Letter and Videos from April 24, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net> Apr 24 at 11:39 AM

Hello everyone!!

This week was actually pretty interesting.

-We went on a few exchanges with the elders in Kpone this week and that went well. We were visiting a member and they fed us rice and banku (I'm sure you can guess which one I chose, haha), and a few of the others ate banku. One of the other new elders was eating banku and when he finished he wiped banku off his fingers on my new pants that I had just got a few days earlier... so that was cool. But the members were super cool, and we were actually able to do a lot of contacting and it surprised me how easy it was to find new investigators there. In Tema very few will invite you to sit down with them upon first contact, but we had a ton that day, and during call-ins later in the week, they had the most new investigators of anyone in the whole zone, so that was pretty exciting.

-We had a special combined zone conference this week, and there was a session on Saturday and one on Sunday. Saturday was in the Christianborg stake center which is just next to the temple. It was such a good meeting! Afterwards as we were leaving, we were walking down the street and we saw a video that was on fire! I, personally, had never seen a building on fire before, but this one was bad. I was kind of fascinated at first because I had never seen it, so I got a quick vid, but as I watched more I just felt worse. Like, I don't know if anyone was inside, but I just felt bad because obviously that was important, and it was just sad watching such a big building burn to the ground.

-Sunday morning we also had another conference. We met at the church and there were a few buses there for all the members to go to the Accra International Conference Center. That place was pretty nice. And once again, it was amazing. This meeting they formed a new stake. We already had the Tema Stake and the Christianborg Stake, but they split them and formed the Teshie Stake! It was wonderful to be there to witness one way that the church is growing and the gospel is going forth! The Africa West Area President, Pres. Vinson spoke to us, and it was so wonderful hearing him speak. One thing I particularly liked is what he had to say regarding faith. Sometimes we can't see the way forward when God asks us to do something, so we become hesitant to follow or trust in Him. He gave us various examples in the scriptures. The children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they didn't have faith and trust in the Lord and His hand. If He gives us a command or instruction, we have no need to doubt. We can read in the scriptures countless times He has helped the helpless and guided the hopeless. He always provides a way for us to follow His commands, and He will never leave us alone. He's always there beside us. He gave tithing as an example. Some people here desperately need money to eat, but they're still asked to pay tithing. Sometimes they don't pay because if they do, they don't immediately see how they'll eat. But the point he was making is that even in situations like those, as we trust in the Lord and have faith in Him, all things will work for our good even if we don't immediately see how.

I love all of you so much. I hope you have a fantastic week and that I hear from you all very soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Here's a quick video of the burning building

 Here's a video of me just jamming out on a guitar one of the other elders gave to me. I sung a little bit of I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go.

Letter and Photos from April 17, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Apr 17 at 11:27 AM

Hey everyone :D

This week was pretty cool. Nothing super eventful, but it was definitely nice.

-I decided to try a new dish this week: jollof rice. It was my first attempt, so it's going to need a little work, but I'll master it soon. That's pretty much the only thing exciting related to food I can think of for this week...

-We've mostly been working on finding new investigators and building relationships with the members. One thing that's hard about Tema is that the people we contact often don't even live in Tema, they just commute for work and then leave, so that's making things a little more challenging, but things are starting to pick up a little more. I was pretty excited when during the week, a girl, probably around 15ish, just randomly stops us and tells us that she had been learning with missionaries in a different place in Ghana but moved to Tema, and she was supposed to be baptized, but moved before she was able, so we're going to follow up with her. If all goes well there, she will hopefully be able to be baptized soon with another solid investigator we have that is eager to be baptized. We have another girl who's like 12 who lives with a member and she comes to church every single week and really wants to be baptized, but I've never met someone that has so much trouble retaining info as her. She can't remember simple statements like, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God." I love her, though, I can see the desire in her eyes to follow the Savior whenever we see her, so we're working hard to help her out. So we have 2-3 solid progressing investigators that I'm pretty excited about. Missionaries in Tema often complain about how "dry" Tema is in regards to the work and finding new investigators, but they typically will have at least one baptism a month, so I often try to help them understand that that alone means Tema isn't dry. We had someone from the area office last week at MLC talk to us and told us that the Africa West Area is the fastest growing area in the entire world, so I can't grasp why they're saying Tema is dry, haha. The work is moving forward here, and it's wonderful to see.

-Easter this year was much better than last year. Last year there was like no emphasis whatsoever on Easter, and I was kind of bummed about it. This year, our ward choir sang a special musical number. I accompanied and helped to arrange a medley of He Sent His Son/He Died So We Might Live Again, which went really well. We learned a lot about the Atonement and it's power in our lives and the significance of the events surrounding Easter/the Atonement. Then in the evening there was a stake devotional since it was Easter, and it was great. I'm so grateful that the Savior suffered, died, and rose again for us, and I'm even grateful just for that knowledge! I believe most of us have at least heard the popular scripture John 3: 16-17, "16 For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not His Son to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." It is so simple, but if you really think about it, it's so significant. God loves us so much that He was willing to send His only Son to suffer the pains of all of our mistakes, weaknesses, sins, transgressions, whatever they may be; to suffer death by crucifixion for us; and to rise again for us, because He loves us. Because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can have hope. We can have forgiveness. We can have joy, and and we can have peace. I know I've said it so many times, and forgive me for my repetitiveness, but I will continue to proclaim that I know the Savior lives! I know He came and died for us. I know that it's because of Him that we can receive blessings from our Heavenly Father. It's because of Him we can grow and improve with His help. It's because of Him that death is not permanent and that we can live with Them again and we can live with our families again for all eternity in never-ending joy. I will continue to proclaim that I know these things to be true!

