Hello all!!
It's crazy to think I've already been gone for almost three
weeks now! I miss you all so much, and I love so much hearing from you.
This week has been intense! It's been great, but I'm also
exhausted, haha. My area is called Michel Camp. During a lesson outside, we had
some crazy dark clouds roll in and it started to rain. But apparently the rain
wasn't bad for "African Rain".
The bishop's family had us over for dinner last night... and
they served us banku. Ugh. I had it once earlier in the week, and I almost
wanted to cry, hahaha. It's like this ball of.... play-do almost, and you eat
it with your hands and dip it in some stew (in this case, it was fish stew, and
I don't like fish,) and then when you try to swallow it, it's SO sticky, it
gets stuck in your soft palate and makes you want to gag. Honestly, it started
to make my eyes water it was so painful. Haha, but I was still grateful they
had us over to feed us. Luckily they gave us sprite afterwards. They actually
use a different kind of sugar for their soda, and it's really good! :)
It's a super laid-back culture, so that can be good and bad.
People will randomly get up during lessons, take phone calls, listen to music,
etc. But that also means people are more outspoken. If people are angry,
they'll let you know. If people are happy, they'll let you know. It's kind of
cool. I hope if I say anything about the culture, you'll hear it with an
attitude of excitement for a different place and a different people, not
negativity, even if some of the things sound bad, haha. It's not super common,
but it's also not unusual to see people not wearing clothes...
I'm having a hard time connecting with the people. Elder
Saunders has been doing most of the talking, and I'd jump in whenever I could.
I felt good about that, but then one night during planning, he told me that the
people act—most of them have no idea what I'm saying, and that made me really
sad. I was kind of proud of what I had been saying to people. I hadn't been
stumbling over my words like I normally do, but then to hear that... :( It's
alright. I know the Lord has been blessing us with success, though. He said in
just the few days we were able to work so far, we had better numbers than he
did in like the previous three weeks. I'm having a hard time, but I'm also
exercising faith in the Lord, because I know He can and will work miracles.
Also, it's really humid here. I've gotten more used to it,
but holy goodness, I don't think I've sweat so much in my entire life! People
here tease me about how sweaty and white I am, haha. Actually, I've lost count
of how many times I've been called "brunie," or white man in Twi
(pronounced chwee). I now share the pain of people who frequently get called
"the N-word." Also, I really, really miss having a washer and dryer.
I hand-washed my clothes today, and I literally rubbed my fingers, knuckles,
and hands raw today, my goodness. Now I'm in excruciating pain whenever I put
on hand-sanitizer, haha. Oh well. Haha I realize now that this email probably
sounds super negative, but actually, it's been a pretty good week. Elder
Saunders has been an amazing companion. He's pretty funny, and we get along and
work together well. I've been learning a lot, and we've been able to teach a
lot of lessons, get contacts, and we've actually had three kids commit to
baptism! I don't know how serious they were, since they're kids, but it was
still awesome regardless, and we have another man with a baptismal date for
next Sunday! We're working on getting the kids' mother to visit church. Things
are going super well. I'm getting used to actually living here, but connecting
with the people and missing home are the hardest parts, but I'm doing
everything I can to lose myself in the work and to help the people around me.
Your thoughts and words of encouragement have meant so much
to me. Please keep them coming, I love hearing from all of you!! Maybe if I can
and I have time, I'll send like one-liners to you individually when I can and
then send you my weekly updates. :) You don't realize how much I look forward
to hearing from you each week. Always keep the Lord in the forefront of your
mind. He's always here, and He always will be. We just need to continue to
reach out to Him, and He will work wonders in our lives.
With love,
Elder Buchanan
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| Elders Buchanan and Saunders |
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| Yummy banku!! |
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| Living area with mosquito netting |
Daniel also related this story -
"Thursday, I think, we were on our way to Zone Training, and
we took the Tro Tro (basically a big van), but it broke down, so we had to walk
a ways. We were going down the road when we got to a road under construction
with like new tar, and a guy starts yelling at us "Brunies" to get
off the road or he would slap us. Then he started speaking in some other
language, that luckily Elder Saunders understands enough of, and the worker
escalated to he would tie us down and beat us if we didn't leave. Elder
Saunders said he wasn't crossing back over, and the guy said if we didn't, he
would come over and tie us down and beat us, and then Elder Saunders basically
said, "Well then you'd have to cross your own road!" and we left,
unharmed, thankfully."
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