JACE - HOW IS IT ALMOST MARCH!?!?!

February 26, 2024

 Hey Everyone!

This week has been an interesting week. Had some ups and downs, but overall for the better.

We had some awesome lessons with our friends this week! Our lessons with Charmaine were mostly pointed at the kids, since we are trying to get them ready for baptism this Sunday. It was some fun stuff. We taught them the Law of Tithing by using marshmallows as the money and Kit-Kats as the blessings we get in return, cause Kit-Kats are better than marshmallows, of course. Charmaine and her 2 oldest had the interview yesterday, and they passed! So I ask for prayers for them this week, because Satan is gonna try even harder to keep them from the covenant and gift of the Holy Ghost.

Our couple of lessons with John this week were about the importance of baptism and temples. John is a freaking super star! He's finally clean from his Word of Wisdom issues as of Saturday. Next week we'll have his interview and then his baptism is on the 10th! Ashland is such a blessed place!

A fun thing that happened this week was on P-Day we went out west to Iron River to have dinner with the Rusts. They are a cute little family that actually only moved here in the last year from Utah. They made us an amazing chili that was sooo good, I had a second round. Needless to say, I got full that day. They even gave us a bunch of their fresh laid eggs and some stuff to make orange chicken. They are just so awesome. The whole branch is!

Now for my favorite spiritual moment. There is a less active member that lives in Bessemer that we go and have lessons with when we make it out that way. This last Saturday, we decided to read through "Think Celestial!" As we were doing so and discussing different points that Pres. Nelson brought up, his daughter was actually sitting and listening to us read and talk about it, and even went over to read it with her dad! Just proof that the words of the prophet and the Spirit will even get kids attention and testify of the truth to them. It was so cool! 

I hope we can be like that member's daughter and want to hear the good stuff and be drawn to it. I'm lucky for the privilege I have to be in the situation where I can focus on it all the time with the least distractions. Just remember to take the time to look for it in your lives, and I promise the Light of Christ and the Spirit will testify when you find that good stuff!

Have a good week! Love y'all!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan

JACE - 1st Transfer Down!

 February 19, 2024

Hey Everyone!

I've officially made it out here in Ashland for the first transfer! And we're staying for another. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here, because it feels just like Pinedale! The town, the members and I even get to stay on Lake Superior!

Ok, this week has some fun stuff to it. For P-Day this last week, we went and spent the last P-Day of the transfer with the district in Virginia! The only other time the district had been together was Zone Conference, so it was a nice hang out. We went to a member's place in Virginia. His name is Jim, and he is so freaking cool. He took Elder Parkin and I for a ride in his side-by-side around his property and maybe a little bit on a frozen lake...shhh. Then when the rest of the Elders made it there, we played a new card game named swoop a lot, had some bonding in the sauna, and then Jim made us pancakes. It was a fun time and I'm glad we had the opportunity to have at least one p-day together.

One super funny thing that happened this week was a less active member invited us to dinner. Actually, it was a little seminar thing at the clinic on the reservation about clinical trials that they were cooking for. So we got to go and have some spaghetti, learn info on clinical trials and diversity, and then we got a $25 Walmart gift card for doing the surveys for the thing. Needless to say, we went and did some "streeting in Walmart" afterwards. We also got that member to join us for a lesson with Charmaine, so that was great.

Best part of the week is always Sunday. We had Charmaine and her kids show up, and they had one of their cousins with them. That was so cool. Then a dude we've been talking/teaching for a while named Walker came to church, too. We were super happy to see him, but he had also brought his dad along! And they really liked sacrament meeting, even though they couldn't stay for second hour. But the best part happened after church. Charmaine had learned about blessings last week in relief society, and they had told her to ask us about them. She was super busy this week, so we were only able to see her once this week. We offered one to her, with the help of Brother Wilbur, and she also had her kids brought into the room. They sat in a circle and held hands, which was interesting, but I think it added to the Spirit. After we gave Charmaine her blessing, little Elijah said, "Me next!" We ended up giving blessings to all the kids, too! My chest was on fire the whole time, the Spirit was just so strong.

Again, I'm so glad to have been able to make it through the first transfer. I know I'm only just off the starting block, but I know if I hold to Heavenly and Christ I'll keep doing good things. I invite you guys to look for the little ways you can strengthen your relationship with Christ, whether it be remembering to pray more often or looking for the ways he blesses your life every day.

