This was the sight as nearly four hundred missionaries exited from the stake center beside the Ghana Accra Temple, after a remarkable afternoon devotional with Elder Christopherson last month. (Year round it gets dark here around 6 pm — one of the most surprising things about living in west Africa.) These missionaries were so excited to shake the hand of an apostle, before the meeting began. Elder Causse, the Presiding Bishop, and several Seventies also spoke to us. What amazed us about Elder Christopherson’s talk was that he simply fielded questions. He knew exactly what points he wanted to make, so he used each question to punt his ball further down the field… until he scored, plain and simple. Unforgettable.
Yesterday we had a similar experience. Ordinarily we have three multi-zone conferences, during one week out of each six-week cycle. Each gathering includes sixty missionaries. But we are preparing for a change in mission presidents at the end of this month, so six separate zone conferences took place. Yesterday’s was held in the Kasoa stake center, for the Kasoa Zone and the Buduburam District (of the Winneba Zone): just under thirty missionaries.
As usual: an opening hymn, a prayer, a group recitation of several memorized scripture passages. Four missionaries gave their departing testimonies. Sister Simpson began a discussion modeling how to answer questions with the scriptures. President Simpson invited Elder Farar to the white board to record hours of responses to the question, “what have you learned in zone meetings over the past two years?”
After three and a half hours, the board was entirely full. There was just one short break to sing and dance “You’ve Got to Accentuate the Positive,” one of our many mission songs. Since we have been here only six months, it was quite impressive to see the detailed recollections of various missionaries listed on the board.
Many of the missionaries in the room were looking ahead to baptism services soon after this zone training today, or on Sunday. We were invited to so many different baptisms, since they all serve in different congregations. We were happy to hear of their success.
Instead of staying, we hurried along to do our Saturday shopping and office work. After dark, the carpet layers asked to be let into the mission home, two doors down. We think every last thing has been completed there, in preparation for the arrival of the next mission president. Meanwhile President and Sister Simpson have thoroughly prepared the missionaries, and already shed a tear or two.
In our six months we have already seen all these senior missionaries complete their missions here — 18 to 24 months — except for the Hills, who will leave at the same time as the Simpsons (top center, who have served the usual 36 months.) The next senior couple will arrive in August, and we have heard of at least one other in process. What a privilege it is to serve the members and missionaries in Ghana!
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