Hello Family!
This week has probably been one of the hardest weeks as far as a companionship.
First, I got to know the new president, President Arredondo. He is a really cool guy, I can tell he loves the missionaries and so does his wife. I’m really excited to be able to have the opportunity to have him as our President.
I feel bad for him, because even though this is the highest baptizing mission (almost in the world) there are a lot of crappy missionaries that fornicate, have girl friends, flirt and it makes me mad that someone could do that IN THE MISSION FIELD! We had a missionary go AWOL last week, so his first week as president has been pretty hard for him....
In a way, I contributed this week, as one of the reports of misbehaving missionaries.
Here is the story:
As missionaries we receive a certain amount of money for each month from the mission home. But this month we did not receive any money…new president…mix ups…who knows. We are living in an apartment that we pay for monthly and we have a dead line of when we need to pay which is on the 28th of each month. If we haven’t paid by the 3rd they start charging us interest. Its 90$ for the month and that is with out paying for electricity and water. The water and electricity bill usually adds up to about 10-12$ per month which is not too bad.
It is bad when you don’t have the money and the mission doesn’t send anything. The other problem is the bank is really far and we can’t afford to get some way of transportation to take us there so we have to walk.
Anyway our land lady came and told us if we don’t have the money for rent that they are going to cut the lights and water. So I decided to pay all that I had, from my personal money, which was around 98$. I had this personal money tucked away in case of an emergency. We only needed 2 dollars more to pay rent so I ask my companion for two dollars. He says NO, because he only has two dollars left, so I was like "look, we have to pay the money or they are going to shut the water and lights off". He’s said, "Im sorry but im not giving my money" (he was being a little stubborn). This kind of made me mad because the land lady was right there and also was telling us that she would kick us out if we didn’t pay. I didn’t know what to do.
The whole time my companion is staring at me from his bed, looking at me like im an idiot. I then did something that I regret now and it was pretty much out of desperation. I yanked the top mattress out from where he was laying (cause its a bunk bed) took him out of his bed and told him "YOU ARE GOING TO PAY THE MONEY". He told me "no" again, so I took the wallet out of his pocket and took out the two dollars to give it to our land lady. My companion then runs up and grabs the 98$ out of her hands and walks back into the bed room.
I follow him and try to grab the money out from his hands, then he grabs my neck and kind of starts choking me. (He is shorter than me but he is a buff little kid, I will send a picture of him ASAP and other photos). I got him into a headlock to calm him down but he broke free and starts swinging at me. All I could think was, "OH YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!?!" The Land lady is yelling at us to stop and then we finally stop. He ends up giving her the money back and she ends up telling us that we are not servants of God! She wasn’t even a member so I felt pretty bad.
After the land lady leaves my companion starts to lock all the doors and windows so I can’t escape because he said he was going to punch my teeth out or something stupid like that....My companion he was just super mad (he gets mad real easy, always wants to fight, and his whole family is in the army even his mom). He made a lot of threats to me but nothing else happened.
I repented for what I did and called my zone leaders as soon as possible to tell them what just happened. I just went back to doing what I was doing before which was studying the book of Mormon and that calmed me down pretty quick. That fight was something I totally regret but I got to say if that hadn’t happened our relationship would probably be worse off. When I talked to the zone leaders I arranged for them to come over so could have a companionship inventory and talk about things and what we are going to do better and how. After that we set some new goals as companions so now we are doing AWESOME!
But I just feel bad because now the whole mission knows what happened and even the president. I wanted to show a good reputation for the new president…
Hmmm...Im not sure but I think Elder Buck will have a few dental problems when he gets back because some days there isn’t even water to brush our teeth let alone toothpaste. I was thinking about becoming a Dentist....
That’s about it for now we had one baptism this week but I didn’t even know the guy...I hope this is a better week.
I love you all!
Elder Buck
Monday, July 12, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Monday, July 5th
Hey Family!
So it’s hot in Arizona....that’s new. It’s hot here in Leon also. Yeah it sounds like Tanner and Emily had a good time. HAPPY 29th ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!
Sounds like every one had fun with the 4th of July stuff!
I AM SO GLAD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!!!
I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ that he established and was later established by a true prophet of God. I know that we have the fullness of the gospel, because we have the Book of Mormon. I know that Jesus Christ lives because he guides and directs his saints in these latter days through our loving Prophets and apostles.
And if you want to feel HIS love LIVE AND APPLY THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
• Share your testimony (as a family)
• read the scriptures (as a family)
• pray together (as a family)
• have real family home evenings (as a family)
"When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as Disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father (and our family) becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden"
Dad....one of the things I cant wait to do when I get back is talk about the gospel with you and learn about it and all the things you know.
Mom....one of the things that I want to do when I get back with you is learn to cook ha-ha and talk with you.
Carly...one of the things that I want to do with you is just talk, really get to know my sister, what she likes or doesn’t like or who she likes....im sorry for being such a butt head and for picking on you. You can thank also your older brothers for that.
Love Elder Buck
So it’s hot in Arizona....that’s new. It’s hot here in Leon also. Yeah it sounds like Tanner and Emily had a good time. HAPPY 29th ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD!! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!
