When we have a free Sunday with no commitment to be in a certain ward or branch, we often seek to attend a church unit that is close enough to Kumasi that we can get there within an hour. On Sunday, February 11th, that ward was the Meduma ward which is part of the Dichemso stake. This is the ward where our Sister Training Leaders, Sister Nyaketcho and Sister Awuku serve. The church was well off the highway, and we had to weave into the chapel on rut-filled dirt roads. The compound itself was actually quite large with two buildings rather than just one. We were surprised at the small size of the chapel though, built into an “L” shape, making it difficult for those in the lower portion of the “L” to view the podium. There were about 60 people in attendance. The Bishop is Kwami Arthur and the meeting started on time and ended on time (always a good sign). Both LaDawn and I were asked to share our testimonies. During Elder’s quorum, the discussion was about half in Twi and half in English. The topic was the sacrament and was taught quite well. There were a few points that needed clarification, e.g., the sacrament “cleanses us” (no it is repentance that cleanses us) and we renew our baptismal covenants (true, but we also make a new covenant each week and the sacrament is intended for us to renew ALL of our covenants). Overall it was a great Sabbath Day in a strong ward with seasoned leaders.

Sunday afternoon was spent finishing up reading and writing letters to the missionaries from the prior Monday. In the evening, I met with the Assistants and we went over the plan for the zone conferences and talked about the Monday night MLC meeting. It was 9:45 pm by the time we finished.

Back to Monday, February 5th. In the morning, I played basketball with the Office Elders, the Assistant’s, Elder Loveland, and Tom Rogers. It is such a great game and I am grateful to still be able to play once in a while. Right now I am on a schedule of playing basketball every other week and then playing golf on the off week. Subsistence Monday’s are always busy for Elder Pack, so we can only play golf on those weeks opposite the Monday’s when subsistence is paid. Even though subsistence is paid through missionary ATM cards, we often have trouble with ATMs having the right amount of cash and so he then has to send the rest by mobile money. It is an effort to make it all work and we are so grateful for Elder and Sister Pack and all they do to keep the mission running.

On Monday afternoon, Elder Lood arrived. He is a Filipino missionary who came into Accra on Saturday (he got stuck in Dubai an extra day because of a late flight out of Manila causing him to miss his connection). That meant he stayed in Accra over the weekend, received is non-Citizen Ghana card and his visa medicals on Monday, and then arrived in Kumasi on Monday at 3:00 pm. We are grateful to have him with us!

As we returned from the airport, I dropped LaDawn off at the Mission Home and Elder Lood and I went to the Mission Office where his trainer, Elder Medina met us. We then spent about 2+ hours providing orientation and getting him ready to go the next morning with Elder Medina first to their district council in Atafoa and then out to his area in Adankwame. At one point, I just turned the training over to Elder Medina and he went through the 12 week new missionary training program with him. 😊

Monday night was our regularly scheduled MLC Virtual Meeting. Our three major topics: 1) ⁠Baptismal Dates: With a four week goal period, it is important to contact those on date everyday. How are you doing that? What are your best practices? 2) ⁠Finding: Our finding this week was fairly low. What, why, and how? What are your thoughts? 3) Mission Unity: What are your feelings on the unity in the mission? What do you want to do to improve/sustain it? All always, the input was excellent. This has become my absolute favorite meeting of the mission.

On Tuesday, we attended the excellent Unversity District Council and then interviewed 6 missionaries at the University Stake Center before coming back to the mission office to interview two more. The District Leader in University District is Elder Moeakiola from Tonga. The meeting was wonderful. Each missionary stood and recited their memorized scripture on Christ and then wrote their question about the scripture on the board. The District then discussed each of the questions. It was amazing.

Tuesday was the date of our new leader training for missionaries. This transfer we changed the discussion to a PowerPoint format and ordered the topics under two major headings: Faith in Jesus Christ and Competency Skills. The Assistants did the training and I joined at the very end after interviewing Elder Tapatuetoa and Elder Dickson. This was Elder Togba’s first experience and he did great as a new Assistant. I am so grateful for these young men who serve so faithfully.

Elder Tapatuetoa brought his guitar and played another lovely song for me at the end of our interview.

On Wednesday, we went to the Kwamo First Ward building and interviewed 8 more missionaries from the University Zone.

Wednesday evening I held my bi-weekly Presidency Meeting. Lots of things going on with the Sunyani District Conference next weekend which includes the calling of a new District Presidency, finance training the first week in March, FSY and YSA Summit for the Coordinating Council this year, and of course following up with the Districts on temple recommends and quarterly reports (and the areas to emphasize). I say it every time we meet. I am grateful for Edmund Obeng and Joseph Asante, along with Eugene Ghorman (clerk) and Elder Kraig Loveland (Executive Secretary).

Thursday was the interviews for the Suame Zone, including every companionship except those in Mampong and Agona. We also interviewed Elder Lood and Elder Medina but a picture of them is included above so I do not repeat it here.

On Friday, we drove to the Dichemso stake center and interiewed the 10 missionaries who serve in the Dichemso stake.

The good news is that because these interviews finished in the afternoon each day, it gave me opportunity to read and respond to missionary letters each day. It is so much easier when I have the time each day to read and respond to about 20 letters.

On Saturday, I spent much of the day working on my weekly letter to the missionaries. I thought it would be an easy topic (Lessons from the Seven Churches), but it turned out to consume much more of my day than I had planned as I struggled to figure out the message and its application to the mission. I think it turned out okay, not great, but okay. LaDawn spent a good share of the day working on her zone conference instruction titled, “Humility or Pride”. Saturday evening the Samuelson’s, Loveland’s, Pack’s, and we went to the Lancaster Hotel for an early “Valentines day meal”. They have a decent buffet there and while quite expensive, it is fast and the food was actually quite good (meaning better than last time).

Next week starts zone conferences here in Kumasi and then the week after that we will go north for 2 more conferences and a bunch of interviews. We love the steady rhythm of the mission. We love the missionaries and see them becoming more and more consecrated in their efforts to gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.