No News is Good News

OI!

Crazy week here at the MTC!

So today is my p-day, because I was SUPPOSED to leave tomorrow. But now I'm not. I shall relate this interesting tale to you all.

Portugal is supposed to be the easiest country to get visas from. They're supposed to take a month. I was told "no news is good news."

Then this last Thursday I received a reassignment along with everyone else going to Portugal, because I had not received my visa. I was assigned to Labor in Provo, Utah. Yeah...yuck it up :P Well then we found out that there was a possibility that they could be approved the next day and sure enough! I got my visa! There were 5 people who didn't get theirs. My companion was one of them. He left this morning for Bakersfield, CA. 

We on the other hand, have been waiting for our visas to arrive. They were hoping they'd get here today. But alas, they did not. So I am packed and ready to go, but instead I don't leave until Wednesday haha (hopefully!)

So we shall see. I'll send a short update tomorrow, maybe. If I'm allowed.

It's so strange to see this time I've had here come to an end. It's amazing how fast, and yet how slow 7 weeks have come and gone. Time flies when you look back. I have very few regrets from my time here, and hope to learn from that to come home form this mission with no regrets. I'm getting much better at portuguese and improve leaps and bounds each day. Honestly, I know I could not do this without Gods help.

I love being out here, and can't wait to get out to teach everyone I can, in my broken Portuguese that Christ Lives. To share the amazing message of His gospel. I hope all of you know that's why I'm out here. Because I have a testimony of Jesus Christ and of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints(A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias), and I want to share it with others.

I love you all. I miss you very much. Have an amazing week and find something to be happy about! I promise you'll be blessed :)

Love,

Elder Buchanan

District - Elders Simpson, Jones, Masubelele, Bullock,
Massey, Maake, Gee, Buchanan

             

MTC Zone - 5/6 districts (missing 14 missionaries)

It's A Small World

Hey everyone!

Start of the final week of the CTM! I'm both ready AND nervous to get out there. It'll be awesome to get on the continent, but at the same time, I still only have a 4-year-old's grasp of Portuguese so... theres that haha. I'm getting better though!

It was a week of exciting chance meetings. I found myself face to face with my old Bishop, Dave Oldham! It was fun to see him again. I re-met an Elder Blaylock that my mother claims I knew when I was 3 ;) Met the nephew of Sean Morrison from my ward, Elder Morrison also happens to be in the stake of Elder Jones, a member of my district,  and then I met the brother of a sister missionary (Paxman) who served in Damascus ward not too long ago! Crazy stuff right there :) Mormons. It's a small world after all haha!

I'm getting ready to depart this place and have even gotten my travel plans. I think I forgot to mention previously that my mission is going to be split in half in July! We'll get two new mission presidents in Portugal and be reassigned to Porto, or Lisbon Missions! Cool stuff :) They both have cool aspects, so I don't mind either!

Three missionaries who were supposed to go to Brazil, but didn't get their visas were reassigned this week, they left yesterday! And guess where they're coming? Portland Oregon Mission :) Told them it was the best reassignment ever! haha So be on the look out for Elders Bulher and Hunt and a Sister Lee! They all served with me here in the MTC :)

Elders Buhler, Buchanan, and Hunt

I'm glad to be here. I love serving the Lord from the moment I wake up until the moment I fall asleep. I'm excited to get out there and find the people that are waiting for the message that I can bring them.

I love you all! I hope your lives are great, and you're not missing me too much ;)

Boa sorte!
Elder Buchanan

Lots of Plot

Hi everyone! :)

What to talk about this week? Lots of plot, not enough details.

Classes are the usual, trying to stay sane whilst our teachers pile ANOTHER few rules about Portuguese on top of us, whilst we drown. And then there's the irregular ones that don't follow the rules :) So all in all...eh.

Last week we got to hear from Elder Russell M. Nelson again(since he's the head of the Missionary council, he likes it here :) ) He asked us if we were prepared because not too long ago he gave his talk about, "Ask the missionaries. They can help you!" haha so that was a cool talk. You can tell he loves missionary work.

I have made a friend whom Elder Scott introduced me to, and he left today. His name's Elder Wilson and he's pretty awesome :) He's Canadian. Thought that was important.

So yeah...same old, same old. I'm sorry that's not a huge update, I'll try to maybe write a mass letter my mom can put out. I'll try to think of more stuff to say! :)

Just know that I'm well, its hard, but I love it. I love learning ways I can help others Come unto Christ. and I "love" learning Portuguese :) I'm where I'm supposed to be.

I miss you all and hope you're doing well. Have a fantastic week! Hope to hear from some of you, and will try to write as well.

tchiao!
Elder Buchanan

Rapito Speaking

Oi!

Just another riveting week in the CTM (or MTC for those of you quem fala ingles).

I'm excited because I'm singing in the Choir at the Tuesday Night Devotional! Our MTC president is getting released so it'll be an interesting time.

I forgot to mention that last Wednesday I had the opportunity to be a new Missionary host. I essentially rip these elders from their families and show them where their room is, get them their books and bring them to their classrooms. It was a pretty good experience! I actually got a DearElder letter from one of the mom's of an Elder I hosted. It warmed my heart :) That Elder was also one of the nicest guys I've met too.

I got my haircut today! So that's honestly something exciting haha. When you're on a routine, any break from that rut is News :)

On Fridays, we have the opportunity to do something called TRC which is when real volunteers come in to hear a 20 minute lesson from the Elders and/or Sisters. We ended up teaching two returned Missionaries both who served in Brazil. We taught them and surprisingly, despite his Brazilian accent and rapido speaking, I understood the first brother we taught. It was a good lesson. The second one went even better. It was a good teaching experience.

