Letter and Photo from December 26, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>12/26/16 at 11:04 AM

To

Hi, all!!

This was a pretty cool week. Here's what happened:

-We had a combined Christmas zone conference and that was pretty cool. We learned a lot, we ate a bunch of good food including like three different kinds of rice, chicken, cole slaw, and pineapple drinks, and performed Christmas songs. I had come up with an idea that I call Pachelbel's First Noel, because Pachelbel's Canon in D goes really well with the First Noel, so my group sang that. Afterwards, while people were socializing, the mission president had me play some Christmas music during which he came up and invited me to a Christmas Eve open house at the mission home in Accra. He wanted me to just play some piano there as background music to add a little Christmas spirit while people were socializing and enjoying Christmas Eve. So I was pretty excited after the end of the conference.

-Saturday was the open house. So in the morning we went proselyting for a little bit, and then we came back to the apartment and got ready for our trip to Accra. We got there a little early, so we helped to set up chairs and whatnot, and then I went inside where there was some enjoyable AC blowing right on my face and got to work playing piano! It was pretty fun. For the most part, I was just in the hymnbook and I went from one Christmas song directly to the next jazzing it up as I went. I also played a few others not in the hymnbook and it was a ton of fun. I had lots of people come up to me thanking me (including Elder Stanfil, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy) and I also heard parents whisper to their children, "listen to the music!" I also heard a few other people humming along, and it was wonderful. It was exciting because the mission home was actually decorated for Christmas, while most of the rest of Ghana isn't decorated at all. That was a massive mood-booster for me. I don't get to play a real or even full-sized piano/keyboard often, and when I do, the music geek in me kind of comes out and I get excited, so I was definitely happy upon leaving the mission home.

-Christmas itself wasn't too eventful. We went to church which was nice. I got to play piano for a primary children's choir as well as the ward choir. I believe I mentioned practicing for them last week. The kids sang Joy to the World and the adults sang Angels We Have Heard on High/Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains. It was a lot of fun. Later in the day, we went back to the apartment and we made a dinner of fried chicken, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, and we all got to call our families. Man, that was so much fun. The second major mood-booster this week, so it just made this entire week so fantastic.

-I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. Even though my Christmas day itself wasn't super eventful or extravagant, it's the spirit of Christmas that makes it exciting. It's the whole atmosphere surrounding the Christmas season that makes Christmas special. Sure, gifts and lights and Christmas trees are all fun and exciting, but the entire reason there was ever a Christmas in the first place was because of Christ. When I was little, I would want to say X-Mas because I heard many others saying it, and my mother would always gently remind me that it's Christmas, and I could never really understand why. But really, X-Mas removes the entire purpose of Christmas: Christ. I hope you never forget how important the Savior, Jesus Christ really is. I may have shared this scripture before, but I love it so much. It's from the Book of Mormon. Alma 7:7, "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." There is nothing more important than the coming of Jesus Christ. It's because of Him that we can have hope for a better future and a better life. It's because of Him that we can lasting joy and peace.

I love you all so much. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. It's great hearing from all of you and I hope to hear from you all soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

A selfie displaying a new Christmas tie, tie bar, and watch.

Letter and Photos from December 19, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>12/19/16 at 10:42 AM

Hey all!

This was a pretty good week, as usual. Had a few cool things happen.

-Saturday was pretty awesome. There was an inter-faith Christmas devotional in Accra that we went to. It was pretty nice. It was held in a stake center right next to the temple and there were three choirs there. There was the Christianborg Stake choir (our own church) another choir that I can't remember the name of, some African name, and then there was a high school choir there, and that was actually the best one there! The way the program went is that a speaker would go up and read some from the book of Luke in the Bible about the birth of Christ and the circumstances surrounding that period of history, and then one of the choirs would sing. Then another speaker would come up and read more, and another choir would sing, and so on. The choirs were quite animated and it was enjoyable! They mostly sang in Twi, so I had no idea what they were singing the entire time, but it was still a good evening. After the choirs all performed, we had two of the members of the Seventy speak to us. It's awesome listening to them speak.After the event, since the Accra Mall was on the way back to our apartment, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to stop there, so we were sure to grab some Pizza Hut while we were there, haha. I also grabbed a jump rope because I know I've gotten kind of chunky, so our whole apartment has started a workout plan, so hopefully soon I'll be looking a bit more fit and I can burn off all the banku and fufu people force upon me, haha!

-Yesterday was also a good day. In church, I was asked to accompany the primary children on the piano as they all practiced Joy to the World. From what I gather, they'll be singing in church next week. Also, after church, they had me play for the ward choir. They came up with a long, confusing medley of Angels We Have Heard on High and Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains. It involved a lot of page-turning back and forth between the two, but luckily I was able to keep up, haha. They had me jazz it up a little and add my own additions, so it was pretty fun. I'm sure they'll also be singing in church next week.

-One thing that I liked the most about the week was when the Seventies spoke, like I mentioned earlier. One of the things they both talked about is why Christmas is even important. Christmas obviously is in honor of the birth of Christ, but the birth isn't what's important so much as who Christ was and what He did. Christmas is important because it's in honor of the birth of the Savior of the World. Christmas is important because Jesus Christ came and He lived and died for us, so that we can be forgiven for our mistakes, so that He can lift us when we have fallen, so that we can overcome death just as He did. Otherwise, it would just be like any other birth, but it's important because of who Jesus Christ is. I know I'm absolutely grateful for Him and that He came here because He loves us. It's because of Him that we can have joy and that we can have hope and peace in this life, and so that we can have eternal joy with Him.

I love all of you. I'm grateful for all of you. I hope you have an awesome week and you have a wonderful and Merry Christmas. I hope to hear from you all soon about how your week was!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

In front of the temple they have a nativity scene there and I took the opportunity to take a picture.

