ordered for each of them. Unfortunately it takes about 2 weeks for it to arrive and with the holidays, well, we are not sure how long it will take. So they are staying with us and helping out wherever they can. Their real desire is to get to Bibiani and go to work. We will be much clearer in the future about this important need. Because we were not able to go to Bibiani, I was able to participate with the Assistants in the new leader training. This is an opportunity to teach the new District Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, and Zone Leaders some important leadership principles. This meeting was no exception. Afterwards, Elder Mba had some excellent suggestions about how to use the same content but to order it into two buckets: 1) Growing Faith in Jesus Christ and 2) Leadership Competency. We are now working on a new version orders these important summary points and that also talks more about the “how” rather than just the “what”.

On Thursday, we began interviews for this six week period, starting with the University Zone at the Kwamo 2 Ward building (8 missionaries). On Friday, we interviewed another 8 missionaries from that zone at the University Stake Center.

Returning from the University Stake Center usually takes us about 20 minutes. But on the Friday before Christmas at 2:00 pm, the road was crazy full. Maybe it was the Latex Foam (mattress company) Santa’s on the back of a truck that were causing all the traffic. Who knows? 

Friday evening, the Ray’s arrived from Tamale and we all went to dinner at Piri Piri’s. Once a year we try to do a retreat for the Senior Couples to let them know how much we appreciate them and all of their efforts. We started on Friday evening and went through Sunday evening. The Ray’s returned to Tamale early Monday morning. On Saturday we enjoyed some pickleball and corn hole at the Mission Office and then met for lunch at KFC. The rest of the couples went to the movie “Wonka” at the mall (yes, there is a cinema here) and LaDawn and I went home and worked on letters and phone checks. Saturday evening we all went to the Lancaster Hotel and enjoyed a buffet dinner. On Sunday, LaDawn and I attended Church in Bishop Cobbina’s ward (Nkoransa and Pakyi had a joint sacrament meeting). The Samuelson’s, the Ray’s, and the Kirk’s attended Kwanwoma Branch, and the Loveland’s attended Daban Ward. At 3:00 pm we watched our daughters and son-in-laws’ sacrament meeting where Lincoln and Maddie played a piano / cello duet and Brian spoke. We all came back together at 5 pm and had a delicious Christmas Meal together and afterwards spoke of our favorite Christmas’s, played a game of “left-right” with gifts that the Pack’s provided, and then watched a beautiful video called “The Sign of Christ” that I had found on Youtube. It was an amazing and wonderful way to spend Christmas Eve.

I was grateful to have some time on Saturday night and then again on Sunday morning to put together the weekly letter to the missionaries. This week, the subject was True Worship. Fortunately, I had time on Sunday afternoon to finish reading and responding to all of the weekly missionary letters from the prior Monday. Sunday night, I met with the Assistants at 8:30 pm (we delayed it since we were having dinner and an enjoyable evening with the senior couples) and talked through changes to the New Leader Training Document as well as the plans for the Monday night MLC Virtual Meeting.

The celebration of the birth of the Christ Child is for us an opportunity to reflect back on the year and begin to look forward to the next one. We are so grateful for the 168 young missionaries, 5 senior couples, our mission driver Alex, our mission cook Hannah, the guards here at the Mission Home (Stephen, Gordon, Nancy, Awonbiik, Kelvin, Hamid, and Junior), the guards at the Mission Office (Daniel, Benjamin, Joseph, Raymond, Simon, Kelvin), our Northern Facilities Manager (Peter – he is amazing), our Southern Facilities Manager (Aaron) and our Mission Facilities Manager (Jude). We would be lost without them. Each play an important role in the efforts required to fully establish the Church in the Kumasi Mission. We love this work and are so grateful for all the amazing people that help us gather Israel, one last time, all Together, in Ghana. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!