Of Most Worth

We held our last two zone conferences of this transfer period this week.  We just received instructions on Friday that zone conferences and interviews are to be held during each six week transfer period now, rather than every twelve weeks.  So, life just got busy.  That will be 10 conferences and 200 interviews each six weeks.  We'll get to know the missionaries better, that's for sure.

These zone conferences have been focused on improving our teaching of the Gospel.  We learned that inviting people to repent is the thing of most worth that we can be doing.  

We love those we teach.

We teach by the Spirit.

We teach the Doctrine of Christ.

We invite others to learn for themselves.

This is the Telecom Zone serving the Assin Foso Stake.

I may be crying repentance here.  Not sure.

After the zone conference, we met with President Fokuo.  He took us on a road trip to a restaurant in Assin Foso.  It was nice.  He also showed us a new hotel that had opened in town that will be very helpful when we need to stay overnight.  We've always had to travel back and forth to Cape Coast for two day events like zone conferences and stake conferences.  This will save us some travel time.

This is the Yamoransa Zone.

I spent Thursday working with the missionaries in Praso.  I arrived in time to join Elder Mapfumo and Elder Egwu for weekly planning.  

 After lunch, we were ready to hit the road.

This young man is deaf and can only lip-read Twi.  However, he had his own form of sign language.  Elder Warner can sign ASL and they developed a way to communicate.  Elder Sorensen has been teaching with the Praso missionaries in three villages where we have branches, but no missionaries assigned.  

Elder Mapfumo is the District Leader and did the baptismal interview.

We have had several baptisms in these villages over the last few months, so we are going to assign missionaries to work there full time in the transfer next week.  

This is the chapel in Nuamakrom.

Sunset in Nyenasi.

Egg and groundnut (peanut butter) sandwich.

The missionaries hand wash their laundry.

My accommodations.  I wish I had brought my freestanding backpacking tent with me to Ghana.  It would have been perfect for overnight visits to the missionaries.  The homemade fort works. 

Friday morning, I traded Elder Egwu for Elder Ndongo in Hemang so that Elder Mapfumo and Elder Ndongo could attend the new trainers meeting in Cape Coast.

Sister Stevenson thought they looked hungry.

We have fourteen new missionaries coming next week -- so we have fourteen new trainers.

The Trainers.

We have two stake conferences this weekend.  Since we can't be in two places at once, we attended the Saturday meetings with the Cape Coast Stake and the Sunday general session with the Yamoransa Stake.

CAPE COAST STAKE:

On Saturday, Sister Stevenson gave a great talk using the principles of our mission hymn.  She had our missionaries stand where they were and join together in singing the hymn for the stake.

I spoke in Priesthood Leadership meeting about developing faith in the Atonement of Christ and then about repentance in the afternoon session.

This was something about making a noise like a Kazoo.

YAMORANSA STAKE:

The Yamoransa Stake does not have a building big enough to gather everyone, so they rented the hall at the Ghana Cultural Center in Cape Coast.

It was a nice conference.  Sister Stevenson and I both spoke.  She gave a great message about remembering Christ during the Christmas season.  I cried repentance.

We didn't get our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving this year, so Sister Stevenson was getting anxious by Monday.  We got right on it though, and had the house decorated before noon. Still, a November date.

We are ready.

Transfer News and Transportation Planning:

The Assistants and local Zone Leaders met on Saturday night to send out the transfer notices to the missionaries and to plan the transportation.  Oreo milkshakes and Sister Durrant's peanut butter bars sweetened the deal.

We saw this tree at the Culture Center today.  Beautiful.