Hey Family!
I decided to come home in....March and yes 3 weeks does seem like a lot when you are longing to have hot showers and eat normal food and be healthy again. haha.
My toe is fine I’m always cleaning and putting new bandages on it daily so everything is all good.
That’s so awesome a new baby and nephew! He will still be kind of new when i get back! SEND ME PICTURES!!
That’s cool the trunk or treat wow I can’t believe its almost Halloween and Christmas. Halloween is not celebrated here the people think it is of the Devil. haha.
Yeah I got my package probably like 2-3 weeks after it had been in the mission office. Yes everything was in it. 4 shirts, 2 candies, 4 ties and thank you those ties are SICK! I will start thinking of a list of things I will need to finish my mission and you can send them before Christmas. I will try and have it list ready by next week.
This week was a good week. We had 1 baptism this week his name is Fernando, he is the last person in his family to be baptized a member. He is 16 years old.
This past Sunday we had a really cool experience where all of the missionaries first met up in the stake center then we all left to go contact passengers on buses. (5 buses to contact for each missionary) I was a little nervous at first but being the leader of my district I had to show an example so I went first. There were 5 of us in the group so we contacted 20 buses, it was a really neat experience. Its funny cuz when the bus comes by you just say to the bus driver “Can We Preach the Word of God?” and then they let you on without paying. Then you just stand at the front of the bus and preach to the people.
We are teaching with a new technique. There is a new program that the church is releasing for the missionaries called the Doctrine of Christ where it introduces new teaching methods. One focuses on the spirit a lot, its awesome, because we ask the investigators inspiring questions, and then listen to the response and just keep asking them more and more questions so they do most of the talking and practically teach themselves. I really like it. It helps me to focus more with the spirit.
I got to go I’m almost out of time.
I love you all!
Elder Buck
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Two Letters to Post
Hello Family! (October4)
It was a good conference, I am glad to hear it was awesome! I wasn’t able to see some parts of it...dang Im going to download conference though on my iPod so I can listen to it. I love conference, most the time I was listening to it in Spanish and also seeing how many investigators and recent converts were present and watching it. There was a huge storm going through on Saturday and through the night and it kept on cutting in and out with the satellite feed...so I missed a lot of the speakers.
My favorite talk that I can remember and understood was the one by D. Todd Kristofferson talking about the steps on how to have a consecrated life I really liked that one. But yes in parts I did fall asleep too....LIKE ALWAYS!! What can I say? Im a hard worker and I get sleepy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! I hope you had an awesome b-day! It sounds like you did!
Sweet, Im glad Carver and everyone got my letters! Im glad the kids liked them too!
I did get transferred this past week and here is the story:
Tuesday it was a rather difficult day for my companion and I, we were both trying to work but were also anxious to who would be changing...we went back to the house after we were done eating dinner for the night and waited in the house and planned until our DL came back from working and tell us of who was leaving.
We waited and when he came back he told us that none of us have changes. I was happy to be able to stay, but discouraged that I would be with someone for six more weeks who absolutely does not like me or have any interests in what I do..Well so I thought SWEET you know what this is going to be an even better change.
However, the next morning I woke up to my companion slapping my feet saying "move your feet they are in my way". He was trying to get to his suitcase but my feet were hanging over the bed so it blocked his suitcase flap to open up his suitcase. In that exact moment I was thinking in my head "well I can either tell him to shut up and ask nicely or I can tell him sorry and move my feet". It was hard but I chose option B. Later that morning he was talking crap to me but I just ignored him and it helped me.
We finally went out and started working and our discussions we had set up were falling through. So I said lets go back to the house were we eat and teach Rosa’s daughter who still isn’t baptized. We went back and when we found out she wasn’t there we were leaving the house then my district leader runs up all out of breath and said " we were looking all over for you guys you both have changes!" and I was like "what?!" " I'm sorry they just told me, but you guys got to get your stuff packed and go at 2:00pm". I had a bad feeling in my stomach while packing like I was leaving a part of me behind or my family.
We got to the bus station at 1pm. Our district leader told us that my companion would be going to Chinadega and I go back to my old zone to Villa Flor, La fuente, outside of Managua. I was getting on the bus and my leader told me "Hey your new companion will be a white boy that you will be training" and I was like "NOOOOOOOoooo!" and he said "You are also the District Leader" idk why but when he told me that I felt AWESOME! Finally!! RESPONSIBILITY! LEADERSHIP! and it is awesome!
