Before I share a message from Mom I wanted to share a new picture of Elder Buyers. We asked him to send us a good picture of him in his suit and I couldn't have been happier with the picture we got.
I was one very proud big sister when I saw this. Not only does he have the city of Kigali Rwanda behind him but if you look close you'll notice he has a flag pin for his home country {USA} and the two countries that he has come to love over the last year {Uganda & Rwanda}.
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The Buyers
family has once again been so blessed by our loving Heavenly Father.
Just after
Easter this past April, we received a text of a picture of Elder Buyers with
Bre, another “Rigbyite”. She
is in Rwanda working with the Peace Cor.
Well, we were
blessed to have Bre and her family over Monday night for dinner and talk about
Rwanda and Elder Buyers. Bre is home for
a month and will be going back for one more year. I was informed by Elder Buyers and Bre that
she was bring me something from Elder Buyers.
After our hello’s when the Fitzgerald family got to our house, Bre asked
me if I remembered that she was bringing me something from Elder Buyer, I
replied “Yes”. Then, she gave me a big,
big hug. She said that the hug was from
Elder Buyers. Not just his saying to
give me a hug from him, it was literally a passed on hug. After all the tears, I said “Wait, Eric isn’t
supposed to be hugging girls.” Bre
laughed and said, “You are right”. So,
here is how she got my hug. Bre is
engaged to a Rwandan, so, Elder Buyers hugged Bre’s fiancé and he hugged Bre. The hug was so big from Elder Buyers, that
when Bre’s fiancé passed her the hug, his glasses broke.
That was the
best gift a mom could ever get from her son thousands of miles away. Eric knows how to put a smile on his moms
face and warm my heart.
What a wonderful
visit we had, learning about the area Elder Buyers is serving in and the people
he has grown to love.
We asked Bre to
tell us about the missionary Elder Buyers that she works with. She told us what a wonderful sense of humor
he has and with tears in her eyes, she said, “It’s amazing the amount of
patience he has. He has a great love of
the people in Africa and loves to serve them.
He has a very strong testimony of the Gospel. You can just feel it when he speaks. Sometimes he doesn’t say much, but when he does,
it is worth listening to.”
Bre filled our
evening with all the joys and trials that she and the missionaries see and feel
daily serving the Rwanda people. This
visit really helped us understand and feel a little closer to Elder
Buyers and the work he is doing.
One trial that
the missionaries have is communication.
Elder Buyers continues to learn the language and the Rwandans like to
hear him and Bre speak English. The
missionaries also struggle with getting the member to church on time. We tease here in the U.S. about the members
running on “Mormon Standard Time” of 15 minutes late, well, try hours
late. On Sundays, the missionaries will
be at the church waiting for hours for the members to show up. But they are patient and just wait. That’s not all, when the three hour block of
church services are over and members are leaving, here come other members to
church. Wow, that defiantly would take
patients. Of course, the missionaries
take the time to teach them.
Elder Buyers and
the other missionaries usually will teach all three hours, because a lot of the
leaders and teachers of the auxiliaries won’t show up for church. He will give talks at the last minute in
Sacrament and help with the sacrament itself, then step in to teach in Sunday
school, Primary and Priesthood. He has
even taught in Relief Society. He is not
that shy little boy any more.
With the church
being so new still in Rwanda, the members still have so much to learn. I know in time, with the missionary’s
diligence and example, the members in Rwanda will be great.
Because of Bre’s
kindness, Elder Buyers will be receiving some long overdue shoes along with
chili, spices for his food and shoe insoles.
What a great
blessing Bre has been to us and Elder Buyers. The Lord does hear and
answer prayers.
-JoAnn Buyers {Mom}
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