Early Saturday morning (Feb 17th), we drove to Sunyani and arrived at 8:45 am in time for a meeting with the current District Presidency and Elder Kenneth Pambu, an Area Seventy from Sierra Leone. The occasion was the spring district conference of the Sunyani Ghana District. President Samuel Asare-Boahen, a medical doctor, was transferred to Takoradi, meaning we needed to find a new District President and counselors. Two weeks ago, we came to Sunyani on “priesthood business”. That business was the calling of Kennedy Frimpong Amoah as the new district president. President Amoah is a cashew wholesaler. He purchases cashews from the farmers and then resells them to companies who process and resell the finished nut. On Saturday morning, we met with the current presidency so that Elder Pambu could get a feel for the district and the work they have been doing.

We started the leadership meeting a bit late and that caused everything to get backed up a bit. The talks were good and included the following topics: 1) Helping young men and young women serve missions. 2) Sincere personal and family prayer. 3) Ministering with the pure love of Christ. 4) I followed with the importance of growing our faith in Jesus Christ and becoming competent in our responsibilities by knowing the handbook and studying the scriptures. 5) Elder Pambu then took the remaining time and covered several points: a) WE are His work and His glory. b) The Lord has power to do all things. c) We should do as Christ has done. d) We need to keep His commandments and learn of Him. e) He finished by talking about the importance of the word remember and quoted 4 scriptures where the word is found. It was a great meeting with 75 priesthood and organizational leaders in attendance.

Afterwards we came to the Goodrich’s apartment after stopping at KFC for some lunch. We were back at the district center for interviews beginning at 3:00 pm.

After the interviews we drove to the Eusbett Hotel for dinner. Shortly after sitting down and ordering our food, Elder Pambu, who was staying there entered the restaurant we invited him to sit with us. We had a wonderful evening getting to know him better and enjoying some amazing bolognese.

On Sunday, we met with the new district presidency at 9:00 am. Elder Pambu gave them some instructions on the importance of reading and knowing the handbook. President Obeng, who also attended, shared this quote from President Nelson which I really love. “Good inspiration is based upon good information.” I actually wrote down, “The right information leads to the right revelation”. I think both are true! We talked about the importance of focusing on the prospective elders in the district as there are 90 prospective elders attending church. This is low hanging fruit that with some effort and attention these men can become elders in the Melchizedek Priesthood. We also have 26 young men who are attending church but are not ordained to their age appropriate office. More low hanging fruit.

The Sunday general session had about 400 in attendance. After the opening hymn and prayer and sustaining of new Melchizedek Priesthood holders, I released the current presidency (Samuel Asare-Boahen, Benjamin Kittson-Mills (1C) and Ernest Sukar (2C). I then read the sustaining list of general and local authorities and leaders, stopping when I came to the section on the district presidency, and asked each of the members of the new presidency to stand. President Kennedy Frimpong Amoah, Ernest Atta Sukar (1C) and Ephraim Nana Yaw Awiah (2C). The sustaining vote was 100%. In the meeting we heard testimonies from President Kittson-Mills, President Sukar, President Awiah, and Mary Amoah (President Amoah’s wife). President Asare-Boahen then spoke on the Lord’s pattern (referencing D&C 52: 14-15) as it relates to the Area Vision. He was followed by President Amoah who focused on the importance of accepting calls to serve in the Lord’s kingdom. He encouraged us all to be active rather than passive members. The District Relief Society President (Sethlina Egyiri) spoke on covenants and the wearing of the temple garment (which was amazing). She was followed by President Edmund Obeng who spoke about God knowing our needs and saving us from our afflictions. LaDawn then bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. Because we were about 15 minutes behind schedule, she opted for a 3 minute testimony rather than a talk. I then took 7 minutes and spoke about the word “yearn” as it was the sense I had when the meeting started. The people came yearning to be fed spiritually. Interestingly that word only appears in the scriptures 3 times, and each time it is coupled with “bowels”. For example, in the story of Solomon deciding whose baby it was, declared it should be “cut in half” and each woman given 1/2 of the child. The actual mother is recorded as “her bowels yearned upon her son”. This great desire to blessings can be ours if we will study the scriptures every day and grow our faith in Christ and then exercise that faith through discovering the joy of daily repentance. Elder Pambu had the last 30 minutes and focused on exact obedience to the commandments of God. He encouraged the congregation to share the gospel more often in natural ways and to follow the Come Follow Me program. He reinforced the simplicity of the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine of Christ and knowing our duties by studying the handbook of instructions.

We then had a 30 minute break before the adult session started at 12:30 pm. I took the opportunity to take a picture with Elder Pambu and the new Presidency.