Portuguese is a very hard language. But it's getting there!

Also...DearElder is a site where you can type letters and they'll get to me the same day. So if you wanted to...yeah :) I'm always begging for letters but ah yeah :)

I love you all! Miss everyone. Wish I could write you but I forgot all my addresses!

Ok I'll talk to you in a week!

tchaou!
Elder Buchanan

Leaps and Bounds

Oi!

I hope everyone's doing well! Just sitting here doing my laundry...I certainly appreciate having a mum to do it for me at home :)

Not too much of interest, other than last week I forgot to mention that we had a devotion with David Archuleta! That was cool. He sang hymns that bore his testimony in a way. 

We got a new Teacher yesterday, Irma Wells was reassigned this semester to a new district who will come in the Wednesday after we leave, so in the meantime she'll be like a floating teacher. BUT we still have Irmao Lemperle who is awesome. Our new teacher is Irma Lewis whom I didn't get to meet because Elder Gee got sick. So I had to hang out in the residence with him all day. I was rescued by Elder Jones to go to gym while Elder Simpson stayed with Elder Gee which was nice. I just stayed in my room and read my scriptures/tried to study the language.

Portuguese is coming along great! I'm not amazing, but I've definitely seen a few leaps and bounds, which is cool.

Shout out to Rachel Lawrence and a belated Happy Birthday!

Second shout out to the Card family for their Christmas Card :)

Third shout out to Bill and Leanne Miller for their Christmas Card! :)

I was able to find Elder Anderson, which was awesome! And then again on Sunday, where we got a picture.

Speaking of pictures I am very mad because I deleted a bunch of my favorites that I planned on sending >:( Oh well...

Hope you all have a good week!

Send me letters! I don't have access to anyone address, but you all have mine :P But seriously, it's nice to get letters. And emails! I love you all!

With love,
Elder Buchanan

"they make me happy [not homesick] because I get to see their faces"

"something as simple as bouncing a ball
can relieve stress in this place"

"My socks have already got some holes!"

Utah, the Armpit of the USA

Hey everyone!!!

Another fabulous week here in the Provo MTC, in Utah, the Armpit of the USA. But honestly, I still hate Utah more than ever. Even when it rains it's still like 5% humidity. And I just really miss Oregon water. There's  nothing else like it. But enough complaining! 

Another exciting week, like I said. So, technically this is my third week. Because they count your first 4 days as a week. Our "investigator" is now actually our Teacher! His name is Irmao Lemperle. He's a really cool and its weird when he breaks into English sometimes. He served his mission in Portugal too, so that's awesome. Irma Wells is pretty good at the accent. We have 2 new investigators to teach so that's new, we switch off each day.

We found out Irma Wells is actually no longer going to be our teacher in two weeks because her school schedule is too full so we're all kinda sad. She was all our first friend here, so we're a bit attached.

OO! There's a new solo Elder coming into our residence room tomorrow. We don't know anything about him but it should be cool. I guess someone's gonna be a tri-panionship.

Sunday for our devotional we had the organist for the MoTab, who's name escapes me and DAVID ARCHULETA!!!! It was so cool. And at the end he sang Hark All Ye Nations (which is one of my favorites) and on the last verse, we all stood and sang with him. And, oh it gave me chills. It was amazing.

There's honestly not much besides that other than I would LOVE some letters :) And an hour to read and write isn't enough. And DearElder gets them too me the same day so... :)

Love you all!

Love, Elder Buchanan

a snow pesquisador

Elders Buchanan, Gee, Simpson, and Jones

Weeks Like Days and Days Like Weeks

Oi!! (means Hi)

Man what a crazy week I've had. They were right when they said weeks will feel like days and days feel like weeks. Because it feels like I just got here, but some of those days never seemed to end. Who knew you could get so much accomplished in a day when you wake up at 6:30am and don't stop to breath until 10:30pm? I didn't :P This is a definite trial against my laziness, but I've adjusted fast. For someone like me it’s hard to be upbeat and positive and around lots of people for 16 hours a day, but I'm adjusting quick.

On my first day it was like being thrown into a whirlwind. Not 10 minutes after saying goodbye to my family do I hear a familiar voice shout, "ELDER BUCHANAN!!!!" I am then wrapped in an enormous bear hug by none other than Elder Scott. He relieved my original host of me and proceed to guide me through the MTC. We parted and I met my Teacher, Sister Wells. Irma Wells in Portuguese. She speaks nothing but Portuguese in class, but somehow through the miracle of high school French and Jacob's Portugese lessons, I was able to figure out/guess what she was saying.

Our class makes up our "district" We're in district D. Which composes of 4 West US missionaries, two Canadians and  two South Africans. My Companions name is Elder Gee. (Not "G" but the guttereal Gee), we room with the two other Americans, Elder Jones and Elder Simpson who are also going to Portugal with us. The other room is all going to Capo Verdi which is off the west coast of Africa and speaks continental Portuguese as well. They are Elder Bullock from Canada and Elder Mesubelele (that’s a hard one) from Africa de Sou, and Elder Massey (Mass-e) from Canada and Elder Maake (M-aack-e) from Africa de Sou. They are all powerful misionados despite they're faults. We have a powerful District.

Our 2 day we found out that on our 3rd day we would be teaching an pesquisador (investigator). His name is Jose and and we learned a bit about him, as if his friend had refered us. Our First lesson we taught him about baptism and it went over like hot cakes! Our next two have turned out even better and this last one we taugh without a scripted lesson. We really are taking control of the language.

well all out of time, tchao for now!
Elder Buchanan