Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net> 12/21/15 at 11:54 AM
To
Hi, everyone!!
This has been quite an eventful week! I have so many
pictures I want to email home, but the
internet cafes are pretty rough here, sadly, so, again, I can't send any
pictures today :(
Lots of interesting things have gone on lately! One day we
were headed to a lesson with a few investigators and a lamb started chasing us
on our bikes! Elder Saunders stopped, so I stopped, and then the lamb started
following me even after I started riding again! Haha, there are goats, sheep,
chickens, cows, and lizards all over the place here! It's kind of cool!
Also, the culture continues to be pretty interesting. It's
very common for people to pray in their own native languages when we're
teaching them. The most common language (at least in my area) is Twi, but there
are so many (which I don't know how to spell) such as Twi, Ga, Awey, Krobuk,
Fanti, etc. There are all kinds of different languages here. Elder Saunders
made the joke that on our mission call letters, the only reason they said we're
called to serve English-speaking is because they can't list all of the
languages around here and that we'll just have to figure them out while we're
here, haha :D
We had a district get-together which was AWESOME. I didn't
think upon arriving in Ghana I'd ever eat to the point of being stuffed until
going back home, but man, there was so much food there! There was colas and
orange sodas, fried rice, rotisserie chicken, orange chicken, mashed potatoes,
potato salad, bananas, pineapples, watermelons, and then I literally bought
myself a pizza (it's not often you find pizza here, so whenever I get the
chance, I take it, haha). It was so much fun. I was almost afraid I wouldn't be
able to ride my bike for an hour back to the apartment, but somehow I managed!
That was a good day.
Also, we had a cool experience this week. There's this one
seamstress who owns a shop and she has several apprentices that we teach, but
the owner herself never seemed too interested. There was one evening we had run
out of people to teach, it was dark, so people were starting to go inside and
to bed, so we didn't know what to do. We decided to head back to the apartment
and update our area book and do other logistical things like that. As we were
biking back, Elder Saunders stops me and says, "I feel like we need to
pray and ask God where we should go." So we do, and we call a few people
to see if they were free, but no go, so we decide to continue with our original
plan. He stopped us at the bottom of the biggest hill in our area. When we get
to the top, one of the apprentices came to my mind along with the thought,
"What you're doing is good, but going to see her is better." So I
stop Elder Saunders. We're both obviously tired from a long day of work, and we
just biked up a big hill. Regardless, I tell him that I felt like we needed to
go back and see her. We ride back down the hill and we go to the shop, but the
apprentice I had thought of was busy and was leaving in a few minutes. The
other apprentices were also unavailable, so we didn't know what to do. The shop
owner says, "I thought you weren't coming today." (We typically
alternate days we go places, so she wasn't expecting us that day) Elder
Saunders just replies, "I don't know why I'm here, but God told us we need
to be here, so here we are." So the shop owner just says, "Okay then,
teach me!" As I said, she normally wasn't particularly interested in our
message. She's a wonderful lady and a good friend, but she's a devout catholic
and generally doesn't listen to us, but on this occasion, she invited us to sit
down and teach her. It starts out a little slow, and she seems disinterested,
but at one point while I'm sharing a thought, I mention the fact that Christ
visited the Americas, and that caught her attention. We had a good discussion
about that, and she accepted a Book of Mormon and committed to read in 3 Nephi
where Christ comes and visits His children on the American continent. Later
after we had left, Elder Saunders tells me that he had taught this lady about
the Book of Mormon several different times before with his previous companion,
and she would always decline and wouldn't want to listen. But this particular
evening, she asked us to teach her, and she accepted the Book of Mormon when I
offered it to her! The Lord truly can and does work miracles if we have faith.
That event truly was a miracle.
Just as a final thought: I was reading in the Book of Mormon
during personal study a bit ago, and I came across a verse that I really liked,
and it was wonderful timing considering the upcoming Christmas holiday! I read
Alma 7:7 which says, "For behold, I say unto you there be many things to
come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they
all—for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh
among his people." I love that verse so much, particularly because it says
that the most important thing that was to ever happen was nearing—the mortal
life of the Savior Jesus Christ. He came to earth for each and every one of us.
He came because He loves us. He not only died for us, but He rose again so that
we, also, can rise again. I know that the Savior lives. I know that the Gospel
of Jesus Christ is real. I hope all of you know how much I love my Savior Jesus
Christ. I also hope that each and every one of you has an amazing Christmas!!
:)
With love,
Elder Buchanan :)
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| Elder Buchanan and his district at their district get-together dinner |
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