Click link to see all the pictures of my life in La Fluente...my zone, district, baptisms, food, gifts, etc.
La Fluente
Hello Family!
I LOVE YOU ALL TOO!!!
Thank you for remembering to email me this time...;P Even though you had to wake up at 2 am, What can I say? Not too many people can sleep with out thinking about me. Were you able to see the pictures of the families that we baptized??
I will be staying in the same area until I am released, I will miss my companion though HE IS SO COOL! I will be training this next companion change - for my FIRST TIME. I was afraid for a second, I thought I was sterile (here in the mission we call the new trainees our kids and until now I have never had any kids).
My final release date is the 16th of March I thought I told you that already?? Im surprised you haven’t got any info from the mission either that’s interesting....That is the last thing that I need is someone planning my life for me. I think that’s how my life was before my mission; I was being babied too much. Ha-ha you know its true......
Well if Carly doesn’t get accepted at BYU Provo there is always BYU Idaho, a lot more are accepted at that school. That’s actually were I’m planning to go. But what exactly does she want to do or study or major in??
Am I getting trunky??.............no. Really im not, you can be surprised, I have been told that I am one of the least trunky missionaries, I haven’t said anything about me going home, unless someone asks. Yeah this last week I had a really good and spiritual district meeting so our district kicked butt this last week. The Sisters finally had a Baptism! YEAH!
It will be very sad to leave Nicaragua especially this area and the people I have grown to love here. My ward loves me, they think im funny or goofy, I don’t know which one of the two. Im actually excited about coming home to school, I have learned how to finally discipline myself to be able to focus and get the job done. Mom, that’s my favorite part, actually my personal goal to get married at 24-25 years old.
Well I have much to talk about this week I will start with
MONDAY well after writing we went back to the house and prayed that we could find a new family that we could help know the Gospel. So with the visits we had they all fell through and so we went to a member’s house to ask for references but know was home. They rent rooms to people in there house so we met Reynaldo and Karen who were there alone. They are a family and we read to them the proclamation of the family and they accepted baptismal dates to be baptized this Saturday.
Tuesday That day I taught an awesome district meeting, I stayed up till 11:30pm the night before to pray and plan to help my district have success and not just me and my companion. Then after district meeting, I felt there was something wrong with one of the companionships in my district. I talked to the Elders and they told me what’s been going on. I know this kid and know that he has done a lot of crap especially with being worthy to receive a temple recommend. I first told him, the two of you wouldn’t be mad at each other if you were obedient, but because you are doing things that you are not supposed to do, you do not have a great companionship. I gave him suggestions of what he needed to do. About companionship prayer morning and night and praying for the other companion like you told me mom and reading a chapter from the BOM together before going to bed.
Then after I finished talking to him he was like, is it okay if I go on divisions with another elder and I was like ha-ha.....no. I told him it’s not healthy for his companionship if he is going on divisions to distance himself from his companion. I found out that later he did.....so he got in trouble for that because I did not authorize it so he got an emergency transfer.
That day was a good day with investigators with baptismal dates. Wilson will be the first of his family to be baptized with complete support from his parents. They also want to be baptized but they don’t have Sundays free that is very hard to tell them to have faith and quit their job, Especially in a third world country. I actually feel so sorry for them, this communist government is so screwed up, they have no controls of their work hours and if they miss their shift their fired.
Flor who we actually had planned to baptized this week we were able to baptize and confirm her last Saturday.
Later that night, we found a new family of 5 to teach: Somarriba family who are huge liberals and supporters of the Sandinistas, so that was interesting to see how a political family accepted the Gospel even though they are opposed to religions.
Wednesday During companionship study (which was awesome) we were going through the Christ attribute test in preach my gospel and my companion had a challenge with Hope. So we reviewed what he needed help on and while I was talking to him I made a my own quote "Do the best you can NOW, to learn from your mistakes to prepare for the future." and then another quote I wrote I told him "DO what God has destined you to do, BE what God has given you the potential to BE". It helped him and me and it was actually really cool. We also found 2 other investigators, EDA and Bryan and set a baptismal date with them for the 5th of Feb.
Thursday not much happened we found a new family of 2 and contacted a lot of people.
Friday Apostle D. TODD CHRISTOFFERSON CAME TO THE MISSION AND I GOT TO SHAKE HIS HAND AND HEAR HIM SPEAK AND TAKE A PICTURE WITH HIM!!!!!! That’s it..........ha-ha jk That day was so awesome though!!! I wrote down everything he said… I LOVE BEING MORMON!
