News!

Well this week has been very long and very short at the same time! Crazy stuff's happened right here! I guess y'all know I'm still in the office cuz my Pday is still on Friday! Well Elder Hicks came in on Sunday night, and he let me know that Presidente Amorim has changed his plans for the office, and he wants to return to 4 missionaries, and that I am the new executive secretary! How crazy is that?! I'm still kind of shocked about it! So it's now gonna be my responsibility to make sure missionaries are legal, plan Presidente's travel, prep documents and all jazz! :) 

It's been crazy so far this week. We had to take care of transfers, missionaries coming off Madeira, missionaries going to Madeira, lots of missionaries passing through the office. We had to make sure the HUGE group of missionaries that left this transfer were all ready to go, making sure bags were underweight. Then I had to prep the changes that Presidente had made to the orientation manual for the new missionaries and have it ready by 10am, in the chapel next to the office. Then we had to make sure everyone made the train or bus or whatever to get home after the meeting. So that was fun! Lets just say this week has been a lot of running around, giving rides, work and craziness! So that's been fun so far! But I am more that a little tired haha :) Better get used to it, I'm pretty sure I'll be here a while.

We're planning a big, multi-zone event here in the next couple of weeks, It'll be a Chirstmas/New Years event, probably a little after the new year. We designed an invite yesterday and it looks really good and oh my goodness we are going to hand out so many!!!

Since Elder LeBaron went home, Elder McGhie is lonemanning it. He seems pretty tired lately, he has to do the job of two, don't envy him...

Elder Hicks is my new companion! He's training me as a secretary this transfer and then he's out of here. He's actually very ready to go. The office takes a toll after too long, and this is his 5th transfer here, but he's still doing good. His sister's went home on Monday, he can't even believe that. Our car that we're gonna have here in a week or so is stick, and he's help me get better at driving it. He's learned out here too, so it'll be either A) good or B) blind leading the blind, so we'll see :)

Elder Orozco peaced Porto out, he went down to the Coimbra Zone in Aveiro. I really liked the kid! A little sad to see him go. Can't remember a transfer I've laughed so much. But he's gonna have fun down there.

Today's been pretty good, we went around, stopped at McDonalds and had lunch with some really cool investigators. So that was fun. Then we stopped by one of the malls, Parque Nascente and went around (Happy Black Friday anybody?) and looked at a couple stores. Lemme say, Black Friday is nothing outside of the states. And I LIKE IT. It's great. Everybody's crazy back home. Here its just they've got most of the store's who are just like, "stuffs marked down a bit!" But they do have a lack of thanksgiving here.

Thanksgiving was just a normal day, but it was nice anyway :) Hope y'all had a good turkey day back home! Can't believe its the Christmas season again already! I can't believe I hit my "Year till I go home mark" on Wednesday....crazy. It's amazing how fast this year has passed and how much I 've changed. It's incredible! I love my mission so much :) I don't want to think about going home yet, because I still have a year! IT's so cool and so scary at the same time!

Have a great rest of the week! Happy Shopping!

Abraço,

Elder Buchanan

When the Storm Passes Away

This is a repeated one, but I'm using it in a different way. "Where will you go when the storm passes away?" 

We all pass through storms at one point or another in our lives. It is inevitable. We are human, we will make mistakes or those around us make negative choices that affect us. But this life is a great big learning place. So the question is, when the storm passes, when the hardship is over, where will you go? Will you stay "safe" and kept away, or will you get out and go forward? Will you let the rain stop you from enjoying the sun? The here and the now are what are important. It's not who you were, it's who you will be, it's who you can become. It's not what you did, but what you do next that counts.

Our experiences shape us into who we are, so while they may be hard, we are better because of it. I am grateful for the Grace of Christ, that it is sufficient, and whatever justice is not met in this life, will be paid in full in the world to come. 

My heart goes out to all those affected by the tragedy in Paris :(

This week was fun :) It was a crazy week that to be honest I can't even remember half of.

We talked to Bruno again! He's a cool kid. BUT he's a loser cuz he canceled on us yesterday and is leaving for Lisbon and won't be back till Wednesday :P So that's lame! But it's chill… still working, hard, looking for those who want to hear the gospel :)

Presidente gave us a very big task this week, finishing the new orientation manual for the incoming missionaries from here on out. So that's crazy and fun. I have to translate one nice long part though, cuz it has to be in both English and Portuguese...bleh. So been working on that n' stuff!

Elders Hicks, Merkle, Orozco and I all had t-shirts made :) they say "The office/Missão Portugal-Porto" on the front and then our names on the back :) Pretty cool :) I forgot to take a picture so I'll send one next week :)

We had a goodbye party for Elder and Sister Ransom today! :) It was fun :) I got to do some barbecuing! Presidente and Sister Amorim hosted us, it was very good food :) Always is haha There was feijoada (or beans) with rice and what’s called cascais (this powdery stuff you put with rice and beans, really good), then there was cooked sausage, bread (of course. never forget bread), plenty of guarana (a brazilian fruit flavored soda sooooooo good.) and then we made like 3 chicken's worth of bbq-ed chicken, like a whole cow haha and then a couple hamburgers. So that was fun :) and yummy.