Sounds like every one had fun with the 4th of July stuff!
I AM SO GLAD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!!!!
I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ that he established and was later established by a true prophet of God. I know that we have the fullness of the gospel, because we have the Book of Mormon. I know that Jesus Christ lives because he guides and directs his saints in these latter days through our loving Prophets and apostles.
And if you want to feel HIS love LIVE AND APPLY THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
• Share your testimony (as a family)
• read the scriptures (as a family)
• pray together (as a family)
• have real family home evenings (as a family)
"When we truly understand what it means to love as Jesus Christ loves us, the confusion clears and our priorities align. Our walk as Disciples of Christ becomes more joyful. Our lives take on new meaning. Our relationship with our Heavenly Father (and our family) becomes more profound. Obedience becomes a joy rather than a burden"
Dad....one of the things I cant wait to do when I get back is talk about the gospel with you and learn about it and all the things you know.
Mom....one of the things that I want to do when I get back with you is learn to cook ha-ha and talk with you.
Carly...one of the things that I want to do with you is just talk, really get to know my sister, what she likes or doesn’t like or who she likes....im sorry for being such a butt head and for picking on you. You can thank also your older brothers for that.
Love Elder Buck
Monday, June 28th
Hey Family!
I still have a little bit of a cough that comes and goes every now and then, but for the most part I am healed from the sickness crap!!
Leon is AWESOME!!! I love this place it reminds me a lot of Jinotepe! The People are SO NICE!!! Im so happy because I hate dealing with angry people. It’s a pretty big place my area LAS VILLAS is very huge the other day we walked out to the edge of my area and it almost took two hours to walk there.
It has its rich and poor parts like always but the buildings here are so cool it’s really similar to Jinotepe but like where I live is literally an apartment and we live on the second floor it’s so cool!
It’s really hot here it’s even hotter then it was in Managua, but I LOVE TEACHING!! I thought I would just say that I have found so many new people here and I am able to help EVERY SINGLE ONE! I LOVE IT! I finally know how to talk to people with being shy or afraid or feel stupid like I did before the mission. MCCOY HAS COME OUT OF HIS SHELL FINALLY!!
Like on Sundays I teach the class, and I got people coming to my class that aren’t suppose cause they say "Elder Bucks class isn’t boring" ha-ha that made me laugh. But I have a really effective way of helping people. Practically every person I have met after I finish teaching and we clear up all the doubts they have I ask them "will you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in the restored Gospel and be baptized AND THEY ALL SAY YES!! And do you know why? Because they know its true!! Because I ask them and they say they know it is true, they can feel it!
I also memorized a scripture to help me not be boastful and to remember who it is that makes these miracles happen . Alma 62:12
12 Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in his dstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
My area has a ward but we have some difficulties with the Bishop. He is a really cool guy but a total slacker he comes to church at 8:30am when church starts at 8am so we almost have barely enough time to listen to one speaker. Oh, I also played the piano in sacrament meeting ha-ha that needed someone desperately.
I’m sorry that’s all I got the time for now!
Tell Carver and Rachelle I got their messages and thank them for them.
I love you all
Elder Buck
I still have a little bit of a cough that comes and goes every now and then, but for the most part I am healed from the sickness crap!!
Leon is AWESOME!!! I love this place it reminds me a lot of Jinotepe! The People are SO NICE!!! Im so happy because I hate dealing with angry people. It’s a pretty big place my area LAS VILLAS is very huge the other day we walked out to the edge of my area and it almost took two hours to walk there.
It has its rich and poor parts like always but the buildings here are so cool it’s really similar to Jinotepe but like where I live is literally an apartment and we live on the second floor it’s so cool!
It’s really hot here it’s even hotter then it was in Managua, but I LOVE TEACHING!! I thought I would just say that I have found so many new people here and I am able to help EVERY SINGLE ONE! I LOVE IT! I finally know how to talk to people with being shy or afraid or feel stupid like I did before the mission. MCCOY HAS COME OUT OF HIS SHELL FINALLY!!
Like on Sundays I teach the class, and I got people coming to my class that aren’t suppose cause they say "Elder Bucks class isn’t boring" ha-ha that made me laugh. But I have a really effective way of helping people. Practically every person I have met after I finish teaching and we clear up all the doubts they have I ask them "will you follow the teachings of Jesus Christ in the restored Gospel and be baptized AND THEY ALL SAY YES!! And do you know why? Because they know its true!! Because I ask them and they say they know it is true, they can feel it!
I also memorized a scripture to help me not be boastful and to remember who it is that makes these miracles happen . Alma 62:12
12 Yea, I know that I am anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will bnot boast of myself, but I will cboast of my God, for in his dstrength I can do all ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
My area has a ward but we have some difficulties with the Bishop. He is a really cool guy but a total slacker he comes to church at 8:30am when church starts at 8am so we almost have barely enough time to listen to one speaker. Oh, I also played the piano in sacrament meeting ha-ha that needed someone desperately.
I’m sorry that’s all I got the time for now!
Tell Carver and Rachelle I got their messages and thank them for them.
I love you all
Elder Buck
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Monday, June 21st
Hello Family!
