Hello Family!


Hey it was really good talking with you on Christmas Day! Turns out that rule that I could only talk for 40 minutes, none of the missionaries obeyed and talked for over an hour with their families, but that’s okay....I’m trying to be an example :)

Sounds like you had a good Sunday school class. This week hardly any people were in my class, because it’s Christmas and a lot of the members drink alcohol and do stuff that they shouldn’t so they feel guilty at church. The subject that I taught wasn’t to interesting, my class was about ¨Agency¨ it went pretty good.

Then that same day we left to go to Managua to meet with our mission president. That was a really good meeting. I had a good Christmas, the ward had a Christmas party that was a lot of fun. Ha-ha The people here are so funny, I got some really funny videos that I would like to show you of some of the (very interesting) things that they do.

I’m not going to lie it’s hard understanding the Old Testament I’m in the 4th book of Moses, but I sure have learned a ton and I think that is so awesome that we have the Joseph Smith translation, so on some of the verses it makes clear what its trying to say. I was reading one part that really baffled me… I think it was in Exodus 4, I don’t know it’s hard to understand the Bible in Spanish too.

Yes I have got over my little stomach bug I had on Christmas Day...I have stopped chewing my finger nails, but I keep them real short, it’s weird I just don’t like having long finger nails.

As far as this past week nothing to exciting happened, but we have two people getting ready for baptism for next week. I haven’t had too many baptisms in this area and I feel like I am doing everything I can. My companion and I have a good relationship, but our work isn’t really as effective as it could be. He doesn’t like to do contacting, where we walk up to people on the street and invite people to church or share a lesson. I have been doing most of the contacting, and one day I decided that I wouldn’t do contacting (so he would have to do it) so we were pretty much just wandering around most of the morning and into the afternoon. Then I got tired of that so I took him back to our house and we had a little chat, about some of the things that he ¨needs to do, even when he doesn’t want to¨. He got mad at me, so he laid down on his bed and went to sleep for two hours, refusing to work. All I said to him is ¨if you have the desire to work, you get a lot more things accomplished, but without a desire and without a goal, you really can’t do anything.¨ So his response was well ¨I will just go to sleep then” so that gave me some time to read and study the scriptures and improve my lesson plans. Then we left the house and did a lot better and completed some of our goals.

That’s the thing I tried to explain to you over the phone (in my half retarded English ha-ha) this mission is a numbers mission, which is fine and normal for me. But my companion hates numbers and said he wanted to hit me for saying ¨we need to at least contact 20 people a day¨ so I don’t know what his deal is, but we are resolving that issue. He found that out for himself when we where going over the number of people we taught, dates for baptism...etc. for the past weeks and he saw that the NUMBERS were really low. I think EVERYTHING IS AWESOME! We have changes Wednesday and I might have a change or new companion but we will see.

I love you all and thank you for everything.

Elder Buck

Note from Sandra – we spoke with McCoy on Christmas Day for 40 minutes. He loves his mission with all of its challenges and we feel like he is really growing spiritually and in maturity. He is speaking Spanish well and had to stop a few times to think how to say something in English to us. We are so proud of him and how hard is he trying to be obedient and do what he is asked!

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Merry Christmas!!!

Hola mi familia!


Thank you for everything MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!

I’m glad that you liked my experience with Familia Reyes! Sadly that family did not go to church to hear their daughter give a talk. But she did an awesome job! She is really shy so im surprised that she gave the talk and she volunteered to give it! I am really trying to be like Jesus, that is actually my favorite song ¨I’m trying to be like Jesus¨. It helps me out a lot to sing that song when things are way difficult.

I am learning so much about Christ. Every house that we went to this week I shared a Christmas message about the birth of Jesus Christ and the true importance of Christmas. It’s sad...there are a lot of poor people in the street and a lot who don’t have a family to spend Christmas with, so I taught lessons to help those in need. That God gave his Son Jesus Christ and that Jesus Christ gave us his life. So what can we give them?? Then I shared the scripture Mosiah 2: 17 and a scripture from the new testament that explains when we do service (feed the poor, clothe the naked...) we are really doing this service to God. I felt really good sharing those messages with others. Then I decided to apply that message to myself and how I can help others. (I will explain later).

I have received my Christmas package thank you so much for that, THE TIES ARE AWESOME!! The glasses are ¨nerdy¨ ha-ha but at least I can see and thank you for the book, Dad!!! But I checked the list and I have received everything! Thank you so much!

We did have our mission Christmas activity! I forgot my camera so I didn’t take pictures :(...But it was a lot of fun we just did like a whole bunch of activities like soccer (of course) obstacle course, slip and slide. It was actually a lot of fun!

Okay so I think we will be calling you on the 24th at what time, I don’t know. If their is anything I learned here in this mission is that the leaders don’t know anything ha-ha. The phone card has like 30 $ on it...but I’m going to use that messenger chat with the head set. My companion says that’s what he’s going to do.

Ahhh...man I miss my nieces and nephew…cute kids! Sounds like you guys will be having a great Christmas I hope that the whole family is together, that’s really my favorite part about Christmas!

Okay so those candy canes that you sent me, I got them and there were 80 in total but 56 were broken ha-ha. But you know what?? I found someone that sells them here, sorry I didn’t know that they had candy canes here.

I sorted them all out and typed a Christmas message of what the ¨Candy Cane” symbolizes in Spanish. Then I went and had to find little baggies and ribbon. Then I took all the candy canes and put four in each bag so I had a total of 12 bags. Then I went in the street and looked for the poorest people and gave it to them and to my investigators. I was happy. I’m going to go buy more but bring my camera with me and take a picture of the people I’m giving the candy to so you can see their smiles when they receive their little Christmas treat.

Well if I forgot something in this email I will email you again.

I love you all!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Con cariño, y mucho amor

Elder Buck

A Short Email But Good Things Are Happening

Hey Family,


It’s good to hear how everyone is doing... I am doing really good too. This week has been a very long hard week. I don’t know why but all this week I have been super tired. Well...lets see what I did.

They had a night that is called a Purisima here. The Catholics do it. It’s where they first launch off a whole bunch of fireworks but they are not really fireworks they are just bomb things that explode and are really loud. After that the streets fill up with people going from house to house singing to the Holy Mary and receiving candy. It’s kind of like Halloween except they don't believe in Halloween they believe it is Satanic.

We went to the house of Familia Reyes (the family who had the concerns about baptisms for the dead) to help one of the recent family converts with her talk. When we got there it started to rain and her brother enters into the house with a bag of beans on his shoulder. I asked, Do you need help? He said yes but it’s really far away. I said that was alright. We leave the home and walk a mile to this field and its just pouring rain and we are soaked ha-ha. The family is there in a field gathering beans and putting in bags. The mom and dad are out in the field picking beans off the ground that were left over from the harvest and putting them into bags. I start to help and I’m just talking to them asking how they have been. Out of the blue…the dad said that he wants to start going to church again! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!

We have been working in a area called Barrio Hospital, which is a neighborhood I like to work in a lot. The people aren’t really responsive, even when I offer help or give service, which doesn’t bother me much. I found some thing here in the mission that keeps me happy, Serving Others. It’s like you said dad, “If we always help other people we won’t worry about our own personal problems and whatever problems we have seem smaller when we offer service.”

