Leading and Guiding Members

Elder Buck & Elder Miranda teaching investigators.

Eating better food here!

New ailment for the week? Rash of some sort?

Elder Buck & company.

Elder Buck at home.

Hola Familia Buck!

It’s good to hear that everyone is happy and doing well. My stomach does feel better I’m not throwing up anymore. That’s good you guys were busy this week and that there is still work to do. How is the golf business doing, many golfers?? It’s good to hear you are still doing food storage Mom that’s such a blessing to be able to have that. Freezing fifty bags of corn, that is a lot of corn, yum yum… that sounded like a fun family activity. The ward luau sounded fun. Yeah go MOM!!!! Hula hula!

This week has been long and so much stuff happened I can’t remember all that I did. The beginning of the week we had the president assistants come and visit us so that was cool. Elder Yates is from Utah and the other Elder Schnettle is from Chile and was my companions, companion here in the mission and in the MTC (I wonder if I will be companions with Elder Titus again that would be so cool!) Elder Yates was so excited and he was so cool but they had to leave the next day

We really haven’t done much this week now that I think about it, this week we have 4 baptisms coming up. Juan who is 16 he is really cool and wants to serve a mission but at first didn’t want to get baptize until 6 months later, now wants to be baptized ASAP. We have to teach him and give him all the lessons so that’s awesome. Then there is Ariel, Delsia and Wilbur who is the brother of Delsia. First we have to get Ariel and Delsia married, which is kind of hard because she doesn’t even have a birth certificate so we gave her money so that she can get a copy of one. Ariel definitely is ready to be a member, wants to be baptized and change his life. So that’s awesome!! He used to be in the Army so he was in situations where he had to kill people but wants to put all of that behind him.

Then I got to know my Branch President a lot better Presidente Ramsin, he is awesome and I was on divisions with him a lot this week. He is so dedicated to his calling. He was called branch president right after the hurricane hit and it’s really difficult because the members at the time were inactive. But since then, the branch has grown so much they have had to split it into three branches. Bilwi (my area), Loma Verde (Elder Carrasco and Elder Agustin´s area), and Puerto Cabezas (Elder Solorzano and Elder Ical´s Area). Right now our branch attendance is low, and we don’t have any dedicated priesthood holders so things there are pretty tough. Elder Miranda and I are doing the best we can to get more priesthood and help the members now, so we have been on division’s a lot for that.

We don’t really have any new investigators right now, so we are working with the recent converts and less actives so that they will keep coming to church. It’s a lot different here; we have a really nice church and it was just built in January and it’s already trashed because no one takes care of it. The bathrooms are so gross, there are plumbing problem and sometimes the toilets over flow and who gets to clean the bathrooms? WE DO!!! Yeah!!!!! Ha-ha. We pretty much do everything here, which I don’t understand, and the members don’t do anything. The members and even the leaders rely on us a ton they will come to me and ask me what to do; I have never felt like a leader before, I LIKE IT!!!

Thank you for everything, all of you are in my prayers too, and thank you for that talk from the apostles, that was awesome. I love you all!

Elder Buck

What a Beautiful Place!

Elder Buck and Fonzie in Nicaragua

Check out the big turtle!

The girls are from the branch, the one is named Sandra, like mom's name.

Hello my Family!!!

Hey I got the package you sent, thank you for everything! How is everyone! I’m doing awesome!!Yeah my companion is from Santiago Chile and is awesome, he is the district leader and is just an all around nice guy. He has been out on his mission for 20 months. Presidente Fraatz has a lot of confidence in him because he was his assistant when I first got here in Nicaragua, so he lets him travel alone. He is here in this area really to help the leaders of the church, they need training and guidance. We get along awesome and we are working hard when we can work, because he is in a lot of meetings to help out the ward, I am on divisions a lot with just a member.

I love the people here they are so nice! Teaching this week was really hard, we did have a lot of lessons. But the family we are working with, Ariel and Delsia, we are trying to get them married but she doesn’t have her birth certificate, so were going to try to get that.. (But you know what is gross, he is 26 years old and a really cool nice guy but she’s only 15, today is her birthday, and they already have a baby named Justin...) But that’s actually normal here so that’s just some of the other things I’ve got to get over.

The language Miskito is actually not getting easier but it’s something I really need to learn because some people can’t even speak Spanish and only Miskito so I can’t even communicate with them! I have been praying not so much to seek answers, but to just thanking Heavenly Father for all the opportunities I have during the day to teach, and for the spirit, and I feel good after!