The adult meeting started at 12:30 pm. Elder Pambu had a zoom meeting with all of the Area Seventies and Elder Bednar and Elder Kearon. He thought the meeting started at 1:00 pm, but it actually started at noon, so he went to his meeting in the District Council room and we went ahead with the adult session. We had 130 members in attendance. President Sukar spoke first on the topic of the importance of the sacrament. He gave a masterful talk (he always does). One of the scriptures he quoted was 3 Nephi 20:8 “And he said unto them: He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled.” He testified that the promised blessing is “sure”. Albert Damtse, the branch president from Duayaw Nkwanta then spoke on gathering Israel through family history. Another great talk. Mercy Touffor, a young single adult and returned missionary spoke about the value of the Book of Mormon in strengthening our testimonies and how the Come Follow Me program this year can really benefit the members in becoming more like Jesus Christ. President Obeng spoke next. Seeing that Elder Pambu had a big portion of the meeting, he tried to help out by speaking for 20 minutes on the atonement of Jesus Christ. One of his quotes I really love that he shared is this: “When our eyes are not focused on the Svior, there are things we simply do not see”. He also emphasized the hope that is available to us through the atoning power of Jesus Christ. It was a beautiful talk. LaDawn was next and just as she was beginning, Elder Pambu walked back in. She sat down and he came to the pulpit and spoke for about 10 minutes. He had a flight out of Sunyani back to Accra at 3:00 pm and so after he spoke, President Obeng walked out with him. Before he left, I asked him if we should just end the meeting now since he was the presiding officer and he said “that’s fine”. So we sang the closing hymn, a prayer was offered and the meeting was adjourned. It was a great weekend with the saints in Sunyani.

After the meeting I gathered the men and their wives (and some children) together and I set them apart as the new presidency. Following the setting apart, I spent about 10 minutes with them on where to go “next”. President Obeng joined somewhere near the end and he will return in 4-6 weeks to complete the full training of the presidency.

Feb 12th – 16th was our first week of zone conferences. The Sunyani District conference schedule allowed us to stay in Sunyani over the weekend and then do interviews on Monday and have the Sunyani / Techiman conference on Tuesday before moving to Tamale later in the week. But alas, I am getting ahead of myself.

On Monday the 12th, I spent much of the day finishing up preparations for zone conference. Elder Pack and I went golfing in the morning and were back home by 9:30 am. It was a beautiful morning on the golf course (aren’t they all?)

Monday afternoon I met with Aaron Allotey to discuss facilities matters in the Obuasi District, the Mission Office, and the Mission Home. Monday night, we held our regular virtual MLC meeting. The highlights of the meeting were 1) we discussed how to set monthly goals in PMG App. We are still having a few growing pains with the changes. 2) We talked about the absolutely imperative that we teach all 40 principles before a person is baptized. 3) We discussed the evidences that the MLC is seeing in the missionaries that faith in Jesus Christ is growing in the mission. Another great meeting!

On Tuesday, we drove to the Bantama Stake Center and held our first zone conference with the combined Obuasi and Suame zones. It was an amazing meeting and it was clear that the missionaries came with open palms to learn and be taught by the Spirit of the Lord. On Wednesday, we met with the Konongo and University zones, and then on Friday we met with the Bantama and Bibiani zones.

I will briefly highlight the instructions and key messages of the conference:

• Since we do not hold district council the weeks of zone conference, we carved out some time to discuss the “Jesus Christ scriptures” that we are studying as part of the 26 week study and improvement plan. Elder Baldwin led the discussion on the topic of “Jesus Christ, teaching mode”. I was the scribe on the whiteboard.
• The Vision Refresh – we talked about becoming a Finder of the Elect, but did so by talking about love, service, and discipleship. My favorite discussion came from 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 where we talked about what it means to “impart our whole souls” to those we love, serve, teach, and baptize. We also talked about a quote from Elder Robert D. Hales. “Disciples live so that the characteristics of Christ are woven into the fiber of their beings, as into a spiritual tapestry.“.
• The Assistants instruction was titled “Led by the Spirit“. It was good at the MLC meeting, it was even better at our zone conferences this past week. As part of this instruction, we did a role play. The Assistants were the missionaries and I was Kwame David, someone they had just met. In the first example, they try to trap me into acknowledging that my “baptism” was wrong because it was not done like Jesus Christ’s baptism. Though it was a role play, I felt the frustration that people must feel when we do this. In the second example, they slowed down and listened to the spirit. They spoke less and allowed the spirit to teach Kwame during the silence. Although they saw plenty of opportunities to jump in and teach Kwame a principle, they held back and allowed the spirit to create in me a longing for what they knew. It was so real to me and the difference in the two examples was night and day. I don’t know if missionaries can learn to do this, but if they can, it will change the entire mission yet again. We did the same unscripted role play at each conference last week with the same result. From the ensuing discussion, the missionaries saw something new that they needed to start working on. We then gave them about 20 minutes to practice new skill of slowing down, listening to the spirit, and teaching accordingly. The missionaries were arranged so that each companionship taught one person (usually one of the newer missionaries). The spirit in the room during this role play by the missionaries was amazing. As part of their instruction, they shared a video about being led by the spirit. It is very short, but very powerful.

