It took 18 months beyond the original completion date, but it finally happened. The Tamale District Center was completed and on May 5, 2024 it was dedicated. I was grateful to be assigned to preside over the dedication. This is now the second dedication we have been privileged to perform and there is a third in the cue. There is something about dedicating buildings that inspire us and makes us want to be better. For those interested, the text of the dedicatory prayer can be found here.

The weather in Tamale is considerably warmer than it is in Kumasi. Sunday was no exception. It was 104 degrees outside, I suspect it may have been a bit warmer inside, as we had women bringing their children outside to sleep on the sidewalk around the building because it was cooler. I have made a plea to the Area Facilities Management team that we find a way to lower the temperature inside. Either through air conditioning or minimally some insulation in the ceiling to keep the heat from radiating down from the metal roof.

This was an historic conference. A new district presidency was sustained, and the new District Center was dedicated. Isaac N. Martey and his counselors Peter Amoa-Ohenkwah and Emmanuel Fiagbedzi were released as President Martey will be leaving Tamale. Kofi Duku was called as the new District President with Jarome Asempapa as first counselor and Michael Ayagle as second counselor.

Prior to the Priesthood leadership session on Saturday, President Asante and I met with the District Presidency. Among other things, we discussed their three greatest concerns in the district: 1) Ministering to each other and loving each other more. 2) More commitment and dedication to callings and following the handbook. 3) High number of prospective elders in the District.

Here are a list of the topics covered over the two days of the conference. We had 41 who attended the leadership meeting, 321 at the General Sunday Session and 137 adults in the Sunday afternoon session.

Priesthood leadership Meeting

• Ministering with charity
• Gathering Israel through inviting all to Come Unto Christ. Importance of our own scripture study to know the doctrines of the kingdom.
• Gathering of Israel doctrines
• Eliminating unrighteous pride in our lives
• Urgency of the work based on Elder Holland’s recent conference talk. What it means for us.

Sunday Morning General Session

• Lift where we stand. If everyone lifts together the work is easy. We need to prepare to enter the temple. One way to do this is better prepared for the sacrament each week and then make the new covenant to keep the commandments and always remember Him. We can and need to grow spiritually.
• How I remember Jesus Christ (primary boy)
• How the Book of Mormon is strengthening me (a young man preparing for a mission)
• Testimony by a YW: It is only the gospel of Jesus Christ that can give us peace in this world
• Applying the atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives. Keeping our eyes on eternity
• Standing as a witness of God. We need to be different from the world and act like a true disciple
• How to bring the temple to Tamale through our study of temples.churchofjesuschrist.org and using Topical Guide scriptures to learn more about obedience, sacrifice, law of the gospel, law of chastity, and law of consecration.
• At the end of my remarks, I was privileged to dedicate the new District Center.

Sunday Afternoon Adult Session

• How service to others makes our own pathway brighter.
• Teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to our children in the home
• Teaching our Children to live the law of Chastity
• The importance of being a missionary and preparing our children to serve.
• Receiving a fullness of Joy and the steps one must take to achieve this
• Saving ordinances of the gospel and their blessings. How the power of godliness is manifest in these ordinances. Also discussed the associated covenants of the ordinances.

I want to add one more thing. On Saturday morning, I was praying to know the key messages I should deliver. After praying, I sat and pondered and began to write. Within those words, was this phrase “They need to bring the temple to them.” I knew immediately it was from the Spirit. In the Sunday morning session I focused on how the members might bring the temple to Tamale. Through a study of the covenants in the scriptures, a review of section 27 of the Handbook of Instruction, and reading through the temples.churchofjesuschrist.org website, members could bring much of the temple experience to their memory and in doing do could be strengthened. Tamale is at 12 hours by bus away from Accra. Bolgatanga is another 3 hours. It is difficult and expensive to get to the temple very often, but it is easy to utilize the resources available to strengthen our resolve to keep our temple covenants.

After the conference, President Asante and I set apart the new presidency. Sister Ayagle did not make the trip from Bolgatanga as she was not feeling well, but three of their four children came. President Duku’s wife and their youngest child were there. Their toddler was outside with a caretaker. President Asempapa’s family still lives in Accra as he is on an extended assignment in Tamale.

After the conference, we returned to the Ray’s apartment and later that evening I held a 30 minute phone call with the Assistants to plan the Monday night MLC Virtual call. We left early on Monday morning to make our way to Sunyani.

Prior to the District conference over the weekend, we held the Tamale zone conference on Friday. We left Kumasi early Wednesday morning (May 1st) and drove to Techiman and held interviews for the ten missionaries who work inside the city. Those in Nkoransa I will do virtually and I will interview Elder Baldwin (Wenchi) when he leaves at the end of the transfer. His companion is new so I had just interviewed him.