Yeah mosquitoes (the real insects) are horrible here, they bite like crazy, we have “Off-spray” and a coil thing that you light the end with a lighter and it smokes and the smoke supposedly keeps them away, but we get bit like crazy. We are eating sea food and its awesome we have fish, crab, shrimp, lobster, and turtle with rice and beans always ha-ha. For breakfast I usually make eggs with bread or cold cereal with powder milk: P (not a fan of powdered milk!) No we don’t really have access to fruits and vegetables that’s actually a little bit more dangerous to eat that here because I only want to eat something I can peel to feel safe, so I eat a lot of coconut ha-ha.

The people in Managua were so much poorer than they are here, things are a lot more expensive to buy here and the houses are built better because there are hurricanes. Yeah, our neighbor she washes all our clothes by hand and that is kind of hard cuz I usually don’t get my clothes back until 2 to 5 days later. She doesn’t have a washer or dryer so she hangs our clothes outside but it rains everyday so the clothes never really dry out. Yes it is so cold when it rains cuz we are right by the ocean and its always raining in the morning and our bathroom shower has freezing cold water. I will have to buy something to keep me warm ha-ha.

I will try to get a picture of the beach and surroundings, it is a beautiful place. Well I hope that was all the questions I was suppose to answer....Thanks for the pioneer story, that’s how I like to think about my mission too. I love this mission, all the experiences I am having and all the good I’m doing to help others. I love you all!

Haysabe

Elder Buck

Love My New Area!

Hello Family!

Yeah I love this area! Oh my gosh, I think this is the same area that Bro. Tryon came through when he was in Central America. THAT IS SO AWESOME! Yeah, I’m learning a little bit of Miskito it’s really hard because a lot of the people here can only speak in Miskito but no Español ha-ha. I have like a vocabulary of 15 words that I can kind of communicate with. It’s so cool it’s like almost Africa here except tropical.

My clothes and items I couldn’t bring with me to this location will stay in the Mission President assistants house. That kind of stinks cuz all of the missionaries, that are new, stay there and they just leave the suitcases on the floor so anyone can go through my stuff because I don’t have a lock on my suitcase. No that cannot send any of my extra clothes because it’s to far away and it cost to much so I’m going to have to wear a lot of the same clothes again. Which is nasty!!! But everyone here smells anyway ha-ha.

I’ve got to say its pretty cool living with four other Elders I don’t really know them very good except Elder Augustin from Utah. One of the Elder’s is pretty much opposite of what a missionary should be and we try to help him but he doesn’t care so we just let him do whatever. We actually don’t have that much time to study let alone study with our own companions. There’s only one shower and sometimes there’s no water so we have to use buckets of freezing ice cold water.

No we don’t track together, all four of us split up into our companions and we have different areas that we work so we don’t track in the same area. This area is huge and where we live is like the four corners of the states. One road goes to one area and the other road to another so it’s pretty cool. We all eat breakfast in the house and buy are own food for that. We eat lunch and dinner at member’s houses and its always different cuz we don’t pay for a cook like we did in Managua, so the member’s invite us to eat with them. Sometimes the food is interesting ha-ha.

There’s a lot of sea food like lobster, crab, and fish and then there’s beans and rice always. But I had turtle and that was pretty dang good but I feel bad eating it cuz turtles are cool! Their the huge ones here too so its actually a tortoise we eat and sometimes the people sell them after they kill them. They take off the head and shell and throw out the shell, but put the head and body meat in a wheel barrow and sell them. Whoever wants whatever part to eat, they cut off that part with a machete, weigh and sell it ha-ha.

Riding a bike is so AWESOME!!! I love it. It was cool to be able to see the Rizo Family be baptized, they are doing well too. In our branch there is like 130 people and right now only 80 are coming to church and we hardly have leaders so it’s pretty hard keeping everything in order.
Yeah Algebra 2 good luck Carly with that! (but I know you will do good your smarter them me :/) Glad to hear you got to go the cinders and it sounds like a completely different group of kids went this time. Tyler Lamb, I miss that kid, hope everything is good for him and everyone is inviting him to do fun stuff with them.

YEAH TELL GRANDMA I’M SO SORRY I DON’T GET TO WRITE BACK TO HER AND I LOVE HER!!!! The mail here is really screwed up and it costs a ton to mail anything but I will see what I can do. But I have all her letters! I have not got the package with contacts yet, supposedly I will get it this Thursday but we will see. I thank you all for everything and love you all very much I hope the rest of the family is good and you guys get along so we wont be fighting and we can be able to live in heaven for eternity. But mom and dad thank you really for everything.

Love your Missionary
Elder Buck

New Location by the Sea!

Rizo's Family Baptism

¡Nakisma! (That’s miskito (misquito) for how are you!)

