Letter and Photos from August 21, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Aug 21 at 9:13 AM

Hi, everyone!

This week seems to have been very busy but I can't really remember too much of what happened.

-We have had a few returned missionaries proselyte a ton with us this week. One is named Ezekiel and the other Edward. Ezekiel served in South Africa and Edward in Nigeria. They are both solid and awesome and have been helping us out quite a lot the past few weeks, so one day we all got pizza together! It was quite and enjoyable way to show our appreciation for them and their friendship and support and help.

-One exciting thing that has happened is the All Africa Service Project! All over Africa, the church organizes service on one day every year. So this year we met alongside a highway where tons of weeds and crazy grasses and whatnot had all grown really tall, so hundreds of members gathers with hoes, rakes, cutlasses, and everything else imaginable to cut down the weeds. It actually went really well. I wish I was able to get some pictures, but my camera memory was full this week... but it was definitely a cool experience.

- One day this week we had a man talk to us while we were out eating and he was a really friendly man, and at one point he asked, "I know there are lots of notable scriptures in the Bible, but what is one that really stands out to you as an individual?" I thought about it for a bit and John 14: 27 came to my mind. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I love that one so much because I know how hard life can be sometimes. I know how rough things can get. Jesus Christ knows that better than me, or anyone else for that matter. He knows how we feel and what's going on, yet He can still say to us, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." It's all because of His Atonement. He came and died for us, He came and suffered all of our pains, weaknesses, temptations, afflictions, trials, everything. Yet he can still grant us peace of mind and peace in our hearts. I love Him and I couldn't be more grateful for Him and for the opportunity I have to share His gospel with the world.

I love all of you. You are all the best and I hope to hear from you all soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

Here's a picture of our district this week.

A picture of our pizza outing :D

Letter and Photos from August 14, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Aug 14 at 11:08 AM

Hi, all!!

This week has honestly been super busy, but definitely way nice.

-Last week I mentioned going to the new Ghana MTC as a tour guide. We went three times, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We had some kind of cool experiences. There was one group we brought around that was the architectural crew that worked on the building, and none of them were members. We also had a big chief of one of the regions of Ghana come and tour it. The last day we had like 1200ish people come to tour the MTC. Also, during the tour we normally would take an elevator up to the apartments, but we had a particularly big group, and there wasn't enough room for me, so I ran all the way up four flights of stairs and all the way back down again and I actually beat them on the way down, haha. I felt kind of cool... Haha but overall, it was definitely a wonderful experience.

-On Tuesday, we also had Elder Renlund, a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles come to speak to our mission! That was a wonderful experience as well. I played the hymns as well as a special musical number. I played piano and Elder Lyman sang Lord, I Would Follow Thee. It went quite well, especially considering we had one day to practice together... haha, but it was wonderful. He said he had three specific messages for the mission, but I liked his first message the most. He said,."On behalf of the prophet and the first presidency as well as the Lord Jesus Christ, thank you." He thanked us for all of our hard work and devotion and our sacrificing two years of our lives to serve Him and the people of Ghana. I definitely appreciated his words. Again, I really didn't see him as a celebrity as many sometimes see big people like him, but rather I saw him as someone the Lord has assigned a significant calling as a special witness of the Savior Jesus Christ. I'm not an apostle, but I, too, am witnessing to the people around me every day that He lives and I know it!!

I love all of you so much! Have a fantastic week for me, okay?

With love,

Elder Buchanan

A picture with a really cool less-active member that we ran into at the temple site. He wouldn't tell us his real name. He tells us to call him Chicken.

A few of us after the conference with Elder Renlund

I took one selfie with Elder Hanberg, one of my companions I hadn't seen since being transferred here to Tema.

Letter and Photos from August 8, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Aug 8 at 6:46 AM

Hey all!

So this past week was pretty intense, honestly.

-I'm pretty sure we witnessed some kind of armed robbery the other day... we went to grab a few chicken sandwiches at KFC at night before heading home and as we were leaving, we signaled a taxi to stop, and there was a car following it that pulled over in front of the taxi that stopped for a us, and a police officer got out of the car and he started yelling at this taxi driver and stuff, and at first I thought it was just some sort of traffic violation or something, but I noticed some sketchy stuff. While the taxi driver and the police officer were arguing, some random hispanic or indian-looking guy came up holding a bible and said he was also a missionary and asked us for money. We told him we didn't have anything so he walked away, and at that point, the police officer actually opened up the passenger side of the taxi and got in and had the taxi driver also get in and they drove off... then the guy who asked us for money then later got into the same car that the police officer was previously driving and drove off... so I have no idea what the heck happened, but my companion was thoroughly convinced it was a robbery of some sort... so that was kind of intense.

-Junior, a 9 year-old investigator I had mentioned before was supposed to be baptized last Sunday. Much to my delight, Saturday morning I get a call from a member that lives next door and I hear that he had been hit by a car and was being sent to the hospital...... One thing you have to understand is that in America, when someone says they're going to the hospital, it's basically like a life-threatening type thing or something very urgent. Here, even if they have a cold they often go to the hospital, haha. But still, this boy who was supposed to be baptized the next day was hit by a car and being sent to the hospital so I was kind of freaking out. I called the missionaries who knew him and asked them all to pray for him. So we call the mother and she tells us that he went to a Narh-bita Hospital. So we get dressed and rush over there and have someone at the front desk refer us to another part of the hospital, and have those people send us somewhere else and so on and so on again and again... So we walk around the hospital for like a solid 30 minutes before we end up at the same place we started and they tell us that he had already been discharged... so we ended up walking back and forth around this place when he had already left, haha, but I was happy to hear that he had already left and was okay. So we went to his home and his mother saw it as a miracle from God that her son was okay and she was so incredibly eager to have him be baptized the next day and she said she would absolutely be there (when previously she didn't seem to keen on showing up). Unfortunately, his father thought otherwise and told us to postpone the baptism. But it sounds like this week it may be able to happen, so pray that everything will work out.