I love you all so much. Thanks for all the love, emails, support, everything. I really appreciate it. I hope to hear from you all soon and I hope you all have an incredible week!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Here's a picture of about half of our district before transfers (we have the biggest district in the mission with 11 members (one of the sisters in the picture was transferred and the remaining sister is now in a threesome). 

Then there's a fun video Elder Gillam took with my camera. I found a new idea for The Piano Guys. I didn't want to get down from my bunk bed, so I just rigged the keyboard to be accessible from where I was, haha.

Letter and Photos from April 10, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Apr 10 at 1:19 PM

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty busy, but good!

-Today for P-Day we went to the beach as a district which was fun. We made some jollof rice and chicken and brought some sodas and had fun there. Elder Gillam, one of the elders in my apartment, is like a parkour expert, and so on the nice soft sand he was teaching me to do front flips, so I felt pretty awesome. We threw around a frisbee and some tennis balls and raced each other on the beach and it was fun. I got really burned. Unfortunately we were super lame and didn't take any pictures at the beach.

-Just a random tidbit, I officially learned this week to solve a Rubik's Cube. Just thought you all would like to know, haha.

-We had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) this week. Wednesday night we went to the temple, which, as always, was a beautiful experience, and then we spent the night at the mission home. Much to our delight, the AC was broken in the room, so I convinced Elder Miller, the AP, to let me bring a mat in his room, so I slept on the floor of the APs' and office elders' room with the nice functioning AC. Then in the morning we had MLC which was quite lengthy, it lasted from 9am-2pm. But it was a good experience. We had someone from the area office come in just to pick up some papers from Pres. Heid and then go, but Pres. Heid stopped him and asked him to kind of introduce himself to us. His name is Elder Webster, he's from New Zealand and he talked about how he served his mission there as well, and there was a particular tribe there who like, 100ish years ago practiced cannibalism, and he actually ended up marrying someone from that tribe, haha, but his wife had only one baptism in her mission in New Zealand, and she was actually transferred to a different area before the baptism. So he kind of motivated and encouraged us with that because sometimes people here feel like the work is slow or there's no one around because they're only getting one baptism this transfer or whatever it is, but there are places around the world where people are not receptive to the gospel at all. So that was cool. At the end of the meeting Pres. Heid announced new zone leaders and APs before he had even finalized transfers, so everyone was super surprised. But it was cool. Afterwards there was pizza so that was definitely a nice plus to the day, ha. Elder Miller and I happened to be matching, so we took a mini photo-shoot with our matching outfits, so I'll attach a fun one from that, haha.

-I'm starting to get to know Tema a little better. Every place looks pretty similar, so it's a little confusing, but I'm figuring it out. This week I led us around and we did some contacting. I went wherever I felt to go in our area, and I felt like stopping to talk to a lady in a shop. She's a seamstress, and we walk up and she just says, "I'm sorry, I'm busy." And turns around and walks away. She was just sitting there doing nothing. Most people in Ghana won't respond that way, so I looked for a way to simply strike up a friendly conversation, so I decided to ask her about her work so I say, "I have a question." and she just returns, "I said I'm busy," thinking that we're just forcing our message on her, so I had to say, "You work here, yes? I have a question," and then she gets up and says, "Oh, yes?" and I ask if she does any work with men's clothing, and she says no and then turns around and walks away again. That's probably the worst rejection I've faced here. Not very bad, haha. I know there are some places around the world where people will practically abuse missionaries, but here, the worst it gets is people impatiently usher you away. Everyone here is accepting of people sharing the gospel, but it makes it harder to know who is actually serious about listening to and accepting your message. But the cool thing about this experience is that this lady happened to live right next to the home of a part-member family! So we stopped there and we were able to talk to the sister of a member of our ward and we arranged a time to come back and share more with her. So it was just kind of cool because we had no confirmed appointments for the day, and I feel like the spirit directed us to someone who's being prepared to receive the gospel, so that was a neat experience.

