Made It

Elder Cluff, Elder Buchanan, Sister and President Fluckiger

Oi people!

Como estão?! How are you all? Hope you're doing well! What a crazy Week I've had. So much to say.

I made it to Portugal and am in a lovely little city called Abrantes. It's actually quite quiet here. We spend a lot of time walking to people we've already met or have talked to in the past's houses and knocking doors. The culture here is a lot different. Saturdays and Sundays you see very few people in the street. And most people will ignore the door. It's a bit different.

The day I arrived I met my new companion and trainer, Elder Cluff who's from Arizona which was a relief. I don't always have to speak Portuguese, even though we make it our goal to only do so outside the house. But inside its nice that I still can.

Abrantes is one of those cool European cities. It has cobblestone and those narrow streets between buildings. We actually have a pretty large area. Every night I come home completely pooped. But glad I was out there. The food here is absolutely incredible, especially if you get Africans cooking for you. There's a family in the branch, the familia Mendes. Oh man. Irma Rosa feeds us every time we come in. Yum :) We also have a second set of missionaries in our apartment, Elders Fortes and Domingos and they are from Cape Verde and Angola and man they can cook too. Yum.

Sorry I'm trying to cram so much in. There's just so much to tell. And I don't want to take up too much of everyone's time with reading a boring missionary email!

We have Irma Rosa's niece Roqui who is ready for baptism, but they're waiting until her husband Quintino is ready. We're gonna be working hard with him to get him to commit. Because he's kinda one foot in. So we're trying.

All the people in our branch are cool and fun. A funny story actually. On Friday night, towards the end my first full day of work, we were going to the Mendes home for my first time. We go down this stair case to a back way to their rua(road). When a jovem(youth) pops out and points his pocket at us. My stomach sank. I had All my mission funds for the month and my camera with me. He said he wanted Tudo. My Portuguese had ultimately failed me but I understood that meant "all" I then chanced to look and him. He then just had this biggest smile on his face, pulled his hand out of his pocket and clasped my hand.

Elder Cluff then introduced me to Elaniou, and his brother who came down the stairs, Deamitinou Mendes. Irma Rosa's sons. They had a fun little laugh when I just shook my head and said "não divertido". Elder Cluff said they are the guys who will keep us from getting robbed. It's pretty funny and was at the time, too. I knew at that point I was going to like them and like my companion. Deimantinou, Elaninou and Celciou (her third son) are all super awesome. I like them a lot.

Always exciting here in Abrantes.

I'll talk to all again real soon! Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Buchanan