Letter and Photo from November 30, 2015

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Nov 30 at 11:57 AM

To       

Hey all!!

This has been a crazy week! So much has happened, and there have been plenty of ups and downs, but it's been a great week. So the first few days were mostly normal, but I noticed plenty of small miracles. Like we went to one man's place who has been struggling lately, but he wasn't there, so we were sad that we were going to miss him. We started to leave, but he was just coming back! So thankfully we were able to meet with him, and we finally figured out some things that were on his mind that were bothering him, so I think now we'll be able to have more success with him. While teaching him, another man came up that had visited with the missionaries a bit, so we'll probably be able to meet with him as well! There are so many little miracles we saw. Then I had my first exchange! I spent the day with Elder Oduobuk, my District Leader, and it actually went super well! I figured out I'm capable of a lot more than I realized, so that was an awesome learning experience. He actually said he thought I was learning really quickly, and he was also impressed with how much Twi I knew considering I've only been out for one transfer, haha. But then we got home and realized our water level in our water tanks was so low, so the pump couldn't get it into the apartment. So we had to climb on top of these big tanks and draw water with a bucket as if it were a well. We had to preserve water, though, so we literally showered with pure waters. A pure water is basically a 500ml bag of water intended for drinking, but you can buy a big pouch with like 30 for only 3.5 cedis. So I had the privilege of taking a shower with two pure waters, which is the equivalent of one liter of water. I felt really skilled for pulling that off, haha! But we didn't get water back in the tank for five days, so that was fun managing with a bucket and pure waters. Then our gas level got so low, we were afraid we wouldn't be able to use our stove. So we wouldn't be able to boil the water, cook food, etc. Thankfully, we were able to get it filled. That morning was stressful, though. All of us literally had a whole loaf of bread with Jago (sweetened condensed milk) as a sandwich for breakfast. So that was fun. Thankfully now, we have gas, water, and power all back and all is well! Also, on Sunday, we were almost late for church, but we arrived just a few minutes before it started, and when we got there, I saw that the keyboard was out again. Two of the hymns they had selected I had never played before in my life! So I played the opening hymn, then I silenced the keyboard and practiced the others during the announcements, haha. But thankfully, I somehow managed to get through them fairly well! The bishop came up to me afterwards and said that he's really starting to enjoy Sacrament meeting with me playing the piano. Hahaha, I remember when my brother Ben and I used to compete: we both know I'm the better pianist ;), but he'd just say, "I can play more hymns, though!" and I would say it doesn't count since he would leave notes out all the time! Well, that's totally me, now, haha! It's become a necessity when I have to play a song I've never played before in five minutes xD

My mom made and sent me a paper Christmas tree with battery-operated lights, and I hung it up yesterday! I was so excited as I was putting it up. It made me feel bad for all the times I'd complain about putting up Christmas decorations. I have a picture, but again, I can't send pictures today for some reason :( It might just be this internet cafe. Hopefully I'll be able to send some next week.

I really look forward to hearing from you every week, it really means a lot to me. I just want you to know that I know the Savior lives. I've said this every email so far and I'm sure I will continue to say it in every message I send. I know it's true. I know he loves each and every one of us. He can guide us through and lift us from any trial we face. I love Him with every fiber of my being.

With love,

Elder Daniel Buchanan

This it the Christmas tree of which Daniel speaks that his mother made for him and sent to him.

Letter from November 23, 2015

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Nov 23 at 11:59 AM

To       

Hello, all!

This week has been a pretty awesome week! Lots of good things have happened. With some missionaries, we got together and had a mini-thanksgiving celebration, which was quite nice. We had fried chicken and rice and pineapple soda, which is actually really good. Also, today, our zone got together and watched Forever Strong! Such a great movie.

This was an awesome week music-wise. It was actually the first time I played piano in Sacrament Meeting, which was pretty cool. But then today was the cool part. I believe the Lord helps me when I try to use my talents to help other people. I was asked to play a hymn I had never played before, but somehow I was able to! Then, I was accompanying my companion who was singing a hymn, but the original key was too high for him, so he had me transpose it down, and again, I was somehow able to play it on the spot! I know God really does look out for us, even with the little things. Don't ever forget that He lives. I KNOW He lives and loves us.

That's about all I have. Luckily, I get to stay with Elder Saunders for the remainder of my training, which I'm quite excited for. I love working with him, he makes it easy to be excited and enthusiastic about the work. I hope everything is going well for all of you!!

I look forward to hearing from all of you again!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Letter from November 16, 2015

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Today at 11:59 AM

To       

Hi everyone!!