The bus ride back to Managua was about 2 hours long and the whole way back there was a TV right in front of my face playing Prince of Persia and I feel ashamed to say but I watched like 10 minutes in total for the whole way back. When I got to the bus station in Managua no one was there to pick me up so I waited 2 1/2 hours and still no one picked me up so I called my zone leaders and they said to just take a taxi to the church. I did and when I got there I met my companion ELDER SMITH!!! HE IS SO COOL! I am so happy. He is from Wyoming and is a newbie he has 1 month in Nicaragua so I am a trainer again and a District Leader.
My district is a district of 4 for now, my companion and I and the hermanas. I have sister missionaries in my district and they are hard workers so we are doing AWESOME! Im real excited for this change. This Wednesday I will be doing my first baptismal interview as District Leader and am excited about that. I heard from others be a district leader is way better then any other thing so I am happy for this opportunity.
I have been in my new area for 5 days now and we are doing awesome. My area is dangerous like Reparto Shick but it is awesome! The people are so much more receptive here then the people in Matagalpa.
We have 1 baptism planned for this week and 1 for next week and 3 for the next week after that. The one that will be baptized this weeks name is Karen she is 9 years old and she will be baptized by us because her parents are members but inactive and didnt get her baptized at the age of 8. We are activating her parents too.
One of our investigators name is Nelson. The missionaries have been visiting him for about 8 months and he has read the BofM 10 times, been to church 11 times and has read the principles of the gospel, but will not commit to baptism. When I went yesterday and met him for the first time, I talked with him about the baptismal challenge and he did not accept. I asked him what was holding him back and he told me it was because he was afraid of failing after his baptism. We talked about failing, atonement and forgiveness and he seems to have a greater desire to be baptised now.
Im out of time but love you all!
Elder Buck
Hello Family! (October 11)
Thank you for the congrats...I was transferred to a new area. I am back in Managua in an area called La Fuente. It is close by my old area Reparto Shick.
This week has been one crazy week, Im loving it though..
On Monday I don’t remember if I wrote you this but someone called me on my phone while we were in the house and asked my companion and I to go to the nearest hospital and give this sister a blessing. The guy that called me was the Branch President to the Diriamba branch in Jinotepe and he said he would come by and picked us up and take us to the hospital. On the way he explained the details about the sister.
The sister was a mom of a returned missionary sister. She has some type of infection in her body I don’t remember what he called it...but she was dying. The hospital was packed like usual and we had to wait for the returned sister missionary to come find us so we could get entrance because it was the part of the hospital that is for females only. It was gross, cuz when we got access we were passing by rooms where woman were having babies and I about threw up.
When we got to the room the lady was sitting up in her bed with her eyes closed but still conscious and with a hole cute in her throat and a tube going into it so she could breathe. She was in really bad shape and the daughter and whole family was there crying and I didn’t really know what to do. We waiting till a doctor came in and gave us permission to put our hands on her head to give her a blessing.
When we got permission my companion did the anointing and I sealed the blessing. I don’t remember at all what I said but I felt the power of the spirit very strongly. It was a unique moment. After the blessing the family still had tears in their eyes but where a lot calmer. Then the family thanked us and we left.
Later that night we received a call again to give her a blessing and I told them "she already received one, it’s not necessary that she receives another". Then they told me that it was a blessing of comfort, so I agreed and went to the hospital again, it was pretty late like 8:45pm. When we got to the hospital the guard at the door had a bad experience with Mormon's so he wouldn't let us in no matter what. While we were waiting another man came up and it was the 2nd counselor of the South Mission here in Nicaragua. He was also informed to come. We finally got permission to go in but we went another direction to the sister who had been moved to intensive care.
When we got to the room of intensive care, I did not like that at all. I felt sick looking at all the people in bed with thousands of tubes in their bodies to help them survive. They were mostly old people that were there. The doctor was mad that there was more then one person there to give the blessing and would only permit one of us to go in the room to give the blessing. The 2nd counselor went in and gave the blessing. We waited out side with the other family members. You could tell this poor family had gone through a lot that day... all worn out, with bags another there eyes, unkempt hair and tears. My companion and I said a prayer with them as we waited. When the counselor came out he said he gave the blessing and we silently said goodbye to everyone with a smile and drove back home. That was my first spiritual experience of something like that and not one that I will forget...
Tuesday was my first time to direct my own district meeting. They wanted us to come half an hour early to tell us what goals we have as a district and how to be better leaders. Then I taught my district the Doctrines of Christ which is a new really cool missionary program.
