Two Letters to Post

Hello Family! (October4)


It was a good conference, I am glad to hear it was awesome!  I wasn’t able to see some parts of it...dang Im going to download conference though on my iPod so I can listen to it. I love conference, most the time I was listening to it in Spanish and also seeing how many investigators and recent converts were present and watching it. There was a huge storm going through on Saturday and through the night and it kept on cutting in and out with the satellite feed...so I missed a lot of the speakers.

My favorite talk that I can remember and understood was the one by D. Todd Kristofferson talking about the steps on how to have a consecrated life I really liked that one. But yes in parts I did fall asleep too....LIKE ALWAYS!! What can I say? Im a hard worker and I get sleepy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!  I hope you had an awesome b-day! It sounds like you did!

Sweet, Im glad Carver and everyone got my letters! Im glad the kids liked them too!

I did get transferred this past week and here is the story:
Tuesday it was a rather difficult day for my companion and I, we were both trying to work but were also anxious to who would be changing...we went back to the house after we were done eating dinner for the night and waited in the house and planned until our DL came back from working and tell us of who was leaving.

We waited and when he came back he told us that none of us have changes.  I was happy to be able to stay, but discouraged that I would be with someone for six more weeks who absolutely does not like me or have any interests in what I do..Well so I thought SWEET you know what this is going to be an even better change.

However, the next morning I woke up to my companion slapping my feet saying "move your feet they are in my way". He was trying to get to his suitcase but my feet were hanging over the bed so it blocked his suitcase flap to open up his suitcase. In that exact moment I was thinking in my head "well I can either tell him to shut up and ask nicely or I can tell him sorry and move my feet".  It was hard but I chose option B.  Later that morning he was talking crap to me but I just ignored him and it helped me.

We finally went out and started working and our discussions we had set up were falling through. So I said lets go back to the house were we eat and teach Rosa’s daughter who still isn’t baptized.  We went back and when we found out she wasn’t there we were leaving the house then my district leader runs up all out of breath and said " we were looking all over for you guys you both have changes!" and I was like "what?!" " I'm sorry they just told me, but you guys got to get your stuff packed and go at 2:00pm". I had a bad feeling in my stomach while packing like I was leaving a part of me behind or my family. 

We got to the bus station at 1pm. Our district leader told us that my companion would be going to Chinadega and I go back to my old zone to Villa Flor, La fuente, outside of Managua.  I was getting on the bus and my leader told me "Hey your new companion will be a white boy that you will be training" and I was like "NOOOOOOOoooo!" and he said "You are also the District Leader" idk why but when he told me that I felt AWESOME! Finally!! RESPONSIBILITY! LEADERSHIP! and it is awesome!

The bus ride back to Managua was about 2 hours long and the whole way back there was a TV right in front of my face playing Prince of Persia and I feel ashamed to say but I watched like 10 minutes in total for the whole way back. When I got to the bus station in Managua no one was there to pick me up so I waited 2 1/2 hours and still no one picked me up so I called my zone leaders and they said to just take a taxi to the church. I did and when I got there I met my companion ELDER SMITH!!! HE IS SO COOL! I am so happy. He is from Wyoming and is a newbie he has 1 month in Nicaragua so I am a trainer again and a District Leader.

My district is a district of 4 for now, my companion and I and the hermanas. I have sister missionaries in my district and they are hard workers so we are doing AWESOME! Im real excited for this change. This Wednesday I will be doing my first baptismal interview as District Leader and am excited about that. I heard from others be a district leader is way better then any other thing so I am happy for this opportunity.

I have been in my new area for 5 days now and we are doing awesome. My area is dangerous like Reparto Shick but it is awesome! The people are so much more receptive here then the people in Matagalpa.

We have 1 baptism planned for this week and 1 for next week and 3 for the next week after that. The one that will be baptized this weeks name is Karen she is 9 years old and she will be baptized by us because her parents are members but inactive and didnt get her baptized at the age of 8.  We are activating her parents too.

One of our investigators name is Nelson.  The missionaries have been visiting him for about 8 months and he has read the BofM 10 times, been to church 11 times and has read the principles of the gospel, but will not commit to baptism. When I went yesterday and met him for the first time, I talked with him about the baptismal challenge and he did not accept. I asked him what was holding him back and he told me it was because he was afraid of failing after his baptism. We talked about failing, atonement and forgiveness and he seems to have a greater desire to be baptised now.

Im out of time but love you all!

Elder Buck



Hello Family! (October 11)

Thank you for the congrats...I was transferred to a new area. I am back in Managua in an area called La Fuente. It is close by my old area Reparto Shick.

This week has been one crazy week, Im loving it though..

On Monday I don’t remember if I wrote you this but someone called me on my phone while we were in the house and asked my companion and I to go to the nearest hospital and give this sister a blessing. The guy that called me was the Branch President to the Diriamba branch in Jinotepe and he said he would come by and picked us up and take us to the hospital. On the way he explained the details about the sister.

The sister was a mom of a returned missionary sister. She has some type of infection in her body I don’t remember what he called it...but she was dying. The hospital was packed like usual and we had to wait for the returned sister missionary to come find us so we could get entrance because it was the part of the hospital that is for females only. It was gross, cuz when we got access we were passing by rooms where woman were having babies and I about threw up.

