Letter and Photos from July 19, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>  Jul 19 at 2:53 PM

To       

Hi, all!!

This has been another great week! We didn't have too much happen, but some good things went down.

-You know I've gotta start with food! This time it comes in two parts, haha:

1. As many of you know, I went to BYU for a summer term before I came to Ghana. At BYU, they have a place called J-Dawgs, which is essentially really good hot dogs with special "J-Dawgs Sauce" and they're ridiculously good. Elder Tolzmann said that we could get the recipe, so I had my mom email it to me, and we made J-Dawgs sauce and then we got a big loaf of sugar bread (basically slightly sweeter white bread), and Elder Tolzmann bought ten packs of ten franks/hot dogs eag for the equivalent of $12-13, and we ate five each for lunch twice this week. Oh man, you all have got to try J-Dawgs. You can get a little taste of the goodness of BYU from anywhere around the world :D

2. WE GOT PERMISSION TO GO TO ACCRA YESTERDAY. So we took the opportunity to go straight to the Accra Mall and anyone want to guess what the first thing we did when we got there was? We made a beeline right to Pizza Hut. They opened a Pizza Hut in the Accra Mall in May and I've been wanting to go ever since and I finally got the opportunity. So we got a large three-meat pizza with fries and coke. Oh man, I experienced pure joy there. All of you in America: you have no idea how much joy you're truly experiencing whenever you eat at Pizza Hut. Then we checked the mall out for a little bit. They have a grocery store that's like a typical American grocery store, and I think I got a little too excited over a grocery store, haha! Then, since I'm a guy and you know guys can eat a lot of food, I took the chance then to get a cheeseburger with fries and another coke. That was actually probably a better burger than I've had in most places in America. That was a pretty dang solid cheeseburger. And you know we couldn't leave without getting oreo milkshakes. Holy goodness, that was the most delicious road trip I've ever had before. Then we ran into President Heid while there, so that was neat! Haha but I never realized how much fun eating truly is!

-Sunday was a kind of cool day. We've been meeting with a less-active member here and last week she came to church, and then Sunday she came AND she brought both her non-member sister and her sister's friend to church! So that was super exciting.

-There's an investigator we have who, as I gather, came to church quite frequently in the past. Since I've been in Asutsuare, there was a sequence of three weeks in a row that she was coming, and then the past few weeks she hasn't been coming, so about six members of the branch decided to go pay her a visit and see how she's been doing. They didn't know where she lived, so they all stopped by our apartment and had us show them the way. We all got there and there and we sat down with her and I had no idea what was going on since it was in Dangbe, but it looked like this woman was really opening up to the members of the branch. I just felt a lot of love there even though I didn't really know what was going on. Afterwards, the branch president's wife told me what happened. This woman said she had decided to remain in the Pentecost church and she wasn't going to come back, but they told her that whether she continues to go to the Pentecost church or ours, we still care about her and if she ever needs anything, we are her friends and we're there for her. I love that she said that, because it truly reminds me of the Savior. No matter what we do, no matter what mistakes we make, no matter how badly we feel we've messed up, the Savior Jesus Christ is always right there by our side ready to help us out. There's nothing we can do that will ever change that. If we turn to Him and have faith in Him, He will help us. It's not just a 'maybe' or a 'might,' but He will always love us. I can't express my gratitude for that. I know more than anything else that our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ are both real and they love us so much more than we can even imagine. I hope you all know that and I hope you all know that I know that. I love them and my words can't adequately express my gratitude for them.

I love you all. Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and support for me. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. I hope you're all doing well and I hope to hear from you all soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan :D

Pizza Hut!

Pizza Hut!

Elder Tolzmann and Pizza Hut!

This is from one evening this week when we were meeting with Sandra, a young woman who's going to be baptized this Sunday. She decided to wrap up my head with a cloth like many people here do. Do any of you think I could pull it off? ;)