Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Jan 30
at 12:09 PM
Hi, all!
This week has been interesting to say the least, but it's
been good!
-So there's one elder in our apartment who's been pretty
sick recently, and he's going home to get medical attention, so he decided to
be a total bro and bought pizza for us this week, so that was awesome. Also, we
went to visit our bishop and one of his referrals, so we saw them and had a
really good lesson. Afterwards, they fed us banku and fried fish. Normally
people give us only one ball each, but they gave us two. I got one down alright
and part of the second, and finally I convince Elder Xaba to help me finish (I
can finish, I just don't particularly enjoy banku) if he could have some of my
fish. So I agree, and after we leave, he just randomly says to me,
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I hate banku." I had a really good
laugh at that, and since then we've bonded over our dislike of banku, haha!
-This week we were able to have two baptisms! We were
supposed to have three, but one of them had to travel, so we had to postpone
it, but if all goes well, it should either be next week or the week after. But
one of the baptisms we had was a fairly large 73 year-old woman. She's quite
smart and she's awesome. Her son is a member and he baptized his mother. It
started okay, and she was completely immersed, which is the important thing,
and then I'm pretty sure her feet slipped out from under her and she like
started kicking in the water and I'm pretty sure she thought she was about to
drown by the look on her face, but her son was able to grab her and lift her
back to her feet and everything was okay. After she got out of the water she
was laughing and I could tell she felt pretty good. But it went really well,
and I'm so happy for her.
-I don't have too many more exciting things from the week,
but I did notice something I thought was interesting from the scriptures. We
hear often about keeping the commandments, follow the prophets, and things like
that. But I did notice that there are lots of places in the scriptures where it
talks about faith, hope, and charity. We are told that charity is the greatest
of them all, which makes complete sense, because the Lord has told us the
greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our might and to love our
neighbor as ourselves. Charity is also defined as the pure love of Christ, so
if we can love others the way Christ loves us, then we're in a pretty good
place. Being charitable is more than just giving money to charity, but it's a
characteristic of who we are. When we're charitable, we have a genuine desire
to help the people around us and to make their lives better, just like Christ.
I'm so grateful for a loving Savior who came here and died just to help us
overcome sin and death. He endured all of our pains so that we can overcome
them with His help, and I'm eternally grateful for that.
I love all of you. I hope you're doing well and that I hear
from all of you again soon!!
With love,
Elder Buchanan
Picture from the baptism of Kwadwo (pronounced Kojo) and his mother. |
Picture from the baptism with Perpetua (the 73 year-old woman). |
I also was able to get a selfie with the bishop's son. I love this little kid, and I'm impressed with the bishop's patience and love towards this little guy. Their family is so great. |