I just want to thank everyone that reads these letters and for all your love and support. I want to thank the Ross Family for their Christmas gift to me and hope all is well.

I’m sorry I’m going to have to make this letter short and I hope everyone has a good week. I love you all!

Elder Buck

Click here to email me: In my mission it is okay to email me...but I cannot email back anyone but my parents!

New Pictures With My Zone

Hello family!

It's good to hear that everyone is doing good! I'm doing good too! This week has been a lot better I have been a lot more humble so no worries ha-ha. I am trying to just accept how people do things here and why they do it. I'm sorry that last letter I sent wasn’t too positive that was the hardest week of my life….But this week was a lot better and so I'm a lot happier.

This week we had a baptism, we baptized a members son whose name is Alexander. It was a different kind of baptism….He was afraid of water and we didn’t know it…So first we went to invite ward members to the baptism but nobody could come because it was at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. When the family got there (his mom and grandma) the grandma was all sad that no one came to the baptism, I felt bad too.

So we are at the baptism and my companion is the one baptizing him. Says the prayer then baptizes him but (Alexander’s) legs fly’s up, so we did it again. Then I told them they need to drain the water a little bit so his legs don’t keep floating to the top. So they drain the water and then he just starts crying and ran to the side of the font. They talk to him and ask what’s wrong? I'm like “I think he’s afraid of the water” then his mom gets all embarrassed and runs up and is like “hurry it up, people are watching” and then he starts crying even more and she starts pushing him in to the water (and I was just thinking “wow”). Then she starts dragging him into the water. I was thinking, “say something nice to him, show him you love him and are proud that he is being baptized, hug him.” And she finally did and he calmed down and got baptized.

And the other cool thing is, is I taught my very first class. Gospel Principles and I loved it!! And my class loved it! One of the ladies was a less active that showed up to church that day and she told me she will go to church just to go to my class. Guess you’re not the only teacher dad! Haha

Well I love you all and thank you for everything.

Elder Buck

Click here to: Email Me and Wish Me Merry Christmas!

The first slideshow is of Elder Buck at the beach with his Zone on the Pacific Ocean side of Nicaragua.




This is what Elder Buck's leg looked like before he had the little operation a few weeks ago to remove the Bot Fly larva from his heg.

One Interesting Week!

Hello Family!

I’m glad everyone had a good and happy Thanksgiving! This actually had to have been my worst week as far as missionary work, of all time! All, not just some, but ALL of our investigators dropped out, no one wants to get baptized anymore or continue teaching them! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT!!

I will start with Familia Reyes. They were suppose to be baptized last Saturday but something happened...Hermana Ana went to church last Sunday, which is awesome, but went to the Sunday School class and not gospel principles cause we didn’t have enough people to teach. She learned about baptisms for the dead (yeah I’m pretty sure she was confused too), and then a very special sister stood up and talked about baptisms for the dead, and here in Nicaragua they use a phrase that can go both ways “tiene que” which can mean “you have to!” or “you can” depending on the tone of the persons voice. Well the hermana stood up and said to the rest of the members “ustedes tiene que hacer el bautismo por los muertos” (you have to do baptisms for the dead, with a tone) and this offended our catholic investigator a lot…..so after the class she said I have to talk with you, then she said “tomorrow we will talk”. So I was like oh dang….

So the next day we went to her house. And when we get there and call “Buenos!” her daughter Jose (who is a recent convert) comes to us crying and I was thinking “oh crap something happened” and she told us that her parents didn’t want to be baptized. We go in and talk a little bit with the parents and ask “so what do you want to talk about?” and she (the mom) had a question “what is this baptizing dead people?!” and we explained what it was exactly and used the scriptures and the scripture from the bible in Corinthians that talks about baptisms for the dead. Really I don’t know what happened but she just flipped out saying that’s blasphemy and all that jazz…her husband didn’t go to church that Sunday, so she filled him in on what she learned from class that day, about baptizing dead people. He got mad and started yelling at us too…then my companion just took over and used all the reasons and importance for baptisms for the dead (calmly). But they still didn’t understand (and said some hurtful things), so I bore my testimony saying I would die for what I believe in, I will take whatever people throw at me and defend what I KNOW to be true. Yes I will admit when I was saying all of this I did have a tone so they were all offended and so was I, so my companion asks for forgiveness, then we left.

Our other family, Familia Perez I thought were doing good, they just didn’t go to church this Sunday and last Sunday and we had an appointment with them on Tuesday and we got their talked a bit then I asked why they weren’t able to go to church. The week before they had a reasonable excuse that his wife had kidney problems, then this week their excuse was; “WE WERE BORN CATHOLIC AND WE WILL DIE CATHOLIC!” so that was that…

Then the family, Familia Escampin (Maria and Rigoberto) just gave up, they never went to church and don’t want to keep any of the commitments (excepted baptism). To top that all off, remember I had only one week with Elder Harris to learn the area and meet the people and know where they live. Then I got my new companion and with the experience I had, and with the new mission goal of visiting all the members and asking for references from them. I failed miserably this week. For some reason the ward roster here doesn’t have directions to houses only names, so they gave us an old 2008 June ward roster, so half the people have moved and are from the other ward cause they separated the ward. Plus the directions here just stink! Ha-ha

I don’t remember if I explained to you how directions here work, but its like this: My house is by The Circle K, 5 blocks north 2 blocks east, around the corner, down the hill, under the bridge, passed the two fat dogs, across the river, and the fifth house to the left. Did you get that? Ha-ha That’s is how they do directions, they use a point of reference and then give you a direction to were their house could be located. Only sometimes they tend to be wrong or we just can’t find the house. Oh, but here is my favorite direction we found on the old ward roster; Joseline Garcia lives south of the hospital (and there are over 500 houses south of the hospital.)

Yeah it’s been a hard week, a lot of walking, a lot of rejection, and little teaching and help from members. We went to a members house (actually a returned missionary, who got back last week from serving in Panama) Set up at time and date when he could go with us, he lives like 3 ½ kilometers away so we get to his house and he’s like “sorry Elders I got to “hacer un mandado” which is like an run an errand, so he could not go with us.

Well I’m sorry for my vocabulary but you know it’s just been a heck of a week! Ha-ha

Christmas here will be interesting, the Catholic churches are real popular here, there are a ton! They have the church service outside or something with their loud speakers shouting all kinds of things about the Virgin Mary. Then they have a parade float at night with a life like statue of the Virgin Mary and a marching band. They march and play music and shout and they do this every night till the 25th of December. They also have fire works that they randomly launch off at any time during the day and night (they usually stop around midnight) The reason I know all of this is a church is right next to our house! Ha-ha yeah it’s crazy. My companion and I stood in front of our church one night and when the parade marched by we invite them to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That was fun, there were a lot that told us we were going to hell and all that good stuff…

I will try my best this week and try preaching to all these hard-hearted folks and soften them up a bit. Ha-ha Ahhh… Kendall what a cutie, email me some pictures so I can see what everyone looks like now!

Well I’m out of time!

Love, Elder Buck

To send a message to Elder Buck click here: Email Me!

A Good Week!

Me with my new companion, Elder Santos and random pictures of the city around where we live.

Hey Family!!