I am doing very GOOD! Except, there is a virus that is passing here in Nicaragua and just about everyone has it right now....I got it and have had a fever and bad cough this past week.
Hey dad....HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! I LOVE YOU!! They don’t really celebrate father’s day here...
I have looked at the Picasa account recently that is really cool! That looks like you had a fun camping trip LUCKIES!! I want to go camping so badly. Has Carly picked the school that she wants to go to?? and what grade is she in this year??
Answers to questions:
A: The new mission president takes over in the beginning of the month of July.
A: I have been the senior companion for a while now.
A: I have not had any other responsibilities :( I would like more so hopefully I will be recognized by my new mission president :)
A: My personal studies for the moment are okay...we hardly get time to study and I have been sick all week so I have been in bed half the time. BUT I have been reading and learning a ton about the Book of Mormon ...it is AWESOME!
A: Am I doing what im suppose to do.... ?
• As far as waking up on time....Usually I get up 15 min earlier then im supposed to.
• I have almost always started working when im suppose too, if im not able to it’s usually because my companion doesn't want to get out and work.
• As far as getting along with my companions I do everything that I can so that we can work hard and effectively and with out any problems. But yes of course there are a few occasional arguments.
Well as far as this week....I have been changed/transferred....I am no longer in Managua!!! I will miss Reparto Shick we did a lot of good there. Now I am in.......LEON! With my companion Elder Alvarez he is from Guatemala! He is a really cool guy! We both arrived in Nicaragua on the same day.
This area is really cool I still haven't got to know my area to well yet because I have been sick almost all week. But it is AWESOME the people here are really friendly and the buildings here are really cool....don't worry I will take a lot of pictures. I'm not afraid of getting robbed here. My zone is really cool and there is an Elder named Elder Stratton from Snow Flake and I got a feeling we are going to be good friends, we get along well, he is a really cool kid. Tomorrow we are going back to Managua to say goodbye to president and sister Fraatz...it is supposedly their last day.
Well not to much has happened...I did get the package! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! Interesting selection of ties but the people here love them and are always asking me what the writing says. Dang Customs took a box of that drink mix and opened the bag of mints and ate some of them...its so weird lol people here love mints. I guy in my ward the other day was offering me candy and when I put it in my mouth I spit it back out and was like "WHAT THE HECK THAT'S A COUGH DROP?!" ha ha They eat cough drops like candy....gross.
What else... here in Leon, to travel around, we take little trucks. I can hardly fit in these but its pretty much a pick up truck with a tarp covering the top and you just chill in the back of the bed with 15 other people ha-ha.
Well that’s about all the time I got for now...
I love you all
Elder Buck
I am doing very GOOD! Except, there is a virus that is passing here in Nicaragua and just about everyone has it right now....I got it and have had a fever and bad cough this past week.
Hey dad....HAPPY FATHERS DAY!! I LOVE YOU!! They don’t really celebrate father’s day here...
I have looked at the Picasa account recently that is really cool! That looks like you had a fun camping trip LUCKIES!! I want to go camping so badly. Has Carly picked the school that she wants to go to?? and what grade is she in this year??
Answers to questions:
A: The new mission president takes over in the beginning of the month of July.
A: I have been the senior companion for a while now.
A: I have not had any other responsibilities :( I would like more so hopefully I will be recognized by my new mission president :)
A: My personal studies for the moment are okay...we hardly get time to study and I have been sick all week so I have been in bed half the time. BUT I have been reading and learning a ton about the Book of Mormon ...it is AWESOME!
A: Am I doing what im suppose to do.... ?
• As far as waking up on time....Usually I get up 15 min earlier then im supposed to.
• I have almost always started working when im suppose too, if im not able to it’s usually because my companion doesn't want to get out and work.
• As far as getting along with my companions I do everything that I can so that we can work hard and effectively and with out any problems. But yes of course there are a few occasional arguments.
Well as far as this week....I have been changed/transferred....I am no longer in Managua!!! I will miss Reparto Shick we did a lot of good there. Now I am in.......LEON! With my companion Elder Alvarez he is from Guatemala! He is a really cool guy! We both arrived in Nicaragua on the same day.
This area is really cool I still haven't got to know my area to well yet because I have been sick almost all week. But it is AWESOME the people here are really friendly and the buildings here are really cool....don't worry I will take a lot of pictures. I'm not afraid of getting robbed here. My zone is really cool and there is an Elder named Elder Stratton from Snow Flake and I got a feeling we are going to be good friends, we get along well, he is a really cool kid. Tomorrow we are going back to Managua to say goodbye to president and sister Fraatz...it is supposedly their last day.
Well not to much has happened...I did get the package! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! Interesting selection of ties but the people here love them and are always asking me what the writing says. Dang Customs took a box of that drink mix and opened the bag of mints and ate some of them...its so weird lol people here love mints. I guy in my ward the other day was offering me candy and when I put it in my mouth I spit it back out and was like "WHAT THE HECK THAT'S A COUGH DROP?!" ha ha They eat cough drops like candy....gross.
What else... here in Leon, to travel around, we take little trucks. I can hardly fit in these but its pretty much a pick up truck with a tarp covering the top and you just chill in the back of the bed with 15 other people ha-ha.