-I just want you all to know how much I love this gospel. I feel like I keep saying the same thing again and again, but I never tire of testifying of my Savior. I love Him. I'm so eternally grateful for Him. One thing I've come to learn here is how much it blesses our lives to follow the example of Jesus Christ. There are many aspects to this, but it seems pretty simple. We're promised the gospel will bless our lives. Jesus Christ is our perfect example, and He perfectly exemplifies the gospel, so as we follow His example and become more like Him, we'll begin to see those blessings in our own lives. We'll see that as we follow Him, it will change who we are; it will change us into better people. That's probably the main reason why I love this gospel so much. It's designed to build people up. As we do our best to live the gospel, our loving Heavenly Father helps uplift and build us as well. I've seen some people who regularly participate in deplorable activities changed into incredibly wonderful people because of the gospel. I know it has absolutely built me into who I am today, and I'm eager to see how it will continue to build me every day I do my best to follow the Savior. That's the promise that's been given to every person on this earth. No one is exempt from the blessings of the gospel, but those blessings come because of faithful obedience to it's principles.

I love you all so much. Thanks for the continued love and support for me. I hope you all have a fantastic week and that I hear from you soon!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Here's a picture of me and Elder Miller and our matching outfits

A picture of my companion and I in our matching suits! He ordered the same one I did, so we had to grab a picture of that as well. Don't focus too much on my double chin, haha. I am starting to lose a little weight. I was super fat in Agbogba, my last area, but I'm getting a little lighter here in Tema, so hopefully that will continue until there's no double chin anymore, haha!

Letter and Photos from April 3, 2017

Daniel Buchanan daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net> April 3, 2017 at 11:50 AM

Hello everyone!

Well, this week was definitely exciting and eventful. Here goes:

-This week we got to go to Tema Newtown. Most of you probably won't recognize the significance in that name. But there was an article posted on Deseret News maybe two years ago about a branch president down here (now bishop), Bishop Azumah, who has underdeveloped legs and can't walk on them. He's a bishop in the Tema Newtown Ward, and a really cool special stand was created for him so that he could be up at the podium and still talk to everyone. So I got to go to their church building and see the stand, and then later I got to meet him. That man gets around town in style; he's the only person in Ghana I've seen with a quad! He's a cool guy. I didn't get a picture with him, unfortunately, but I did get one with the stand, so I'll attach that.

-April fools. Not cool. So we get a call early in the morning from some of the sisters in our zone that one of the sisters had heart problems during the night and they took her to the hospital and she had been admitted, and they called us and wanted us to get down there as soon as possible and give her a priesthood blessing. My companion called Sis. Jones, the mission nurse, and told her what's going on, and she immediately calls the Heids, the mission president and his wife and tells them that one of the sisters has been hospitalized, so they all start getting dressed and ready to meet her at the hospital as well. The four of us in the apartment all jump up and get dressed and skip breakfast and showering and everything and rush over there. As we're trying to get a taxi, an old lady stops me outside our apartment and starts asking about the church. She said she knows that we don't preach because all we do is bear testimonies and we don't teach because that's what she saw in Connecticut one time, but I told her we were in a hurry and I hope to see her again to explain more and she said she doesn't want to see me again because we have weird ideas, and I simply had to let it go because we were in a rush. We get a taxi and we meet the sisters at their apartment, and they have no makeup on or anything, wrinkled clothes, also presumably rushing to get ready, and handed us a few bags filled with snacks and stuff for the sick sister, and we all head out, and we were about to grab another taxi, but the sisters say we can walk there. So we start walking, and then the tell us they forgot the medical insurance card in the apartment, so we had to turn around and walk back, and as we round the corner again heading back to their apartment, we see the supposedly hospitalized sister with her companion laughing at all of us walking around concerned and worried about her. It turns out that Sis. Jones had called the Heids, and then afterwards called the sisters for more details and they confessed that it was just a joke, and Sis. Jones said she had already called the Heids, so she had to call them after they already dressed and ready to go, and the sisters asked Sis. Jones not to tell us that it was a joke all along. The Heids were quite upset. When I found out it was a joke I was actually pretty irritated that they would make a joke about someone being hospitalized and giving priesthood blessings, as were all of the other elders. We just put on a nice face for them. I made them feed us breakfast for wasting our time and money, haha

-We got to watch a few sessions of General Conference yesterday at the Stake center. As always it was amazing. After the conference, I was playing some piano, and a member comes up to me and asks me to play something he can sing along to, so I start playing a random chord progression, and this guy just starts improvising words and melodies and beauty along with the piano! I was impressed, this guy has recorded some of his own music as well, so I was pretty excited. I took the opportunity to get a quick video clip to send to all of you for your enjoyment.

-One thing I've come to recognize lately is how the gospel actually works in our lives. I've come to understand that there is power that comes from the gospel as we make the gospel a habitual part of our lives. We need to make it part of who we are. As we study the scriptures and the teachings of the Savior daily, as we pray every single day, as we do what we can to emulate the example of Jesus Christ, we become more like Him, the gospel is something that begins to define us. As that happens, we are more able to harness the power that comes from the gospel. The scriptures remind us again and again that all things work together for good for those who love God. So as we center our lives around the Savior, we're not promised our lives will be perfect and flawless, but we are promised that everything will work out and that everything will be okay.

I love all of you so much. I hope you all are doing well and that I hear from you all soon. Have a wonderful week.

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Enjoying some ice cream at KFC for Elder Gillam's birthday this week

A picture of me with the famous stand for Bishop Azumah.

 

Ben, the improv singer and I jamming out together.