My week was an awesome one!! Well sort of, compañero Elder Harris had changes on Wednesday (we were both thinking that he would stay here until the end of his last change) so I got a new Comp!! YEAH! He’s really cool, his name is Elder Santos (elder holy haha) and he probably has to be my smallest companion so far! He is from Guatemala, he says that he lives 15 minutes from the temple. He likes to joke a lot so he keeps the mission fun and active. This week we were “echando fuego!” (it means “throwing fire” or doing really good) here in Jinotepe. We are going to baptize the Familia Reyes and we are going to get them married tomorrow (which reminds me I got to call the “abagado” (lawyer) to get them married). :/ But they are doing good, the kids are real excited for their parents and so am I.

Oh yeah Thanksgiving (turkey, mashed potatoes, pie mmmmmm….) man I’m going to miss that Holiday haha. I hope you have a good one! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER AND MAIZEY (wow she is already a year old!!) That sounds like it will be a fun dinner/party at the house.

I did learn new things from my companion for sure and am learning a lot from the one I have now. I SO LOVE THE MISSION RIGHT NOW!!! Teaching has gone really good this week; we had 2 more families accept baptism. One family is Familia Rigoberto and the other is Familia Perez. Family Perez are doing good just neither of them went to church this Sunday and that’s the first thing they need to do to be able to get them baptize, so we will see if we can get them excited enough to go to church.

I pretty much love it here, the people, the weather, the members, my companion. The only thing I don’t like (uh oh Elder Buck’s getting negative) Is what the people say wherever we go “quiere café-quiere café mormones??” (which is, Do you want coffee, Mormons??) So one time I got fed up when one a kid said it to me and I said “quiere morir quiere morir charbalo??” (which is, Do you want to die kid??) And he got this look of fear on his face. Then I said right after “por que café hace daño” (which translates to, “because coffee can damage you”) haha Doesn’t translate well from Spanish to English, but my companion got a kick out of it. The weather here has gotten a little bit hotter this week but it’s not as humid as Managua or Puerto Cabezas, or near as many mosquitoes.

This city is a lot wealthier, I mean the city part there is the poorer out-skirt parts too. Just like the people in the Book of Mormon the poor people are easier to convert because they have learned how to be humble. We are working in the poorer areas, because a lot of the rich people have a lot of pride and don’t think they need religion or think the holy Mary will save them. I got to say, I don’t know why the Catholic religion worships Mary when the first of the ten commandments say “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”. For I am a jealous God. The greatest commandment - Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength. Haha that reminds me, there are a lot of Catholics here so whenever we go contacting we run into a Catholic and say “hi we are missionaries of this church etc….What church do you visit? They say “The Catholic church” and my companion says “I’m sorry” (cause he’s sorry that their Catholic haha) I don’t know if that made much sense.

We are tracting every day here, they call it contacting. The goal each day is to contact 20 people and leave them an invitation to go to our church this Sunday. I did really good with that this week, usually I get kind of nervous when I contact. But I just decided this could be the only chance they get to hear the Gospel and this is my only chance to share it with them, so I contacted 35-45 people each day which is a lot haha. My zone leaders love me for it, cause not many of the elders do contacting like their suppose to.

The members of the ward are more active and educated but it’s still kind of hard getting them to help us, cause one of our daily goals is to teach 4 people with a member in the lesson. That’s the other thing, since Elder Fallebella came here and gave a talk about the importance of baptizing whole families (which talk we couldn’t go to cause of the war in Puerto Cabezas). That’s a huge mission focus and it’s really hard to find a family where each member is interested in hearing the message of the Gospel, but I think it’s an awesome mission goal.

Haha “hay está Carly”! Got an admirer! Way to go dad, I gave a talk in church too, about missionary work that was fun! I love trying to talk in Spanish in front of people ha-ha.

I hope the holidays go good for you guys! Well that’s how my week has been! Thank you always for everything!

Love Elder Buck

Elder Buck

Elder Buck racing through the street of Jinopete, Nicaragua.

Life Is Good!

Me with my Zone...

Me playing in kiddy car...

Me inside a real transportation bus....not much more room than the kiddy car!

Dear Family,

This will be a short email, I do not have much time to write today. My new area is awesome! As of now I do not have anymore health problems. 

As far as what has happened this week, Luis the man we baptised last week, did not come to church this Sunday so he was not confirmed. We went to his home and we were told he was not there.  We have another family that Elder Harris has been teaching for 6 months and they finally committed to baptism.  Elder Harris said it was because of something I said in my lesson. The family has had challenges of keeping the commandments and I asked them why? They didn't reply so I explained to them the importance of repentance and baptism. I said we need to repent as soon as we know we have done wrong because it can be too late. I asked the dad if he knew when he was going to die, and he got mad and told me I wasn't God and stormed off...He then returned to the room and said he was sorry for getting mad and that he understood what I was trying to say. The next evening my companion and I visited the home again, it was around 8 p.m. and the father was asleep so we were teaching the teenagers and mom. The dad woke up and came in and joined the lesson but sat quietly through the lesson until we were going to say the prayer. I asked hermano if he had anything he would like to say, then this is what he said, "I have been thinking about what you said, so I have repented and now I want to be baptised!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!  My companion almost cried because he has been working so long with this family.

Now for my other news like I said last week, I have so many things stolen since I got to Nicaragua that many items need to be replaced, especially my white dress shirts and white t-shirts to wear on P-day. The women use wire metal brushes to clean our clothes and she has worn big holes in two of mine. I also need new undergarments since three bottoms disappeared. (Note from Sandra: we hope he has enough to wear between washings that he does have to go native commando!)

Also send the other items I have asked for in the past posts.  Thanks for everything and I will write again next week.

Love you all,
Elder Buck

Click here to: Email Elder Buck

I Am In My New Location and Doing Better!

Thats my bishop in the middle (he's awesome) ward mission leader and the guy on the right our baptism this week (Luis)

Thats my companion Elder Harris with maria and juanita

That's me with Hermana Juanita and Maria thats where we eat is at a PANDERIA (BAKERY) its awesome and their awesome!

Thats me with some elders in my district (they still can't believe I'm the tallest missionary here ha-ha)

Thats me with a mask ha-ha

Me with my companion and zone leader Elder Burton

Catholic church (there are a lot of them)

Hello Family!

As far as my health I am a lot better! The rash has pretty much gone away but I’m still applying the cream and the powder to make it feel better.

As far as the two abscesses I had they have healed and are going away and the other one that was forming on my other leg just turned out to be a reaction and not an abscess. JUST TO BE CLEAR I’M FINE!! HERMANA FRAATZ CALLED ME SAYING I HAD SURGERY. But I didn’t have surgery and now everything is okay! They gave me a cream to put on the abcesses and way expensive pills to take out the infection and ibuprofen. I can now walk, run and do all that good stuff!

Gross! That’s what it was? A bot fly, that is so GROSS!! (Only in Nicaragua!!) They didn’t tell me anything at the hospital what it was. Ha-ha I’m so sorry, don’t worry about it now, and no more dreams about parasites Mom & Dad, dream happy dreams!

Okay I am now in Jinotepe! And yeah they have pretty much everything that I need so I will be doing some stocking up. They have a huge super market where I can buy all that medical stuff. No health issues or anything now so I’m back to work and working hard!