Well that’s about all the time I got for now...
I love you all
Elder Buck
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Two Missed Letters with Pictures
Click here: New Pictures of Volcano and Baptisms
Monday, May 7th
Hey thanks for not writing me!? Ha-ha what happened??
Today was an awesome day! We got to go see a volcano...I have sent lots of pics.
On Thursday I can say I served two missions!! I WENT TO HONDURAS!! It was pretty cool, just a little (like 5 kil) passed the border because my companion had to go back to be able to renew his residence or identity for Nicaragua because there was come kind of error. My companion was a little trunky when we got to Hondura's ha-ha. While I was there we met and talked to 3 awesome people that almost right away wanted to get baptized. The sad thing is where they live there are no missionaries. Other then that, it was a lot of fun it was like over all 10 hours of travel time.
Click above to go to my album to see the pictures of the volcano and the recent baptisms.
We also had a baptism of a girl a couple of Saturday’s ago but she did not come to church to be confirmed the next day because she got a lung infection and ended up going into the hospital. When she got out of the hospital she went to her mothers to stay so we were told to go find her and get her to a church so we could get her confirmed. We took a member of the bishopric with us and got directions from her boyfriend to where she was staying at her mother’s house. Well the directions were not correct and we ended up out of our teaching area. After a phone call we found were she really was and were told by leaders to go find her so she could be confirmed. After a bus ride and a lot of walking we finally found her and got her to a church to be confirmed. It was a crazy day.
Monday, May 14th
Hello Family!
I am doing well! Health is doing pretty good...I'm sorry your letter from email did not come through last week.
I still haven’t got my package yet....I won’t get it until probably this Wednesday we we have changes in our area. Last week was interesting and even though my mission says we don't baptize for numbers... we really do. We have our leaders and they have theirs and we just have to obey the higher ranked guy pretty much ha-ha.
Another thing that is crazy but normal here is for people to get married even though they are 20 years apart in age. I have seen some really crazy stuff. I saw on the T.V news a 6 year old boy that was smoking a cigarette here. Sad.....you should look some stuff up on the news links on the internet. Nicaragua has a couple news internet sites so you can see all the crazy stuff that happens here and how many deaths/murders there are.
I have been a little discouraged this change because im not being/acting like a missionary of Preach my Gospel. I really am losing my respect for other churches especially a religion called Evangelicals....We have been trying so long to prepare a family for baptism and someone from this other church talked to them and with the help of Satan are bringing there souls down to hell.
We went to the investigators house the other day. It’s was around 7 pm and I can hardly see because it was dusk. There were two ladies outside so I asked for the woman investigator. One of the women responded, "May God bless you, how are you?" I was like "uh....I'm good, is so-and-so here?" This same lady replies "No she is not, no one is home, let God protect you". I'm like okay and was about to say good bye but I take a better look at the other lady standing silent and realized it was the investigator so I said, "Hi! "Why didn’t you say you where here?" The other lady responds for her, "Oh she is busy she can't talk right now, may God bless you". I asked, "Well we will come back some other day" and the same lady replies "No that’s fine you don’t need to come back she is going to be going to my church". I can't help it...it makes me sad but still a little mad.
A good thing we did have a baptism this week. His name is Christian he is a really awesome kid. He used to be a bum kid like into drugs and girls and all that. But one of the members in our ward invited him to seminary and he LOVES IT!! So that was really cool. The only set back is he has schooling and study on Sundays so we are not able to get him to church on Sunday but our bishop wants him to be baptized and so did Christian himself. We taught him all the discussions had him take out his piercings and got him baptized. He is an awesome kid! He says he’s going to drop one of his school classes to be able to go to church.
My new Nicaragua North mission president comes on the 1st of July. I don’t think the mission address will change so far it’s still the same. I don’t know yet but I will let you know if it changes. The new mission president is President Rotanda (I think...). I have said a couple negative things arobout my current mission president that I take back now, Prez. Fraatz he’s a good guy but difficult to understand his decisions.
I'm glad you got to go camping and fishing on the Rim. I love the pics that you sent!
Felicidades!! CARLY IS DONE WITH SCHOOL!! Will you be a junior or senior??
Cool....glad to hear Chad Mayberry is serving a mission in Mexico!
Well I think that is it for now if I forget something I will write it next time!
I love you ALL!!
ELDER BUCK
Monday, May 7th
Hey thanks for not writing me!? Ha-ha what happened??
Today was an awesome day! We got to go see a volcano...I have sent lots of pics.
On Thursday I can say I served two missions!! I WENT TO HONDURAS!! It was pretty cool, just a little (like 5 kil) passed the border because my companion had to go back to be able to renew his residence or identity for Nicaragua because there was come kind of error. My companion was a little trunky when we got to Hondura's ha-ha. While I was there we met and talked to 3 awesome people that almost right away wanted to get baptized. The sad thing is where they live there are no missionaries. Other then that, it was a lot of fun it was like over all 10 hours of travel time.
Click above to go to my album to see the pictures of the volcano and the recent baptisms.