I decided to try on a cool pair of shades. My companion thinks I was trying to look like Usher, haha.

Letter and Photos from December 12, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>12/12/16 at 11:59 AM

Hi, all!

This week has been pretty good. Nothing too crazy eventful, but it still went well regardless.

-Last week we went to a place called Peter Pan. I can't recall if I mentioned our plans to go there, but it was pretty fantastic. It's a pretty nice-looking place. I had a really good chicken sandwich that they called the Story Burger and a small 10" pizza. It was very delightful. They even had a statue of Peter Pan there. It was pretty cool, but it's face looked a little distorted. I'll attach a pic that I wasn't prepared for, but it turned out okay anyway.

-This week was election week for Ghana. Thursday we were told to stay in the apartment and to not go out proselyting, so we were inside all day. It was alright. We all bonded as a district and played some fun dice games like Yahtzee and Farkle and we made some hamburgers and we cleaned a bit and it was a pretty good day. The election results actually came out Friday evening, and Ghana is going to have a new president! It was John Mahama, but it's now going to be Nana Akufo Addo. So people are pretty excited.

-Whenever we visit someone, we always ask if there's anything we can do for them or if there's any way we can serve them. Often we'll joke saying that we can wash or sweep or cook for them (because that's normally what we see people doing), but one time someone actually let us sit down and help them wash. It was a investigator who's pretty attentive and receptive, but she's normally really busy doing things, so it was actually a cool way to show her we actually want to help, but it also made it so she was willing to sit down with us that particular day. So I'll attach a picture of that for your enjoyment. She committed to come to church this Sunday, so we'll definitely be looking forward to that!

-I've been reading in the book of John in the Bible, and I came across a very short, but cool verse. It's John 13:17, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." I think that pretty much sums up the entire gospel of Jesus Christ. God has given us a plan for our happiness, and that happiness comes through the gospel. God has told us what we need to do, and if we know these things, we will be happy if we do them. I know I have absolutely seen that to be true. I know when I make mistakes and I don't follow the Savior, I'm not happy, but when I'm doing everything I can to follow Him as closely as possible, that's truly when I'm the happiest. I know that's because the gospel comes from a Heavenly Father who loves us very much and wants to help us and wants us to be happy.

I love all of you so much. I appreciate all the love and support you've given me. I hope you're all doing great and life is treating you well. I hope to hear from you all soon.

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Some Christmas decorations we've put up in the apartment.

Me and Peter Pan

Having fun washing clothes

Letter and Photos from December 5, 2016

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>12/05/16 at 9:51 AM

Hi, everyone!

This week was really good and productive and enjoyable.

-This week we finally had our Thanksgiving dinner on December 1st (wrong month, I know, but we couldn't just skip Thanksgiving dinner, haha). Comparatively, it was small, but still fantastic. We had stuffing, mashed potatoes, no turkey, but we had goat instead, and cheesecake. It was fantastic. My companion took pictures on his camera, but for some reason this computer won't read his card, so unfortunately I can't send them. Just know it was fantastic.

-Also, this week, for the first time ever we were fed for three times in a row... The first time we were given fried yams and plantain with stew. It was actually pretty nice. Then we had banku at another place. I've gotten to where I can appreciate nice, fresh banku, but when it's cold and hardened it's still just nasty. This was cold, hard banku, and the stew they gave us ran out before I finished, so I was eating just straight banku, which is even nastier. Then after that, someone else gave us banku! Although it was at a member's home, and we got there right as heavy rain was coming down, so they invited us into their small home, and so we sat down on their bed and they put two benches in front of us and gave us the banku. One time I laid back on the bed while we were chatting, and then when I sat up, I accidentally kicked the benches with the banku over... I can't say I was complaining about the banku since I was already stuffed, but I did feel really bad because it was prepared just for us. Luckily, they weren't mad and were really forgiving and just kind of laughed, so that was exciting.

-This week we had a cool teaching experience. There's one investigator we have who has been taught for a little while, and from what I've observed, is happy and willing to have missionaries come and teach, but hasn't been too serious about the message in the past. This week, we saw here and it was awesome. We were teaching her about the importance of baptism and doing it by the proper authority from God, and as we were teaching her, I felt the spirit so strongly. During the lesson, I could see tears welling up in her eyes. She commited to be baptized on December 25th! We'll see if things go through, but the Lord indeed can and does work miracles all the time, so I'm hopeful things will work out.

-I love the gospel so much. This week in my studies, I was reading in the Bible in John. I really love John 13: 34-35. "34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." What really stuck out to me is the first phrase in v. 35, that if we love one another, all men will know that we are disciples of the Savior Jesus Christ. When you meet someone who genuinely loves the people around you, you can just tell that there's something different about them. You can see a certain light in their eyes. You may not always readily recognize what it is, but you can see it in them that they love the people around them. I love that the gospel changes us into better people, and we can help to uplift those around us by showing love towards them. In the world, you see a lot of contention around us. The Savior commanded us to love others as He has loved us. That doesn't mean we approve of everything everyone does, but to love someone or to have charity is to have a desire to help them. We may not agree with someone's views regarding something, but that shouldn't prevent us from expressing Christ-like love towards them and doing what we can to make their lives a little bit better.

I love all of you so much. I hope you're all doing really well. It's always great hearing from you and I hope to hear from you all again soon!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

The other was one day we visited someone, and there was a little boy there, and we were walking somewhere with this member and her son was lagging behind, so I did as well to watch him, and he just grabbed my finger and would not let go. It was kind of cute, so I couldn't pass up the photo opportunity.

This is from a ward party. It wasn't too much, just a little get together to enjoy some food and socialize. There were some kids around and we played piano and danced together and it was fun.