After the interviews in Techiman, we drove to Tamale, arriving about 5:15 pm. The Loveland’s arrived about the same time. We took the Ray’s and the Loveland’s for Dinner at Oasis that evening. Words cannot express the gratitude we feel for all 5 of the amazing senior couples with whom we serve.

Thursday was filled with 18 interviews. We did 10 between 10:30 and 2:00 pm and then the remaining 8 between 3:30 – 6:00 pm. I failed to get a picture of Elder Farris and Elder Joshua. One thing I did snap a picture of was the plate of delicious cinnamon roles that Sister Ray baked and send with us to the interviews. During our break, we drove over to Wooden and had a quick lunch and my cinnamon role was dessert. LaDawn had hers for breakfast.

On Friday we held zone conference in the high council room of the new District Center. This is where we held it last month as well. The good news is that this time both A/C units were installed and functioning. It made a world of difference. For me, the room is a bit smaller than I would prefer, but it is still better than being in the 100 degree chapel. For this round of zone conferences, we have asked the senior couples to teach at each of the conferences. In Tamale, Elder and Sister Ray spoke. Sister Ray talked about obedience and Elder Ray talked about “Thinking Celestial”.

Prior to the Ray’s providing instruction, the Assistants led a discussion on the Jesus Christ scripture topic of “Jesus Christ, King”. It was a wonderful discussion. Elder Reynolds led the discussion and Elder Togba Jr took some detailed whiteboard notes. These scriptures on Christ are changing the mission. For those who are following the 26 week program where the schedule of these scriptures can be found, their faith is growing. Bringing the scriptures and the discussion into District Council has also been very helpful.

For the vision refresh, we spoke again about the Power of the Word. In Tamale, we covered three scriptures: Alma 37:8, Mosiah 1:3, and Alma 44:5. Here are the questions we discussed:

• How do the scriptures enlarge our memory and why is that important?
• Why would we suffer in ignorance if we do not know the mysteries of God?
• What is the maintenance of the word of God? How does it give us power over our enemies? Why did the Nephites owe all their happiness to doing so? [this was by far my favorite discussion]

The Assistants instruction was titled, “Opening the Gate to the Covenant Path“. It had been improved significantly since MLC. The key message was the three key invitations that help an investigator to be converted: 1) Praying daily and in the name of Jesus Christ (important for our Muslim friends). 2) Reading the Book of Mormon. 3) Attending Church. Teaching the doctrines behind each of these three key invitations before extending them is something that they built upon from their last instruction. We finished the instruction with a planning session for each companionship based on a scenario presented by the Assistants. The entire session was excellent.

After lunch, LaDawn spoke about “What Matters Most“. Another valuable and to the point discussion about keeping our eyes focused on the things that matter most to God and therefore matter most to us. At the end she played the 2016 EFY song titled, “What Matters Most”. Such a wonderful instruction!

My instruction was on the temple and was titled “Out of the Petty and Into the Holy“. Focused on the Covenants, Ordinances, and Symbols of the Temple. I also tried to connect the importance of symbols to personal revelation and how having eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts that understand unlock personal revelation surrounding the temple symbols, both inside and outside.

Friday after zone conference we ordered pizza from Wooden as LaDawn, Sister Ray, and Sister Loveland all attended the choir practice. It took over an hour and we collected it and drove back to the District Center just as our wives were finishing.

Back to Monday and Tuesday April 29th and 30th. Monday morning we played basketball at the mission office. It is always fun to get out and sweat because of exercise rather than weather. 😊

We held our MLC meeting Monday night as we do every Monday night. We are continuing to work on the barriers that keep up from achieving our goals and the solutions that will help us. We love the Mission Leadership Council! As I have mentioned before, I think this is a breakthrough approach which we learned from our Area Mission Specialist, David Wade.

On Tuesday, we left early and began interviews at Atafoa at 8:30 am. There are four missionaries in that district and we wanted to attend the Suame District Council, meaning we needed to complete the interviews in time to be at the Suame Stake Center before 10:00 am. It worked out and while we may have been a couple of minutes late, the District Council had not yet started. They are doing road work in front of the Atafoa Chapel so we had to park on the road and walk down since there was no way to get past the construction of the “gutters” under construction.

The District Council was excellent. I think we made Elder Talbot a bit nervous showing up without any prior notice, but he did a great job! We are grateful for his diligent and consistent efforts to help the District excel.

After District Council, we did 12 more interviews which completed the zone. Such great missionaries! Unfortunately, I failed to take a picture of the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Rakotojoelina and Sister Wamalwa. We were back home before 4 pm.

We have historically gone to the North for zone conferences after completing the three in Kumasi. Because of the District Conference in Tamale, we did the zone conference in Tamale early. It was a very busy, yet very productive week for us. The missionaries are doing good, and while there are always things that need to be better, we are grateful for the desire and efforts of our 175 missionaries to Teach Repentance and Baptize converts, Together in Ghana.