I did change areas, we had changes last Wednesday and now I’m on the other side of Nicaragua right off the Caribbean Sea and a area called Puerto Cabezas! In a village called Bilwi! On the top east border of Nicaragua. How cool is that, I can see the Caribbean Sea two blocks away from our house!

Okay so we had changes and I found out were I was going, but me and two other Elders were going to the same area and needed to leave immediately! So right after changes they told us they were going to take us to the airport so the zone leaders took us to the air port and while we were waiting for our tickets they told us we can only bring 30lbs of stuff!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Ha-ha

So I had to take out all my stuff, clothes, underwear and everything at the airport to put in my smaller suitcase in front everyone! That is probably the worst thing. They told us we will be living on the bare necessities and that’s for freaking sure! So now I just have 30 lbs of clothes and I was kinda freaking out trying to figure what stuff I was going to need the most. Turns out their was a lot of stuff I forgot. I only brought 4 shirts and 3 pants IM SUCH AN IDIOT!!! Ha-ha I have my shoes and toiletries. But I forgot ties and socks!! aaaaaaaahBut everything is okay now.....

Well I’m here in Bilwi and it’s really humid here, more humid then Managua but I love it so much better! The people are really nice and they all look like African Americans. It’s so awesome!

I will explain a little what I saw as we were flying in. The first thing we noticed was THE CARIBEAN SEA!!! YEAH! and how wet and muddy it is. It rains practically every day here. When we got here we were met by 3 elders, Elder Carrazco from Honduras, Elder Solórzano from Ecuador, and my companion Elder Miranda de Chile. They were on BIKES!!!! YEAH THAT’S RIGHT WE HAVE BIKES!!! Yeah it’s so awesome here we share a house and all have bikes and these Elders are so cool. I have pics of all of them I will try to send so this letter will be kinda of short.

We have already baptized 5 people. The night I got here, we taught family Rizo and they accepted baptism this last Saturday! The Branch is awesome and the Branch president is our neighbor! I’m sorry this letter probably stinks and is hard to understand but so is this computer I’m using. I’m learning Miskito, its whole different language because almost everyone here speaks miskito!

HaySabe!! (Miskito for bye!)
Elder Buck

Thank you so much mom and dad for you letters about prayer!I probably won’t receive your package for another month or two because it first goes to the office in Managua and then they send it out to us here at the border!

Baptism!

In Gladis' Kitchen - She cooks all our meals for us!

P-day at the River where the District Leaders said we had to go.

Baptism Font In Nicaragua Church House
Elder Buck (Goliath), Brandi, Adela, Jenny, Elder Alonso & extra's.
Font filling with water. Elder Buck's Art Work

Hello Family!

Wow, Arizona still has the same weather...typical ha-ha. We are in the winter season right now, but really that doesn’t exist here because it’s never cold and there is no snow.

Yea! No one has to drive Carly anymore in the morning, that’s good that she will be able to drive herself to seminary and school. I heard that Brother Tryon was running in a Marathon this weekend, that’s awesome! GO BROTHER TRYON!! Wow that’s so awesome the Ellis Family was sealed in the temple too, that’s always something awesome to hear!

Mom, I hope your preparedness lesson goes well. Yes we are really so blessed as families in the U.S., its so sad people can’t have food storage here, let alone food for everyday. It’s hard too, to teach the people. This Sunday Elder Alonso & I taught Sunday School class about the creation and it was kind of boring - same stuff. So I thought I would help them think a little bit harder and started talking about neat creations for example: the humming bird. I was telling them how amazing it is that a bird like that can flap its wings 60 times a second or just fish and mammals in particular, all the neat creation under the sea, and all sorts of wonders. Their response were yawns, ya sure, and nothing else. Most the adult people here can’t even spell or read so it’s pretty hard, I feel bad cuz we can’t leave a Book of Mormon with someone who can’t read.

Yeah, the P-day cook out we had last week itself was interesting, yes those cowpie looking plates of food were refried beans lol. Our Zone Leaders are dictators, yesterday in text message they told us to be at a certain location at this time, bring 30 cordabas (money) and don’t murmur. :P

Oh well, what can we do...so today for P-day we woke up at 5:00 a.m. this morning and drove out really far away to this one area that had nothing but a river so we took some pictures and that was about it.

Good news, Adela and one of her daughters, Braydi, were baptized and confirmed members. Jenny, other daughter, will have baptism interview in 3 weeks. So that is awesome!! I’m really excited for them!

We have companion changes, Wednesday, and hopefully I will get to move to a new location!! I want to go somewhere new. I know almost everyone here ha-ha. As far as mission work goes, we are working everyday and we are trying to think of what we can do to work harder and more effectively.