Wednesday I went and did my first baptismal interviews for my zone leaders. That was a really neat experience, I interviewed two sisters that were in there late 20s. The first I could feel the spirit with in the first 2-3 minutes of the interview telling me she is ready. But the other one I didn’t feel the same because she had quite a serious problem with the Law of Chastity. I told her not to tell me the details but she continued to talk in great detail...thank goodness it was in Spanish cuz there were a lot of words she used that I didn’t know and I didn't understand what she was telling me. Later that night I did another interview with another investigator for the sister missionaries in my district. That was also really cool!
Thursday: I wasn’t able to do much....I have had an ingrown toe nail on my big toe for a while and the pain is getting unbearable. During the morning we met up with an investigator named Raul who is from Miami. We met him a day earlier, he is probably like 23 years old, and was positive the day before. We gave him the lesson 1 pamphlet and told him we would come back today. The first thing he says to us in English is "Im not feeling it". I asked, " Not feeling what?" He said, I don't feel the message of the restoration is true." I told him he was not going to feel it unless he prayed and ask God if it’s true". He said other stuff, so we tried teaching him the importance of the preisthood authority and why it’s necessary that it was and is on the earth today. Then he told us what other religions say about priesthood authority and that anyone can get this authority if they have faith in God. I told him about the laying on of hands by those with the authority, but he shut down and didn’t listen, so we left him with the invitation to pray or "you’re never going to feel it" (the truth).
Friday was a good day, we worked hard trying to get to know our area better by trying to find the 28 out of 33 recent converts we don’t know. We dedicated the whole afternoon to finding where these recent converts live, well we didn’t find any recent converts but we did find 6 new investigators so that was really cool.
Saturday was the first baptism I had in this new area. The name of the girl is Karen who is 9 but her parents didn’t baptize her cuz they are INACTIVE. The baptism was horrible though...I really do not like the baptisms here in Nicaragua. I was leading the baptism and her cousin was the one that was going to baptize her. The cousin forgot his baptismal shirt so we had to delay the baptism and wait for his dad to go and buy a new one. All the people we invited on Friday didn’t come to the baptism, neither did the bishop or any of the counselors. When the cousin did the baptism itself, the cousin wasn’t too experienced and almost drowned her so Karen came up bawling. Then after the baptism was done...nobody congratulated her besides my companion and I. WOW
Later that day I got my ingrown toenail pulled out. The specialist put anesthesia (shot) in my toe which hurt like heck. He said there will be a slight tingling and Im afraid it was a little more then that. I tried to stuff my fat wrapped toe in my shoe so after that I didn’t work much the rest of the day.
Sunday we spent all morning walking and trying to get our investigators to church from 6am - 9am and had 2 investigators there. I couldn’t walk very well and I my toe is still hurting like crazy! I got chewed out by my zone leaders for not working cuz of my toe but it was a good week.
Still haven’t got my package yet, the zone leaders are going to go pick it up from the mission office tomorrow.
Glad everyone had fun in Utah. I need a favor if you could send me the dates of everyone’s birthdays!
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THOSE THAT HAVE BIRTHDAYS IN OCTOBER. I HOPE I REMEBER ALL OF THEM. MOM, KADE, CARLY, AND EMILY! THAT’S WHY I NEED A LIST OF BIRTHDAY DATES!
Love Elder Buck
It was a good conference, I am glad to hear it was awesome! I wasn’t able to see some parts of it...dang Im going to download conference though on my iPod so I can listen to it. I love conference, most the time I was listening to it in Spanish and also seeing how many investigators and recent converts were present and watching it. There was a huge storm going through on Saturday and through the night and it kept on cutting in and out with the satellite feed...so I missed a lot of the speakers.
My favorite talk that I can remember and understood was the one by D. Todd Kristofferson talking about the steps on how to have a consecrated life I really liked that one. But yes in parts I did fall asleep too....LIKE ALWAYS!! What can I say? Im a hard worker and I get sleepy.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!! I hope you had an awesome b-day! It sounds like you did!
Sweet, Im glad Carver and everyone got my letters! Im glad the kids liked them too!
I did get transferred this past week and here is the story:
Tuesday it was a rather difficult day for my companion and I, we were both trying to work but were also anxious to who would be changing...we went back to the house after we were done eating dinner for the night and waited in the house and planned until our DL came back from working and tell us of who was leaving.
We waited and when he came back he told us that none of us have changes. I was happy to be able to stay, but discouraged that I would be with someone for six more weeks who absolutely does not like me or have any interests in what I do..Well so I thought SWEET you know what this is going to be an even better change.