Following the Assistants, LaDawn spoke about “Humility or Pride“. It was a powerful instruction on impact of both on our lives. She also used a video that I had never seen before called “A Man without Eloquence“. It is the story of how a humble testimony of a man who was without eloquence in his speech gave Brigham Young his early testimony of the restored gospel. She also showed a video from Elder Stevenson titled, “Spiritual Eclipse“. It was excellent. Following LaDawn, I led a discussion on Lehi’s Vision. The contributions from the missionaries as we discussed the different elements of the vision were outstanding. Overall, three great zone conferences last week!

Thursday, February 15th turned out to be an interesting day. I had interviews scheduled for the Bibiani zone starting at 3 pm at the mission office (they came in early for their interviews since their zone conference was the next day). I also had an interview scheduled to release a returning missionary. On Wednesday evening, I received a phone call from a missionary that had really been struggling. It is a long story, and it is not appropriate for me to share much of it here, but I will share a few things. This particular missionary had been dishonest with me for some period of time about being in possession of a personal SIM card (a significant breach of mission rules). I knew he had one, but he denied it. I kept asking him the same question over and over and the response was always the same. Through a series of events, I came into evidence of the SIM card that was undeniable. When I confronted him earlier in the week with the evidence, he finally admitted that he had one, but by then I knew there was more going on, which he denied. I told him to bring me the personal SIM card as I would be seeing him during the week. The next morning he called and told me he destroyed it, which I was pretty sure was not true. With some help of a local french speaker, the personal SIM phone number (which we knew) was called later that same afternoon, and he picked up the call, but said nothing. When confronted with the new evidence, he again denied (“must have been an erroneous rerouted call” he said). When I saw him the next morning, he brought me half of a SIM card which he said he had found (he had claimed earlier to have cut it in half and thrown it into the courtyard of the apartment – and had searched but could not find it). He even had a video of him searching for it and then finding it, which was poorly staged and not very convincing. I told him I still did not believe him. It was clear to me he did not want me to see that SIM card or the Mobile Money account upon it. I told him I had MTN working on getting me the statement of the Mobile Money account and I could see that worried him. I had interviews after his conference so he left and we did not speak further. It was Wednesday night that he called me to see if “we were on the same page”. I told him we were not on the same page and that I had serious concerns about his integrity. By this point, I had spoken to the Area Presidency, the Missionary Department, and his stake president. Early one morning, I even had a call with his stake president with him on the call so he could speak to him. Unbeknown to the missionary, I had received all the necessary approvals to send him home. On Wednesday evening, we spoke on that call for over an hour. I say that we spoke, but the reality is that I mostly just listened. He talked about a lot of the struggles he had had growing up and some of the bad choices he had made. After we had spoken for an hour, he said, “President, I have to see you tomorrow”. I had a really busy schedule, but he insisted and it was obvious to me I needed to see him. We agreed on a time and a place where we could visit. He said he only needed 30 minutes. The next day he came and we spent almost 90 minutes together. He emptied his soul of all of his sins. And I mean ALL. It was an amazing moment. This young man that I had been struggling with because he continued to live in darkness, finally cleansed his soul through confession and opened his soul to the Light. He said he was tired of feeling so much guilt and shame. While he took a big step on Thursday, his battle is not over. He will have to stay true to his commitments, fight off temptations, and learn to trust Jesus Christ more each day. But for the first time since this young man arrived in the mission, I am filled with hope for him. He no longer needed to be sent home early. He had finally stopped fighting the Spirit of the Lord and decided to embrace the Light. It was a glorious day for me to see this prodigal son arise and awake.This is the sort of event that a mission president lives for. I have had several, but this one is by far the most rewarding for me. Hurrah for Israel!

The rest of the day I spent interviewing the 12 missionaries who serve in the Bibiani Zone. In between those missionaries, I released Elder Prince Sarpong from the Krobo branch in Techiman who served in the Nigeria Enugu Mission under President Usi. Alex Cobbina, our mission driver, then drove him to catch a tro tro back to Techiman. I also snapped a picture of eight of the twelve elders from Bibiani after we completed the interviews and phone checks. These were good interviews with good elders who are working hard to be their very best.

Since Wednesday had been Valentines Day, all of the couples except the Ray’s (7 hours away in Tamale) got together and went to Moti Mahal for a Valentines date night dinner on Friday evening. The best part of the meal was when the owner came out and offered us free desserts. Gulab Jamun (Indian Milk Balls) and some berry nut ice cream that they make on premise were the desserts he brought out. Delicious! We took a picture with the owner at the head of the table.

The only other thing I will mention is that during the week we did other interviews in addition to the Bibiani zone, including four following the Sunday sessions in Sunyani. Those that live out quite far from other missionaries, we interview after their respective zone conferences. Below are the companionships and their areas.

This next week we will complete the zone conferences and interviews for all of the missionaries in the northern part of the mission. What a joy it is to meet with these young men and young women called to serve as full-time missionaries in the Lord’s army. While we are not free from the troubles of the mortal weaknesses of 166 missionaries (and our own) from time to time, in general the mission is doing better than it has ever done, exceeding even our own expectations. Faith in Jesus Christ is growing and it is evident in the efforts and results of each companionship. We are incredibly grateful for be engaged in this work of salvation as we gather Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.