Two Stake Activity
Elder Zanni and I manned the front door of the party
Everybody's dancing
My son came too!
Portugal Lisbon Mission
Monday, September 26, 2016
Monday, September 19, 2016
Missionary life is life
Well I'm now serving in the fantastic area of......................(dramatic drum roll) PORTO 2! Yes that's right I stayed! And I'm serving with............................(another drum roll) ELDER ZANNI! Yeah so that was a weird transfer to see. But the Lord wants me to stay in Porto for more than a year I guess :) It's ok, I'll get to baptize the cool families that we met :) Elder Zanni is from Argentinea, his parents are serving as the mission presidente in the Argentina, Rosario mission. He's very passionate for the gospel, he likes to make a lot of dad jokes haha.
Our ward got a new bishop! That was cool! :) I didn't say that last week. Irmão Vanderley. He's from São Tomé a small island off the coast of Africa. There are two, São tomé and Prícipe. Saint Thomas and Prince haha :) He gave a fantastic talk on Sunday, spectacular. I really saw the mantle of a bishop fall on him.
We met an lady that had been baptised with 8 years and then just went inactive (stupid missionaries) but she let us come in and teach her breifly and her kids. We'll have to pass her to the sisters because there's no man in the house, but she's super cool :)
Saturday Elder Zanni felt really sick but we still went out and we taught a super cool African family. She just invited us in (we'd talked to her and her husband earlier) even though she had visitors and just let us have a lesson haha :) super cool :) I don't think I'd do that even being a member haha.
But the super cool thing was that our investigator that had broken her knee (wasn't really broken) we saw her in the street! we were like you're out of the hospital! and she was like yeah! I was hoping you'd come by my house this week! She had accepted to be baptized and immediately after lost two relatives and her dog knocked her down hurting her knees. But she's doing ok now! :) still needs to be operated but getting around :) we're gonna teach her tomorrow :)
Missionary life is life!
Our ward got a new bishop! That was cool! :) I didn't say that last week. Irmão Vanderley. He's from São Tomé a small island off the coast of Africa. There are two, São tomé and Prícipe. Saint Thomas and Prince haha :) He gave a fantastic talk on Sunday, spectacular. I really saw the mantle of a bishop fall on him.
We met an lady that had been baptised with 8 years and then just went inactive (stupid missionaries) but she let us come in and teach her breifly and her kids. We'll have to pass her to the sisters because there's no man in the house, but she's super cool :)
Saturday Elder Zanni felt really sick but we still went out and we taught a super cool African family. She just invited us in (we'd talked to her and her husband earlier) even though she had visitors and just let us have a lesson haha :) super cool :) I don't think I'd do that even being a member haha.
But the super cool thing was that our investigator that had broken her knee (wasn't really broken) we saw her in the street! we were like you're out of the hospital! and she was like yeah! I was hoping you'd come by my house this week! She had accepted to be baptized and immediately after lost two relatives and her dog knocked her down hurting her knees. But she's doing ok now! :) still needs to be operated but getting around :) we're gonna teach her tomorrow :)
Missionary life is life!
Here are some pictures from last week when we went to the Dragon Stadium.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Back in Black
I apologize for the rareness of an email from me now-of-days! I hope you are well. I wanted to write an update to fill you in on my life and the last few weeks of my mission! We've reached the end of a transfer! Wow!
What a wonderful transfer this has been. Elder Zanni and I have worked together the last 12 weeks at it's been a lot of fun. I feel like we've been become good friends :) We joke and laugh and have fun! We've met a bunch of very cool families! :) One of them came to church. Vitor, Patrícia and Leonor. Leonor is eight and adorable. She's one of those adult children and looks just like Patrícia haha. Vitor works for the alarm company and has been to several of our chapels because of the alarms haha. Patrícia wasn't able to come because she works on Sundays but Leonor and Vítor had a great time. It was great. Leonor leaned over to me after the first hymn and asked, "when are we going to sing again?" haha then the wife of one of the members of the stake presidency was sitting with her 4 daughters while he had to be on the stand, 3 super young and she was having trouble keeping them reverent and at one point she put her head in her hands, Leonor leans over and whispers, "It must be hard having 4 daughters." haha!! I was like, how old are you again? :)
This week we had the privilege to have a missionary meetings with Elder G. Craig Zwick and his wife. Elder Zwick is one of the Presidents of the Quorum of the Seventy and the Head of the missionary department. It was a very spiritual meeting :) I learned that obedience is the first law of EVERYthing. When we follow the commandments of God, everything else is secondary but will all fall into place. When I explain that to people we teach I explain it like I learned from a young men's leader: The commandments of God are like various golf balls, and everything else in our life, like a bunch of sand. The golf balls are fewer but larger, because they are more important. The sand is small, but there are lots of them. If we imagine a jar as our life, if we fill the jar with sand, there's no space left for the golf balls. You can't jam 'em in. But if you put the golf balls in first, all of the sand will take its place around them and it will all fit. Obedience to God's laws bring innumerous blessings.
