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

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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

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A Good Week!

Me with my new companion, Elder Santos and random pictures of the city around where we live.

Hey Family!!


My week was an awesome one!! Well sort of, compañero Elder Harris had changes on Wednesday (we were both thinking that he would stay here until the end of his last change) so I got a new Comp!! YEAH! He’s really cool, his name is Elder Santos (elder holy haha) and he probably has to be my smallest companion so far! He is from Guatemala, he says that he lives 15 minutes from the temple. He likes to joke a lot so he keeps the mission fun and active. This week we were “echando fuego!” (it means “throwing fire” or doing really good) here in Jinotepe. We are going to baptize the Familia Reyes and we are going to get them married tomorrow (which reminds me I got to call the “abagado” (lawyer) to get them married). :/ But they are doing good, the kids are real excited for their parents and so am I.

Oh yeah Thanksgiving (turkey, mashed potatoes, pie mmmmmm….) man I’m going to miss that Holiday haha. I hope you have a good one! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER AND MAIZEY (wow she is already a year old!!) That sounds like it will be a fun dinner/party at the house.

I did learn new things from my companion for sure and am learning a lot from the one I have now. I SO LOVE THE MISSION RIGHT NOW!!! Teaching has gone really good this week; we had 2 more families accept baptism. One family is Familia Rigoberto and the other is Familia Perez. Family Perez are doing good just neither of them went to church this Sunday and that’s the first thing they need to do to be able to get them baptize, so we will see if we can get them excited enough to go to church.

I pretty much love it here, the people, the weather, the members, my companion. The only thing I don’t like (uh oh Elder Buck’s getting negative) Is what the people say wherever we go “quiere café-quiere café mormones??” (which is, Do you want coffee, Mormons??) So one time I got fed up when one a kid said it to me and I said “quiere morir quiere morir charbalo??” (which is, Do you want to die kid??) And he got this look of fear on his face. Then I said right after “por que café hace daño” (which translates to, “because coffee can damage you”) haha Doesn’t translate well from Spanish to English, but my companion got a kick out of it. The weather here has gotten a little bit hotter this week but it’s not as humid as Managua or Puerto Cabezas, or near as many mosquitoes.

This city is a lot wealthier, I mean the city part there is the poorer out-skirt parts too. Just like the people in the Book of Mormon the poor people are easier to convert because they have learned how to be humble. We are working in the poorer areas, because a lot of the rich people have a lot of pride and don’t think they need religion or think the holy Mary will save them. I got to say, I don’t know why the Catholic religion worships Mary when the first of the ten commandments say “Thou shalt have no other Gods before me”. For I am a jealous God. The greatest commandment - Thou shalt love thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy strength. Haha that reminds me, there are a lot of Catholics here so whenever we go contacting we run into a Catholic and say “hi we are missionaries of this church etc….What church do you visit? They say “The Catholic church” and my companion says “I’m sorry” (cause he’s sorry that their Catholic haha) I don’t know if that made much sense.

We are tracting every day here, they call it contacting. The goal each day is to contact 20 people and leave them an invitation to go to our church this Sunday. I did really good with that this week, usually I get kind of nervous when I contact. But I just decided this could be the only chance they get to hear the Gospel and this is my only chance to share it with them, so I contacted 35-45 people each day which is a lot haha. My zone leaders love me for it, cause not many of the elders do contacting like their suppose to.

The members of the ward are more active and educated but it’s still kind of hard getting them to help us, cause one of our daily goals is to teach 4 people with a member in the lesson. That’s the other thing, since Elder Fallebella came here and gave a talk about the importance of baptizing whole families (which talk we couldn’t go to cause of the war in Puerto Cabezas). That’s a huge mission focus and it’s really hard to find a family where each member is interested in hearing the message of the Gospel, but I think it’s an awesome mission goal.

Haha “hay está Carly”! Got an admirer! Way to go dad, I gave a talk in church too, about missionary work that was fun! I love trying to talk in Spanish in front of people ha-ha.

I hope the holidays go good for you guys! Well that’s how my week has been! Thank you always for everything!

Love Elder Buck

Elder Buck

Elder Buck racing through the street of Jinopete, Nicaragua.

Life Is Good!

Me with my Zone...

Me playing in kiddy car...

Me inside a real transportation bus....not much more room than the kiddy car!

Dear Family,

This will be a short email, I do not have much time to write today. My new area is awesome! As of now I do not have anymore health problems. 

As far as what has happened this week, Luis the man we baptised last week, did not come to church this Sunday so he was not confirmed. We went to his home and we were told he was not there.  We have another family that Elder Harris has been teaching for 6 months and they finally committed to baptism.  Elder Harris said it was because of something I said in my lesson. The family has had challenges of keeping the commandments and I asked them why? They didn't reply so I explained to them the importance of repentance and baptism. I said we need to repent as soon as we know we have done wrong because it can be too late. I asked the dad if he knew when he was going to die, and he got mad and told me I wasn't God and stormed off...He then returned to the room and said he was sorry for getting mad and that he understood what I was trying to say. The next evening my companion and I visited the home again, it was around 8 p.m. and the father was asleep so we were teaching the teenagers and mom. The dad woke up and came in and joined the lesson but sat quietly through the lesson until we were going to say the prayer. I asked hermano if he had anything he would like to say, then this is what he said, "I have been thinking about what you said, so I have repented and now I want to be baptised!!! HOW COOL IS THAT!  My companion almost cried because he has been working so long with this family.