However, the next morning I woke up to my companion slapping my feet saying "move your feet they are in my way". He was trying to get to his suitcase but my feet were hanging over the bed so it blocked his suitcase flap to open up his suitcase. In that exact moment I was thinking in my head "well I can either tell him to shut up and ask nicely or I can tell him sorry and move my feet". It was hard but I chose option B. Later that morning he was talking crap to me but I just ignored him and it helped me.
We finally went out and started working and our discussions we had set up were falling through. So I said lets go back to the house were we eat and teach Rosa’s daughter who still isn’t baptized. We went back and when we found out she wasn’t there we were leaving the house then my district leader runs up all out of breath and said " we were looking all over for you guys you both have changes!" and I was like "what?!" " I'm sorry they just told me, but you guys got to get your stuff packed and go at 2:00pm". I had a bad feeling in my stomach while packing like I was leaving a part of me behind or my family.
We got to the bus station at 1pm. Our district leader told us that my companion would be going to Chinadega and I go back to my old zone to Villa Flor, La fuente, outside of Managua. I was getting on the bus and my leader told me "Hey your new companion will be a white boy that you will be training" and I was like "NOOOOOOOoooo!" and he said "You are also the District Leader" idk why but when he told me that I felt AWESOME! Finally!! RESPONSIBILITY! LEADERSHIP! and it is awesome!
The bus ride back to Managua was about 2 hours long and the whole way back there was a TV right in front of my face playing Prince of Persia and I feel ashamed to say but I watched like 10 minutes in total for the whole way back. When I got to the bus station in Managua no one was there to pick me up so I waited 2 1/2 hours and still no one picked me up so I called my zone leaders and they said to just take a taxi to the church. I did and when I got there I met my companion ELDER SMITH!!! HE IS SO COOL! I am so happy. He is from Wyoming and is a newbie he has 1 month in Nicaragua so I am a trainer again and a District Leader.
My district is a district of 4 for now, my companion and I and the hermanas. I have sister missionaries in my district and they are hard workers so we are doing AWESOME! Im real excited for this change. This Wednesday I will be doing my first baptismal interview as District Leader and am excited about that. I heard from others be a district leader is way better then any other thing so I am happy for this opportunity.
I have been in my new area for 5 days now and we are doing awesome. My area is dangerous like Reparto Shick but it is awesome! The people are so much more receptive here then the people in Matagalpa.
We have 1 baptism planned for this week and 1 for next week and 3 for the next week after that. The one that will be baptized this weeks name is Karen she is 9 years old and she will be baptized by us because her parents are members but inactive and didnt get her baptized at the age of 8. We are activating her parents too.
One of our investigators name is Nelson. The missionaries have been visiting him for about 8 months and he has read the BofM 10 times, been to church 11 times and has read the principles of the gospel, but will not commit to baptism. When I went yesterday and met him for the first time, I talked with him about the baptismal challenge and he did not accept. I asked him what was holding him back and he told me it was because he was afraid of failing after his baptism. We talked about failing, atonement and forgiveness and he seems to have a greater desire to be baptised now.
Im out of time but love you all!
Elder Buck
Hello Family! (October 11)
Thank you for the congrats...I was transferred to a new area. I am back in Managua in an area called La Fuente. It is close by my old area Reparto Shick.
This week has been one crazy week, Im loving it though..
On Monday I don’t remember if I wrote you this but someone called me on my phone while we were in the house and asked my companion and I to go to the nearest hospital and give this sister a blessing. The guy that called me was the Branch President to the Diriamba branch in Jinotepe and he said he would come by and picked us up and take us to the hospital. On the way he explained the details about the sister.
The sister was a mom of a returned missionary sister. She has some type of infection in her body I don’t remember what he called it...but she was dying. The hospital was packed like usual and we had to wait for the returned sister missionary to come find us so we could get entrance because it was the part of the hospital that is for females only. It was gross, cuz when we got access we were passing by rooms where woman were having babies and I about threw up.
When we got to the room the lady was sitting up in her bed with her eyes closed but still conscious and with a hole cute in her throat and a tube going into it so she could breathe. She was in really bad shape and the daughter and whole family was there crying and I didn’t really know what to do. We waiting till a doctor came in and gave us permission to put our hands on her head to give her a blessing.
When we got permission my companion did the anointing and I sealed the blessing. I don’t remember at all what I said but I felt the power of the spirit very strongly. It was a unique moment. After the blessing the family still had tears in their eyes but where a lot calmer. Then the family thanked us and we left.