Saturday We found a family of 10 and invited them to church, we baptized Flor… I LOVE HER!! She is so cool!! We also set a baptismal date with a lady that lives in front of our house for this Saturday.
Sunday Elder JAY E JENSEN THE PRESIDENT OF THE SEVENTY CAME AND SPOKE IN OUR STAKE BUILDING THAT WAS ALSO SO COOL!!!
And that’s about it with my week
I love you ALL
Elder BUCK
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Slow Week
Hello Family!
Ha I cant believe you guys have forgot about me....that’s alright who needs you anyways ha-ha jk...jk Yeah a letter is for sure what I am always looking forward too on boring P-days such as this.
That’s cool to know that my best buddy will be home 4 months after me. You THINK everyone is doing okay?? Wouldn’t it be better to KNOW that everyone is doing ok? Sedona that sounds fun...never been.
I am good and healthy as a matter of fact, I was a little sick but that was mostly just allergies. You have no idea how dusty and dirty and gross Managua is. GO GREEN does not exist here just GREEN-GO (gringo) that’s what they call us...always. You haven’t seen any photos I just posted some last week! With my baptisms I had. But other then that no...You won’t be seeing many photos I haven’t taken much because my area is pretty dangerous.
I am enjoying my time for the most part. You know there is always be shortcomings and trials but I will keep on swimming.
A favorite scripture verse hmmm.....I think Alma 26: 11-13 is one, I don’t really have one though.
Well as far as this week im not going to lie nothing too exciting happened this week. But I am working hard and working with the Spirit, We are working with an investigator named Flor she is so cool. She is probably like 47 years old and looks Samoan but speaks English and has lived in the states and we are preparing her baptism for the 29 of January so we are pretty excited for that...other then that. I don’t have much too say.
I love you all
Elder Buck
Ha I cant believe you guys have forgot about me....that’s alright who needs you anyways ha-ha jk...jk Yeah a letter is for sure what I am always looking forward too on boring P-days such as this.
That’s cool to know that my best buddy will be home 4 months after me. You THINK everyone is doing okay?? Wouldn’t it be better to KNOW that everyone is doing ok? Sedona that sounds fun...never been.
I am good and healthy as a matter of fact, I was a little sick but that was mostly just allergies. You have no idea how dusty and dirty and gross Managua is. GO GREEN does not exist here just GREEN-GO (gringo) that’s what they call us...always. You haven’t seen any photos I just posted some last week! With my baptisms I had. But other then that no...You won’t be seeing many photos I haven’t taken much because my area is pretty dangerous.
I am enjoying my time for the most part. You know there is always be shortcomings and trials but I will keep on swimming.
A favorite scripture verse hmmm.....I think Alma 26: 11-13 is one, I don’t really have one though.
Well as far as this week im not going to lie nothing too exciting happened this week. But I am working hard and working with the Spirit, We are working with an investigator named Flor she is so cool. She is probably like 47 years old and looks Samoan but speaks English and has lived in the states and we are preparing her baptism for the 29 of January so we are pretty excited for that...other then that. I don’t have much too say.
I love you all
Elder Buck
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Successes
Hola Familia!
Hello everyone....this week was a little bit longer I think ha-ha. They say if it’s long that means that you are not working hard, but I would love ‘to beg to differ’. This week was so HARD ha-ha. But I am happy to say we ended it just the way I planned it.
News about the mission, Elder Jensen the Pres. of the Seventy and the Apostle Elder D. Todd Christoferson are coming here to Nicaragua and I will be able to have the privilege to hear from them both I MIGHT EVEN GET TO SHAKE THERE HANDS!!!
Sorry Carly your back in school...no worries you will be done in May. Have you been to sell any of the programs you have made Dad?
Well as far as this week we had planned 5 baptisms one to complete the Baptism of Manuel and Manuel jr. and their family!! I love that family they are so awesome! Aaaah....im going to miss Nicaragua I really am....:(
I have done so much here and still so much I want to do.
As far as being a district leader it’s awesome, I love it. Being able to help out my district of 8 people is really quite a responsibility. I would like to try to talk about my week.
Last Monday was way fun, after P-day we went to Fam: Rodriguez’s house and had a family home evening with them. (That’s the family that was baptized this week) The son Manuel guided the program and we had some members over to lead the music and and say the prayer. Then the best part Manuel the dad gave the lesson, he gave it on Agency. He is so funny he was ‘evangelico’ before he was baptized and so when he gave the lesson he sounded like a pastor but it was a really good lesson! Then at the end the mom (Giovanni) she gave the refreshments and played a game.
