This past week (May 13th-19th) was our last set of zone conferences for the transfer. We did all 7 of the Kumasi area zones in three conferences. On Saturday, I attended a Kumasi Coordinating Council Meeting and on Sunday we attended church in the Onwe Branch which is part of the new Ejisu Stake. It was a great week for us!

Monday morning I played basketball with the now four office elders and the Assistants. Elder Palmer and Elder Strother have joined the office staff, replacing Elder and Sister Pack who will be going home the first week in June. We will really miss them!

At 3:30 pm, we drove over to the University Stake Center and held eight very good interviews. We love these missionaries and their consecrated efforts to gather Israel.

Our MLC Meeting agenda for Monday evening was very simple. We continue to focus on the barriers the missionaries face in achieving their goals

Agenda

• Insight from Scripture – Elder James
• Zone barriers and solutions: Successes and miracles from overcoming your zones barriers this past week. What best practices are you using?
• Days to Baptism (President Discussion)

After talking through the things the MLC is doing to help their missionaries overcome the barriers that keep them from achieving their baptismal goals, we talked about what we need to do to help those on date to be baptized. One of our problems is that the missionaries give them a date that is difficult to achieve unless the frequency of their meetings increase. By using this easy “days to baptism” calculator, a missionary companionship can quickly determine how soon the person can be baptized based on how long it will take to teach all of the principles. We believe that if the person we are teaching realizes what is required it will help them to give more time to the missionaries. We have also created a calendar form for them to use with those they are teaching. You can see it here.

On Tuesday May 14th, we held the Suame/Obuasi combined zone conference at the Bantama Stake Center. For health and safety, Elder and Sister Loveland talked about balanced health and the importance of taking care of our spiritual health, our physical health, our social health, and our intellectual health. They did this same presentation at all three conferences.

Next, we discussed the Scriptures on Christ under the Topical Guide topic of Jesus Christ, divine sonship. We had an amazing discussion at each conference during the week about how Christ is both the Father and the Son. These were helpful discussions for the missionaries and inspiring to LaDawn and me. Here is just one of the the three whiteboards with the notes captured from the discussion. For the first conference on Tuesday, the Assistants were late because they had been stopped by policemen for making a U-turn in the wrong place (totally unmarked). So the police made them go to the station where they were going to ticket them. Turns out someone came into the station, recognized them as missionaries, and told the policemen to let them go. And so they did. They arrived in time for Elder Togba Jr. to take these detailed notes as I led the discussion.

In this same Suame / Obuasi conference, Elder and Sister Pack gave the “couples” instruction. They spoke about the power of prayer and their own personal experiences. The one minute drills that we did were absolutely excellent. All of the new missionaries did perfectly and even the experienced missionaries knew the principles. I give them an “A” for being prepared and capable of delivering the bullet points of the principle in under a minute. This is the best we have ever seen. Here are pictures from the conference:

After the Obuasi / Suame conference I interviewed Elder Jamboe and Elder Kwakingi who serve in Adansi Asokwa in the Obuasi Zone.

On Wednesday May 15th, we held the University, Konongo, and Ejisu zone conference at the University Stake Center. The “couples” instruction was done by Elder Wayne and Sister Marianne Samuelson. They did a really great job. The topic of their instruction was “Who is Your Foundation”. Elder Samuelson talked about a defining moment in his life as a young missionary in Germany when he decided to go “ALL In” with his companion. It was a life changing moment and has given him direction his entire life. They worked together seamlessly on the instruction. We are grateful to be able to serve with them. We used the cultural hall that day as there was a “vendor” meeting in the chapel. Here are some pictures of the conference:

After the zone conference, I conducted 6 interviews of missionaries who live in Mampong, Agona, and Seniagya.

On Thursday, we drove to Asouyeboa and interviewed the six in the Abuakwa District, starting at 10:30 am and finishing around 12:30 pm.

On Friday, May 17th we concluded our zone conferences for the transfer with the Bantama / Bibiani zones, again at the Bantama Building. At this conference, Elder and Sister Kirk who serve as Member Leader Support Missionaries in Bibiani provided the instruction. They did a great job. Sister Kirk spoke about how Heavenly Father knows all of us and therefore hears our prayers. Elder Kirk spoke about casualness vs. consecration. Here are some pictures from the conference, including pictures of companionships doing role plays on planning for extending an invitation to someone they are teaching. Another great conference!

After the conference we returned home and then met the other couples at Piri Piri for a Friday night date at 5:30 pm. After a long day, a vegetable salad each and shared fries hit the spot just right. Always great to be with these amazing couples with whom we are honored to serve.

On Saturday, I attended our quarterly coordinating council meeting. Elder Kofi Sosu presides as our Area Seventy. Here is the agenda for the meeting. The whole meeting was excellent and one of the best we have had. Great discussions coupled with great desires to work closely together to further establish the Church in the Kumasi Coordinating Council.

At the end of the meeting, on behalf of all of the stake presidents, Elder Sosu presented me with a scarf and a picture that had been drawn of LaDawn and me. I am not a big fan of the scarf, but I am a big fan of Elder Sosu and these amazing stake presidents. It has been an honor to serve with each of them.

On Sunday, we decided to drive out to Onwe and visit the branch. Elder Wilde and Elder Abawag serve there and they recently dedicated their new chapel. In the first map below you can see where Onwe is relative to the Mission Home. It took us about 45 minutes to get there. The second map shows the location of the church building. It is very close to the center of the town. The only bad news is that there is a very noisy Pentecostal Church close by. It was apparently built after we purchased the land. For me, the highlight of the visit was a talk by Thomas on the plan of salvation. Thomas is a blind man about our same age who joined the Church in Germany 40 years ago. He can’t remember why he was even in Germany then, but he gave a powerful sacrament meeting talk!

We were so pleased at the quality of the people that we met in Onwe. They were absolutely wonderful. Here are a few pictures.

Here is a recent picture of Elder Wilde and Elder Abawag. They are very busy right now. They told us the majority of the people in church that day were visitors, including the piano player. His name is Christian and it was obvious the way he was playing the hymns he was not a member. How grateful we are to have him willing to come and share his talents. I went up afterwards and met him and had the missionaries go introduce themselves. They hope to start teaching him this next week.

Zone conferences, interviews, a coordinating council meeting, and a virtual MLC meeting were highlights of the week. Traveling to Onwe was the “cherry on top” of a busy and rewarding week as we continued to gather Israel, one last time, Together in Ghana.