One year ago today..

It was one year ago today that Elder Buyers sat down in his parents living room surrounded by his family and friends to open his mission call. The large white envelope arrived a few days before but sat unopened until he got home from a school choir trip out of town. Everyone around him was excitedly talking about where they thought he would be going. His excitement and nervousness could be seen in his tapping foot and the way he was quietly biting his lip as he sat by himself waiting for the few loved ones that were calling in on cell phones or video chats to listen in.

Once all the pins showing guesses of where he was going had been placed on the big map, and the final technical issue had been figured out he ran his finger under the seal and pulled out the letter that he knew would change the course of his life for the next two years. He looked at his parents and asked one last time, "Ready?" then flipped the paper over and with tears in his eyes he started reading the words that he'd been waiting for... "Dear Elder Buyers, You are hereby called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints." A smile crossed his face but he couldn't hide the emotion in his voice as he read, "You are called to labor in the Uganda Kampala Mission."

There wasn't a dry eye in the room as we realized that this quiet, kind, amazing young man in front of us was going to be traveling half way around the world to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Uganda, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti, Eritrea and Rwanda.

Thinking back on this day a year ago I'm reminded of the email Elder Buyers sent home on September 16th.

 Last night when I was writing in my journal and thinking about the past few days I noticed the song that was playing.

"We are as the army of Helaman,

We have been taught in our youth.

And we will be the lords missionaries,

To bring the world his truth."

This church is true, I KNOW that with every fiber of my being.  I wouldn't be here if I didn't.

Have a good week everyone,

Elder E.E. Buyers

We would love to hear some of your memories from watching Elder Buyers open his mission call a year ago. Feel free to leave them in the comments below or email them to us. 

-The Buyers Family

God gives me that one or two reasons to stay...

Once again not much is going on.  The week was good, though.  We have been working on incorporating into our teaching the things that we learned at zone conference last week.  It's been going pretty well.  We do the same exact thing every day.  Day after day.  haha.  It’s good though if you look for the good.  Every day Satan gives me thousands of reasons to go home but God is there to give me that one or two reasons to stay.  Generally, in the moment it isn't that great but when I look back I realize the blessings.

This week is transfers.  I can't believe this transfer is over already.  It feels like I just got to Rwanda Yesterday.  The time is flying by.  It really shows how short the time is that we have here and how much we need to accomplish. 

Elder Ndlovu and I

I’m still waiting for my religious visa.  There were a few more things that they wanted for it.  We turned them in last Thursday but still haven't heard anything.  They keep changing the requirements and stuff they want.  They said they wanted all my schooling (elementary and up) and my mission call.  I'm the third to apply and they have never asked for them before.

I hope everyone has a great week.  Love you.

Elder E.E. Buyers

 

The Power of the Priesthood

Unlike lately this week was full of stuff.  President Chatfield and the APs got in town on Friday.  The church was officially registered in October and they were having the celebrations and all this weekend.  Friday night there was a big dinner for all the head guys in government and religion for all of Kigali.  Only a few of the missionaries were invited and we weren't them (well we were invited then the night before we got uninvited) but we heard it was really good.  We got a bit of the food the next day though and it was good. 

On Saturday was the celebration at the church.  It was a big party and President gave really powerful opening remarks about being an example and member missionary stuff.  We had some fun.

Church was good on Sunday.  Today, Monday, We had Zone Conference.  I was chosen to give training on How to follow up.  I think it went pretty good.  The entire conference was great.  I learned so much I can't even describe it.  I also had a really good interview with President Chatfield.  He is a very powerful guy.  He has taught me so much these last few days.  We worked with Elder Reed, one of the APs, on Saturday and Sunday.  We learned some good things from him too.  All around it has been a good week.

(Mom asked “If an Elder doesn't have his Religious Visa there in Rwanda, can he baptize?  Have you had any baptisms yet?”)

The only thing that changes for missionaries that don't have visas is they can't tract or street contact.  Everything else is the same... teaching, baptizing, everything.  The only thing is that we can't talk to anyone unless they are a referral from someone else or unless they talk to us first.  We had one baptism at the beginning of the transfer but that's it.  We didn't really have teaching pool at the beginning of the transfer and there is a rule here that if they miss church once then their date gets pushed 2 weeks.  So week one you find someone week one give them a date for 4-5 weeks after.  If they miss church once then they are already in next transfer.  That’s what has happened.  Next transfer should be pretty good though.

We have this investigator named Didiear.  About a week ago he got typhoid.  He isn't too well off and wasn't able to afford but one of the 4 drugs the doctors told him to take.  The branch wasn't really able to help because of how things are so it didn't look to good for him.  A few days after he got sick we went to see him and ended up giving him a blessing.  Things still didn't look to good for the next week.  We went a couple days ago to see him and he was almost 100%.  The power of the Priesthood is real.  If the faith is there and it's God's will anything can be done with it.  It really strengthened my testimony about the priesthood.  It reminded me of the blessing that Dad gave to me the day before I left.  The comfort that came from that was great.  Thanks. 

Well I love you all.  Have a great week.  Rely on the Lord.

Elder E.E. Buyers

Still Waiting..

Hey Everyone, 

Once again, not much to talk about.  The week was pretty good though.  Nothing too interesting happens in Kigali that I can write about.  We just work like usually every day.  Try to get referrals from everyone.  My visa still hasn't gone through yet.  I turned in my application last Monday.  Usually they hear back in about 3 days whether it is good or they need more stuff or whatever.  We went and checked on Friday and it was still being processed.  I'm not sure what is going on but hopefully we find out soon. 

On Saturday we helped a family move.  They moved into this really nice house that sits way up on one of the hills.  They have a great view.  I wish I would have had my camera but I left it at home.  On a more depressing note, remember those camo flip flops I got when we were in Cali 6 yrs ago because my shoes got flooded.  Well, I wore those to help move and one of them broke.  Sad day, they were good to me for a long time.  Sorry there isn't really anything to write about.

Everything is going good.  I hope everyone is good on your side of the world.  Have a good week.  Love you all.

Elder E.E. Buyers