March 11, 2024
Hey Everyone!
Hope y'all had an awesome week! This was pretty good. It's kinda funny how the days can feel slow, but then it's already p-day.
This week was Zone Conference! It was a lot of fun and a lot of good Spirit. We were able to head down Tuesday evening and stay at the mission home so we wouldn't have to drive 4 hours in the early morning to be on time. I chose to leave behind a good pair of walking shoes because I thought we wouldn't do the morning walk the Gochnours do because of Zone Conference. Lo and behold, I was wrong. But I was able to keep up with Sister Gochour and one of the Spanish Elders the whole time. My calves were on FIRE! After ZC, our Zone met up at Raising Cane's for dinner, which was a blast. Just being able to be together for a bit longer was great. But it did cause us to not get back to Ashland until midnight. It didn't help that I was developing a cold all day, so I was dead tired.
The next fun thing was Saturday. We went out and did some service for the Rusts! They live in Iron River, which is a 40 minute drive from Ashland. Our branch reaches so far in every direction. In the morning Brother Rust checked in to see if we were coming, and then after we said yes, he said, "Also, here's dinner." and sent a picture of the hunk of pork he was smoking. The service wasn't even that bad, but the pay off of smoked pulled pork sandwiches was awesome. And Brother Rust has some awesome stories. We planned to leave at 6 and ended up talking til 7. Then when we shook hands at 7, we ended up chatting for another 40 minutes! It was a fantastic day!
Then we have the Sabbath, which is always good, no matter which way you spin it. But today was Charmaine and her kid's Confirmations. It is actually super special to be able to be a part of the circle to welcome someone fully into the church. We did end up having to do Charmaine's twice though, because Brother Wilber forgot to confirm her as a member before giving the Holy Ghost. But they each received beautiful blessings to go along with it. Her 6 year old didn't want to be left out, so we gave him a quick blessing. Then we had John's baptism. It was a great service. The ward mission leader, who has been giving John the rides to church, was the one to baptize John. The only issue was that John is a little taller than me, and Brother Cousineau is about shoulder height on me. Brother Cousineau said John is the tallest person he's baptized. And the baptism almost went bad, too. John's foot slipped out from under him in the font and almost caused him to catch the corner of the stairs with his head. Luckily, Brother Cousineau had a good hold on him and kept him safe. Then we did John's confirmation as well. I freaking love the Ashland branch. They've been so welcoming to our friends. We had a bit of a luncheon after, and Sister Mika, the Branch President's wife, made some butterscotch brownies and decorated it to welcome John. Too bad I didn't get a picture before the words got destroyed.
Which leads me to my invite this week. I'm inviting y'all to remember to be welcoming to those who are new somewhere. Whether it's church, a job, or team, it really affects the person's view of the thing they are walking into if the people there are wanting them to be there. Make people feel loved, and they want to stick around.
Love you all so much! Keep working hard and getting better!
Sincerely
Elder Buchanan
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