Then on Tuesday we had District Meeting. From 8:30 till 11:30am its pretty hard teaching my district and helping them understand better the doctrine of Christ in 3 hours but I love it. The spirit was pretty strong. I taught from 8:30 till 10:00am then we took out our vision of how many people we want to get baptized this week and how we were going to do it, then from 10:15-11:30am we did practices on the lessons to help us be better teachers and practice for real investigators.
Then at 2:00pm we went to visit a woman her name is Flor she is one of our progressing investigators. We are just waiting for her to get baptized ha-ha but I think it will be a while. Then at 3:00pm we found a new family named Familia Martinez they are a family of 5 but the husband is a member but in active. They really liked what we taught them and we could feel the spirit most importantly because that is what we are really trying to focus on.
Then from there all our other visits fell through so we just went contacting.
Then on WEDNESDAY in the morning at 7:00am I went to one of the areas in my district and did the interview with a guy named Nelson. That guy was pretty strange, 3 minutes into the interview I could already tell this guy wasn’t ready to be baptized and that was even before I asked him the baptismal interview questions. Interesting it turned out he had only being to church once in his life but has been investigating the church for about 6 years. He had quite a few problems so he didn’t pass. We helped him feel good about preparing for a baptism in the next weeks to come and to fix his problems were he had some.
Then at 3:00pm I went to one of my other districts in Villa Venezuela and did the interview for them. But when we first got there the Family that I was going to do the interview with wasn’t home. (I would like to tell you a little bit about this family. So when we went to do the interviews they weren’t home because there was a little incident. The man José Eric is a guard at his work and he works 24 hour shifts. The night before the interview there was a gang that came up and wanted to rob him but they didn’t know he was a guard cuz he carries his pistol in his holster underneath of his jacket that he wears. When they came up the guy had a gun and tried shooting him in the leg but they shot Jose by his phone, keys and the gun itself so the bullet didn’t do anything. It did make a big bruise in his leg and kind of a hole. We found out he was in the hospital but was suppose to come back that same day.
Well they came home at around 5.30pm that afternoon. I started talking with the family and started doing the interviews the guy still had some problems but passed because I talked with my zone leaders just to make sure, and the daughter who was 9 years old. But the mom whose name is Rosario didn’t not pass because she did not want to give up coffee, and she didn’t not know anything about the word of wisdom.....grrr...I don’t like when missionaries just try to baptize people with out preparing them. The next day before the baptism of her husband and daughter she drank not only coffee BUT BEER!!. Ha-ha Wow what a rebel, but she went to church this Sunday.
Well I would love to finish with the week but I am out of time.
I love you all so much!!!
Elder Buck
Hello everyone....this week was a little bit longer I think ha-ha. They say if it’s long that means that you are not working hard, but I would love ‘to beg to differ’. This week was so HARD ha-ha. But I am happy to say we ended it just the way I planned it.
News about the mission, Elder Jensen the Pres. of the Seventy and the Apostle Elder D. Todd Christoferson are coming here to Nicaragua and I will be able to have the privilege to hear from them both I MIGHT EVEN GET TO SHAKE THERE HANDS!!!
Sorry Carly your back in school...no worries you will be done in May. Have you been to sell any of the programs you have made Dad?
Well as far as this week we had planned 5 baptisms one to complete the Baptism of Manuel and Manuel jr. and their family!! I love that family they are so awesome! Aaaah....im going to miss Nicaragua I really am....:(
I have done so much here and still so much I want to do.
As far as being a district leader it’s awesome, I love it. Being able to help out my district of 8 people is really quite a responsibility. I would like to try to talk about my week.
Last Monday was way fun, after P-day we went to Fam: Rodriguez’s house and had a family home evening with them. (That’s the family that was baptized this week) The son Manuel guided the program and we had some members over to lead the music and and say the prayer. Then the best part Manuel the dad gave the lesson, he gave it on Agency. He is so funny he was ‘evangelico’ before he was baptized and so when he gave the lesson he sounded like a pastor but it was a really good lesson! Then at the end the mom (Giovanni) she gave the refreshments and played a game.
Then on Tuesday we had District Meeting. From 8:30 till 11:30am its pretty hard teaching my district and helping them understand better the doctrine of Christ in 3 hours but I love it. The spirit was pretty strong. I taught from 8:30 till 10:00am then we took out our vision of how many people we want to get baptized this week and how we were going to do it, then from 10:15-11:30am we did practices on the lessons to help us be better teachers and practice for real investigators.