This has been a pretty good week. Lots has happened. Early this week, the power went out on us, and we have battery-operated fans in the apartment, but mine died, so I got the one I brought with me and that one died on me, too!! So I had a super tiny fan I used that kept me alive through the night, haha. Also, I saw like four pink chickens!! I thought it was way cool, haha. I'd send pictures, but I'm not in a good internet cafe, so I can't this week, but expect some fun pictures next week :D

Also, my birthday was a lot of fun! Elder Saunders was awesome and made me breakfast. He made me pancakes and sausage and cut up a pineapple for me :D (but I made the syrup, haha) Then while we were out working, a man stopped us, and it was someone that we had lost contact with and were having trouble finding and reaching since he moved, but we ran into him! So that was a cool little miracle. Then when we got home, we started our daily planning, and Elder Saunders stepped out of the room for a moment. Then I just hear, "Elder Buchanan, come here." So I get up and walk out of the room, and all of the elders in the apartment just jump out and start spraying me with water and drench me right there in our main area! Haha, so that was a fun day. I also loved the cards and the gifts you sent me! They really meant a lot to me. I made myself some mashed potatoes and gravy and a chocolate chip cookie warm delight :)

Sadly, our baptisms fell through this week because people still are having trouble getting to church. We still haven't figured out how to fix this problem. But there is word of a new branch being made closer to our area early next year, so if that happens, that would be fantastic. I think that area would really flourish.

Just one cool little thing that happened this week. You know, I'd been a little worried about my musical abilities while over here, but this week during district council, we had a keyboard, and they had me play. The first hymn I could play: 27 - Praise to the Man :D But the closing hymn was one that for some reason I had always struggled with: 6 - Redeemer of Israel, so I was a little worried about that, but I still was willing to play, and when it was time to play the closing hymn, I sat down and played it with only one mistake that wasn't even that bad! I was so proud of myself, but I realized that I normally can't sight-read that well; the Lord helped me through it and blessed me with assistance. It was just something small, but it meant a lot to me since music is so important to me. :)

I don't have too much else that's gone on this week. I love the work so much! I love the Savior. I've come to see His hand in my life so much more. Don't ever forget that He lives and that He loves each and every one of us. My companion and I tell people it's not just a fairy tale or a bedtime story we tell—it's REAL. Jesus Christ really does live. We really do have a Father in Heaven who loves us and is always watching over us.

I miss you all, and I can't wait to hear from you again soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

10 November 2015 - more photos

Elder Buchanan and other missionaries on preparation day playing sports

Letter from November 9, 2015

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Today at 12:29 PM

To       

Hello, everyone!

I haven't had a ton happen this week. I've come to like Waakye, it's basically rice and beans with shito is what it's called, it's basically a spicy spaghetti sauce, haha. Most of the food here is really hot. I'm frequently sniffling and my eyes water, hahaha. I also like plantain, it is quite good. We have Indomie almost every night. It's basically the African version of Top Ramen :)

Nothing too much has happened lately, but I've got two things I'd like to share. One day while we were biking and I was tired, I actually started thinking about lawn-mowing! Haha, I thought about how it's much like serving a mission. When I was young, Dad would always make me mow the lawn with our broken-down lawn-mower and it'd always shut down on me while I'm working! I'd frequently get frustrated and want to stop, but I never did because I knew Dad wouldn't be happy. Similarly, a mission can be challenging in much the same way. Often, there will be obstacles that make you want to just stop and give up, but you keep pressing forward even when times are hard, because you want to make your Father in Heaven proud. It becomes easier with time, and as I've continued doing my best, I continue seeing the Lord's hand in my life guiding and strengthening me.

Also, I had kind of a rough weekend. So we planned a zone sports activity in Tema today (P-day), which is the day we wash our clothes, and Tema is pretty far from Bechile where we stay. This weekend was also Stake Conference, so we had extra meetings on Saturday and Sunday, and on Saturday we had lunch at the other Elders' apartment in our district which is a ways away. We also had to start washing our clothes on Saturday, so basically all of that led to two days of absolutely no missionary work, despite my efforts to get out of it. Sports are fun, but I felt awful that we wasted two days of precious time that the Lord's given us to serve Him and His children just so we can play some sports. I felt so bad about it. I decided to pray about it, and as I did, I felt a great sense of peace. The words came to mind, "I'm proud of you. As long as you keep doing your best, that's all that matters." That's so true—not only for me in my situation, but for all of us. Our Father in Heaven will always be pleased with us as long as we're just doing our absolute best. If we do, we will be able to feel our Savior's love and we'll be able to recognize His hand in our lives. I'm having a blast here in Ghana. It's definitely been an adventure. I love hearing from all of you each week. I hope all is well!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Ghana scenery from Daniel's current area of assignment

Two missionaries in fancy shirts!