We also had a baptism of a girl a couple of Saturday’s ago but she did not come to church to be confirmed the next day because she got a lung infection and ended up going into the hospital. When she got out of the hospital she went to her mothers to stay so we were told to go find her and get her to a church so we could get her confirmed. We took a member of the bishopric with us and got directions from her boyfriend to where she was staying at her mother’s house. Well the directions were not correct and we ended up out of our teaching area. After a phone call we found were she really was and were told by leaders to go find her so she could be confirmed. After a bus ride and a lot of walking we finally found her and got her to a church to be confirmed. It was a crazy day.
Monday, May 14th
Hello Family!
I am doing well! Health is doing pretty good...I'm sorry your letter from email did not come through last week.
I still haven’t got my package yet....I won’t get it until probably this Wednesday we we have changes in our area. Last week was interesting and even though my mission says we don't baptize for numbers... we really do. We have our leaders and they have theirs and we just have to obey the higher ranked guy pretty much ha-ha.
Another thing that is crazy but normal here is for people to get married even though they are 20 years apart in age. I have seen some really crazy stuff. I saw on the T.V news a 6 year old boy that was smoking a cigarette here. Sad.....you should look some stuff up on the news links on the internet. Nicaragua has a couple news internet sites so you can see all the crazy stuff that happens here and how many deaths/murders there are.
I have been a little discouraged this change because im not being/acting like a missionary of Preach my Gospel. I really am losing my respect for other churches especially a religion called Evangelicals....We have been trying so long to prepare a family for baptism and someone from this other church talked to them and with the help of Satan are bringing there souls down to hell.
We went to the investigators house the other day. It’s was around 7 pm and I can hardly see because it was dusk. There were two ladies outside so I asked for the woman investigator. One of the women responded, "May God bless you, how are you?" I was like "uh....I'm good, is so-and-so here?" This same lady replies "No she is not, no one is home, let God protect you". I'm like okay and was about to say good bye but I take a better look at the other lady standing silent and realized it was the investigator so I said, "Hi! "Why didn’t you say you where here?" The other lady responds for her, "Oh she is busy she can't talk right now, may God bless you". I asked, "Well we will come back some other day" and the same lady replies "No that’s fine you don’t need to come back she is going to be going to my church". I can't help it...it makes me sad but still a little mad.
A good thing we did have a baptism this week. His name is Christian he is a really awesome kid. He used to be a bum kid like into drugs and girls and all that. But one of the members in our ward invited him to seminary and he LOVES IT!! So that was really cool. The only set back is he has schooling and study on Sundays so we are not able to get him to church on Sunday but our bishop wants him to be baptized and so did Christian himself. We taught him all the discussions had him take out his piercings and got him baptized. He is an awesome kid! He says he’s going to drop one of his school classes to be able to go to church.
My new Nicaragua North mission president comes on the 1st of July. I don’t think the mission address will change so far it’s still the same. I don’t know yet but I will let you know if it changes. The new mission president is President Rotanda (I think...). I have said a couple negative things arobout my current mission president that I take back now, Prez. Fraatz he’s a good guy but difficult to understand his decisions.
I'm glad you got to go camping and fishing on the Rim. I love the pics that you sent!
Felicidades!! CARLY IS DONE WITH SCHOOL!! Will you be a junior or senior??
Cool....glad to hear Chad Mayberry is serving a mission in Mexico!
Well I think that is it for now if I forget something I will write it next time!
I love you ALL!!
ELDER BUCK
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Tuesday, May 25th
Note from Sandra: This letter is a little more graphic then I usually edit and post but I am leaving it as McCoy wrote it so we can all get a better understanding of the sacrifices our little missionaries make in some of these poor countries.
Hey Family, today is Tuesday!
The mission is so awesome ... really it teaches me so much and helps me prepare for the most important things in life. President just made a new rule. The new rule is we, as missionaries, don't make enough sacrifices, so the sacrifice is, every day we have to wake up at 5 a.m. That is so hard to do. It makes the day so much longer¨. Other then that I haven't been able to work as effectively cause I'm so freaking tired. But today was P-day so I woke up at 7 am this morning ha-ha.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to study Spanish after the mission. I'm going to be a master! My new companion is defiantly the best companion I have had. He does remind me a lot of Tanner though (he likes being the center of attention) ha-ha. So sometimes he will do what my favorite brother did, make me look like an idiot and bring up things that happened last week in front of people. But other then that I LOVE THIS KID.
Two weeks ago we had 4 baptisms planned but only did three because one fell through. The baptism was awesome and it has a crazy story.
Okay so we baptized 3 people:
Alex 15 years old
Flavia 16 years old
Marieth 13 years old
They were all ready for baptisms, but a little nervous. First off their mom has been in active for 8 years and is not at all interested. But that's before Elder Buck worked his magic. ha-ha. No i pretty much talked to her to get to know her, revive her interested in the gospel and she gave us permission to baptize her kids. The mom her name is Dorca she is actually really cool. She was baptized with her husband and other son but now is divorced, but we have no record of her being a member so I'm going to try and baptize her too.