Then at 2:00pm we went to visit a woman her name is Flor she is one of our progressing investigators. We are just waiting for her to get baptized ha-ha but I think it will be a while. Then at 3:00pm we found a new family named Familia Martinez they are a family of 5 but the husband is a member but in active. They really liked what we taught them and we could feel the spirit most importantly because that is what we are really trying to focus on.
Then from there all our other visits fell through so we just went contacting.
Then on WEDNESDAY in the morning at 7:00am I went to one of the areas in my district and did the interview with a guy named Nelson. That guy was pretty strange, 3 minutes into the interview I could already tell this guy wasn’t ready to be baptized and that was even before I asked him the baptismal interview questions. Interesting it turned out he had only being to church once in his life but has been investigating the church for about 6 years. He had quite a few problems so he didn’t pass. We helped him feel good about preparing for a baptism in the next weeks to come and to fix his problems were he had some.
Then at 3:00pm I went to one of my other districts in Villa Venezuela and did the interview for them. But when we first got there the Family that I was going to do the interview with wasn’t home. (I would like to tell you a little bit about this family. So when we went to do the interviews they weren’t home because there was a little incident. The man José Eric is a guard at his work and he works 24 hour shifts. The night before the interview there was a gang that came up and wanted to rob him but they didn’t know he was a guard cuz he carries his pistol in his holster underneath of his jacket that he wears. When they came up the guy had a gun and tried shooting him in the leg but they shot Jose by his phone, keys and the gun itself so the bullet didn’t do anything. It did make a big bruise in his leg and kind of a hole. We found out he was in the hospital but was suppose to come back that same day.
Well they came home at around 5.30pm that afternoon. I started talking with the family and started doing the interviews the guy still had some problems but passed because I talked with my zone leaders just to make sure, and the daughter who was 9 years old. But the mom whose name is Rosario didn’t not pass because she did not want to give up coffee, and she didn’t not know anything about the word of wisdom.....grrr...I don’t like when missionaries just try to baptize people with out preparing them. The next day before the baptism of her husband and daughter she drank not only coffee BUT BEER!!. Ha-ha Wow what a rebel, but she went to church this Sunday.
Well I would love to finish with the week but I am out of time.
I love you all so much!!!
Elder Buck
A New Year
Hello Family!
It was also good to hear and talk with all of you! Everyone looked so happy that also made me happy.
Oh that’s awesome that Rulon was blessed on Sunday, he is such a cute little baby!
Sounds like you had fun in the snow, I miss the snow.....Yeah it’s pretty hot here for the moment and will be I forever! Ha-ha.
Well as far as goals that I had for these last months are pretty big. For this month, as far as baptisms my companion and I, we have a goal to have 10 baptisms 3 with families. As a district we have the goal for 28 baptisms 7 families! It will be a lot and we hope to reach that goal. So far the only ones that are doing what they need to do to reach that goal is my companion and I, we have 5 baptisms so far for this month and that includes this week we have 4 and last Saturday we had 2.
The family that we are preparing for baptism there name is Family Rodriguez. and there are 5 in the family.
There is:
Manuel (dad)
Giovanni (mom)
Manuel (son)
Chirli (daughter)
Marcela (daughter)
They are so COOL! In testimony meeting this week Manuel stood up and bore his testimony and it was SO POWERFUL!! It was awesome...
As far as my goals when I get back I want to be able to go to the temple at least once a week and at least 1 a month with all of my family. (We are going to have to find a lot of babysitter’s ha-ha...) and my other goals like studying and work you know that good stuff...
The new year was interesting....they like to celebrate the new year with lots of beer and fireworks I got some video of all of that. I was half way asleep around 11:30pm and then a boat load of fireworks start going off and it woke me up and I could not go to sleep until like 3 am in the morning....it was rough. Yes there is always a lot of parties and music....
I have an awesome story to tell you about this family that will be getting baptized. With the son whose name is Manuel.
Well my companion and I were teaching the family and there were only 3 people present at the time, there was Manuel, Giovanni, and Marcela. And we were talking to them about there baptism for last Saturday and seeing how they were doing....
Well as always in the mission there are surprises...and they had one for us. I asked “So how are you guys feeling about your baptism this week" and then Manuel says” It looks like im getting baptized alone"...and I was like "what?? What do you mean?" , "Well" he says, "Marcela and my wife are going to Chinandega for new years to visit family." and I was like "Okay well when will they be leaving" and he's like "on the 31st and wont come back till the second of January...." . "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO???!!" (I thought)
Okay I said I need to talk with my zone leaders. So I called my ZL'S up on the phone and I was like "HEY??!! I NEED YOUR HELP THE FAMILY WONT GET BAPTIZED THIS WEEK, JUST MANUEL??" so after talking the options were these....