I still haven’t got back my large suitcase because what happened is the new Elders that came to Puerto brought my big suitcase to me but when I flew back down to Managua, to go to the hospital, I had to leave it in Puerto so now it is on the other side of the country and I will have to wait quite some time till I get that big bag again.

Hey, I don’t know if I told you this but I got some things stolen out of my big bag IMAGINE THAT! I had to originally leave it in Managua when I first flew to Puerto and it was left at the assistant’s house. Well that’s where the new missionaries sleep, and some of these missionaries are thieves so they stole 3 of my deodorants, 3 of my soap 3, undergarment bottoms??? (they are going to hell for that), 1 pair of my pants, my white gym shoes for P-day (what is a small person going to do with size 13 shoes, slap around in them like Bozo the clown?) and a book of memories, my letters and two shirts. OH man! I guess I can’t trust anyone!

I have been able to do my teaching because I’m here in JINOTEPE!!!! Yeah!! I will write more about that later... While I was recovering the past week in the mission office I would go on LDS.ORG (that website is so cool) listen to general conference talks, read and study the scriptures and sleep (cause the drugs make me super drowsy ha-ha)

Its good to hear everything is the same at home and that Carly’s doing good in school!

Well I don’t have much time for this second part but I will try and hurry...

Okay I’m here in JINOTEPE. I got here last Wednesday. The weather here is so nice and cool. My companion is Elder Harris from Ogden, Utah and he is awesome! He to will be going home in December the same time as Elder Miranda goes home. He is way obedient and a hard worker so we are doing amazing. We rent the house from non-members who are way nice and rich. We have a nice little room that we rent and it’s always cool as far as temperature.

We eat at a member’s house, they own a bakery so we can have whatever kind of sweets, cakes, breads we want, OH I LOVE IT!!! AND I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE!!!! Absolutely love them they are so nice here and I just love how the buildings look it’s so cool! I will take and send more pictures next week, I’m scared to send stuff on this computer I think it has a virus.

But we have had one baptism named Luis its kind of sad (he is a little slow) He is normal, just lacks education. But he had a problem with drinking coffee but supposedly for a whole week he stopped drinking but the morning of the day on his baptism, supposedly he “accidently” drank coffee. So we talked to the zone leaders got him interviewed and baptized him. This guy I don’t even know, I have only been to his house twice so I let my companion and the zone leaders make the call. But the next day he didn’t go to church till the end of sacrament meeting so he wasn’t confirmed, so were going to see what’s up with this guy and see if he is worthy still.

BUT I’M HAPPY, I’M HEALTHY, AND I’M HAVING FUN SERVING THE LORD ONCE AGAIN!! Thank you for all your prayers and love and am back to work and doing the best I can and giving it my all!! I love you all Mom, Dad, Tanner family, Carver family, Carly and all of my friends and family!!!

Elder Buck

Elder Buck would appreciate a short note from all of you, please Email McCoy Now By Clicking Here

Back to the Hospital Again!

Hello Family!!

Yeah I’m glad I was able to see a Doctor in Managua too! The fungus has gone down a lot but now I have another surprise. I had an abscess on my right leg right behind my knee cap. (Brother Tryon knows about those and also talk to him about sending "panalog" to me; I hear that works really well for an anti-biotic) When I went to the hospital the doctor said it was just a bug bite, but then it got bigger and purple and black and super infected. So when I went to the doctors to go get it checked out they took me straight to the Emergency Room. And I had for sure, an almost Joseph Smith experience. Okay here they don’t have anesthesia to inject to take away the pain so what they did is had me take of my pants, and lay down on the operating bed on my stomach. Then they went to town…..first they took a blade and made an incision in my leg at the infected part and the missionary that was with me said blood and puss just spurted everywhere. Then they took syringes and started injecting anti-bacterial killer into my leg and it hurt so badly!!! They had to have done it 12 times. Then the just started squeezing out all the puss and blood and squeezing and squeezing. (IT HURT SO FREAKING BAD!!!) Then they took tweezers and “oh lucky me” pulled out 3 larva of some kind of insect and a little black ball (how fun!!) Then they just squeezed out the rest of the infection.

Well so after that operation I couldn’t walk because the infection is on my tendon and the back part of my leg. So they told me I wouldn’t be going to my area until two weeks, when I will be able to walk right. So that day I didn’t walk much. Well I went back today and did the same thing again and that hurt twice as bad. While I was there it turns out I had two more abscesses; one forming on my left arm on my forearm, and the other on my other leg practically in the same spot as the other. So today they also operated on my arm and that hurt really bad too (what do you know!!) I have all these other bug bites so I can’t wait to see what those turn into.

Yeah, that was good to get out last week and teach again, it is true, the spiritual feelings were not as frequent in Puerto. I’m way excited to go out to the field again but I got to wait 2 weeks till I’m able to. That’s good that the families got together again. (Amanda, whatever happened I don’t know, but please just do as Christ would and forgive and forget, don’t hold burdens that’s what Satan wants us to do. I love you all Carver, Amanda, my nieces and nephew, I hope you work things out.)

Right now I don’t know much about the new area I will be serving because I haven’t gone yet ha-ha. But I heard it’s an awesome area and I’m super excited to go! It’s not to far from Managua I don’t think. My companion is Elder Harris from Utah, he will be going home in December, but I hope I do have a great and successful change with him too.

I heard about Ammon´s mission call that’s so AWESOME!!! Yeah, I heard Monson´s doing well, stinks how the mission rules are strict and we can’t email each other. Ha-ha

Okay so I was thinking if you were to send something for Christmas. New undergarments, they don’t have any my size here, cool tie, socks, and a photo of the Mom, Dad & Carly, plus Carver and Tanner’s families!!!! Thanks!!! I don’t know what we will be doing as far as Christmas. Where we go? What we do? I would think we go to the mission home but I’m not sure. As far as the member candy service project I’m good with it, thanks for offering.

Now, I’m replying to Dad’s letter. Okay I’m sorry for the news and my health is not sounding too good, but I’m getting the best treatment here in Nicaragua so hopefully it’s enough. I just have to learn to endure trials “the road to salvation, first it may be something like going through the Garden of Gethsemane” and if that’s suppose to mean physical illness, I don’t know, but I do know Heavenly Father is watching over me, and whatever happen…happens. Right now I’m doing the best I can to stay healthy ha-ha but its not really working. I’m really trying to stay healthy but I don’t have all the resources like I do in the states. Something I didn’t have for a long time in Puerto was bug repellent so that first month I got eaten alive. I am doing the best to stay healthy, but remember I am in a third world country and the third poorest country in the world, so there is not much I can do and not many resources.

I will defiantly send you photos of Jinotepe when I get there, I’m way excited to go, and it’s going to be awesome. My Spanish is good, some people think I am from Nicaragua because my accent is pretty good ha-ha. It’s AWESOME!!! I can understand people and try each day to improve but there is a ton I still have to learn.

Okay so about the phone call home at Christmas, what exactly do you want me to do?? As far as I know yes I am able to talk to you on the internet but I don’t know how this Google communication thing works?? But don’t worry about sending a head set, almost every cyber has one. I will also try to get a safe address close to me to have things sent if possible.

As far as your comment in the last paragraph I need to ask President first before seeking out professional medical help, it’s just how it works here. If he says no and tells me just to get over it and keep on working that’s what I need to do. They almost sent me to Jinotepe with that fungus and the abscess starting to form on the back of my leg, but luckily they didn’t, so I’m okay.