Two Saturday's ago, we had their baptism planned at 6 pm in the afternoon. We get to the church at 5:30 pm to fill up the font AND THERE WAS NO WATER!!! Our only option is to go to another chapel to do the baptisms. SO we get to their house to tell them that we are going to have to do the baptisms in another church house and they did not like that idea and wanted to know of other options. I was like "okay, well we can do it Sunday morning early before church starts" and i told them what they need to bring and that we will be at their house at 6:30am on Sunday morning take them to the church for baptisms at 7am.
Sunday we stopped by a little bit earlier than 6:30am just in case they weren't ready and just as i thought they weren't. Alex was outside washing his school clothes and and was just wearing sandals and shorts. No one else was ready, so i told Alex to go get ready and that i would finish washing his clothes. So while i was washing Alex´s clothes his mom comes out and she was all dressed up ready to go, so was his other sister (Marieth) who wasn't to positive for her baptism. I'm talking to them, while washing the clothes, trying to encourage Marieth for her baptism. Then i finish and we all walked back into the house together to wait for the others to get ready. Then Alex (almost ready) grabs something out of the fridge and the whole rack broke. It was holding coca cola, huge glass bottles. Hermana sells them for her work, so she was mad, then she tells Marieth "come with me we are going to your grandmas house" or in other words "I'm too mad to let you get baptized today."
The poor kid Alex was shocked, he was super excited and ready to be baptized. While we were helping him clean up the spilt coca cola and broken glass bottles. I asked, "hey where is Flavia?" He said she is in her room, she doesn't want to go". It is a two room house, just separated by a wall, so i call her from where i was standing and she didn't answer, I call again and she said "what??" I asked "Are you ready for your baptism" and she said "No I'm busy". I asked, "Can you come out just for a few minutes so we can talk to you". She explained that when we came early she was not ready and hurried to jump in the shower and she was scared. We told her not to worry we can wait for everyone to get ready and we will be right back. I asked Alex were his grandma lived because we were going to go find his mom and Marieth. He was a little unsure....but i said a prayer in my heart and told myself that all three will be baptized today.
The grandma lived quite a way off and by the time we found her house, the mom and Marieth had already left. While we were walking back to Alex and Flavia I was thinking we are going to have to buy phone minutes so we can call the mom and find out what is going on. (Break the Sabbath, I already washed clothes now I have to buy mobile phone minutes) I got hold of the Marieth by mobile phone and she said they would be going back to their home soon, so we went to the house and waited. After a few minutes the mom and Marieth came home. I WAS SO HAPPY!!!! We got them all to the church and baptized at 8:45am, 15 minutes before sacrament meeting ended.! It was sure crazy but it did happen.
This week has been another awesome week here in Reparto Shick!!! Teaching has been going good, we just baptized another man this Saturday. Well, more like completed a family baptism. Luz and her son Andy where the ones that were already baptized, but we were able to get Roberto (dad) and Luz married and then get Roberto baptized after the wedding ...they where happy.
Our companionship is still good...this is probably the best companionship that i have had here in the mission field. We get along so well!! He can be a little prideful but i love that kid! It is actually really cool living in the same house together as one district (4 missionaries). "We are the DRAGONS!!" That is the name of our district. We are having the most success in all our zone. We have been doing awesome and we get along really well. Who woulda thunk it! Being in the most dangerous neighborhood is pretty cool, still nothing bad has happened to our companionship and i am always alert and watching my surroundings.
And as far as my health.....i got food poisoning again. It has been really bad. On Sunday, after church we went to eat at our assigned place and it was fine, but she gave us a lot of food. Then we had a investigator to go visit afterwards who also gave us a lot of food. She gave me some meat that I could hardly swallow and i didn't know what it was but it was all the food they had so I had to eat it so I would not offend them. Later i found out it was cow liver. I started to feel sick but we still had more visits to do.
We stopped back by our recent converts Alex, Marieth, and Flavia. During the lesson i was not feeling good then i was like "i got to throw up!" but then i didn't want to do it in at their house but there was nowhere else to go! It was THE NASIEST!!! I hate life after throwing up. I went back and we tried to finish teaching but i told my companion " we gotta go!" We booked it back to our house and my stomach was feeling horrible by this point! I stumbled into the bathroom barely making it and had the worst diarrhea of my life. I'm sorry for being so descriptive but it was almost like i was peeing out of my butt and to make it worse I started to throw up too! I was in the bathroom for 2 hours straight. After going through that i had to take a shower but the water was super cold cuz it was raining that day and that didn't help me feel any better and I started running a fever. I lost all my strength and I felt like i was going to die. Just when I finally get into bed I have to run back to the bathroom and start the whole sick thing over again! I was kind of hating my life at this moment. I went back to bed but suddenly it felt like every muscle in my body was cramping up, that was the worst muscle pain i have ever felt. At one point I think I was throwing up blood...I could taste it. I was so tired but could not sleep because I still had to get up every 30 minutes to use the bathroom. GRRRR
I didn't email yesterday even though it was P-day, i was still feeling horrible and still had the same worse diarrhea. Tuesday, today I'm in the mission office, just had my interview with president and it went really well. He gave me a blessing and i plan on working till my body physically wont let me. I will be fine... i have medicine and everything necessary so i will do all i can to get better. I just cant eat for the moment everything that i eat comes back up. I am down to 180 lbs if not less. When i put on my pants and belt i had to tighten my belt two holes tighter then normal and my pants don't stay on my hips. So I'm just a little worried about that. But i will be fine.