Love you guys!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan

JACE - Beginning Of The End... of my first transfer.

 2-12-24

Hey Everyone!

Hard to believe I'm already in the final week of my first transfer. Not too much exciting happened this week. We were invited to a family home evening with the Gochnours last p-day. That was a good time. Pretty much the whole point was reminding us that missions are hard and we have the capability to do hard things. It was good to see Elder Timothy after the little while of not seeing him. He seems to be gaining confidence and a better stature about him. We got to stay the night with a couple other sets of missionaries because we finished at 8 and our drive back to our area is 4 hours. Getting back, it was almost an average week. We had transfers with the Virginia Elders on Thursday, and I stuck around Ashland for that one. Elder Morris is a pretty cool guy, but was having some issues with staying on task doing Facebook. When he's actually doing a physical act, he's in it. 

Update on our people, Charmaine's date got pushed back a week, but only because we need to be able to teach her kids. She really wants to do the baptism as a family, so our lessons will be primarily focused on the kids. They are such an awesome family, and they seem to enjoy church. Of course, sitting through sacrament meeting can be hard for the younger ones, but they all like the classes in 2nd hour. And then there's John. He's so on the mark that we taught him the big three(being chastity, tithing and word of wisdom) and he already finding substutions for his Word of Wisdom problems and was on board for tithing and chastity. He's reason is, "It's about time I said thanks." So cool.

I've started doing the little personal study boxes they have for each section of Preach My Gospel as part of my studies, and it's really opened my eyes to the privilege I have to be on a mission. I get to be surrounded by the spirit so often and I know it's gonna be the thing I miss most at the end. It's also amazing the privilege we have a members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to have the have Holy Ghost. Moroni 10:5 says "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." I beg you all to not forget about that amazing privilege we have.

I've been so blessed in this area. Next transfer is shaping up for 4 baptisms, so I won't be surprised if I don't too many more the rest of the time. 

Love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan

JACE - A Full Month Already!?!

February 14, 2024 

Hey Everyone! 

It's been an awesome, spirit filled week! There isn't a lot of big fantastical events this time, but there is still stuff!

Our friend Charmaine is coming along really well. We might have to push back her baptism, which kinda sucks, but I think it'll be for the better. With more time, we can teach her kids more and get them on the same track to get baptized. It really is a wonder to see the Spirit work on work. She able to think of herself in a different light and even pray for those that offend her. She really is amazing.

We had our friend John come to church yesterday. We hadn't really been able to get a hold of him, because almost every time we would try to meet him he had some sort of excuse. But while we were on exchanges, Elder Parking and Elder Moulton got to actually have the sit down lesson with him and even put him on date! One of the things he was saying at church is that it's about time I give thanks to God in some way. He's great. I do think he's gonna need some prayers, because we all know the devil kicks it up a notch when we're reaching towards the right.

Our big miracle this week was actually with an inactive member. While we were out doing stopbys on Friday, I saw that we were near a family we had tried to stopby before. The first time, their son answered the door and said "not right now, but come back another time. My mom would love to talk to you guys." So we went over and knocked and then the dogs started barking and no one answered the door. So we were heading back to the car when we saw a car leaving from what looked like the house. As we made it to the car, Gunnar, the son, turned around and yelled at us saying that his mom was inside. So we went back, and lo and behold, Nona let us in to talk. With barely even knowing our names, she told us all about her, what she does on the reservation, and her high school aged kids. Gunnar had even made the front page of the paper. Then Elder Parkin had the thought to invite her to Charmaine's baptism. As soon as we told her Charmaine's name, she recognized and connected to who it was. And apparently Nona and Charmaine are friends! That connection being made was definitely why we had felt to go knock on this inactive member's door! We invited to joint teach Charmaine with us and she agreed. I think that because of that connection, we might be able to reactive this family. It was just a huge reminder of the fact that God knows where we are and who needs a pick-me-up.

Well, I think that's all for this week. I would appreciate prayers for all our friends. The devil will try to work his evil on them, so they will need all the help they can get. 

Love y'all!!!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan

JACE - Mall of America, Zone Conference and more!