I love being here in Porto, but I get a feeling that I’m gonna be leaving pretty soon so....We'll see if it's very far or not :P Can't believe it's already the end of another transfer. Getting close to that year mark :P craziness :)

Have a great week!

Abraço,

EB

70º in Nov?

Yeah...we had a 70º day this week. Pretty nuts, actually.

The week was pretty darn good! Lots a fun and work and all that jazz :)

This one will be a little shorter than last week because I'm a bit tired today, but I'll give ya some good highlights!

We had a zone meeting this week and Presidente introduced a new program to help train us as missionaries and help us. It's should be cool and I'm excited!

Elder Orozco and I met a really cool guy named Bruno yesterday who was very interested to hear our message and was very willing to listen to us and we've got a time to come back and talk to him again! He's a pretty cool kid :)

Yesterday was Elder Merkle's birthday, so we decided to do something special. Sister Ashby actually made him a cake and we sang to him when we got to the office. But then Elder Orozco and I left early from the office to go to a "lesson" But we went and prepped a surprise party at the chapel just down the street. Then we lured him down because the Sisters were supposed to be at the chapel cleaning. And then we knocked his socks off! :) The sisters decked out the kitchen, made a really good cake, Orozco, Elder Mcghie and I made Carne Asada, I made some banging salsa :) We sang to Elder Merkle and I think it made him feel really good :)

Those are just some highlights. I'm sorry, we were running around having fun today and I'm beat. I took Orozco down to São Bento downtown and we had some bombin’ ice cream. I think Elder Orozco's slang is rubbing off on me :P oh well.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Buchanan

HEY FAM! (and Friends :))

There's this sister missionary in our district, Sister Parkinson, she says that when ever we as a district see each other :) She's super animated and hilarious, it's pretty great. Probably one of the funniest sister missionaries in the mission haha!

So! Sorry about not getting my email out yesterday. In the office, sometimes, you just have to take care of some urgent stuff, so you push off some pday stuff, but it's all good. Still get to email :) I like being here :)

So i forgot to do that day to day format, nobody gave any feedback, so I'll do it again, if y'alls don't like it and just want jumbled, Elder Buchanan Rants, lemme know!

SATURDAY:  We had an awesome Halloween Party put on by the missionaries from the Porto 2nd Ward in the stake center! (Mostly Elder McGhie). We spent a lot of that day helping prep the chapel and get everything in order. It was a lot of fun, the chapel was all decked out, we had quite a few investigators and we had some good ol' fashioned fun! I got to see some of the members from my old ward, so that was fun!

SUNDAY: Just a normal Sunday, Elder Orozco and I don't work in the office, instead we go and use the whole day after church to go out and teach and help people. So that's fun :)

MONDAY: The sisters in our district, Sisters Parkinson and Anderson, have pday on monday still, so we met them to have a "district lunch" and this Brazilian grill place, you know the kind where they bring around the meat. I'll say, there was a lot of meat, they just kept coming, but the quality wasn't that amazing :P I'll have to try that really good expensive place when I get home ;)

I also got a phonecall from the members in my old area, Peso da Régua, they tracked me down :)

They called to tell me that an Investigator that I found with Elder Gilbert is getting baptised this weekend! That was cool :)

TUESDAY: I don't remember a ton, but I do know that while we were out, Elder Orozco and I met this cool guy that turned out to be a member, his name was Bruno. So we marked a time to come back and talk to him another night.

WEDNESDAY: yeah...don't remember much about this day...

THURSDAY: This was of the day of the mission leadership training, where all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders receive training from Presidente. Elder Orozco and I stop to get a pastry on the way to the office, because we're walking and...pastry. So as we're arriving at the office, Elder McGhie calls and tells me Presidente wants to speak to me real quick, so were have to hurry and drop our stuff off, and then go over to the chapel (just down the street from the office). Presidente then sends me to cut down a forest while he has me print out 150 copies of a 5 page packet, staple them and put them in plastic sheets and then kill another forest by printing 1,200 copies of a one page sheet. Luckily I had Elder Orozco and Elder and Sister Ashby to help out :)

But on the brightside, they were the best 3 chocolate croissants of my life. They made in like you make a cinnamon role. mmmmm! so good :)

FRIDAY: Nothing too fun, Elder Krull ended up doing a division with Elder Orozco because Elder McGhie(Elder Krull's comp) went down to Santarém on AP business. So I chilled with Hicks and Merkle all day, We went out and found some pretty cool people actually! Elder Krull Orozco and I had and AWESOME lesson with this one kid Gabriel, who's be struggling to know if God exists or not. He said after the lesson it was the best he'd ever felt with the missionaries.

I don't know if I mentioned about Amelia last week but Elder Merkle and Hicks and I went to teach her about the Restoration of the gospel and she was teaching us about it too! She told us she wants to quit her 1 cigarette and 1 cup of coffee per day so she can be baptized and go and be a missionary without us saying anything. Basically she's already planning her baptism. This was only the second time we'd sat down with her! :) She's really cool :)

So there's my week in detail! Miss you all! Hope you have a great week yourselves!

Um GRANDE Abraço!

Elder Buchanan