This post is for the period of May 27 – Jun 2. The highlight of the week was definitely the Couples Retreat we held on May 29th and 30th. It was nothing fancy with zero excursions to some exotic animal refuge (as if such a place existed near Kumasi). But we did spend a lot of time together, enjoyed some great food and great conversation. I think we would all agree that just being together for a couple of days without the day to day pressures of all that needs to get done was a welcomed change. Being with like-minded people with similar years of experience was a bonus. On both Wednesday and Thursday we spent time discussing the 5 covenants we make in the temple. These can be found in section 27.0 of the Handbook of Instructions. There were 5 questions we discussed, although it was not quite as ordered as the questions might suggest. Here they are:

• The name of the law
• The purpose of the law
• The impact of the covenant on our lives
• Why each law is important
• What the blessings are of each law

On Wednesday we covered Obedience, Sacrifice, the Law of the Gospel, and the Law of Chastity. On Thursday, we covered the Law of Consecration and then talked about these covenants as a whole – leading to a discussion on “Holiness to the Lord”. We probably spent about 6 hours in total talking about this. It was glorious and amazing. I took as many notes as I could possibly write down and then put them into a PowerPoint presentation with references. That took another day. The goal is to share these insights with the missionaries in the upcoming zone conferences, but more work is needed to pare it down into crisper messages. Condensing 6 hours into 1 is taking some time and effort. Once I have successfully figured out the right level of detail (including quotes and scriptures) and have presented it to the zones, I will share it here. For now, I think it is fair to say this conversation was life changing for all of us.

For lunch on Wednesday we had Pizza from Piri Piri and on Thursday we had KFC tenders and fries. Wednesday evening we had dinner at Moti Mahal and Thursday night we enjoyed the buffet at the Lancaster. There were a few times some of the couples sat down and played some games, and other times there was just good conversation. This sort of break is refreshing for all of us. Here are some pictures, primarily of eating!

Back to Monday, when Elder Pack and I went golfing for the last time. A storm had come through the night before bringing strong winds and rain and leaving a lot of leaves and debris from the surrounding trees on the course. It was also very humid as you can see from the dew in the picture below. Still a great chance to be out in nature with Elder Pack enjoying some healthy exercise.

Our Monday afternoon at 4 pm, we held our Mission Health Council with Elder Mellor who serves as our Area Medical Advisor. We discuss the health needs of our missionaries and any particular cases that need special attention. We are extremely grateful for Sister Loveland who serves as our mission nurse and Elder Mellor and his team in Accra.

Monday evening, we held our weekly virtual MLC meeting. Elder Togba Jr. and Elder Reynolds do a great job with this meeting each week and I am extremely grateful for their excellent leadership of the MLC and consistent understanding of the needs of the mission. Here is the agenda. I have also included a link to the notes from the meeting.

Agenda:

• Further Discussion: What are we doing to improve the percentage of those on date being baptised?
• How can we help our missionaries to improve their planning process? What’s the problem, what are solutions?
• Making Accountability More Effective: District Council, Exchanges, Phone Calls, Meetings, etc.

On Tuesday, I spent quite a bit of time finishing reading and responding to the missionary emails from the previous week. I also spent some time researching a membership council issue from 14 years ago where the member wants to get back into the Church. In addition, we have a lease that our Facilities Manager entered into (with my blessing), only to now discover I did not have all of the information necessary to make a good decision. The location of the apartment relative to the ward building is the biggest concern. This prompted me to spend some time discussing with our area legal team about cancelling the lease. These types of topics tend to chew up a lot of time, but are very important to the lives of individuals and the health of the mission.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent with our amazing senior couples as mentioned above. The Goodrich’s and Ray’s stayed with us and the Kirk’s stayed with the Pack’s (the air conditioner in their spare room gave out and Elder Loveland worked with Daniel Boakye to get it replaced before the Kirk’s arrival). Everyone left Friday morning to return home. For us, we drove to Bibiani to do the last of the interviews for the transfer. The last few transfers we have been doing the Bibiani interviews before their zone conference here in Kumasi. This transfer, we decided to connect the interviews with the District Conference that was held on Saturday and Sunday in Bibiani. This meant on Friday we drove to Nyinahin, Bosmioso, Bekwai, and Bibiani to meet the missionaries rather than have them spend more time away from their areas by coming to us. We left about 6:45 am, stopping in Nyinahin first to interview the two elders who serve there, and then on to Bosomioso where we interviewed the Waiwso and Bosomioso elders, over to Bekwai for the two elders there and then back to Bibiani where we interviewed the Gyedi elders at the Kirk’s apartment. I interviewed the zone leaders Saturday afternoon after the Leadership Session of the Bibiani District Conference, but failed to snap a picture.

