Two Years in Ghana: Letter and Photos from May 8, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>May 8 at 11:35 AM

Hey all!

This week wasn't too bad. Nothing too exciting that I can think of, but as always I'll try to come up with something, haha

-This week we had exchanges with the APs (Assistants to the President) and that was pretty cool. My companion and his fellow Zimbabwean went and rode the bikes and I and my fellow American took the nice car with good suspension and awesome AC :D But we were able to teach a few great lessons. One was with an investigator we have. I can't recall if I've mentioned her or not before, but this girl would have the hardest time remembering anything we taught her. She even had trouble remembering simple statements like, "Jesus Christ is the Son of God." We would have to continue teaching her the same thing again and again. We kept teaching her because she comes to church every single week and when she prays, she prays that God will help her to be baptized, so it's easy to see how much she wants to learn. Miraculously, it seems, in the past few weeks she's started to be able to remember what we teach her! We took like five or six visits to teach the same thing, and now after one visit she remembers exactly what we teach her. She's progressing so well. I have been praying for this girl so that she'll be able to learn and grow and progress, and I can see that God, as always, does hear and answer prayers. We're hoping to have her baptism this month if all goes according to plan. I'm so excited about her.

-Also while we were on exchange, we had to drive down to Batsona, a new district that was recently added to our zone because of the new stake that was created. Man, I didn't know Ghana had traffic like that, goodness. On the way there, it took almost 2 hours, but on the way back, on the other, not busy side of the road, it took about 20 minutes. On the way back, we stopped to grab some food. The two of us sat down to eat and were waiting for our food to come and a man that was sitting alone at another table came over and sat a down at the table with us and introduced himself. He seemed a little awkward by the way he spoke. He asked a few seemingly random questions and then sat there quietly. When our food came, he asked if we would allow him to "dash" us two cokes (dash in Ghana means just to give for free, in this case, he bought our drinks for us). As we chatted, we got to know him a little more. I repented for thinking he was just another weirdo approaching white guys (that is something that's very common here). He was such a kind and generous man. We found out that he does a lot of traveling, and he said he felt sympathy for us being in a foreign land far from home, and whenever he sees people like that he tries to show them love and kindness. I was honestly pretty amazed at the kindness he showed. Even though a coke is just something really small, he took the time to come over and sit with us and make friends with us and show us kindness. I think that's what the gospel is all about. Sometimes we get overwhelmed by the idea of so many "rules" that we lose sight of what the gospel is really meant to do for us. It's meant to change who we are into better people. When you see someone showing genuine kindness, not for the sake of expecting something in return, but simply because you want to brighten someone else's day, I believe that's what the Savior would do. The gospel is designed so that it helps us become more like the Savior Jesus Christ. I believe if when people look at you and can see the Savior when they see you, then you're doing something right despite weaknesses and imperfections you may have. I think The Book of Mormon describes this perfectly in Alma 5:14, "And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye spiritually been born of God? Have ye received His image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?" I believe that when you're truly doing your best to become like Jesus Christ and to follow His example, people will see that there's something different about you—something good. That's because as we follow Him, we gradually have a mighty change in our hearts because the gospel changes bad men into good men, and good men into better men.

I love all of you so much. Thank you all for the love and support you always give me. I hope you're all doing well and that I hear from you again soon!

With love,

Elder Buchanan