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