I love you all and thank you for your letters, I was thinking of extending my mission after 24 months, but with that I would like your input.

De le pues, nos vemos Con cariño y mucho amor
Elder Buck

Note from Sandra: I looked up Central America insect bites with larva and the closest match to what McCoy described is from the Human Bot Fly. If you want some fun video’s and articles on that gross subject, just Google the internet. If it this a bot fly larva, once they are removed the affected area heals and the victim is usually okay afterwards. FUN TIMES IN NICARAGUA, everyone pray McCoy gets out alive!!!

Treatment and Waiting To Heal

Hello Family!

Okay, I just want to let you know I’m fine. The rash was in fact a fungus, it was eating away my skin and it hurt so much. I went to the hospital in Managua and got it checked out and the doctor gave me some cream and powder to put on it and so far it’s okay. The rash is not really going away yet, it ate away my skin and so the fleshy membrane part now needs to heal and its super sensitive. (I practically cry every time I take a shower) He also said I need to rest for four days and wear shorts. That’s not really possible, because I’m assigned to the mission assistants, I’m always walking around and I have to wear my mission clothes.

While I am down here in Managua, I am staying with the President’s Assistants. During the day I am in the mission office all day and that’s not really to fun. I would like to go to the field and start working again. Yesterday I went with Elder Barret, who is in charge of the Mission finances, and we went to his area and taught a family. I forgot how nice it was to be able to teach and feel the spirit and how awesome that family was! The people here in Managua are very different compared to the people in Puerto Cabezas. They listen a lot better!

I do have another health problem which makes it difficult for me to walk and that is why I’m still here with the Assistants. I had a bug bite on the back of my leg right behind my knee on the tendon. When I showed the doctor he just told me it will go away but it’s been three days and it’s still swollen and sore. I just showed Hermana Fraatz, she is so nice and cares about the missionaries so she gave me this anti-inflammatory cream to put on so we will see how that works. I have to heal a little before I can go to my new area but I do know where I am going. I’m going to Jinotepe. I’m excited, my companion is named Elder Harris, he’s is English speaking. But I made a commitment to never talk English only Spanish with him so that will be good.

GRANDMA LEFT ME HER PIANO?! WOW….Well if it’s in good condition then I definitely want it. But how would you get it down to Arizona?? I’m glad to hear everything is fine at home!! Are you all HAPPY???

Okay, as far as candy or craving or things I want to receive for Christmas. Well, I like Butterfinger’s that’s my favorite then, skittles, starburst, airheads, snickers (so surprise me haha) As far as clothes, they have a distribution center here so undergarments and that stuff I will manage. Um…like I said… really don’t worry about sending gifts.

As far as Christmas handouts to the people in the area I will be serving in, that’s a good idea about little candy canes with a message in Spanish about Christ. I was thinking of doing something like that too, but don’t worry I got an idea of what I can do.

Okay the power chord to the electric piano and the pedal I put in a box marked music/guitar stuff in the storage shed. OH IF YOU CAN (because there are guitars here we can play) SEND ME THAT LITTLE BLUE FENDER BOOK WITH ALL THE GUITAR CHORDS IN IT!

Also I’m writing today (Saturday) because today is the assistants P-DAY but I will also be writing Monday so try to reply to this letter so I have someone to write. Ha-ha THANKS!!

Love Elder Buck

Back To Managua

Hello Family!

Yeah I sure am experiencing some pretty crazy stuff huh? But don’t worry I’m trying to be the careful, cautious one of our Missionary group. I keep us all safe. Ha-ha just kidding.

It’s good to hear that everything is fine at home. But how good is fine? I know that is true about the whole “choice” thing, I wish people here would think before they make choices. Elder Hadfield (poor guy) had a baptism on Saturday at the church and someone stole 30$ and his camera?! Okay the 30$ I could let that go, but a camera with all my memories. THIEVES! Do you know what is the saddest part, they think that members stole it? I’m super careful with all my stuff and I’m thinking about putting a lock on my back pack and suitcase haha. So TALK ABOUT CHOICES!!

Okay so about the windows IM do not worry about sending a headset they have those here. But it cost you so much because you called me on Mother's Day. REMEMBER I STILL HAVE THAT PHONE CARD!! So for it to be able to work I will just call you guys and it won’t cost anything!

Okay so as far as my health it could be better because I got some kind of rash all over my body and it is so uncomfortable, I almost cried it’s so hard to sleep at night . I called Sister Fraatz and she said she would call me back, because they might fly me down to Managua. As of today she still hasn’t called me back with arrangements so I’m not sure what to do. I don’t want to go to a hospital here cause they are all super dirty and really dangerous to go to, so I don’t know what to do!!! But it sucks!!! I can’t work, can’t sleep, can’t walk!!

UPDATE
Hello family!

I have some news...That rash that I was talking about has gotten worse and it’s starting to bleed and it hurts really bad, so the mission is going to fly me back down to Managua so I can go to a dermatologist and get it checked out. I think it’s a fungus, just red and hurts like crazy. I will be flying down to Managua tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. but I won’t be able to come back to Puerto Cabezas so that’s sad :( its my last day here....I will probably get transferred somewhere else after I am treated.

I love you all and thank you for everything.
ELDER BUCK

Unrest

Hello Family!

So Grandma B. passed away…..I will miss her. I love you all and thank you always for your letters. HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLY!!!! I hope it was a good one.

Well it has been quite a week….ha-ha. Okay so for the Food distribution went well (sort of). When we arrived at the church there was already a bunch of people outside the gates trying to get in. We had two gates to guard, the exit and the entrance. We didn’t get any guards, security, or anything like that so the Elders became the security. When I first got there (around 8:30 a.m.), my job was to keep people from entering the exit gate while those who had received food were leaving. Yeah, I got yelled at a bunch while I was doing that job. Ha-ha

Then I saw the people carrying out their bag of food that they received and half of them were women or elderly people. I didn’t like the guarding the gate job I was doing so I started to help those people carrying out the bags. The bags were pretty heavy so I can see why it was hard for them, they weighed 50 lbs each, but it was pretty easy for me I’m “Nica” (a nicaraguense) now so I could do it with out to much strain. That was probably the thing I enjoyed that day, helping those who needed it. Outside the gates they were tired of waiting to get in and it was like 100-degree weather that day and once they were inside they just wanted their food so they were kind of impatient and pushy. But when they were leaving I was helping them and they were all happy and nice., so that was awesome I enjoyed helping people with that.

This is kind of how it was organized. First we have these huge iron gates all around the church to protect it from people or harm and at the entrance they would only let in a certain amount of people at a time who had tickets. Then before they entered they had to sign in, tell them their name, where they live and which branch they were in. Then they went through a door that leads to the Chapel where they waited for their turn. We had a T.V. hooked up with a church DVD running so they could watch and learn about the gospel. Then after that they entered the entrance hall and showed their ticket again, they were then given their bag of food with 20lb bags of sugar, beans, rice, and 15 lbs bag of flour. Then they exited out of the back of the church where they filled up jugs they brought with them, with 500ml of cooking oil. After that I would take their bags and help them out to the exit gate.