Now for my other news like I said last week, I have so many things stolen since I got to Nicaragua that many items need to be replaced, especially my white dress shirts and white t-shirts to wear on P-day. The women use wire metal brushes to clean our clothes and she has worn big holes in two of mine. I also need new undergarments since three bottoms disappeared. (Note from Sandra: we hope he has enough to wear between washings that he does have to go native commando!)

Also send the other items I have asked for in the past posts.  Thanks for everything and I will write again next week.

Love you all,
Elder Buck

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I Am In My New Location and Doing Better!

Thats my bishop in the middle (he's awesome) ward mission leader and the guy on the right our baptism this week (Luis)

Thats my companion Elder Harris with maria and juanita

That's me with Hermana Juanita and Maria thats where we eat is at a PANDERIA (BAKERY) its awesome and their awesome!

Thats me with some elders in my district (they still can't believe I'm the tallest missionary here ha-ha)

Thats me with a mask ha-ha

Me with my companion and zone leader Elder Burton

Catholic church (there are a lot of them)

Hello Family!

As far as my health I am a lot better! The rash has pretty much gone away but I’m still applying the cream and the powder to make it feel better.

As far as the two abscesses I had they have healed and are going away and the other one that was forming on my other leg just turned out to be a reaction and not an abscess. JUST TO BE CLEAR I’M FINE!! HERMANA FRAATZ CALLED ME SAYING I HAD SURGERY. But I didn’t have surgery and now everything is okay! They gave me a cream to put on the abcesses and way expensive pills to take out the infection and ibuprofen. I can now walk, run and do all that good stuff!

Gross! That’s what it was? A bot fly, that is so GROSS!! (Only in Nicaragua!!) They didn’t tell me anything at the hospital what it was. Ha-ha I’m so sorry, don’t worry about it now, and no more dreams about parasites Mom & Dad, dream happy dreams!

Okay I am now in Jinotepe! And yeah they have pretty much everything that I need so I will be doing some stocking up. They have a huge super market where I can buy all that medical stuff. No health issues or anything now so I’m back to work and working hard!

I still haven’t got back my large suitcase because what happened is the new Elders that came to Puerto brought my big suitcase to me but when I flew back down to Managua, to go to the hospital, I had to leave it in Puerto so now it is on the other side of the country and I will have to wait quite some time till I get that big bag again.

Hey, I don’t know if I told you this but I got some things stolen out of my big bag IMAGINE THAT! I had to originally leave it in Managua when I first flew to Puerto and it was left at the assistant’s house. Well that’s where the new missionaries sleep, and some of these missionaries are thieves so they stole 3 of my deodorants, 3 of my soap 3, undergarment bottoms??? (they are going to hell for that), 1 pair of my pants, my white gym shoes for P-day (what is a small person going to do with size 13 shoes, slap around in them like Bozo the clown?) and a book of memories, my letters and two shirts. OH man! I guess I can’t trust anyone!

I have been able to do my teaching because I’m here in JINOTEPE!!!! Yeah!! I will write more about that later... While I was recovering the past week in the mission office I would go on LDS.ORG (that website is so cool) listen to general conference talks, read and study the scriptures and sleep (cause the drugs make me super drowsy ha-ha)

Its good to hear everything is the same at home and that Carly’s doing good in school!

Well I don’t have much time for this second part but I will try and hurry...

Okay I’m here in JINOTEPE. I got here last Wednesday. The weather here is so nice and cool. My companion is Elder Harris from Ogden, Utah and he is awesome! He to will be going home in December the same time as Elder Miranda goes home. He is way obedient and a hard worker so we are doing amazing. We rent the house from non-members who are way nice and rich. We have a nice little room that we rent and it’s always cool as far as temperature.

We eat at a member’s house, they own a bakery so we can have whatever kind of sweets, cakes, breads we want, OH I LOVE IT!!! AND I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE!!!! Absolutely love them they are so nice here and I just love how the buildings look it’s so cool! I will take and send more pictures next week, I’m scared to send stuff on this computer I think it has a virus.

But we have had one baptism named Luis its kind of sad (he is a little slow) He is normal, just lacks education. But he had a problem with drinking coffee but supposedly for a whole week he stopped drinking but the morning of the day on his baptism, supposedly he “accidently” drank coffee. So we talked to the zone leaders got him interviewed and baptized him. This guy I don’t even know, I have only been to his house twice so I let my companion and the zone leaders make the call. But the next day he didn’t go to church till the end of sacrament meeting so he wasn’t confirmed, so were going to see what’s up with this guy and see if he is worthy still.

BUT I’M HAPPY, I’M HEALTHY, AND I’M HAVING FUN SERVING THE LORD ONCE AGAIN!! Thank you for all your prayers and love and am back to work and doing the best I can and giving it my all!! I love you all Mom, Dad, Tanner family, Carver family, Carly and all of my friends and family!!!

Elder Buck

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