Dad I need help. How do you receive answers after prayers?? I pray every morning and night with real intent...but I don’t feel anything or hear anything. Really having a hard time with prayer or knowing when I am receiving answers.

I love that rock in a lake expression that’s really cool to think of it that way, I really want to make a difference in the mission, I want to be something more then the typical missionary. I got to talk to my mission president, actually talk to him, he helped me out a lot with those guilty feelings you feel in the mission about not being enough or doing enough. I can tell he loves all the missionaries and me.

This is for Carver and Family: Hey thank you for your letter it’s good to hear everything is good. Yeah I heard about the dogs that’s cool. Love you all, take care my brother!

This is for Tanner & Family: Ha-ha yeah some of those companions GEEZ! It’s alright though, there is always going to be someone we won’t get along with in work, school, church. Its hard, but I’m trying to accept them for who they are and look at the good and not the bad. Ah, Kendal, I miss her and hope all is well I love you all.

Yes, I have been out for 6 MONTHS!! Muy rapido! Thank you for everything I’m going to send pics. I love you all and don’t need anything else sent to me right now. I JUST WISH I HAD MORE TIME TO WRITE!!!!

ELDER BUCK

Quick Update

I have not had good luck with the email down here the past couple of weeks. I start my letter home then the electricity goes out and I lose my letters and my writing time is up for the computers are back up again.

We have been teaching Adela and her two daughters and they all have a date for baptism set, so we are really happy for them and the good changes that have been made in their lives. We are still working with some other couples but most of them have children without marriage so we have to get them to agree to marriage first. That is crazy?!

I am sending pictures of our cookout at the church on our P-day. We had meat, beans, (looks like a fried cowpie) guacamole and pop. Got to love it! I am the only white boy as you can see. We also picked up an old guitar that both Elder Alonso and I both play. I am doing good, have not lost any weight because all my clothes still fit and loving the work.

Happy Birthday Dad, I love you!

I have all three legs of my stool under me! (prayer, scriptures, journal)

Sorry this is so short, but I love all of you!

Elder Buck

Blessings After Trial of Our Faith

Hi Family!

Still no rain in Arizona...that stinks..there is lots of rain here. Wow, school is about to start again and Carly will be a junior! CRAZY! If you could send me a CD of something to listen too, I was trying to upload hymns in spanish and the computer here deleted everything I had loaded on my iPod so I now have nothing approved to listen too.

In your letters, you know how you told me our faith would be tried before we will receive blessings--okay my faith has sure been tried the last month and right now we are definitely receiving those blessing this week, this week has been AWESOME.

Saturday we were looking for the home of an inactive member, we passed by a drunk man sitting on a log and he told us he wanted to hear the word of God, so we stopped to talk with him, but he was too drunk to understand what we were saying to him. We asked him were he lived and he pointed off in a direction so we told him we would stop by his home sometime and visit. We continued down the road looking for the members home and an old man started walking behind us, so my companion started to talk to him, then the drunk starts yelling to us the name of the old man we are talking too. We ask him if he knows the drunk man and he tells us his name and shows us were he lives and then leaves us.

We are standing in front of the drunk mans house and yell out "Buenas!" at the gate, and a girl about 16 years old comes out of the house to talk to us. I noticed a woman poking her head through the door opening so I yelled "Hola" and she waved back and came out by the girl. We told her who we were and she invited us in to talk to them. Her name is Adela and had not been to church since she was 15 years old and was probably close to 40 now. (Adela is the wife of the drunk man on the log)

We started to teach her and I was talking about faith in Jesus Christ and she stops us to tell us that 15 days ago she had been praying cuzs she is have a really hard time and needed help. I told her that is why my companion and I were there. We finished teaching her the lesson and invited her to church the next day, but she said she couldn't attend, BUT the next morning she was at church with her two girls. After church she asked if she could talk to Elder Alonso and I in private. We went into a room at the church and she starts to cry and told us her family is having many problems with her husband and they haven't eaten for awhile and she can hardly support her kids. She also told us, that if we had arrived at her house the day before, one hour later, she would have committed suicide....WOW...We then gave her a blessing of comfort. We talked with her daughters, they loved church and wanted to come back next week with Adela. It's pretty crazy to think if we had not gone to her house, she may have committed suicide.

We are also teaching a couple, Jose and Anna, they are 18 and 24 years old, and a cool guy named Jyro. He went to sacrament meeting with us and wants the lessons so hopefully he will accept repentance unto baptism.

Once again, thank you to all of you for everything and love you all! I wish I had more than 1 hour for emailing on the computer because they are slow as heck. Sorry I can't reply to everyone and everything but I'm going to try and send more pictures.

Love, Elder Buck
!