January 29, 2024

Hey Everyone!

This week's been great! Lot's of fun things happened, so I'll try to figure out what to include!

Monday, for P-Day, President and Sister Gochnour let our zone come down and spend the night at the mission home, since we are so far away. On top of that, our district realized that since we were already gonna drive down and stay the night we could ask if we could come early and go to the Mall of America and actually be able to spend time together as a district. And they let us do it! So we were able to spend some time in the Mall and got to see the whole Nickelodeon theme park they have in there and the huge LEGO statues that surround the LEGO store. The only thing I bought this time around was a Sonic Minifigure keychain. It was very interesting seeing all the stores and just how easy you could lose your time in there. Kind of a lesson of keeping your eye on what's important, or the things of the world will just distract you.

We had Zone Conference the next day, and there were some great lessons and discussions given. A couple of talks that really stick with me are one about putting pressure on the Book of Mormon and not putting poop in your cookies. Putting pressure on the Book of Mormon refers to the fact that without the Book we don't have prophets, the priesthood, or even a religion. So if we stress the importance of the Book of Mormon, it will always find the way to help people make the decision to join us. Not putting poop in your cookies was Sister Gochnour's object lesson. She compared the mission we are serving to being the batter and the choices and decisions we make being the chocolate chips. If we willingly choose to not follow a rule, standard, or covenant we're dropping some poop in the mix instead making delicious chocolate chip cookies. And no one wants that. I was able to meet with President Gochnour to talk about some things that are bothering me and I'm struggling with, and I'm so glad he's so supportive and understanding. Definitely a boost that I really needed.

Most of y'all might have seen the little cover of "High on The Mountain Top" Elder Parkin and I posted on Facebook. The funniest and coolest thing about that was that at Zone Conference, we were encouraged to try different things. So when we went to the church to record that at 2-3 in the afternoon, we had a super cool experience. We were practicing and working on the song, when a dude named Cory knocked on the church doors! He said he was prompted to come and see about our teachings. The most crazy thing is that we are never at the building at that time!!! The spirit was in overdrive for the first little bit of lesson, but it kind pulled back as the lesson went on and some of the things he was wondering about and struggling with came to light. It was a really weird feeling.

The rest of the week was missionary work as usual. We had some good lessons, especially with Charmaine. I don't think there will be anything that will stand in her way of getting baptized. She even got rid of a Word of Wisdom item right in front of our eyes! That's some of the greatest commitment I've seen ever, and I do kinda look up to her for pressing through even when she says she's having a really hard time. Please pray for her, she definitely deserves it. We also put a new friend on date this week as well! I had friended Lita on Facebook, not realizing she had already met with missionaries in the past. When I reached out to her, she was excited and thankful for us reaching out. We went out to her and gave her a lesson, and she was super receptive to our message! Her biggest problem is gonna be transportation though. She lives 30 minutes from the church building and doesn't have a car of her own. We're trying to see if a member would be willing to help her though. Pray for her as well!

Saturday we spent pretty much the whole day in Iron Wood, Michigan. We ended up knocking almost all of the doors we had on our books. Not a lot of people were home, but it felt good to doing the work there. We had dinner with the Joki's while we were out there. I wasn't expecting a turkey dinner outside of thanksgiving, but lo and behold Sister Joki had made one for us and 3 of their boys that live there. I thought having Jace, Jaxon and Jacob in one family is hard and confusing, but they have 5 boys and they all start with a J! Crazy! 

Of course we have Sunday! It was freaking awesome! Charmaine and her kids came and said they enjoyed primary, young mens and Relief Society! As far as I could tell, the ward was super welcoming too! It does help when we've heard a lot of stories of being converts, so they understand her a bit! We also had one of our inactive members we found while doing service show up as well! We didn't get to talk to them very much, but it was so cool to see them there.

I'm truly blessed to be in Ashland for the start of my mission. There are some days where it feels like we're doing nothing, but most of the time we've been having success in different ways. So that's my thought to share with y'all this week. You might be thinking you're doing bad work, a relationship, or just life in general.but if you can focus on the things you do well while holding to the truth of Heavenly Father's love. Things will fall into place.

"To anyone who's ever lost their way,

To anyone who ever felt ashamed,

here's a song to all the broken hearted,

I believe you're only getting started."