When we put God first, he puts us first. I know because I know he is our
Heavenly Father. and He loves us.
That was really what was taught with Elder Zwick, but it's one of the small things I learned expanded. I learned a lot :)
I'm excited to find out if I'll go or stay here in Porto. Either way I'll be happy :)
Have a great week!
Grande Abraço,
Elder Buchanan
What a wonderful transfer this has been. Elder Zanni and I have worked together the last 12 weeks at it's been a lot of fun. I feel like we've been become good friends :) We joke and laugh and have fun! We've met a bunch of very cool families! :) One of them came to church. Vitor, Patrícia and Leonor. Leonor is eight and adorable. She's one of those adult children and looks just like Patrícia haha. Vitor works for the alarm company and has been to several of our chapels because of the alarms haha. Patrícia wasn't able to come because she works on Sundays but Leonor and Vítor had a great time. It was great. Leonor leaned over to me after the first hymn and asked, "when are we going to sing again?" haha then the wife of one of the members of the stake presidency was sitting with her 4 daughters while he had to be on the stand, 3 super young and she was having trouble keeping them reverent and at one point she put her head in her hands, Leonor leans over and whispers, "It must be hard having 4 daughters." haha!! I was like, how old are you again? :)
This week we had the privilege to have a missionary meetings with Elder G. Craig Zwick and his wife. Elder Zwick is one of the Presidents of the Quorum of the Seventy and the Head of the missionary department. It was a very spiritual meeting :) I learned that obedience is the first law of EVERYthing. When we follow the commandments of God, everything else is secondary but will all fall into place. When I explain that to people we teach I explain it like I learned from a young men's leader: The commandments of God are like various golf balls, and everything else in our life, like a bunch of sand. The golf balls are fewer but larger, because they are more important. The sand is small, but there are lots of them. If we imagine a jar as our life, if we fill the jar with sand, there's no space left for the golf balls. You can't jam 'em in. But if you put the golf balls in first, all of the sand will take its place around them and it will all fit. Obedience to God's laws bring innumerous blessings.
When we put God first, he puts us first. I know because I know he is our
Heavenly Father. and He loves us.
That was really what was taught with Elder Zwick, but it's one of the small things I learned expanded. I learned a lot :)
Elder Zwick and Elder Buchanan
I'm excited to find out if I'll go or stay here in Porto. Either way I'll be happy :)
Have a great week!
Grande Abraço,
Elder Buchanan
We did an activity in the middle of Porto where we sang hymns and gave out the BoM and invited people to an activity at the end of the month! :)
Door made of cork
Monday, September 5, 2016
A long week, but a good one
This week's been a good week, it could have been a lot better, but it's been good :) We worked really hard this week to help our investigator, R., who's preparing to be baptized on Sunday! :) We've been making goals and working with him to quit smoking. He's been doing well. We took him with us to a baptism the other day in Foz do Douro and he really liked it and he went quite a long time without smoking! We keep trying to help him understand that he's stronger than the desire to smoke. He's gonna be baptized, Elder Zanni and I are doing we all we can to help him. He gave us his pack of cigarettes Saturday! It was awesome!
Elder Zanni hit a year mark this week :) so he burned a shirt and we helped haha, didn't burn down the house, cuz we have a patio!
We met a super cool family this week!!! Holy cow! The were a contact from last weekend, we stopped by on I think Tuesday, and the wife with whom we spoke wasn't there, but her husband was, super nice! That's so rare. Usually one's nice and the other doesn't like us! haha He said she wasn't there but we could come back on her day off (he's injured and not working) and talk! so cool! On Friday we had the greatest lesson with them!
He has a friend whom he's known for 7 years as a member of the church and he responds to several of the alarms that are in our church buildings haha :)
He wa so open and prayed with us and got emotional! She was quiet but open still that she didn't really trust God and the lesson was spiritual! She said she'd read and he did too, then their 8-year-old daughter piped up and said she would :) haha Vitor, Patrícia e Leonor.
This week has been a long one, but good :)
Elder Zanni hit a year mark this week :) so he burned a shirt and we helped haha, didn't burn down the house, cuz we have a patio!
We met a super cool family this week!!! Holy cow! The were a contact from last weekend, we stopped by on I think Tuesday, and the wife with whom we spoke wasn't there, but her husband was, super nice! That's so rare. Usually one's nice and the other doesn't like us! haha He said she wasn't there but we could come back on her day off (he's injured and not working) and talk! so cool! On Friday we had the greatest lesson with them!
He has a friend whom he's known for 7 years as a member of the church and he responds to several of the alarms that are in our church buildings haha :)
He wa so open and prayed with us and got emotional! She was quiet but open still that she didn't really trust God and the lesson was spiritual! She said she'd read and he did too, then their 8-year-old daughter piped up and said she would :) haha Vitor, Patrícia e Leonor.
This week has been a long one, but good :)
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