The title of this weeks post comes from our visit to the Odumase Branch in the Sunyani District on Sunday. The “More” part is that it was also transfer week. As I consider the pictures for this week’s post, it is hard to believe there are so few for such a busy week, but it is what it is.

We traveled to Sunyani (2.5 hours northwest) on Saturday afternoon to complete some priesthood leader business. The District President in Sunyani (Samuel Asare-Boahen) is a medical doctor who was transferred by the government to Takoradi. That means we need a new district president and that required a trip to Sunyani for an interview and a call. We will release the old district presidency and sustain the new one in two weeks at the district conference. Much to do between now and then. President Asare-Boahen was stellar as a district president. Despite his impossible schedule as a medical doctor, he managed to strengthen and grow the district. As an aside, in order to call a new district president, it requires the approval of the Area Presidency, so that became an additional effort that was made in preparation for the trip to Sunyani. After our visit and call on Saturday, we stayed at the Goodrich’s apartment and then left just after 8:00 am to find the Odumase chapel. Because of some road work on a new bridge, we took a detour that cost us an extra 10 minutes, but still made it to the chapel by 8:40 am. 

The problem was that no one was there! At 8:50, the branch president, President Adu-Manu showed up. We then set up the chairs, and slowly a few others arrived to get the sacrament prepared and the meeting underway. It was 9:15 am before we started. Not good. There were only a handful of people in attendance. Despite having 11 priest aged young men, not a single one was there to bless the sacrament. We have work to do. Because it was fast and testimony meeting, the branch president was able to bless his twin boys. This was number 6 and 7 for him and his wife. Very unusual here in Ghana. The boys were darling. I managed to snap a picture of one of them after sacrament meeting.

After Sunday School, which was mostly in Twi, I met for about 5 minutes with the branch presidency. I asked them to do two things. First, come at 8:30 am and start church right on time at 9:00 am. Second, go rescue their 11 priest aged boys and get them involved with the sacrament. These two things would make a big difference in the branch.

We arrived back home around 2 pm, and I worked on missionary letters the rest of the day, not having had much time earlier in the week to get through them all. As it turned out, I didn’t finish reading and responding to them until Monday around noon. And that was not responding to all of them. It was a labor of love. I met with the Assistants in the evening and we discussed the plans for Zone Conferences and the agenda for the Virtual MLC meeting on Monday evening. After serving for over 7 months as an Assistant, I released Elder Mba and called Elder Togba, Jr. who is from Liberia. Elder Mba is now serving as the Branch President of the Asonkore Branch in Obuasi. Elder Togba will be a great Assistant.

On Monday Jan 26th, Elder Pack and I went over and played 18 holes of golf. We were back home at 9:45 am. The air quality was still bad, but I think being in midst of all the trees and the grass made us feel better. In the afternoon, we began the transfer week activities with a transfer meeting at the Mission Office at 4 pm. The Assistants, Office Elders, Loveland’s, Pack’s, Alex, and us. Going through the schedule and making sure everyone knows exactly what they are doing during the week is always important. The details are so important and we are so grateful to have such a great team to work with!

On Tuesday, we had the 19 missionaries leaving the mission come in for a farewell meal and some fun with Preach My Gospel Jeopardy. We then snapped pictures, took the sisters to our bunkhouse at the mission home, and prepared for the rest of the week.

The Wednesday during transfer week is always reserved for Mission Leadership Council preparation. With 16 new missionaries coming the next day, there were also some updates I wanted to make to the orientation slides that we use. That all changed when I received a call from a companionship that needed to come and see me. I told them that the day was really busy for me but I would carve out an hour. They came early to the Mission Office (10:30 am) so I went over and didn’t get back until 1:00 pm. So maybe a bit more than an hour. 😊 This however, was time well spent. There were some communication issues and errors in judgment, but nothing that could not be worked through. At the end of the day, I decided to transfer one of the missionaries just to give them a fresh start. As of the writing of this blog post, the transfer was exactly the right answer. We welcome these kinds of interactions and discussions with missionaries. There was no rebellion; just weakness, errors in judgment, and communication missteps. These are easily fixed with help from the grace that Jesus so fully offers us. The change in my day’s schedule did mean getting to bed late, but the good news is that I managed to get everything done prior to the MLC meeting on Friday.

On Thursday, we arrived at the airport at 7:00 am and picked up 16 missionaries. 15 came from the MTC and one came to us to finish his mission after being home for few months. Normally, when we get in new missionaries, 2 out of 10 have read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover. This time, 12 out of 16 had read it, and two had read it four times and one had read it three times. We are so grateful that the Lord would send us such prepared missionaries! The 16 missionaries who arrived, represented 11 different countries! We received our 17th missionary from the Philippines on the following Monday, making 12 different countries represented in one transfer. We are a very diverse mission with 166 young missionaries representing 29 different countries. We currently have 43 sister missionaries and 123 Elders. We have 40 from the USA, 19 from Nigeria, 12 from Tonga, 12 from Zimbabwe, 11 from DR Congo, 10 from Liberia, 9 from the Philippines, and 6 from New Zealand. The other countries are each represented by 5 missionaries or fewer. This was the first time we have received missionaries from Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, French Polynesia (Tahiti) and the United Kingdom. We were supposed to have a missionary from Dominican Republic, but that never materialized so we will stay at 29 countries.

