Hello Family!
Happy Valentines Day...I love you too!
Oh please don’t countdown the days until I return ha-ha...that’s horrible. IM NOT COUNTING!! But im glad you love me and are getting excited for my return.
I am sorry for my short letter I sent last week, it was very short and I didn’t have very much time. I have been kinda sick lately im just waiting for permission to go to the hospital to do a final check up before heading back to the states. I called the nurse here and it’s still the same mess trying to get missionaries to the hospital. Where she sends an email to the states then the mission doctor there looks at the problem and symptoms and mails back saying if the missionary can go or not and I still haven’t got permission. I have diarrhea again, I have had for about 3 weeks now and I have no MORE ENERGY!!?? I drink 3 Gatorades a day to keep me hydrated and im taking medicine but its not doing much. My whole zone practically is sick and my companion has the same thing I have and he is starting his 2nd week with diarrhea. poor guy......but im alive.....some how.
The pictures of the new baby are of the family where we eat each day. That family is the Chacon Family with Luz Marina, Lesley, María, Rosario, and Marcela. I will title the photos later....But it is a very cute baby. I miss my NIECES AND NEPHEWS ha-ha.....
My new companions name is Elder Taufa he is from Tonga. Born and raised in Tonga but move to California. He is SO COOL! He is so humble too! I Love that guy....We are getting along great. Im not his trainer but he is starting his 3rd month in the mission. I died sterile.....:( (In the mission we refer to train-ees as "kids" but I didn’t have any that I trained in two years, therefore I died sterile.)
What helped me out a lot is what Nephi said in 2 Nephi 33:1-2 It’s talking about that "there are many that harden their hearts, therefore the spirit does not dwell in them...so they reject and do not consider the word of God as nothing..." and its true i was also reading in Doctrine and Covenants today...(by the way I LOVE STUDYING!) and I read the vision of Joseph F. Smith in section 138 and he talks about those also that rejected Jesus Christ even though they saw his great works and miracles. He talks about it in verses 25-26 and then at the same time it makes me think of Laman and Lemuel. They saw angels and miracles they felt the power of God and were even shocked, but they still fell into apostasy. crazy.......
Something my mission president gave me after he quoted something I thought was remarkable and gave me the reference, this is my own words. He said (referring to the spirit) " The manifestation of Christ or God the Father himself would surely be an impact to both mind and spirit, but the spiritual impact could eventually dwindle if they don't keep the spirit with them always. Meanwhile when one has the guidance and companionship of the spirit at all times, it is hard to ever deny personal manifestations or seen miracles".
I haven’t had any great experiences this week to be honest.....But I will tell you of what happened this week.
Monday: don’t remember anything to be honest ha-ha.
Tuesday: in the morning I had a District Leader meeting that I had to go to, it was really awesome. It was in the Waspan building in Bello Horizante. When I got there, there were other District leaders and Trainers. Pres. Arredondo training us on how to train others and it was really cool, I took a lot of notes. HE IS SUCH AN AWESOME MISSION PRESIDENT AND SO IS HIS WIFE! But we talked about how to teach with the spirit.and more then anything how to use the spirit in this missionary work.
Wednesday: I went back to the same place and we had some more training then they gave us District leaders time to teach others how to train. It was voluntary so of course I did it. It was really awesome because I taught a group of missionaries of about 30 including my mission president and his wife and AP´s. It was really cool... I nervous at first but I was confident that the spirit would help me know what to do and say. After I was done teaching we also did an evaluation to see how well I did and here are some of the comments that they made.
• I expressed my feelings as I taught
• I explained everything really well
• I asked for other peoples experiences
• I had great teaching methods
• I taught from preach my gospel
• I helped others apply what I taught in there work
• I used myself as an example of what I taught
• I used personal experiences
• (this is the presidents wife comment) She could tell I was listening to the spirit and she said she also felt the spirit really strongly
• ( presidents comment) I taught like a humble teacher
So that was pretty cool...I taught in this training meeting how to TEACH PEOPLE, NOT LESSONS. I really enjoyed it.
Thursday: my companion and I did our weekly planning session in the Church and then I had district meeting with my district. My district now is only made up of 3 companionships.
La Fuente-My companion and I
La 14- Hna. Velazquez (Guatemala) and Hna. Carranza (El Salvador)
Villa Flor II- Elder Bonilla and Elder Oliva
Everyone in my district had changes these last week, IM THE LAST OF US to stay in this area until I come home... ha-ha...
It was interesting this first week with the Hermanas (sister missionaries) they have both been here for a while in the mission but are both new in there area. I call my district every night to see how everyone is doing and also to see how they did during the day. When I called the Hermanas one night the one that answered the phone was Hna. Velazquez and she was crying and I was thinking "oh crap". So then I asked "what happened", and she’s like "nothing im fine."
It was like that 3 more times that week when I called her she is really moody or crying and so I was like "what the heck is going on??" I called my zone leaders and told them and they said "Alright thanks for letting us know we will talk with them".....
