Adjustments and Challenges

Here we are by our church building.

March began with our family birthday party on the 1st. We had a great time. It is wonderful being able to attend these now after mission two years of them.

Isn't she a charmer?

Spooner in uniform.

The week following our MTC experience was quite busy with mission meetings. We had a mission-wide conference and some training sessions for the missionaries receiving their iPads. This mission received their mission-issued iPads that week, culminating with a setup meeting on the 6th.

Sisters Reed and Stewart with us

One of the activities in a zone meeting

We also had a number of meetings with bishoprics and ward councils, receiving lists of people who we should start visiting. We visited some of them over the past two weeks.

Also, the past two Sundays we taught the missionary preparation class for the stake. We invited all of the students and had a great showing the first week (March 8) with 20 in attendance. They were very enthusiastic and the class was fun. There are some young people who are nearly ready to serve missions, including two young men entering their missions in the new few weeks, and also young people as young as twelve years old. One of our young men will be serving in Columbia and another in London, England.

Also during this time, we attended the production of the play "Jane Eyre" put on by the homeschool group, our granddaughter having written the script and several of the grandchildren performing (as well as out daughter). It was a wonderful performance. This was also on the 6th of March.

Our oldest granddaughter, also known as Avot, wrote and performed in the play.

Our daughter (on the left) was a narrator, a grandson is shown here in one of his several roles (sitting in the left chair).

Our grandson, known as Lek, standing over Goob who is in another role, injured and laying on the floor.

The play is over. It was a great success!

In our visits, we have had some nice times getting to know people. Most have welcomed us, but a few have been less open to us, which is to be expected. Many of our people have some serious difficulties in their lives, and really need the help of the Lord. We have had some wonderful meetings, feeling the Spirit of the Lord in our times with them.

On Sunday, the 8th, including our mission prep class, we had 9 events on our calendar. Our day started with an early meeting (after losing the government-mandated hour) at 7:30, another meeting at 8:15 and then our sacrament meeting at 9. We left that meeting a little early in order to get to Midway, Utah for another sacrament meeting - a mission report for Elder Benjamin Wasden. That was a great meeting. We hurried from that meeting to get back to West Jordan for the ward conference of the 44th ward, then went to a quick appearance of a birthday party (the son of a less-active family), then we had mission prep class. In the evening we went to Ogden to visit Irina, a member we were close to in Germany.

Last Sunday (yesterday, the 15th) was also busy. We also had a mission report, in Tooele, for Zach Thompson. We loved his talk. We also had a beautiful mission prep class, about 20 again in attendance.

Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to take the Spanish elders to Temple square with an investigator and her daughter. It was beautiful hearing them taught in Spanish and then go through one of the presentations there (also in Spanish).

I included the word "Challenges" in the title. We still have been experiencing some sickness. I have had a problem with coughs and sickness. It hit me first as we were leaving Germany in December. It hit me again as we were in Oregon. It hit me again on March 7th and lasted a while. I hope it is finally over. It has been hard to serve. I know the Lord will bless us.

Well, that was quite a bit. I did not realize that I had collected so much to share. The last picture shows a water-color painting Shauna received before we left Germany. We had it professionally framed and it is hanging with another in our how. We love Lothar, the artist who painted it, and taught Shauna how to paint. My has our lives changed because of our missions. It is wonderful!

Begin the Mission (2) - the MTC

This past week we were at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah. It was a wonderful week. We opted to return home every day rather than stay in the MTC housing. It meant that we needed to be up every morning by 6 AM. Other than Tuesday, we were home by about 5:00 - 5:30 PM.

Basically, we had a combination of group sessions where all senior missionaries of our entry date meet together for training, then we spend a lot of time in our "districts" receiving individual training. The training is from the Preach My Gospel manual and we worked a lot in doing role-plays of how to get to know people, how to listen and to determine what is needed in our teaching. Even though role-playing involves some pretending - taking parts, it is amazing how much the Spirit of the Lord is with us in the process. We all learn a great deal in the process.