1. You talk them out of going with the family and get them baptized and confirmed this week.
2. You talk with your bishop and see if he can do the confirmation right after the baptism.
3. Pray for God to help you....
that is how it usually goes...
So...I tried letting the spirit guide me and I thought that we should talk about faith. But after about an hour of teaching she was not convinced...so I prayed while she walked off to do something...so I talk with poor ol Manuel about his baptism that he will be doing his baptism just by himself. His wife comes back out and she says "my son mauel wants to get baptized" and I was like what??!! "Well where is he, bring him here?" and for sure the kid did want to get baptized it was truly a miracle.
At the end I asked "Why did he want to be baptized now??" He was only present in one of our lessons before, why did he want to get baptized with only one lesson? He said, While I was in my room and I just woke up and I heard you talking about my dads baptism tomorrow and I felt this wonderful feeling in my heart and I knew that it was something I also had to do.
The two, Manuel and Manuel jr. were baptized on the 30th of December it was truly a miracle that I will never forget.
Love you all
Elder Buck
It was also good to hear and talk with all of you! Everyone looked so happy that also made me happy.
Oh that’s awesome that Rulon was blessed on Sunday, he is such a cute little baby!
Sounds like you had fun in the snow, I miss the snow.....Yeah it’s pretty hot here for the moment and will be I forever! Ha-ha.
Well as far as goals that I had for these last months are pretty big. For this month, as far as baptisms my companion and I, we have a goal to have 10 baptisms 3 with families. As a district we have the goal for 28 baptisms 7 families! It will be a lot and we hope to reach that goal. So far the only ones that are doing what they need to do to reach that goal is my companion and I, we have 5 baptisms so far for this month and that includes this week we have 4 and last Saturday we had 2.
The family that we are preparing for baptism there name is Family Rodriguez. and there are 5 in the family.
There is:
Manuel (dad)
Giovanni (mom)
Manuel (son)
Chirli (daughter)
Marcela (daughter)
They are so COOL! In testimony meeting this week Manuel stood up and bore his testimony and it was SO POWERFUL!! It was awesome...
As far as my goals when I get back I want to be able to go to the temple at least once a week and at least 1 a month with all of my family. (We are going to have to find a lot of babysitter’s ha-ha...) and my other goals like studying and work you know that good stuff...
The new year was interesting....they like to celebrate the new year with lots of beer and fireworks I got some video of all of that. I was half way asleep around 11:30pm and then a boat load of fireworks start going off and it woke me up and I could not go to sleep until like 3 am in the morning....it was rough. Yes there is always a lot of parties and music....
I have an awesome story to tell you about this family that will be getting baptized. With the son whose name is Manuel.
Well my companion and I were teaching the family and there were only 3 people present at the time, there was Manuel, Giovanni, and Marcela. And we were talking to them about there baptism for last Saturday and seeing how they were doing....
Well as always in the mission there are surprises...and they had one for us. I asked “So how are you guys feeling about your baptism this week" and then Manuel says” It looks like im getting baptized alone"...and I was like "what?? What do you mean?" , "Well" he says, "Marcela and my wife are going to Chinandega for new years to visit family." and I was like "Okay well when will they be leaving" and he's like "on the 31st and wont come back till the second of January...." . "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO???!!" (I thought)
Okay I said I need to talk with my zone leaders. So I called my ZL'S up on the phone and I was like "HEY??!! I NEED YOUR HELP THE FAMILY WONT GET BAPTIZED THIS WEEK, JUST MANUEL??" so after talking the options were these....
1. You talk them out of going with the family and get them baptized and confirmed this week.
2. You talk with your bishop and see if he can do the confirmation right after the baptism.
3. Pray for God to help you....
that is how it usually goes...
So...I tried letting the spirit guide me and I thought that we should talk about faith. But after about an hour of teaching she was not convinced...so I prayed while she walked off to do something...so I talk with poor ol Manuel about his baptism that he will be doing his baptism just by himself. His wife comes back out and she says "my son mauel wants to get baptized" and I was like what??!! "Well where is he, bring him here?" and for sure the kid did want to get baptized it was truly a miracle.
At the end I asked "Why did he want to be baptized now??" He was only present in one of our lessons before, why did he want to get baptized with only one lesson? He said, While I was in my room and I just woke up and I heard you talking about my dads baptism tomorrow and I felt this wonderful feeling in my heart and I knew that it was something I also had to do.
The two, Manuel and Manuel jr. were baptized on the 30th of December it was truly a miracle that I will never forget.
Love you all
Elder Buck
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