All was going well until we ran out of food and there were still a lot of people outside the entrance gates with tickets. Once they made sure all the members got their food first, they started to give it to everyone else, some people started getting rowdy outside so someone inside the church said, “Alright that’s it, there is no more food”. Since I was outside working the whole day till 5:30 p.m. when they stopped handing out food, I really thought we were out of food and I started telling people at the gate “sorry there is no more food”. Some of the people start calling me “gringo” and “mentiroso” (which means liar) so that was cool ;P

After I was yelled at and everyone outside the gate was mad at me, I actually went inside the church. That is when I found out something pathetic, there still was some food left inside and the three branch presidents were putting the extra food in the office. HUH SOME CHARITY?! So I was happy that day doing what I was doing to help until I found out what they were doing inside.
I think that was the most unorganized food distribution project ever! First they gave food to the members and I can understand giving to member families that need it, but they gave it to every member. Second they kept the remaining food just because the people outside were getting angry and rowdy and they didn’t want any problems. I can see why many were angry, some of them stood in the sun all day like me (I got so sunburned; I am almost crispy brown ha-ha).
There is not much I can do now, but at least some people that really needed food did get it.

Second part of my good news ha-ha. Nicaragua is now under a dictatorship. The president of Nicaragua changed the constitution so he is re-elected as many times as he wants. Wow, that’s going to bring war…huh… speaking about war… THERE WAS ONE HERE IN PUERTO CABEZAS!!!

The Miskito people of this area have a king and the king is tired of the way things are being run here as far as political and government stuff, so he decides to overthrow the government. Not only that but it was printed in a news paper saying he was going to do it on OCT 18th. His whole purpose is to have only people who are Miskito living here and throw out everyone else (including us) from Puerto Cabezas. On Sunday, we still had to go to church, but when we went to the guy who drives the bus to pick up the members to bring them to church he said he was told by his boss not to work that day because there was going to be a war. We all thought it was just a rumor and it wasn’t going to happen so we weren’t too worried… until the war broke out!

Sunday it wasn’t that bad, it was just a march and they were getting people riled-up and mad at the government. But on Monday things were calm in the morning but by afternoon we heard gun shots and yelling because the government building is about 3 blocks from our house. We called the Mission president to ask him if we should evacuate but all the transportations were shut down like airplane and bus so there is no way to get out of here.

That morning I was praying for our safety, but these Elders, I swear they don’t have a brain or something. They still wanted to leave the house to go write to our families at the computer café, which was closed when we got there, because there was rioting and everything outside! There we are standing right in the middle of the unrest, me and the two other white boys so everyone around us starts yelling at us. I’m thinking we should get out of here quick but the two stooges want to buy something to eat!? In the mean time people are running around, screaming, throwing rocks and Elder A. is ordering his freaking food, “Yeah, I want three rolls with some soup”. I was saying, “Guys LETS GO”. I can see people turning onto our street with guns and machetes; they are running towards us with police following them. Of course the Elders don’t listen to me. Next thing, a member of the church rides up on his bike and he yells, “Elders you’ve got to get out of here!” So what does the second elder I’m with do … he turns his back and starts ordering his food instead.

Two seconds later the mob with guns, machetes, and all the police cars are coming down the street towards us, so I take off running back to the house and started locking everything up. They, the other Elders are clueless of what just happened and come in, sit down and start to eat. They are talking super loud and laughing and doing all this stupid stuff. I was like “Guys, shut up, shut up!” Standing right outside our wooden window is a man with a machete. These men with machetes are robbers that when there is a war or riot they start looting and take everything they can. The cops started coming down our street next and they are shooting of gas bombs and they shot one right outside our house so the tear-gas starts leaking in, it stings your eyes and throat like crazy, so we had all our fans going and towels over our faces so we don’t breathe it in. The Elders inside are still laughing and joking and being stupid. I thought I was dreaming, all I could think was, “Wow, how could I be with such immature people!!!” The little war/riots lasted three days and then it was over…

I’m almost out of writing time and I got to go! I’m safe, I’m fine now, no worries, but my health isn’t so great though.

But I love you ALL!!!
Elder Buck

Baptism and Free Food

Hello Family!!!
Wow, I have so much to tell you this week....How was my week? Um it was good...I didn´t get in a fight with Elder Carrasco I just kinda let it go so maybe he got away with my 25$ I don´t know. I'm just glad he´s gone now, that kid was a punk (and strangely enough many members miss him :P ... )

We have two new Elders and they are way cool. Elder Hadfield from Idaho replaced Elder Solorzano and Elder Tejada from Salvador replaced Elder Carrasco. They got here on Thursday (they took the bus from Managua all the way here) and it took them 28 hours (ughhh....I'm not looking forward to that bus ride :/ ) They were suppose to come on Wednesday but their bus broke down twice. So Thursday we were waiting at the bus stop from 9 in the morning to until 12 noon in freezing cold rain but the bus did not come so we went to eat lunch, then went back to our house and I slept. Then at 5 p.m. we went back and picked them up and brought them home. Like I said, they are WAY COOL!! Elder Hadfield has a guitar and he plays pretty good so the first night we were jamming out on guitars and that was fun. Elder Tejada is just a huge guy, usually people from Salvador are small but he is HUGE ha-ha and COOL!

Ariel and Delsia (the couple we have been teaching) were finally married and baptized along with Delsia's brother Wilbur who we have also been teaching. Well that's pretty much all the good news or all that was good this week.

I won't say I have bad news so I will call it other news. We are doing a charity thing here in Puerto. Friday a truck was suppose come and it's full of food and the charity is to give this food to the poor. Well that morning they told us to get as many men as we could to help unload the truck both members and non-members showed up. We were not to tell anyone what we were unloading cuz its all in boxes. Well the truck didn't come and all the male members and non members were waiting wondering what they are going to do. The secretary of the mission was there and he decides to discuss what were are doing and draws out a plan in front of everyone. He says “The charity is to only be give food to the poor non-members ha-ha. Then he says the members too.” ( I was like what??? Cuz he just contradicted what he just said.) It's originally for just the non-members but then he says, oh but the members can have some too. :/ So all the men that were there went home and told their friends and their friends told their friends so everyone knows now, THE MORMONS HAVE FREE FOOD. The leaders also say that Sunday their going to announce more about the food distribution and are going to hand out tickets at church to redeem for the free food. (wow that was dumb)

So Sunday comes and the first branch has the normal 90 people attending. In our branch there are 173 people at church! Half of them were people that have never been. The third branch has 324 people at church. You know why they came, CAUSE THERE IS FREE FOOD!!!! Only problem is there isn't enough food for all of Puerto Cabezas citizens, who all pretty much showed up for church that day. To pick up your free food, they have to get a ticket with a stamp on it, and on the day when they go to pick up the food they show this ticket and then receive the food. Problem is there are only 500 tickets and there were about 540 people that showed up at church. Like I said before, the charity food is for the poor families who aren't members. But the first thing they do in church is give the tickets to the members first. (that was stupid) They then started giving the tickets to all the non-members, well they were short tickets and their was a little riot with screaming, shouting, and almost a fight. Plus all of this is taking place during sacrament meeting.