Getting Started by Jeremy Camp

Love Y'all!

Elder Buchanan

JACE - Spiritual Highs and Kind Funny Lows

January 22, 2024

Hey Everyone!

CAUTION! THIS EMAIL CONTAINS ROADKILL.

This week was actually a pretty good one. We stayed pretty busy, so that was nice. I got to go on 2 exchanges this week. I hung out one of our zone leaders in Duluth, MN. Elder Knollmiller is an awesome dude. I did slip on a set of stairs while we were doing stopbys, but it was only the last 3 steps so I was fine. We set up a pickleball net for the relief society's activity that night, so we took the opportunity to play a couple games. I got my rear handed to me, but it was a fun time. On Saturday I got to be in Virginia, MN with Elder Shively. They actually did and dry run for an 8 year olds baptism that happened on Saturday. I really connected with Elder Shively and asked for some advice on some small struggles I'm having. It was definitely a big help.

We went from no meals to 4 different meals this week from the ward. Guess they must have liked our talks last week. 🤪 We also had an amazing opportunity to put someone on date for baptism! Her name is Charmaine, and when she gave us the opportunity to come visit her, the spirit was just so strong. We had a long talk about the struggles she's had in her life and we brought up Alma 7: 13-15 (somewhere around there I don't remember exactly.) After we finished reading it to her, she asked if we could read it again. So we ran out to the car and got her a Book of Mormon, came back and read it again with her. Then she told us to hold up and blazed through the rest of Alma 7 in silence. I was like, "What do we do?" But the spirit was so strong. When she finished reading and looked up, we asked if she had any questions. She said, "No questions, just answers." It was incredible!!! So pray for her as we prepare her for baptism. I warned her that now that she's found the truth, the devil is gonna kick it up a notch. 

The kinda funny low hinted at in the title happened just last night. We were on our way to one of our friend's house for a lesson. And out of nowhere a deer was in the middle of the road. We ended up swerving a bit, hitting the deer in the head, and going into the ditch. We made a joke out of it, because our zone is trying to focus on "inspired knocking." We inspired knocked him into the next life. We were less than a mile from our friend, so he came out to check on us. We had to get towed sideways on of the ditch. Luckily it seems to be just mostly cosmetic damage.

That's my week. Today we're driving down to Bloomington for zone conference tomorrow. They're letting us come down today and spend time at the Mall of America, so that'll be fun. My invite to y'all this week is to be like Lehi after he tasted the fruit of the Tree of Life. Share what you know, hold up your light, and help others experience what you have the privilege of taking part of. Love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan

JACE - A Few Little Miracles

January 15, 2024

Hey everyone!

This week was a bit of an interesting one. We had a few little miracles this week, so that was great. They are kind of hard to find in this small town, but if you look, you'll find them everywhere! We had the opportunity to head out to Michigan to help a lady named Sharon move some stuff around in her house. She's had quite an interesting life, some of it kinda sad, so I'm glad we could go be a help to her. We also got to meet her son, who after us being willing to go all the way out there, said he might come back to church. That was awesome to hear! Another one of our small miracles was when we had a totally original idea to go doing some "inspired shoveling." We may have gotten the idea from the Elders in Grand Rapids, MN. But while we were doing that we met a more inactive lady and she said she had been having a few moments in the last month that were nudges to go back to church. And then we randomly showed up at her door! We were definitely led there to remind her about the church. The rest of the work, being stop-bys, texting, calling and Facebook friend requests, has been a bit slow around here. But it's stuff like those little miracles that give a shot of the Spirit to keep us going. We ended up having to speak in church yesterday, which I actually think went pretty well. I spoke on repentance and redemption, and how sometimes owning up to our mistakes can feel embarrassing. But Christ is always there with open arms, waiting for us to open the door dividing us and run to Him. He will always take us back. This week I would like to challenge you all to look for the little miracles in life. Just those tender mercies that we see and take for granted. Remember to be grateful. I love that I have this opportunity to remind people of His love for them. I know this gospel, His gospel is the truth. I have also been reading my Book of Mormon out loud to myself during personal study. I understand it better and hear the power in the words. I also would challenge you to do that. I love you guys, have a truly blessed week!

Sincerely,

Elder Buchanan