So a couple days pass by and I was talking to my zone leaders asking what the heck is up with the sisters?? My zone leader is Elder Grey (Utah) he’s like "uh don’t worry about it’s actually a personal problem" and I was like "oh shoot is there something happening with her family back at home" and he’s like "uh....no its something that happens monthly with women". I said, "OH CRAP, ITS SHARK WEEK??!!" HAHA and he just busted out laughing. We were both talking about how weird it was working with sister missionaries; it’s a first for the both of us. Ha-ha
But something I also wanted to ask is if it’s possible if you guys could run down to Milano’s Music before I get back and buy me some violin strings...the ones I have are not that great.......and that’s it. Ha-ha
I love you all
Elder Buck
Monday, February 21, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Monday, Jan 31
Hello Family!
It’s good to hear that everyone is doing well!
This week was SLOW!!!....ha-ha but good in the end.
But here goes my week...
MONDAY after writing you, my companion and I did a family home evening with one of our newest recent converts Flor and she liked it a lot.
TUESDAY I did my super-cool-awesome-District Meeting. Then after my companion and I found this guy who was a reference I gave to this same area I am in, but when I was Reparto Shick. His name is Miguel, I don’t want to be mean but if you want to know what he looks like, he looks like the guy on Men In Black II that gets his head shot off (by will Smith) and it grows back ha-ha. He is pretty cool, he is an English teacher so he wants to do the discussions in English, and he has a baptismal date for the 12th of February. Then we taught Flor´s sister whose name is Lupe but she is way different then her sister she doesn’t know anything about Jesus Christ. Then that same day we lost 3 family investigators.....
WEDNESDAY not much happened that day. Both our zone leaders were changed and the new ones are E. Grey and E. Peña they are cool...
THURSDAY was rough, just getting our two baptisms ready for the week.
FRIDAY Interviews: I had only one interview that day but the Elder Grey who is new to the zone came to my area to do the two interviews that we had but only one passed. His name is Jose a 9 year old kid that wasn’t baptized by his Mormon family at the age of 8 because they wanted him to be a "converted member". I had to remind them that at his age an 8 year old is capable of understanding and choosing to be baptized and the parents understood. Then I went to Villa Flor and did an interview for a kid named Alexander who is 19 years old.
SATURDAY we did the two baptisms together and I lead the ceremony.
SUNDAY I GOT TO TAKE THE SACRAMENT THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I feel so much better now.....not that I was doing anything wrong but that was my most spiritual experience for the week and it’s kind of relaxing.
Now I would like to take the time to thank you Mom and Dad for all that you have done for me for all of your support and love....I love you both very much and the rest of my family as well. CARVER, TANNER AND THERE FAMILIES WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO BE AN ETERNAL FAMILY BEING HERE IN THE MISSION THERE IS ONE THING THAT I LEARNED, AND THATS.....HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO HAVE A GOOD FAMILY. There aren’t too many good families here......
Love
Elder Buck
It’s good to hear that everyone is doing well!
This week was SLOW!!!....ha-ha but good in the end.
But here goes my week...
MONDAY after writing you, my companion and I did a family home evening with one of our newest recent converts Flor and she liked it a lot.
TUESDAY I did my super-cool-awesome-District Meeting. Then after my companion and I found this guy who was a reference I gave to this same area I am in, but when I was Reparto Shick. His name is Miguel, I don’t want to be mean but if you want to know what he looks like, he looks like the guy on Men In Black II that gets his head shot off (by will Smith) and it grows back ha-ha. He is pretty cool, he is an English teacher so he wants to do the discussions in English, and he has a baptismal date for the 12th of February. Then we taught Flor´s sister whose name is Lupe but she is way different then her sister she doesn’t know anything about Jesus Christ. Then that same day we lost 3 family investigators.....
WEDNESDAY not much happened that day. Both our zone leaders were changed and the new ones are E. Grey and E. Peña they are cool...
THURSDAY was rough, just getting our two baptisms ready for the week.
FRIDAY Interviews: I had only one interview that day but the Elder Grey who is new to the zone came to my area to do the two interviews that we had but only one passed. His name is Jose a 9 year old kid that wasn’t baptized by his Mormon family at the age of 8 because they wanted him to be a "converted member". I had to remind them that at his age an 8 year old is capable of understanding and choosing to be baptized and the parents understood. Then I went to Villa Flor and did an interview for a kid named Alexander who is 19 years old.
SATURDAY we did the two baptisms together and I lead the ceremony.
SUNDAY I GOT TO TAKE THE SACRAMENT THAT WAS AWESOME!!! I feel so much better now.....not that I was doing anything wrong but that was my most spiritual experience for the week and it’s kind of relaxing.
Now I would like to take the time to thank you Mom and Dad for all that you have done for me for all of your support and love....I love you both very much and the rest of my family as well. CARVER, TANNER AND THERE FAMILIES WE NEED TO DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO BE AN ETERNAL FAMILY BEING HERE IN THE MISSION THERE IS ONE THING THAT I LEARNED, AND THATS.....HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO HAVE A GOOD FAMILY. There aren’t too many good families here......
Love
Elder Buck
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