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!

Click here to: Email Me!

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!