On Tuesday evening we attended a devotional, with Elder Caussé as the main speaker. His wife also spoke and talked about superheroes, especially missionaries. She spoke of the missionaries who converted her family in France. She spoke about how influential the missionaries are. He spoke about his experiences as a new Seventy, especially mentioning his experiences with traveling with President Packer to a Stake Conference. Elder Packer taught them principles, especially the second chapter of First Corinthians. The main theme is that we do no rely on our own wisdom in our work and teaching, but upon the Spirit. Humility is the key. We do not rely on our personal abilities, but upon God. He talked with us about being bold as missionaries, but bold in being true to the direction of the spirit, not in our own strength and knowledge. He told the story of Enzio Busche in his first encounter with the missionaries, especially that the elder was very positive, even when Enzio said he would not be interested in joining the church. Being bold is being humble and obedient. He quoted the end of D & C 121, about the strength we receive by being virtuous, giving us confidence through the spirit. He also quoted President Monson, "When you are on the Lord's errand, you are entitles to his help." At the end, he played a piano duet with a man he met in Rome, Italy, the music was an arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" and "The Spirit of God." It was wonderful.

We especially enjoyed getting to know the other missionary couples and some of the couples who came to give us guidance. One of the couples gave their name in the introduction, mentioning that the name, Finlinson, came from Oak City. I instantly realized that he must be a relative. I soon discovered that he is my second cousin, his grandmother, Ida Jane was the sister to my grandfather, Eddie Mathias Jacobson. We enjoyed talking about our shared ancestry and our similar mission assignments.

One of the couples in our "district" is Elder and Sister Towers. He has served as president of the Cambodia mission a number of years ago and will be serving with his wife in Hong Kong. They will be assigned to the Victoria 2nd Branch running the "Everyday" church. They will be taking care of setting up and running 3-hour block meetings on Tuesdays through Saturdays for the domestic workers, mostly from Philippines who work in the homes in Hong Kong. These women do not usually have Sunday's off.

This whole experience really gives us a spiritual boost in preparation for our upcoming service. Sister B and also learned better how to teach together. We are looking forward to a wonderful time in service.

The pictures in this blog entry are of people we spent time with this week. As you can probably imagine, this mission may not have the same type of landscape pictures that we had in our mission in Germany. Oh well. The experiences will still be wonderful.

This is our district, posing in front of the famous world map at the MTC:

The Fenskes, the Buchanans and the Towers.

My newly discovered second cousin and his wife.

Our district with our morning instructors, Sister Yazzie on the left end and Brother Smith on the right

Our afternoon instructors, Elders Swallow (l) and Teuscher(r).

The White Envelope ...

Well, the long anticipated white envelope arrived in the mail today.

We have been officially called to serve a mission again. We are excited!

We will be serving as full-time, set-apart missionaries in the Utah Salt Lake City South mission for 18 months. We are to serve as MLS, or Member, Leader Support missionaries. That means that we are going to serve while living at home. Our work will be in support of the Ward and Branch councils of the Wards and Branch within our own stake - focused on re-activation.

We have met others who are doing this same kind of mission and generally hear that it is a very rewarding, though difficult mission. Our bishop has already assigned us to work with some members and we have had some wonderful experiences in the work.

We will report at the MTC in Provo for 5 days of training, starting February 23rd.

As you can probably expect, the blogs in the future may not be quite as entertaining, since we are not traveling much and are within our own culture (basically). One of our units is a Spanish Branch, so we will also be involved with them.

We are very happy to again be serving the Lord in the capacity of missionaries. The blessings are in describable.

(Soon to be again)  Elder and Sister Buchanan

Getting caught up at the end of the year...

Well, as you can probably guess, we have been busy at home getting adjusted and caught up with things.

Of course, jet lag, along with some sickness, made it hard to get adjusted, but we are doing OK now. Both Shauna and I have been to all our doctors and are doing OK. It has been two years since we have been checked, so that was a good reason to see doctors and dentist, but we also pushed through mission papers and now have submitted everything, including the doctor reports.

We have had a wonderful time with family. The family served us a belated Thanksgiving dinner on the Sunday following our return. Also, we have had a number of family activities and are loving it. Jon and his family came from Oregon the day after Christmas and have been staying with us most of the time before they return home at the end of this week.

Shauna and I received an assignment to visit some members of the ward as special representatives of him and we have enjoyed being back in service.

