New Zone Leaders in Porto

Hey everyone!
Sorry I couldn't write last week and this week will only be a brief look into my week.

I finally left Porto 1 and where did I go? Porto 2!!! haha :) I served here for six weeks last August, so lots of people still remember me which is nice. I've been called to serve as Zone Leader of Porto with my new companion Elder Zanni! He's from Argentina. So I'm taking advantage and trying to learn some Spanish to complement my Portuguese haha

Elder Zanni's an awesome missionary. Super funny, loves to laugh, hard worker!
President gave us the challenge to be perfect examples for our Zone because he needs 100% obedience to missionary rules leaders. So that's what we've been doing!

We're doing a white wash here. We work in more suburban part of Porto, closer to Matosinhos and Amial. The last Elders left us some contacts to work with but not much so we're working hard to find people to teach and bring to church!

I'm having a great week :) We live in a house with Elder Bortolo an awesome Brazilian and Elder Wanlass, an awesome American, who's hilarious.

Have a great week!

Abraço,
Elder Buchanan

                                  

Elders Zanni, Buchanan, Bortolo and Wanlass

Dia de Portugal!

You guys!
Today is Portugal day! How cool is that?! What? What's Portugal day? ...I actually have no idea. These people have like 6 "Independence" days. All I can say is that if Aliens invaded Portugal, it's a good chance they could call it Independence Day 2 haha

Today is also the day Elder Morrison hits a year in the mission! (I hit 6 months until I go home this last Tuesday!) So to celebrate, we're gonna take part of our pday and go on a hike! It's easy because our area is so huge it's really hard to go outside of it! haha We'll see how my back holds up, it shouldn't be too much uphill, relatively flat. I haven't been feeling much better, however...but maybe this'll strengthen the muscles. Or make them worse haha...:/

I'm gonna be honest with y'all...I had a good story to tell, I know it. And I thought about it like yesterday...but now I can't remember what it was...A HA! Remembered :)

SO! I'm getting physical therapy right? It's at the clinic in the Porto Stadium. The PT area isn't like an appointment with you and the therapist one on one. It's an open area, run by a doctor, but then there are a bunch of people walking around who do the thearapy. Well...normally it's the same person who does mine, but I mean there are people that aid in the smaller stuff.

Anyway. I go to physical therapy and then I leave. That evening we go to Gondomar to do some searching for new people to talk with. So we start ringing some doorbells, one guy let's us in, but it's only to tell us politly, face to face that he's a Jehova's Whitness and he doesn't want anything. So we're like..ok. But we're still in the building so we start knocking his neighbors that we hadn't rang already. We get to the last door. And a lady opens the door, and I just kinda stare at her and she stares at me for a couple seconds and then she's just like, "...I know you..."
YOU GUYS! She works at the clinic! haha! Oh man it was hilarious! It's really easy to remember the guy that comes in a white shirt and tie to do physical therapy haha
So I was like, "Yeah! I'm actually a missionary! We talk to people about Jesus Christ!...Can we share a message?" She was on the phone and so we said we'd try another day haha. Saw her on Wednesday at the clinic though haha...awkward.

But that's ok, the gospel isn't convenient. But it is true!

I hope y'all have a great week! I'll send some pictures next week!

Abraço,

Elder Buchanan

Trapped in a Portuguese Elevator

So the day after I wrote last week's email, I actually was finally stuck in an elevator for the first time, not only in Portugal, but in my life.
And let me tell you about the elevators here. They're not like the ones back home. They are a tiny box, big enough for four people to squish in. There is no double door that closes, no. It's a metal swinging door, that will lock, and then you move along the wall! BLAH! So we had five Elders. The elevator was going down and got stuck! It was 9:30 pm haha Luckily we were close enough to a door that when the technition opened it, we could get out. weew haha, we were there for almost an hour. And it got super hot. :P
Don't want to go through that again haha pretty funny experience.

We taught Rui twice this week! We taught him about the Book of Mormon and HE ACTUALLY READ THE CHAPTER WE LEFT HIM! It was awesome. He's says, "I believe basically everything you're saying. And the stuff I don't is because its "formal" and I'm an informal guy." haha :) he doesn't want to do it because there's "ceremony" attached to it! haha so we'll be talking about that. He invited us to dinner!

This week has been good :) Hope y'all have a good week! Send me a note if you will :) love to have an update!

Abraço,
Elder Buchanan