We enjoyed staying with Elder and Sister Kirk Friday and Saturday nights. They have a “new” couples apartment that we set up for them when we learned they were coming to Ghana. It is a very nice apartment and they have created a warm, spiritual rich environment inside. We were grateful to be able to spend so much time with them. The food Sister Kirk cooked and prepared was excellent, with a special shout-out for those delicious cinnamon roles!

On Saturday morning, Joseph Asante and I met with the Bibiani District Presidency at 8:45 am before the leadership session which started at 10:00 am. President Arthur, the first counselor, was in a very serious accident last year and is still mending in Accra from a severely broken leg. We hope he will be back in the District soon. While the sisters are not invited to the leadership meeting unless an Area Seventy presides, the word did not get out to them and the branch and district organizational leaders came to the meeting. Some traveling over 90 minutes to get there. Rather than tell them they could not join, we took advantage of their presence and in my remarks talked about the Purpose of the Church and the Work of Salvation. Elder Kirk was my whiteboard scribe and did a great job!

Here is a brief summary of the leadership meeting. Topics included: Importance of sanctifying ourselves through the atonement of Jesus Christ; Ministering with charity; Sharing the gospel through love, share, and invite;  Gathering Israel on the other side of the veil through family history work; Teaching and leading in the Savior’s way; Reviewed the GHB of instructions 1.0 – 1.4. Discussed the work of salvation and exaltation and the leaders of the Bibiani District’s role in fulfilling these divine mandates.  Asked, if they don’t do it, who will?

On Sunday, we met in the Bibiani Senior High School auditorium at 10:00 am where we had 430 people attend the general session. That was a record and represented over half of the members of the district. Sunday General Session topics included: Importance of honoring our covenants and trusting in the Lord to help us through life’s challenges as covenant keepers; How to remember Jesus Christ throughout the day (primary child); How personal prayers strengthen us (Young Woman); How the Book of Mormon strengthens us (YSA preparing for mission); Sowing the seeds of faith in our children; Standing as a witness of Jesus Christ; Urgency in the work through improved leadership as leaders grow their faith in Jesus Christ through daily study of the Book of Mormon, payment of a full tithe, and daily repentance.

After a 30 minute break following the general session, we started the Adult Session at 12:30 pm. Topics included: Keeping the Sabbath day holy; Teaching the gospel to our children in the home; Teaching our children to live a chaste life; sharing the gospel; testimonies from a recent convert and a recently endowed member; How do we find joy; The meaning of D&C 84:20 – how the power of godliness is manifest in the ordinances of the gospel. This last topic was something I discussed previously at the Obuasi conference. We had a similar experience here as the members testified of the changes that came into their own lives after receiving each of these ordinances. President Asante helped with translating my remarks into Twi so everyone could understand.

We were back home in Kumasi before 5:30 pm which gave us enough time to have dinner before I met with the Assistants from 7:00 – 9:00 pm. We went over the transfer board and planned the virtual MLC meeting for the next evening. How I love these two valiant servants!

It was a good week for us. We were able to finish up the interviews with the missionaries and we had a wonderful couples retreat and a marvelous discussion on temple covenants. We had perhaps our best conference in Bibiani over the weekend where the attendance was outstanding. We feel so privileged to be engaged in this great work. It seems that each experience we are having right now is the last in a long series of events and experiences we have had since arriving in Kumasi nearly 3 years ago. We will forever be grateful for this season in our lives when we have been called to offer everything we have to this great work of gathering Israel one last time, Together in Ghana.