Monday, December 19, 2016

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.

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