I was sitting their thinking (wow, how stupid is this plan, this is not the way to distribute the food). First, we are in a 3rd world country, where a lot of people don't have work, or food, or decent clothes, and medical help. Second, anyone will eat anything here. Third, we are in a area that has a lot of different churches that are against the Mormon church. Contacts are so hard here to get because everyone thinks were anti-Christ. Fourth, ANNOUNCE TO THE PUBLIC, WE HAVE FREE FOOD, COME ONE, COME ALL!!!! While I was at the church people kept asking me (the rich American) for tickets and asking me for money and saying “You're rich” and just to give them one peso.

When they distribute the food they aren't even going to put up security, Elder Tejada (huge Elder) and I are going to be at the front church gate because we are the two biggest people and we are suppose to let the people in when their name is called to claim their food. The area leaders told us to “have faith”. I know something I learned about faith is it needs works, because faith without works is dead. An example of works would be police as security. We can believe everything will turn out good but we also have to be prepared. It could be dangerous if someone showed up with a machete and a bad attitude. It could be serious. I just hope we at least hire police for protection cuz it could get pretty bad.

There is also a huge rumor going around that the King of the Miskito people (yeah they have a king) is going to try to usurp the Mayor here so if that's true that could be pretty bad....Well President Fraatz found out all about this so if it does turn out bad he will take us out of this area so, no worries. We are under the missions protection and the Lords.

Well I hope things turn out okay or work is going to get harder here cuz everyone's going hate us for not giving them food. We have 3 American Elders here now including me that everyone will asks for money now. My recent converts already ask me for money, we already paid for their marriage but they still asked me, “Where's my wedding gift”??? I was shocked... WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT I'M PAYING FOR YOUR WEDDING ALREADY!!! I'm kinda of stressed with all this crap that's going on but today is P-day and I will try to relax and enjoy myself.

To everyone who wrote a letter to me this week, I appreciate you and your letters to me, please accept this letter in return because I cannot write back to all of you. I love you all! Don't worry, I'm safe, healthy, and happy.

Elder Buck

To Fight or Not To Fight?

Watching Conference in Spanish

Michael and Elder Buck

Elder Buck and Elder Augustin

Chillin' by the Carribean Sea

HOLA FAMILIA BUCK!!!

FLIP, ITS MOMS BIRTHDAY TODAY?!?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM XOXOXOXOXO Oh my gosh, I’m sorry I am horrible at Birthday dates the only one I can remember well is Carly’s and Dads, so sorry about that but I love you all just the same ha-ha.

That’s awesome I am glad all of you enjoyed General Conference I really liked it too. Which talk was your favorite?? Mine would have to be Jeffrey R. Holland about the Book of Mormon. That was pretty intense and I was listening to it in Spanish so I didn’t get to hear him yell, ha-ha, it looked like he was yelling on the screen. He yelled at us when we were listening to him in the MTC. He also reminds me a lot of Dad (WHICH IS A GOOD THING) and of course I love to hear from all the General Authorities especially the Prophet! Well I tried my best to stay awake during all the talks but like usual I fell asleep (it must be genetic or something.) But what I heard was really awesome, I got a picture of me and Elder Augustin sitting and watching it.
So only Tanner and Emily came up for Mom’s B-day?? Does that mean that the family still has problems?? That’s great. Oh yeah I forgot its Emily’s Birthday too HAPPY BIRTHDAY. That’s good that you had a nice weekend and weather.

Oh wow, sorry to hear about Grandma....I will fast for her too. Yeah she needs to go, its sad but the happy thing is, we will all see each other again. Wow so you guys are going to go up there, but that’s awesome that they asked Dad to give her the blessing.

I am doing well. That rash thing did get worse and I found out what it’s from ha-ha. It was from my AXE spray deodorant ha-ha. But things are good my health is good I haven’t got sick this week. I found out it my fever and headache was Malaria that I had the other week; thank goodness I took those shots though before leaving here to Nicaragua. I’m trying to take care of myself the best I can. Were back to drinking dirty water again (because were out of purified) but I haven’t drank it because I don’t want flipping tape worms ha-ha. So I will boil my water, (or when I have it put chlorine in it and let it sit) or I have my trusty water bottle with the filter.

Okay thank you for the other package you are going to send, I also need a new battery to my camera, its a lithium ion 3.7V, and also that other SD I sent home before leaving the MTC. Off Bug Spray (its so expensive here), as far as clothes I’m fine, we just wait forever for the lady to wash our clothes so we usually have to wear the same clothes two days in a row which is gross. (But I will live.) BUT I NEED THAT BOOK BELIEVING CHRIST PLEAAAAASE!!!! And that will be it. THANKYOU!!

A member named, Michael, came back from a mini mission he was on. He is really cool he is my new friend! He is the first missionary of Puerto Cabezas (where I am now living) he will be leaving in December. I got a picture of the two of us, he’s the dark one ha-ha. This week has gone by so fast and we still haven’t got Ariel and Delsia married, their kind of procrastinating.

Okay this I’m really sorry about.....We take our money out of the bank that we need for the month which is 2,600 Cordoba’s = $128 dollars. After we went to the bank, we went to the super market to buy some stuff and when we got home I had all my money on my bed and I was recording in my finance book how much I spent for everything and I was missing the receipt from the super market. I went into the kitchen to look through the grocery bags and mean while Elder Carrasco (the one who is always threatening me) is in my room (cuz everyone has to go through our room to get to the bathroom) When I go back into our room with the receipt he was leaving and as he walks by he smiles and says “freaking Gringo” which he usually does. Then I start counting my money and I was short 500 Cordoba’s = 25$?!! And so I was looking everyone to see if I dropped or something and so I came to the conclusion that Elder Carrasco may have stolen it. But I knew if I asked him if he took it he wouldn’t tell me so I waited...I let everyone know that I was missing the money and he was the one that was asking me the most questions about what I did with it. I was mad at him thinking he took my money.

Then after general conference we were outside of the church waiting and he (Elder Carrasco) starts making fun of Michael (making monkey noises and calling him mono which means monkey, he is kind of racist against anyone not from his country!!) I told him to stop, and he continued...so I told him again to stop and he told me to shut up, so I went up to him and told him to his face to stop making fun of Michael and he told me to shut up freaking gringo and continued. So I turned my back and blocked his view from Michael and he pushed me from the back, I turned back around, he was on his bike so I pushed him and knocked him off his bike into a puddle of mud. And he got up starts yelling and was going to tackle me but everyone that was watching held him back.

That was that....but today I was alone with Elder Augustin at the house and I told “DUDE I DONT EVEN CARE, I’M GOING THROUGH CARRASCO´S STUFF AND GETTING BACK MY 25 $!?!?” Well I didn’t find my money, but I did have a guilty feeling for going through his stuff, I tried to tell him today after lunch but he told me to shut up and walked away so I haven’t talked to him yet. I will tonight and he is just a straight up punk kid so he will probably start a fight. So if the Mission President calls you I’m sorry, but I will do all that I can to prevent us from fighting but if he punches me first I’m going to punch him back CAUSE HE DESERVES IT!!!! But really I will do everything I can to prevent a fight. He leaves tomorrow to Managua, he’s getting transferred so once he leaves their will not be any more problems.

I love you all and thank you for everything but really how is everything as far as business and money at home? I feel terrible for losing 25$ but I would even feel more terrible if I got in a fight with a missionary so I won’t.

Elder Buck

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND EVERYONE ELSE THIS WEEK!!!!!!

Rain & Elders

New rash for the week! Cause - AXE deoderant spray.

