Letter and Photos from June 26, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Jun 26 at 12:10 PM

Hi, everyone!!

This week has definitely been really good.

-Last Monday I mentioned that we went out to a place called Aburi up in the mountains here to a place called the Craft Village. I got some cool souvenirs and art and whatnot and it was a fun place to be! I attached a picture this week so you can see what I got there. I got a carved, painted pair of missionaries there and I thought that was so awesome I bought it on the spot xD

-We had a combined zone conference this last week and that went really well. It was combined with the Tema, Teshie, and Christansborg zones and we hosted it. It was probably the last time I'll ever see Pres. Heid since he goes home in like a week from today. But we split up into separate zones and the zone leaders gave their instruction, and I gave mine on Charity. I wasn't quite able to finish because of time, but I thought it was kind of cool that after we reconvened and the Assistants were giving their instruction, one of them basically picked up where I left off and was using the scriptures that I didn't get to in my instruction. It was kind of cool. Afterwards, my companion and I went with my mission son (Elder Tolzmann) and his companion and we grabbed some Papa's Pizza. It was delightful. That was definitely a nice day.

-There was something interesting that I learned this past week. We have a companionship in the zone that's not getting along too well. There's a Nigerian and an American in a two-man apartment, so it's just the two of them, and they are so ridiculously different. One doesn't care too much about obedience, and one does. One is relaxed, and the other is super uptight. So basically, they don't agree on much. So we did an exchange with them, and I was with the Nigerian. It was kind of humorous to see how excited he was to be with me for the day. But the thing that came to my mind was something from the Book of Mormon. For those of you less familiar with the Book of Mormon, there's an account of two groups of people: one called the Nephites and the other called the Lamanites. Typically, the Nephites are the faithful, obedient onces, and the Lamanites are the unfaithful, rebellious ones. There's one point that the Nephites start to fall away into wickedness and iniquity and the Lord reveals that things are better for the Lamanites at this point because they grew up learning the traditions of their ancestors. Their disobedience was mostly taught to them, and that's what they grew up with. The Nephites knew better, and they started to do what they knew they shouldn't. I've really started to see that here. Some of the people here just grew up with a lower moral standard, and I've learned to be patient and understanding of that. We all have our imperfections, and some of us more than others. But the Savior knows our heart and our situation. He knows all things, and He knows how to help us. He knows perfectly who we are and who we can become. I believe I've really learned to be more able to see people and their potential rather than just their flaws. Obviously, when there are problems, we want to work to resolve them, but I've also learned that people have such incredible value despite their flaws and weaknesses. I know that the Savior loves us as well even thought we make mistakes all the time. We just have to be faithful and continue striving to be our best and to trust in Him and all shall be well.

I love all of you so much! I hope you're all doing well and that I hear from you all again soon. You're all amazing!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

This is a picture of a cool hymnbook I got. There's an elder in the mission who makes really cool carvings on books and I got one from him. I'm excited about it.

  A picture with a few people in our ward. This isn't the whole family, but this family is so awesome and they're so eager to help out the missionaries.

  A picture of the things I got at the craft village.