You might wonder why a blogpost titled “Hurrah for Israel” would have a picture of a mango tree. It is the fruit that I want to highlight and the season of harvest.

This past week was the final week of a 5 week transfer. It was five weeks long because of our Mission Leadership Seminar next week in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. To do all 170 interviews and 5 zone conferences coupled with two stake conferences is a lot in 35 days, but somehow things always work out. This was a bit more complicated because of last years death of the tribal king in Sunyani. From March 10 – April 9 everyone in the city center had to wear black or red. Not that big of a challenge for our Sisters who serve in the Penkwase Branch, but for the Elders in Sunyani Estates and Nkwabeng we had to move them out to work in outlying branches during the 30 day “celebration”. While the law is supposed to protect those who chose not to dress in funeral attire, there are “self proclaimed enforcers”, men who are fiercely loyal to the tribal kingship that cause trouble for those not wearing black or red. This caused us to move the Sunyani / Techiman conference to last week on Friday. This put even more pressure on us during a short transfer. But as mentioned above, it all worked out.

On Monday April 8th, Elder Kirk came up from Bibiani the night before and he, Elder Pack and I played some golf. It rained pretty hard for about 10 minutes right when we started the 10th hole. I didn’t think I could get cold in Kumasi, but with wet clothes and a soft breeze, I was actually chilled. Fortunately it did not last for long. It was my best game of golf since playing here and while it is very low on the list of priorities, it was fun to hit the ball much better.

On Monday afternoon, we held our regular Couple’s Council meeting. Here is a picture including the agenda. We are so grateful for these amazing senior couples who make possible what often seems like an impossible task of being mission leaders. We love them all so much!

On Monday night, we tried something new with the MLC. This came as a result of a follow up meeting with our Area Mission Specialist Dave Wade. The focus of the meeting was this: Which key indicator(s) in your zone is (are) stopping the zone from achieving its monthly baptismal goal. Please come
prepared with a specific plan, including what specific resources and or actions you will use to help your companionships improve that specific key indicator. Sister Training Leaders, should do the same for the sisters under your stewardship and then counsel with the zone leaders about the needed actions. So that you are aligned in your presentations of your plans. I think this is going to be a gamechanger for us…again. To have every leader in the mission looking at their own zones and identifying the barriers to accomplishing their baptismal goals and then reporting on them is pure genius. Now it seems so obvious, but before Dave Wade mentioned it, we certainly weren’t doing it. I am grateful for Dave and his wisdom of being a mission president and working with so many others across the world. We are excited to see where this takes us.

On Tuesday, we attended the District Council at Daban (Mission Office) and did interviews for the office elders and the Assistants. Elder Dickson did a great job leading the meeting.

On Wednesday, we drove out to Nkawkaw and back thru Juaso and into Konongo where we interviewed 16 missionaries. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of Elder Udo and Elder Taff who serve in Juaso. We ended up being about an hour or so behind schedule, but one does what one must do. 😊

On Thursday morning, we left early and headed to Sunyani for a day full of interviews (20) and then the Zone Conference for Sunyani and Techiman the next day (Friday). We started interviews at 10:00 am and went to 1 pm. We then took a lunch break, stopping at KFC and then going over to the Goodrich apartment and eating lunch. We met the Loveland’s there. We then went back to the District Center and did the other 10 interviews, finishing up around 6:00 pm. The Loveland’s and we then went to Eusbett Hotel for dinner together.

Friday’s zone conference was consistent with the others we had previously held. The Sister Training leaders instruction was from Chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel. “Conversion is our Goal”. Sister Manico and Sister Mwikali did a great job. For the scripture on Christ, we discussed “Jesus Christ, types in anticipation. We had an amazing discussion on the topic and Elder Togba Jr did a great job taking some detailed notes on the whiteboard. I followed that with a broader discussion about the impact these scriptures on Christ are having on the missionaries, which led us to a “fruitful” discussion on what it means to offer our whole souls as an offering (Omni 1:19). That led us into a discussion on “heart, might, mind, and strength”. It was a great conference! Here are some pictures:

Saturday was a day of catchup and a lot of emails and “dotting i’s” and “crossing t’s”. For example, we learned last week our mission would be the pilot mission for sending mission phones homes with the missionaries when they complete their missions. There are a lot of advantages to this, but there is also some effort involved in clearing off the Church’s safeguard software called MAS 360. We started the process on Saturday by entering all of the IMEI numbers of the phones of the departing missionaries in an online site so that the software could be removed. Saturday is also the day we sent an email out to the departing missionaries giving them instructions on their departure schedule. We also worked on finalizing the arrival of some off transfer missionaries that will come to us on May 8th. I even wrote a reference for one of our returned missionaries. It was a day of email and phone calls. One piece of good news was receiving the approval from the Area Presidency on the creation of the Wenchi Group in the Techiman District.

Sunday was the Konongo Stake Conference. After 2 years of working on expanding the building, it was finally complete. And we might add, “It is beautiful!” I took before and after meeting pictures to highlight the beautiful woodwork on the podium and the beams. The meeting was well attended, we estimated about 400 people. The chairs were setup way far from the podium and the aisles were much wider than necessary. The meeting was overscheduled and LaDawn took 1 minute and bore her testimony and I took 3 minutes and reinforced the topic of covenants and temples which were the main focus of the April General Conference. We love the Saints of the Konongo Stake. When we arrived, it was a district and part of the Mission. It was made a stake in September 2021.

After returning home on Sunday, I read about 60 of the missionary letters, but was not able to respond to all of them. When that happens (because of our schedule), I write a letter back to all of those who wrote and confirm to them that I will read their letter and respond to those in need of a response. In the evening, I met with the Assistants and we took a step closer to finalizing the transfer board. We also planned the Monday night virtual MLC and spoke a bit about their upcoming instruction at the Friday face-to-face MLC.

Tying back to the titled of this post, we want to reinforce the significance of the season of harvest that we are in. There is “fruit” on the “trees” and we are doing everything we can to help our amazing missionaries “pluck” that fruit and carefully bring it into the Lord’s garners. We are grateful to be privileged to be engaged in such an incredible way with the gathering of Israel this one last time, Together in Ghana. Hurrah for Israel!!!