I love you all,
ELDER BUCK
Hey Family, today is Tuesday!
The mission is so awesome ... really it teaches me so much and helps me prepare for the most important things in life. President just made a new rule. The new rule is we, as missionaries, don't make enough sacrifices, so the sacrifice is, every day we have to wake up at 5 a.m. That is so hard to do. It makes the day so much longer¨. Other then that I haven't been able to work as effectively cause I'm so freaking tired. But today was P-day so I woke up at 7 am this morning ha-ha.
Yeah, I'm definitely going to study Spanish after the mission. I'm going to be a master! My new companion is defiantly the best companion I have had. He does remind me a lot of Tanner though (he likes being the center of attention) ha-ha. So sometimes he will do what my favorite brother did, make me look like an idiot and bring up things that happened last week in front of people. But other then that I LOVE THIS KID.
Two weeks ago we had 4 baptisms planned but only did three because one fell through. The baptism was awesome and it has a crazy story.
Okay so we baptized 3 people:
Alex 15 years old
Flavia 16 years old
Marieth 13 years old
They were all ready for baptisms, but a little nervous. First off their mom has been in active for 8 years and is not at all interested. But that's before Elder Buck worked his magic. ha-ha. No i pretty much talked to her to get to know her, revive her interested in the gospel and she gave us permission to baptize her kids. The mom her name is Dorca she is actually really cool. She was baptized with her husband and other son but now is divorced, but we have no record of her being a member so I'm going to try and baptize her too.
Two Saturday's ago, we had their baptism planned at 6 pm in the afternoon. We get to the church at 5:30 pm to fill up the font AND THERE WAS NO WATER!!! Our only option is to go to another chapel to do the baptisms. SO we get to their house to tell them that we are going to have to do the baptisms in another church house and they did not like that idea and wanted to know of other options. I was like "okay, well we can do it Sunday morning early before church starts" and i told them what they need to bring and that we will be at their house at 6:30am on Sunday morning take them to the church for baptisms at 7am.
Sunday we stopped by a little bit earlier than 6:30am just in case they weren't ready and just as i thought they weren't. Alex was outside washing his school clothes and and was just wearing sandals and shorts. No one else was ready, so i told Alex to go get ready and that i would finish washing his clothes. So while i was washing Alex´s clothes his mom comes out and she was all dressed up ready to go, so was his other sister (Marieth) who wasn't to positive for her baptism. I'm talking to them, while washing the clothes, trying to encourage Marieth for her baptism. Then i finish and we all walked back into the house together to wait for the others to get ready. Then Alex (almost ready) grabs something out of the fridge and the whole rack broke. It was holding coca cola, huge glass bottles. Hermana sells them for her work, so she was mad, then she tells Marieth "come with me we are going to your grandmas house" or in other words "I'm too mad to let you get baptized today."
The poor kid Alex was shocked, he was super excited and ready to be baptized. While we were helping him clean up the spilt coca cola and broken glass bottles. I asked, "hey where is Flavia?" He said she is in her room, she doesn't want to go". It is a two room house, just separated by a wall, so i call her from where i was standing and she didn't answer, I call again and she said "what??" I asked "Are you ready for your baptism" and she said "No I'm busy". I asked, "Can you come out just for a few minutes so we can talk to you". She explained that when we came early she was not ready and hurried to jump in the shower and she was scared. We told her not to worry we can wait for everyone to get ready and we will be right back. I asked Alex were his grandma lived because we were going to go find his mom and Marieth. He was a little unsure....but i said a prayer in my heart and told myself that all three will be baptized today.
The grandma lived quite a way off and by the time we found her house, the mom and Marieth had already left. While we were walking back to Alex and Flavia I was thinking we are going to have to buy phone minutes so we can call the mom and find out what is going on. (Break the Sabbath, I already washed clothes now I have to buy mobile phone minutes) I got hold of the Marieth by mobile phone and she said they would be going back to their home soon, so we went to the house and waited. After a few minutes the mom and Marieth came home. I WAS SO HAPPY!!!! We got them all to the church and baptized at 8:45am, 15 minutes before sacrament meeting ended.! It was sure crazy but it did happen.
This week has been another awesome week here in Reparto Shick!!! Teaching has been going good, we just baptized another man this Saturday. Well, more like completed a family baptism. Luz and her son Andy where the ones that were already baptized, but we were able to get Roberto (dad) and Luz married and then get Roberto baptized after the wedding ...they where happy.
Our companionship is still good...this is probably the best companionship that i have had here in the mission field. We get along so well!! He can be a little prideful but i love that kid! It is actually really cool living in the same house together as one district (4 missionaries). "We are the DRAGONS!!" That is the name of our district. We are having the most success in all our zone. We have been doing awesome and we get along really well. Who woulda thunk it! Being in the most dangerous neighborhood is pretty cool, still nothing bad has happened to our companionship and i am always alert and watching my surroundings.