-We also were chosen to be tour guides for the brand new Accra, Ghana Missionary Training Center (MTC) open house! It was pretty awesome. I wish I would have been able to stay in that MTC... haha it's much nicer than the one here in Tema. It's way bigger, too. So it was cool showing people around and introducing them to missionary work and how we prepare. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to come here and share the gospel with those around me. A mission is by no means easy, but I wouldn't trade my time and my experiences here for anything in the world. I love this work, and I love my Savior, and I couldn't be happier being able to share that knowledge I have with those around me.

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

With love,

Elder Buchanan

A picture of us at this cool gym that we found that we've started going to.

A picture at the new MTC

We had a zone conference and I saw my first mission "son" there so we took a picture

Elders Dabata and Buchanan

Elder Buchanan - Tour Guide

Elders Buchanan and Dabata - pizza time!

Tour Guides at the new Ghana MTC

Tour Guides

This photo was part of a news article in the Deseret News.

Letter and Photos from July 31, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Jul 31 at 1:17 PM

Hi, all!!

This past week has been pretty crazy.

-I got a new companion named Elder Dabata! He's from South Africa. He's ready to get out and work, which is great. I'll attach a selfie of the two of us. Honestly, I had many dear friends within the district either get transferred or go home, so that was pretty hard for me. Plus, my companion and I got moved out of our nice, small AC'd apartment into another apartment. So lots of stuff going on this week!

-We had MLC this week! This time they divided it into the city zones and the bush zones. So I didn't get to see all my ZL buddies, but it was cool. Haha, everyone was so upset that this time they didn't have any pizza, they had KFC! Haha, I definitely enjoy KFC, though. There was one Ghanaian elder who said he wasn't going to come to MLC anymore if there wasn't going to be any more pizza, hahaha

-I guess there weren't too many interesting specific events, just a bunch of little things going on here and there that made the week interesting. I just want to tell all of you that the Savior lives and loves each and every one of us. I know it, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity I have to share that knowledge with the people around me. I love Him and I couldn't be more grateful for Him.

I love you all so much. I hope you're doing well and enjoying life. I hope to hear from all of you soon!!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

A selfie of me and my companion. :D

One of me just looking pretty good, I think, haha.

Letter and Photos from July 24, 2017

Daniel Buchanan <daniel.buchanan@myldsmail.net>Jul 24 at 1:17 PM

Hi everyone!!

This week was definitely an eventful, yet good one. I don't even remember what happened on which days, haha.

-One day we went to the temple. We were scheduled to go to the 10:30 session and we arrived there early, but the session was full! We called the APs who scheduled us and it turned out that somewhere there was a miscommunication and we had showed up one day early! So we got our names on the 12:30 session and then went to the cafeteria in the neighboring area office and I had some nice fried rice. While there, there was a man that one of the sisters starting talking to and I believe this is legitimately the first man I had ever met in Ghana that didn't believe in Jesus Christ or even a God. He was very respectful of the faith and beliefs we were sharing, and of others in general, but he wasn't particularly accepting. It was an interesting conversation with him. Then we went to the temple and it was beautiful and glorious, as always. I hate leaving the temple. It feels like I'm leaving the presence of God.

-One thing we did to celebrate Elder Grant's last week was to go and make cookies again at a good member friend's home. There were some other buddies from the ward and it was so much fun. I would attach a picture, but it's very dark, so I don't know if you would be able to see. But we had a ton of fun there and before we left they broke out a bottle of sparkling grape juice and toasted to Elder Grant successfully and faithfully finishing his two years here in Ghana in the service of the Lord. They voted me as his companion to give a little "speech" toast for him. Man, I'm going to miss that guy. He, as well as half of the entire zone is leaving me. Man, all my friends are either being transferred or are going home. I also got my new companion today! He's from South Africa and his name is Elder Dabata. We'll see how things go with him.

-I just want all of you to know how much I love the Savior. In The Book of Mormon, in 3 Nephi 10: 6, He said, "O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart." (Italics added) I love this so much because I know how difficult life can be sometimes. There are trials and temptations. We fall and make mistakes. But the Savior of the World has said that if we return unto Him with our hearts fully dedicated to Him, He will receive us. I don't know how many of you have seen a hen gather her chicks under her wings. It's kind of cool. I see it here often. The hen stretches her wings over the chicks and just brings them in close and folds her wings in, and you can't even see the chicks. But every once in a while, a chick or two have run off and are too far away for the chick to bring in close to herself. The first time I had seen that I immediately thought of a maternal instinct to protect her children. I believe the Savior is saying He will do the same for us. If we stay close to Him, He can and will protect us. If we run off and our hearts are far from Him, we will miss out on the blessings of His care. That's why He invites us to return unto Him with full purpose of heart so He can bless and protect us.

I love all of you so much. I hope you're doing great and life is treating you well. I hope to hear from all of you soon!

With love,

Elder Buchanan

A picture of the Tema District. Literally half of the district is changing and I am so bummed about it. I have come to love my district so much. They're all amazing and I know wherever they're off to they'll do great things.

One last selfie with Elder Grant his last Sunday here in Ghana. We both wore our kente ties. :D

A picture from the day we went to the temple. I liked the lighting there, plus I though I looked pretty good, if I do say so myself... ;) Haha