When we got to the room the lady was sitting up in her bed with her eyes closed but still conscious and with a hole cute in her throat and a tube going into it so she could breathe. She was in really bad shape and the daughter and whole family was there crying and I didn’t really know what to do. We waiting till a doctor came in and gave us permission to put our hands on her head to give her a blessing.

When we got permission my companion did the anointing and I sealed the blessing. I don’t remember at all what I said but I felt the power of the spirit very strongly. It was a unique moment. After the blessing the family still had tears in their eyes but where a lot calmer. Then the family thanked us and we left.

Later that night we received a call again to give her a blessing and I told them "she already received one, it’s not necessary that she receives another". Then they told me that it was a blessing of comfort, so I agreed and went to the hospital  again, it was pretty late like 8:45pm. When we got to the hospital the guard at the door had a bad experience with Mormon's so he wouldn't let us in no matter what. While we were waiting another man came up and it was the 2nd counselor of the South Mission here in Nicaragua. He was also informed to come. We finally got permission to go in but we went another direction to the sister who had been moved to intensive care.

When we got to the room of intensive care, I did not like that at all. I felt sick looking at all the people in bed with thousands of tubes in their bodies to help them survive. They were mostly old people that were there. The doctor was mad that there was more then one person there to give the blessing and would only permit one of us to go in the room to give the blessing. The 2nd counselor went in and gave the blessing. We waited out side with the other family members. You could tell this poor family had gone through a lot that day... all worn out, with bags another there eyes, unkempt hair and tears. My companion and I said a prayer with them as we waited. When the counselor came out he said he gave the blessing and we silently said goodbye to everyone with a smile and drove back home.  That was my first spiritual experience of something like that and not one that I will forget...

Tuesday was my first time to direct my own district meeting. They wanted us to come half an hour early to tell us what goals we have as a district and how to be better leaders. Then I taught my district the Doctrines of Christ which is a new really cool missionary program.

Wednesday I went and did my first baptismal interviews for my zone leaders. That was a really neat experience, I interviewed two sisters that were in there late 20s. The first I could feel the spirit with in the first 2-3 minutes of the interview telling me she is ready. But the other one I didn’t feel the same because she had quite a serious problem with the Law of Chastity. I told her not to tell me the details but she continued to talk in great detail...thank goodness it was in Spanish cuz there were a lot of words she used that I didn’t know and I didn't understand what she was telling me.   Later that night I did another interview with another investigator for the sister missionaries in my district. That was also really cool!

Thursday: I wasn’t able to do much....I have had an ingrown toe nail on my big toe for a while and the pain is getting unbearable. During the morning we met up with an investigator named Raul who is from Miami. We met him a day earlier, he is probably like 23 years old, and was positive the day before. We gave him the lesson 1 pamphlet and told him we would come back today. The first thing he says to us in English is "Im not feeling it".  I asked, " Not feeling what?" He said, I don't feel the message of the restoration is true." I told him he was not going to feel it unless he prayed and ask God if it’s true". He said other stuff, so we tried teaching him the importance of the preisthood authority and why it’s necessary that it was and is on the earth today. Then he told us what other religions say about  priesthood authority and that anyone can get this authority if they have faith in God.  I told him about the laying on of hands by those with the authority, but he shut down and didn’t listen, so we left him with the invitation to pray or "you’re never going to feel it" (the truth).

Friday was a good day, we worked hard trying to get to know our area better by trying to find the 28 out of 33 recent converts we don’t know. We dedicated the whole afternoon to finding where these recent converts live, well we didn’t find any recent converts but we did find 6 new investigators so that was really cool.

Saturday was the first baptism I had in this new area. The name of the girl is Karen who is 9 but her parents didn’t baptize her cuz they are INACTIVE. The baptism was horrible though...I really do not like the baptisms here in Nicaragua.   I was leading the baptism and her cousin was the one that was going to baptize her. The cousin forgot his baptismal shirt so we had to delay the baptism and wait for his dad to go and buy a new one. All the people we invited on Friday didn’t come to the baptism, neither did the bishop or any of the counselors. When the cousin did the baptism itself, the cousin wasn’t too experienced and almost drowned her so Karen came up bawling. Then after the baptism was done...nobody congratulated her besides my companion and I. WOW

Later that day I got my ingrown toenail pulled out.  The specialist put anesthesia (shot) in my toe which hurt like heck. He said there will be a slight tingling and Im afraid it was a little more then that.  I tried to stuff my fat wrapped toe in my shoe so after that I didn’t work much the rest of the day.

Sunday we spent all morning walking and trying to get our investigators to church from 6am - 9am and had 2 investigators there.  I couldn’t walk very well and I my toe is still hurting like crazy!  I got chewed out by my zone leaders for not working cuz of my toe but it was a good week.

Still haven’t got my package yet, the zone leaders are going to go pick it up from the mission office tomorrow.

Glad everyone had fun in Utah. I need a favor if you could send me the dates of everyone’s birthdays!

AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THOSE THAT HAVE BIRTHDAYS IN OCTOBER.  I HOPE I REMEBER ALL OF THEM.   MOM, KADE, CARLY, AND EMILY! THAT’S WHY I NEED A LIST OF BIRTHDAY DATES!

Love Elder Buck