Bom Dia Alegria!

That is a line my buddy, Elder McGhie, uses almost annoyingly all the time haha. But it works in this case!

Hello Gente! I hope the week is going well!

Life here in the office is very good, just running around, and doing projects for President Amorim, which at this point has been a LOT of phone calls. We're trying to make sure that every missionary apartment is in good condition, equipped fully, has nice beds and so on and so forth. Very complicated for us :) But that's life! Our life gets a little crazy sometimes, so the rest of the missionaries don't have to. If I think that I'm busy the other office secretaries have a crazier life.

This week was a really good week! It was crazy, but good! The cherry on top was on Friday. Out of the blue my companion sees a young lady with a baby carrying groceries and offers to help and she lets us carry them to her door. She invited us in, but we couldn't because we didn't want to enter without another man there, so we marked for the next day to come back with a member. Her name is Sandrine and she's from Cape Verde. When we taught her the next day, she told us how she felt that almost any church could be true because she'd never found one that felt different. She was very interested and loved to hear about our message! She accepted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon AND to come to church the next day :) She came to ALL three hours of church and loved it! Her little baby girl is named Luna and is one of the cutest baby girls ever! President Amorim came to our ward this week and he was having fun. It was pretty funny to see the grandfather side of him, ‘cuz normally he's President...ya know? 

I love teaching the gospel! We've been teaching a few others, but Sandrine was the highlight of the week :) She's very cool! But Carla's still getting ready to be baptized. We had a very irreverent lesson on Saturday with her, her little girl Maria João was making such a fuss. We could barely talk...but eh...can't win um all. I once sacrificed a tie to Maria to help keep her occupied so we could teach :) haha ah... kids... :) Makes me miss my nieces and nephew.

We got to eat a nice meal at Sister Martins house on Sunday, today :) It was good! We had barbecue, rice, beans, salad, pork from the oven, and juice. Sounds weird, but for the Portuguese its good :)

I hope you all have a good week :) 

Abraço,

Elder Buchanan

Short, but Sweet

Hey friends!

This one will be a bit short, but I've got a good message so hold onto your butts! (That’s a Buchanan trademark phrase)

This week was crazy! The biggest news of the week is that the area we're working in will no longer be shared! Elders Andrade and Gilbert are leaving to go do a missionary split with Elders in another city! So Elder Peterson and I are taking full control of our area! Crazy considering our investigators know us very little, but it's better than not at all. I'm stealing Elder Andrade’s bed while he's gone and officially have the new position of head cook. I'm taking care of 3 meals this week.

We have 3 people preparing to be baptized and they all came to church and loved it! :) Carla who's a single mother and is very sweet and her son, and then and older man named José. They're all very cool people! 

Elder Peterson and I met a cool Brazilian named Lucas this week (pretty funny, huh?) and we were able to teach him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loved it! I could feel the spirit very strong and we invited him to come to church the next day. Sadly he changed his mind and didn't want to come. I was a little sad, but it taught me a good lesson. My job as a missionary is to bring this message to people, whether they accept it or not! I should always be happy for that grand opportunity!

I love being a missionary! I love serving in Porto! I love this gospel!

I miss you all! Have a great week! I'll see you in 7 days!

Abraço,

Elder Buchanan

Porto part 2

Hello all!

Man, living in a big city is hectic. I don't even live in downtown. If you're imagining a modern city, don't. That's Gaia on the other side of the river. Porto is very, very old and it has the most riDICulous roads in the world. The Portuguese, man. They just build 'em however they want! :)

So the 6 of us in our house get up every day a half hour early to go play basketball at a court a little ways from our house, which is fun, we play with the secretaries from the office, so we get a real 5 on 5. But it's a bit small so it gets a little crowded. But I'm definitely not gaining any weight!

I'm in the mission office from 11-5 Tuesday-Friday to work on things. This week I was taking inventories of houses in the mission to make sure they have what they need, and then creating plans to buy the things needed. A bit dry, but I like it. I take work seriously, takes me back to my high school yearbook days.

But! I get to leave and go and help people. We're teaching a family, and we found 3 Brazilian students that are very interested in hearing about the gospel. One of them Miguel, is really interested! I love helping people, because that’s my primary purpose as a missionary. And it's just the best thing in the world.

We have people who will invite us to LUNCH here! I've had 2 thus far. One was the best, and the other was the funniest I've had :) These members here are very special. Olga Martins made us Bacalhau com natas which was the BEST I've had so far. It was great :) and then we went over to a members house, (Elders Peterson, Andrade and Gilbert and I) and we kept picking on Elder Peterson and loading up his plate :) Man, so much fun haha :) Elder Gilbert got picked on a little too :)

We have a movie night every week at the church and this week we watched a Christian made film called Fireproof (dubbed in Portuguese). It’s a really good message about marriages. A little cheese, but I like it :)

I love being out here to preach the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and help everyone I can :)

I miss you all! Have a great week!

Abraço!

Elder Buchanan

BEM VINDA AO PORTO!

Yes! I've made it! :)

After 9 months in a bunch of small towns, I am now living in a big city :)

My last look at the Rio Douro

I left Regua in the care of my Trainee, Elder Garcia, confident that he'll take good care of the people there. I left to come to Porto on Wednesday! I showed up, ran to get a Portuguese social security number, got a physical, and then drove with a few other missionaries 3 hours to Lisbon! Why? So I could get a drivers license :) Which is pretty cool.

I now work in the mission office, working on special projects for president :) It's only a six-week deal, but it's still cool I get to work close to the mission president.

I am living in a house with 6 guys and 1 shower. Fun stuff. But...we will eat like KINGS! :) We had a ton of food today in the cart. It'll be great.

It's been an exciting week, not a heck ton of events, haven't gotten out a heck ton to help people, but needless to say this is a great place to be :)

Miss you all!

Love,

Elder Buchanan

That couple I talked about last week