Taking some time on preparation day to clean the local church with a bit of sword fighting interspersed with the cleaning!

Letter from November 2, 2015

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Nov 2 at 11:33 AM

To       

Hello!!

This week has been a pretty crazy week. I think all of my weeks have been pretty crazy, haha.

But BYU football inspired me even in Africa! You know, after Taysom (I don't know how to spell his name, haha) got injured and was out and the backup just came home from a mission and became a BYU legend that same game! I've been worried about my musical abilites diminishing, but then I thought of BYU football! Haha I believe if I continue to do my best, at least when I get home, the Lord will bless me for my service and will restore any talent that I don't get to use while I'm here. There's not really pianos here, and apparently people make fun of American accents here, so I'm still trying to figure out how to use my music here.

But the water supply has been totally fluctuating this week. One day, we ran out of water. We could not pump water into the house, we couldn't take a shower, we had nothing. Eventually we looked in the tank, and it was almost empty, so we lowered a bucket and pulled what water was left until it filled back up. Then when it started to fill, it was "Light out," so we couldn't get any water anyway! But it came back, so we didn't die, thankfully, haha. Then a few days later, I finally experienced "African rain." We were at a shop teaching, and during our lesson, the lights went out, then a little bit later, it started to rain. It wasn't bad at first, but then it started to POUR. Man, it was torrential rainfall, lightning, thunder, everything. It started to get late and we had to head back to the apartment, but it was raining too hard. So Elder Saunders and I went outside under the overhang by ourselves and we said a prayer. We then went out to get our bikes. The owner of the shop, a good friend, told us not to ride out in that rain in the dark, but we did. We realized we needed to have faith, so after we started riding, the rain started to subside! It didn't cease, but it definitely backed off so we were able to get home, despite having to bike through mud and streams and craziness. Haha that was the first night I actually used my blanket here. You wouldn't expect it—I was cold, wet, muddy, and exhausted, but I was the happiest I had been since getting to my area, because I could see the hand of the Lord working in our lives. The Lord is real, and He lives! Don't ever forget it.

I seriously need to work on contacting. We decided to go contacting for a bit, and some lady waved to us, so I decided to go over and talk to her. All my contacting experiences just aren't ideal, haha. This time, it turned out I decided to talk to a group of Muslim ladies about Jesus Christ. Haha so that was definitely an interesting experience.

I'm also learning more words in Twi! I've mostly just learned basic words and phrases. I don't have all the proper characters to type it out properly, so I'll just type them as close as I can with English phonetics, haha. "Etuh zane" is "How are you doing?" "Ayeh" is "Fine," and "Namiado" is "By His grace." That's a common response when people ask how you're doing. It's totally normal to just walk by and have someone say, "Good afternoon," to you. Haha, the little kids keep getting excited by us Brunies. They always say, "Oh, Brunie kor kor!!" Which in Twi means, "White man, red red!" Actually, the first night in my area, Michel Camp, we were biking and there was a big group of kids who all just ran up to me excitedly calling out, "Brunie brunie!" People commonly don't mean it as an insult, they just don't know what to call us. It's usually the younger ones that try to bug us by calling us that, haha.

But this week we had 13 progressing investigators! We had to move back our baptismal dates we had scheduled for the 25th of Oct. to this month, but maybe 6 baptisms on the 15th will be a nice birthday treat :D The big problem we're having is transportation, though. Our church building is not in our proselyting area, it's a bit far from it. Most people here don't have cars, and many don't even have enough money to use a tro tro (public van/bus) to get there, and it's only about 1 Cedi to ride (which is pretty close to about $0.30). The people we teach are very interested, we're just trying to figure out how to get them to church, though. I pray we'll figure out a way to resolve the problem.

I think that's about all I have for this week. I seriously look forward to hearing from all of you and how life is treating you. I hope all is well. I'm doing well, and the work is great! I'm mostly pretty comfortable teaching lessons. But this week I'm going to do my best to work on my contacting skills and get over the fear of talking to strangers. I don't think I have any reason to be worried, though, because everyone talks to everyone here!

Just remember that the Savior lives, and He loves us. He's always looking over us, and if we pay attention, we can see His hand in our lives every single day.

With love,

Elder Daniel Buchanan

Elder Buchanan with his companion, Elder Saunders and the other two missionaries with whom they live

Elder Buchanan hits the jackpot in mail!