On Friday morning, we gathered the new missionaries and their trainers and spent 2 hours with them. Elder Baldwin reviewed the 12 week training program and then he and Elder Togba Jr. went over what it means to be a Finder of the Elect. We finished up at 10:30 and eventually made our way to the transfer grounds. By the time we loaded everyone up and left the Mission Office, it was close to 11:00 am. We arrived at the transfer grounds at 11:20 am and left to return home 30 minutes later. It was another good transfer with minimal hiccups (there were a few, but nothing we could not manage).

We hurried home and had a very quick lunch and then were back to the Mission Office just before 1 pm. The agenda was consistent with what we have done in the past. For the vision refresh, we talked about becoming Finders of the Elect. We talked about love, service, and discipleship. It was an amazing discussion. Some of my favorite questions:

• How do we receive the spirit of love which God gives unto us?
• How does a nurse cherish her children? 
• What does it mean to impart our own souls to another?
• What does it mean to love in truth?
• Why does reaching out to others in Christlike service help us feel the love of God deep within our hearts?
• Why did Ammon and his brethren have such incomprehensible joy?  What is it?
• What is a penitent and humble seeker of happiness?

Following the discussion of the progress the mission is making with teaching repentance and baptizing converts (Accountability), the Assistants gave an amazing instruction on how to be led by the Spirit while teaching. We are really trying to help the missionaries understand how to have meaningful conversations with people to fully understand their needs. This allows them to truly help someone rather than just try to convince them they need the message we bring. We are beginning to see more and more missionaries listening to the Spirit during discussions while allowing more silence to prevail and less time being spent on figuring out what needs to be said “next”. These are PhD level communication skills we are teaching and we love the impact it is having on the mission – and the impact it yet will have in each missionary’s individual life.

The only other thing I will mention that we shared at MLC was a new document titled, “Who We Are” as the Ghana Kumasi Mission. As I sat down to do my personal study on Saturday morning, I had these statements rumbling in my mind. As I began to type them out, I began to see that this could be helpful, especially for new missionaries coming into the mission. After sharing it with LaDawn and the Assistants, I took their ideas and made some additions and changes to get it where it is now. We will see if it has “legs”. Trying to summarize who we are in 10 statements is no small task, but with the help of heaven, I believe we are close.

We had dinner at 6:30 pm and we managed to leave the office by 7:30 pm. Elder and Sister Pack were still there working with receiving in the zone leaders and sister training leaders expenses for reimbursement. We are so grateful for the Pack’s and the other senior missionaries who make such a significant difference in helping the mission run as smoothly as possible.

On Saturday morning, I spent time to prepare my weekly letter to the missionaries. Because we were going to Sunyani around 1 pm, I knew that I wouldn’t have much time to do it later in the day. And with the travel back from Sunyani on Sunday, and the need to read the letters from the missionaries, I knew I needed to use the morning to get a solid start on it. While watching one of Tyler and Taylor’s “Come Follow Me” videos while on the elliptical, Tyler introduced a concept that he learned from Benjamin Hyrum White, an adjunct religion professor at BYU. It had to do with building a ship “after the manner which thou hast shown unto me”. I was impressed with the concept and decided to write my weekly letter to them about building their own “ships”, especially wor”ship” and disciple”ship”.

In closing, I want to share a very recent experience. After losing 40 of our very best, and most seasoned missionaries in the November and December transfers, I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and for the mission. How could we possibly maintain the momentum of the mission without these incredible young men and young women who had been the leaders in the mission for much of the last year. I plead with heaven for help. We were getting missionaries to replace them, but they would be new with very little experience. As I was seeking inspiration and guidance one morning, the Spirit whispered to me to remember the story of Gideon, the Midianites, and the 300 soldiers who defeated what appeared to be an innumerable Midianite army. Gideon started with 32,000 soldiers and the Lord reduced it to 300. The Midianites appeared “like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the sea side for multitude.” (Judges 7:12)  And yet, Gideon and those 300 men defeated the Midianites. We are not in a battle for our lives as was Gideon, but it did begin to feel to me like we were in a similar situation with all of our “battle tested” missionaries going home. And yet, after these 40 missionaries left, December and January became the highest two consecutive months of baptisms since the mission began 11.5 years ago. All but two of our 20 sister missionary companionships baptized and so many of the elders who have struggled in their areas in the past, also saw success. In my scripture study Saturday night I came across Helaman 3:25.  I changed a few words (in all CAPS) because that was how the spirit conveyed this verse to me. ”And so great was the prosperity of the MISSION, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the MISSIONARIES, that even the MISSION PRESIDENT and the ASSISTANTS were themselves astonished beyond measure.” I need to add, that as we were preparing for these 40 new missionaries in November and December and then another 30 in February and March, we rolled out a new 12 week training program for the new missionaries in November and in January we rolled out a new 26 week study and improvement program for the rest of the mission. We have felt the Lord’s hand give inspired direction without really understanding the impact it might have. But we acted in faith and the results astonish us. We testify that this work is HIS work, not ours. He knows what he is doing even if at times we do not. What an incredible opportunity we have been given to gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.