Also, shortly after arriving home, a young lady we met in Germany came to the US to see the marriage of her friend. She stayed with us a couple of days and was present at our homecoming Sacrament Meeting on the 14th.

I thought this picture of us arriving at the airport on the 2nd was good to see.

Here is Elisa as she visited us.

It was wonderful to see our mountains again. They are not the alps, but they are home.

Home again

I thought I should write something to let you all know we are home and getting adjusted to things after our mission. It has been a bit difficult getting up to speed, though we are quickly getting things done.

Here are a few farewell pictures we got just before leaving.

We arrived in the evening on Tuesday (Dec 2), very tired. I developed a bad cold just as we were leaving Ravensburg, so it was a bit harder to adjust, but nonetheless, we were very happy to see family as we were greeted at the airport in Salt Lake.

Since arriving, we tried to get some rest. The Jet lag really took its toll on us, especially me with my cold. Still, we were able to get our needed tasks accomplished, including Credit Union, getting new phones (send me email to get new phone numbers), replaced drivers licenses (Ravensburg made us surrender our US licenses in order to receive the German licenses), Car insurance, family visits, etc.
Actually, she was not able to get hers quite yet, but it is coming. Also, the insurance ran into a hiccup as well. Our sons worked to get us a new (2011) car, and it is very nice.

We were released as missionaries on Wednesday. That was difficult. We are no longer Elder and Sister B.

We are really missing our friends and loved ones in Ravensburg. Sister B. (she is still Sister B.) said yesterday that she really missed the German and did a run on DuoLingo. We have been able to do a little communicating with some of our people over email and Skype.

We have had two wonderful family activities so far. Our granddaughter was baptized on Saturday and many of the family were there.

Our youngest granddaughter still is not sure about us. She only saw us briefly in August, so we are just learning to know each other better.

Our wonderful granddaughter and her father - after the baptism.

We had a "Thanksgiving" dinner together with family on Sunday evening and all the family that live here were with us. It was a wonderful evening.

Thanks to everyone who has prayed for us and supported us through this transition. Next Sunday we have our mission report in our ward. I hope you all can be there to see us. We are meeting at our home afterwards.

Food and Farewells

Well, it has been a crazy week. Our replacement couple, Elder and Sister Hicks arrived on Tuesday evening. Before and after, we have been trying to see some people we may not be able to see again before we go home. It has been fun helping the Hicks' get acquainted with some of our good friends. On Wednesday we had a Thanksgiving dinner for our district meeting. That night we had a good Institute class. Thursday, we visited one of our most interesting "less-active" member. That night we needed to the run the genealogy center. Friday, we did a number of long distance visits. Today, we held a Thanksgiving dinner for the branch and friends. We cooked two turkeys and had many pies, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing and many more things, Sister B doing most of the cooking and preparation. We had 40 people there, more than we ever have had at church meetings before.

It has been hard knowing that we will not see many of these people again.

A couple of the people were not expected to come and we were overwhelmed with joy when we saw them.

We had some to dinner with us on Sunday. Every week we have someone for dinner.

District meeting Thanksgiving.

Working today in the kitchen.

food served in the hallway

and eaten in the chapel area (many were still in the hallway).

Mission meetings, local market, sunset, etc.

So, this is a collection of other pictures summarizing more of our activities in the past week or so.

We had stake conference on the 8th and 9th and then a zone training meeting on the 11th, so that accounted for 3 more trips to Switzerland. Also, I have a few pictures of us taking Sister Pabel to the local market. It runs pretty much year round and we have become friends with a number of the farmers and merchants.

It is always fun having three elders in the back of our little Opel Corsa. Elder Wulff on the left is now in America. He was here waiting for his Visa to be completed and is going to the New York New York North Mission.

 Riding the ferry on one of our trips to conference.

After conference, the Wijsbeek family invited us to lunch. Here is Elder Smith drawing a pig with his eyes closed (a requirement at the Wijsbeek house).

A beautiful family.

Some pictures of missionaries at Zone Training meeting in St. Gallen, Switzerland

Elder and Sister Schwabe

All of us.

A nice sunset on the Bodensee (Lake Constance) near Bregenz, Austria.

Taking Sister Pabel to the marketplace.