I am still alive and kicking!

Pictures of Virgin Mary abound.

Elder Buck with Elder Schnettle and Elder Yates, the mission president assistants who flew in last week to spend a day with us. It is nice to visit with others who speak English.

Hola Familia Buck

That’s good to hear that you guys had another good week, ooooh that’s still pretty warm in Arizona, I hope it cools down here too ha-ha. That will never happen :P

That sounded like fun going to hear Scott and his band play. I remember going and listening to them they were pretty good. Yeah about that picture website you made for me dad, thank you, I look at it when ever I can I haven’t been able to look at it recently cause I don’t have time but when I do its so cool to be able to see all those family pictures.

This week has been good, time is starting to fly, were almost finished with this change and my companion goes home in 3 months HE IS SO TRUNKY!!! Sometimes work isn’t very good, cause he says when he sitting their in lessons he usually can’t teach that good cause he’s thinking about home. The weather has been hot and humid and rainy like always, it’s actually kind of depressing when it rains cause first we have to go out in the rain and second we get so muddy, my pant legs are covered with mud sometimes. But other then that it’s good. The rainiest season right now is in the winter. I’m sure they have somewhere we can buy a jacket but I’m just too lazy to look for one ha-ha.

This week actually was kind of hard, Monday night I wasn’t feeling good and couldn’t breathe so I thought I was going to have another lung attack. We came home and I didn’t want to go to sleep cause we were suppose to still be working so I studied Preparing for Salvation which is cool. Then I went to bed even though I was still having a hard time breathing and a super bad headache. The next morning I woke up with an unbelievable painful headache and a fever. I stayed in bed and pretty much slept all day then when night came wasn’t tired and I couldn’t go to sleep, so I stayed up till 4 a.m. reading the Book of Mormon. Every time I read it before bed I fall asleep, but this time I didn’t. I started in Alma Chapter 1 and read all the way to Alma Chapter 49 that was so cool. Ammon is my favorite missionary example, I think that it is so cool how faithful he and all the sons of Mosiah are. When I think about me and my situation (I’M A BABY HAHA) because I don’t get stoned, or spit upon, or cast into prison and beaten and starved. SO WHY DO I WHINE haha??!! That actually helped me out a lot to understand that I don’t have it so hard.

It is kind of hard living with four other Elders. The other Gringo Elder Augustin is cool and so is my companion too. But Elder Solorzano, Ical, and Corrazco I still don’t know them very well. Elder Carrazco is just a straight-up-punk, every time I walk by him he shoulders me and tells me his going to stab me with a knife while I’m sleeping, he’s always has a bad attitude and is ruder then heck! I know I’m in another country/culture so things are going to be a different, but I try to help him, sometimes he will be cool and let me teach him a song on the guitar but usually goes back to his bad attitude after. I talked to my companion and asked him to talk to Carrazco and tell him to start acting like a missionary, stop calling me gringo, start calling me Elder and to chill. He is always yelling or screaming or making some kind of noise. Now Elder Ical is acting just like him and it’s so annoying haha. Then there is Elder Solorzano he´s a cool Elder and does everything he´s suppose to. He just doesn´t like me I try to talk to him but he doesn’t talk back haha I don’t know….other then that were doing alright. They can pretty dang annoying though.

No the family we have been teaching never got their birth certificate there suppose to get it today but they haven’t yet. And their attitudes have totally changed and seem to not care anymore and didn’t go to church, even when I passed by their house that morning and they said yes they would. Dang I need to step it up I still hardly know anyone in my area, or the name of places or individual names. BUT Juan the young man we were teaching did get baptized this week so that was good.

As far as cleaning the church I don’t know what we can do, I tried to do something about it and even talked about in my talk the other Sunday when I was suppose to be talking about enduring to the end. Where’s that scripture in D&C that says the spirit can’t dwell in a dirty room or we need a house of order.

Wow that is some pretty big changes in the home ward I hope everything goes good with that. I got a letter from Grandma Eliason too!!! Tell I LOVE HER!!! I’m not able to write back I never have time so right now this is all I can do. My Spanish still needs improving, we lack the study materials but I’m doing what I can. Today I’m going to buy a book so I can learn the Miskito language better.Well I love you all and thank you for all of your love and support!!

Con cariño y mucho amor

Elder Buck

Leading and Guiding Members

Elder Buck & Elder Miranda teaching investigators.

Eating better food here!

New ailment for the week? Rash of some sort?

Elder Buck & company.

Elder Buck at home.

Hola Familia Buck!

It’s good to hear that everyone is happy and doing well. My stomach does feel better I’m not throwing up anymore. That’s good you guys were busy this week and that there is still work to do. How is the golf business doing, many golfers?? It’s good to hear you are still doing food storage Mom that’s such a blessing to be able to have that. Freezing fifty bags of corn, that is a lot of corn, yum yum… that sounded like a fun family activity. The ward luau sounded fun. Yeah go MOM!!!! Hula hula!

This week has been long and so much stuff happened I can’t remember all that I did. The beginning of the week we had the president assistants come and visit us so that was cool. Elder Yates is from Utah and the other Elder Schnettle is from Chile and was my companions, companion here in the mission and in the MTC (I wonder if I will be companions with Elder Titus again that would be so cool!) Elder Yates was so excited and he was so cool but they had to leave the next day

We really haven’t done much this week now that I think about it, this week we have 4 baptisms coming up. Juan who is 16 he is really cool and wants to serve a mission but at first didn’t want to get baptize until 6 months later, now wants to be baptized ASAP. We have to teach him and give him all the lessons so that’s awesome. Then there is Ariel, Delsia and Wilbur who is the brother of Delsia. First we have to get Ariel and Delsia married, which is kind of hard because she doesn’t even have a birth certificate so we gave her money so that she can get a copy of one. Ariel definitely is ready to be a member, wants to be baptized and change his life. So that’s awesome!! He used to be in the Army so he was in situations where he had to kill people but wants to put all of that behind him.

Then I got to know my Branch President a lot better Presidente Ramsin, he is awesome and I was on divisions with him a lot this week. He is so dedicated to his calling. He was called branch president right after the hurricane hit and it’s really difficult because the members at the time were inactive. But since then, the branch has grown so much they have had to split it into three branches. Bilwi (my area), Loma Verde (Elder Carrasco and Elder Agustin´s area), and Puerto Cabezas (Elder Solorzano and Elder Ical´s Area). Right now our branch attendance is low, and we don’t have any dedicated priesthood holders so things there are pretty tough. Elder Miranda and I are doing the best we can to get more priesthood and help the members now, so we have been on division’s a lot for that.

We don’t really have any new investigators right now, so we are working with the recent converts and less actives so that they will keep coming to church. It’s a lot different here; we have a really nice church and it was just built in January and it’s already trashed because no one takes care of it. The bathrooms are so gross, there are plumbing problem and sometimes the toilets over flow and who gets to clean the bathrooms? WE DO!!! Yeah!!!!! Ha-ha. We pretty much do everything here, which I don’t understand, and the members don’t do anything. The members and even the leaders rely on us a ton they will come to me and ask me what to do; I have never felt like a leader before, I LIKE IT!!!

Thank you for everything, all of you are in my prayers too, and thank you for that talk from the apostles, that was awesome. I love you all!

Elder Buck