And as far as my health.....i got food poisoning again. It has been really bad. On Sunday, after church we went to eat at our assigned place and it was fine, but she gave us a lot of food. Then we had a investigator to go visit afterwards who also gave us a lot of food. She gave me some meat that I could hardly swallow and i didn't know what it was but it was all the food they had so I had to eat it so I would not offend them. Later i found out it was cow liver. I started to feel sick but we still had more visits to do.
We stopped back by our recent converts Alex, Marieth, and Flavia. During the lesson i was not feeling good then i was like "i got to throw up!" but then i didn't want to do it in at their house but there was nowhere else to go! It was THE NASIEST!!! I hate life after throwing up. I went back and we tried to finish teaching but i told my companion " we gotta go!" We booked it back to our house and my stomach was feeling horrible by this point! I stumbled into the bathroom barely making it and had the worst diarrhea of my life. I'm sorry for being so descriptive but it was almost like i was peeing out of my butt and to make it worse I started to throw up too! I was in the bathroom for 2 hours straight. After going through that i had to take a shower but the water was super cold cuz it was raining that day and that didn't help me feel any better and I started running a fever. I lost all my strength and I felt like i was going to die. Just when I finally get into bed I have to run back to the bathroom and start the whole sick thing over again! I was kind of hating my life at this moment. I went back to bed but suddenly it felt like every muscle in my body was cramping up, that was the worst muscle pain i have ever felt. At one point I think I was throwing up blood...I could taste it. I was so tired but could not sleep because I still had to get up every 30 minutes to use the bathroom. GRRRR
I didn't email yesterday even though it was P-day, i was still feeling horrible and still had the same worse diarrhea. Tuesday, today I'm in the mission office, just had my interview with president and it went really well. He gave me a blessing and i plan on working till my body physically wont let me. I will be fine... i have medicine and everything necessary so i will do all i can to get better. I just cant eat for the moment everything that i eat comes back up. I am down to 180 lbs if not less. When i put on my pants and belt i had to tighten my belt two holes tighter then normal and my pants don't stay on my hips. So I'm just a little worried about that. But i will be fine.
I love you all,
ELDER BUCK
Friday, May 14, 2010
Mother's Day Phone Call
Note from Sandra:
McCoy was not able to call on Sunday because all the public phone/computer centers were closed. He did call us on Monday afternoon. After three tries on the ancient phones in Nicaragua, he could not get a good connection with us so he went to computer and we were able to link up through Instant Messenger and talk to him that way.
The Nicaragua Mission has split and McCoy is now part of the North Mission. His new mission president will take over the first of July. He has just been transfered to another area...he said it is the most dangerous area of the mission...just what the parents want to hear! He has a new companion that loves to work so they have been busy contacting and teaching. McCoy is one of four missionaries in this area and all four live together in a house.
He said they have gangs of young men who carry machetes, who stop them and tell them they won't hurt them but to give them all their money or valuables. So the missionaries do not carry anything only the scriptures. (I think they could give the gang members passalong cards!)
He said he is feeling good right now as far as health...all ailments have cleared up for a week. It is humid, hot and rainy now so it makes walking around in the mud interesting. He loves the mission and the work. He is grateful to be part of the process of teaching and seeing the spirit touch the hearts of the people so they want to study and learn more and more. It is so exciting when they can hardly wait to be baptized and attend church.
He has read the Book of Mormon several times and can't wait to come home and start building a library of church books. He said for the first time in his life he loves to read and study...so that might make getting into school easier when he returns! He can't wait to have FHE and study time with the family when he gets home too! (This boy is on fire!)
We are so proud of him and the faith he has to keep going inspite of health trials. He is excited for the last 9 months of his mission and is going to give it his all. We pray daily he will be safe, healthy and successful!
McCoy was not able to call on Sunday because all the public phone/computer centers were closed. He did call us on Monday afternoon. After three tries on the ancient phones in Nicaragua, he could not get a good connection with us so he went to computer and we were able to link up through Instant Messenger and talk to him that way.
The Nicaragua Mission has split and McCoy is now part of the North Mission. His new mission president will take over the first of July. He has just been transfered to another area...he said it is the most dangerous area of the mission...just what the parents want to hear! He has a new companion that loves to work so they have been busy contacting and teaching. McCoy is one of four missionaries in this area and all four live together in a house.
He said they have gangs of young men who carry machetes, who stop them and tell them they won't hurt them but to give them all their money or valuables. So the missionaries do not carry anything only the scriptures. (I think they could give the gang members passalong cards!)
He said he is feeling good right now as far as health...all ailments have cleared up for a week. It is humid, hot and rainy now so it makes walking around in the mud interesting. He loves the mission and the work. He is grateful to be part of the process of teaching and seeing the spirit touch the hearts of the people so they want to study and learn more and more. It is so exciting when they can hardly wait to be baptized and attend church.
He has read the Book of Mormon several times and can't wait to come home and start building a library of church books. He said for the first time in his life he loves to read and study...so that might make getting into school easier when he returns! He can't wait to have FHE and study time with the family when he gets home too! (This boy is on fire!)
We are so proud of him and the faith he has to keep going inspite of health trials. He is excited for the last 9 months of his mission and is going to give it his all. We pray daily he will be safe, healthy and successful!
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