Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Sep 4
at 1:06 PM
Hi, all!!
This week was pretty eventful which is always fun. Lots of
good things happened this week.
-First, today we had a fun P-day at the beach which is where
my pictures today come from. It was another elder's birthday (also first-named
Daniel, haha) and it was fun. There was food, sparkling drinks, and lots of
fun. I tried doing some flips on the sand which was fun. I got a cool pic of me
flying through the air... (I wish I could fly, haha). It was definitely lots of
fun, though.
-This week we also traveled a few times for baptismal
interviews. Traveling in Ghana is always a bit of a hassle, but that's okay.
The second one fell through. We traveled all the way out to Kpone, met the
elders, went up to the investigators' home to find that they had gone out.
Initially they said they'd be back in five minutes, and then they said at 7pm
(and it was currently 5pm), so we had to find something to do while we waited,
only to find that at 7pm the person said they weren't going to be able to come
that evening... so we just had to postpone it to next week. The first one was
much better, we went to Batsona and it was fantastic. It was a young girl, I
believe she was 16, and this girl was so smart. She understood what the
missionaries taught better than most adults do, so that was kind of cool. She
really opened up and said that at first she had some serious doubts about the
church, about the Book of Mormon, etc., but eventually she opened her heart and
mind and decided to pray and ask, and she felt like all of it is true and it
really comes from God.
-The other particularly cool thing from this week was with a
member who has introduced himself to us as Chicken... I love Chicken so much,
haha. He actually has a really nice chicken place that he works at, but he
tells us to call him Chicken which is kind of fun. Before I met him, I was told
he is a member of the church, even a returned missionary, but he likes to deny
it. So, as expected, when I first met him, he denied being a member, but I was
still friendly with him. While proselyting during the days we would often pass
by and say hello and just chat with him for a little while. I've known him for
probably about three months now, and finally yesterday, he opened up to me and
confessed that he actually is a member of the church and he served a mission in
Lagos, Nigeria. He is really starting to trust us, which is awesome. He has
been asking me all kinds of questions about America and BYU and stuff like
that, and it's awesome. We actually never really sat down and had a discussion
with him (mostly because of his work which requires him to be moving around a
lot and would divert his focus), but we just make idle chat with him and show
him love and I can see how happy he his every time he sees us, and it's
awesome. He told me he has plans to make his work schedule work out so he can
actually start coming back to church. I am so excited about him. He's a great
guy and he's doing well, he just let some other things obscure his view of the
things that are the most important. Sadly, it's a lot easier for that to happen
than one would like to admit. I think it's safe to say we all try our best to
be good people and to do what is right, but sometimes we allow things to get in
the way of our view of what is right. One way I've found that helps us keep our
eyes on what is most important—our Savior, Jesus Christ—is simple things we do every
day: prayer and scripture study. Just as when we fail to feed our body with
food and water it becomes weak and fatigued, the same happens to our spirit
when we fail to nourish it with the good word of God and communication with our
Heavenly Father. God gives us His words and His gospel to benefit and bless our
lives, not to constrict us, but rather to free us and to make our lives better.
God loves us so incredibly much, and all He wants is to help us do what is
right, and so as we regularly speak with Him every day, we will truly come to
understand what He wants more, and we will be able to see His love for us and
that He is unfailingly there for us; all we have to do is reach out to Him.
I love all of you so much. I hope you're doing well and that
you have a fantastic week!
With love,
Elder Buchanan
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| Here's just a few pics from the beach party today :D |
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