Two Years in Ghana: Letter and photos from February 1, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net> Today at 12:40 PM

Hey, all!

This has been a pretty eventful week with lots of little interesting experiences here and there. I'll just list them all here, haha:

-I saw someone here wearing a Texas Longhorns shirt! I told him I liked his shirt and that it's from my place :D

-As missionaries, we look for service opportunities, and we had a really unique one. We helped move a building with our bare hands. Yep. Haha actually, it's really a cargo container converted into a shop with stands and electricity inside and everything, but still! We saw three guys trying to move this thing, so we stopped and offered to help. The people here all think that white people are super weak, so they hesitated, but eventually they allowed us to help, and when we finished moving it, one of the men said, "Thank you for your help! Wow, I'm impressed." And then he asked us what we were all about, so we shared a message with him and we're hoping to get together with him again soon!

-One evening we were headed back home and we stopped to buy a few bo-floats and an older man wearing only some underwear came up to me, tapped me, said something I didn't understand, and then walked away. We were with a member at the time, and he told me the guy was scared of me and thought I would beat him... So, yeah, that was interesting, haha

-We see plenty of animals on the roads here in Ghana, but for the first time, I actually saw a horse!

-So the Elders in my apartment have a new reason to call me "obolo" (fat). One night as I was getting into bed, I put one knee on my bed and my bed frame broke and fell apart. They thought that was hysterical, laughed for a bit, and then helped me repair it so I could actually use it that evening, haha

-I made myself a nice American breakfast one day this week! I had more cereal and I made some breakfast tortillas! So that was a really nice treat :D

-People here are so incredibly generous. We'll be teaching shop-owners, and they'll frequently just give us things for free from their shop! We try to pay them, but they won't let us! Even when they don't offer, if we say we want to buy something, they often won't let us pay and they'll just freely give to us! It's humbling to see how kind people here can be.

-Also, I've noticed that I've become quite a bit more bold since getting here. My second day here, we were in the Ashaiman Market and some guy grabbed me and started yelling at me in some foreign language and I was scared out of my mind. Yesterday we were riding past there again, and we had to get off our bikes and walk for a bit, and some guy grabs my bike and tries to stop me, he won't let go, so then I just start using African slang and look him in the eyes and say, "Oga (Nigerian Pigeon for 'my boss'), I need to go," and I grabbed my bike from him and left. So I'm less intimidated by scary people now, haha!

Well, I think that's about it as far as interesting experiences go. But the work is going really well here! I mentioned one lady that we've been teaching who's progressing really well. She's still doing great. She wasn't able to come to church yesterday, though, but she's still awesome! We met another lady recently who's also super receptive! She's also reading the Book of Mormon, she's interested and involved in our lessons, and she actually wanted to come to church yesterday, but she injured her foot and had to go to the hospital to get it checked out, but she's doing great. You know, I've been here for four months exactly today, and these are the first two investigators I've seen so far who have a genuine interest and desire to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's helped me to learn several things. Sometimes we feel like things just aren't going our way and we get discouraged. But as we continue to be diligent and patient, the Lord really does answer our prayers. The Lord can answer prayers in different ways. Sometimes when the answer is "no," we feel the Lord has neglected us, but it only means he has something better in mind. Sometimes the answer is, "not yet." If we continue to be patient, diligent, and faithful, we will see that the Lord truly does answer our prayers. I know the Lord lives and loves us. I have come to know that to a greater degree since coming here. Life is not always easy, but for those who follow the Savior, Jesus Christ, it becomes easier because He's always there, right by our side, helping us through everything. I hope you all know that I truly love Him and I have a great desire to serve Him in every way I can.

I hope everything's going really well for all of you! Thanks so much for all the love and support.

With love,

Elder Buchanan

The following is an additional message sent to Daniel's mother:

Just a few interesting facts for you that I forgot to include in my mass email, but I'll probably include next week. You can tell the family, too, if you want

-I now sleep with three fans. I only need one, but honestly, I've never slept more comfortably in my life. I actually sleep with my sheets now, and my feet feel cool! It's so great :D

-I'm going to be part of a special musical number for the upcoming mission tour! You might be a little disappointed, haha. I was originally asked to sing, but the Zone Leader could see I was a better pianist than him, so he asked me to play and do my fancy musical stuff and he'll sing in the quartet instead. I'm way pumped!

-This week for ward choir, the chorister didn't show up, so my varsity choir vice president experience came into play, haha, I conducted the choir!

-I can still differentiate, but my fake Ghanaian accent is starting to stick more since I'm not around Americans anymore! It's becoming a habit, but thankfully I've come to realize that the Elders in my apartment can understand Americans, so I speak normally to them, so I can still sound the same, haha :)

I think that's it for now :)