Later that night we received a call again to give her a blessing and I told them "she already received one, it’s not necessary that she receives another". Then they told me that it was a blessing of comfort, so I agreed and went to the hospital again, it was pretty late like 8:45pm. When we got to the hospital the guard at the door had a bad experience with Mormon's so he wouldn't let us in no matter what. While we were waiting another man came up and it was the 2nd counselor of the South Mission here in Nicaragua. He was also informed to come. We finally got permission to go in but we went another direction to the sister who had been moved to intensive care.
When we got to the room of intensive care, I did not like that at all. I felt sick looking at all the people in bed with thousands of tubes in their bodies to help them survive. They were mostly old people that were there. The doctor was mad that there was more then one person there to give the blessing and would only permit one of us to go in the room to give the blessing. The 2nd counselor went in and gave the blessing. We waited out side with the other family members. You could tell this poor family had gone through a lot that day... all worn out, with bags another there eyes, unkempt hair and tears. My companion and I said a prayer with them as we waited. When the counselor came out he said he gave the blessing and we silently said goodbye to everyone with a smile and drove back home. That was my first spiritual experience of something like that and not one that I will forget...
Tuesday was my first time to direct my own district meeting. They wanted us to come half an hour early to tell us what goals we have as a district and how to be better leaders. Then I taught my district the Doctrines of Christ which is a new really cool missionary program.
Wednesday I went and did my first baptismal interviews for my zone leaders. That was a really neat experience, I interviewed two sisters that were in there late 20s. The first I could feel the spirit with in the first 2-3 minutes of the interview telling me she is ready. But the other one I didn’t feel the same because she had quite a serious problem with the Law of Chastity. I told her not to tell me the details but she continued to talk in great detail...thank goodness it was in Spanish cuz there were a lot of words she used that I didn’t know and I didn't understand what she was telling me. Later that night I did another interview with another investigator for the sister missionaries in my district. That was also really cool!
Thursday: I wasn’t able to do much....I have had an ingrown toe nail on my big toe for a while and the pain is getting unbearable. During the morning we met up with an investigator named Raul who is from Miami. We met him a day earlier, he is probably like 23 years old, and was positive the day before. We gave him the lesson 1 pamphlet and told him we would come back today. The first thing he says to us in English is "Im not feeling it". I asked, " Not feeling what?" He said, I don't feel the message of the restoration is true." I told him he was not going to feel it unless he prayed and ask God if it’s true". He said other stuff, so we tried teaching him the importance of the preisthood authority and why it’s necessary that it was and is on the earth today. Then he told us what other religions say about priesthood authority and that anyone can get this authority if they have faith in God. I told him about the laying on of hands by those with the authority, but he shut down and didn’t listen, so we left him with the invitation to pray or "you’re never going to feel it" (the truth).
Friday was a good day, we worked hard trying to get to know our area better by trying to find the 28 out of 33 recent converts we don’t know. We dedicated the whole afternoon to finding where these recent converts live, well we didn’t find any recent converts but we did find 6 new investigators so that was really cool.
Saturday was the first baptism I had in this new area. The name of the girl is Karen who is 9 but her parents didn’t baptize her cuz they are INACTIVE. The baptism was horrible though...I really do not like the baptisms here in Nicaragua. I was leading the baptism and her cousin was the one that was going to baptize her. The cousin forgot his baptismal shirt so we had to delay the baptism and wait for his dad to go and buy a new one. All the people we invited on Friday didn’t come to the baptism, neither did the bishop or any of the counselors. When the cousin did the baptism itself, the cousin wasn’t too experienced and almost drowned her so Karen came up bawling. Then after the baptism was done...nobody congratulated her besides my companion and I. WOW
Later that day I got my ingrown toenail pulled out. The specialist put anesthesia (shot) in my toe which hurt like heck. He said there will be a slight tingling and Im afraid it was a little more then that. I tried to stuff my fat wrapped toe in my shoe so after that I didn’t work much the rest of the day.
Sunday we spent all morning walking and trying to get our investigators to church from 6am - 9am and had 2 investigators there. I couldn’t walk very well and I my toe is still hurting like crazy! I got chewed out by my zone leaders for not working cuz of my toe but it was a good week.
Still haven’t got my package yet, the zone leaders are going to go pick it up from the mission office tomorrow.
Glad everyone had fun in Utah. I need a favor if you could send me the dates of everyone’s birthdays!
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THOSE THAT HAVE BIRTHDAYS IN OCTOBER. I HOPE I REMEBER ALL OF THEM. MOM, KADE, CARLY, AND EMILY! THAT’S WHY I NEED A LIST OF BIRTHDAY DATES!
Love Elder Buck
Monday, September 27, 2010
Good Week with More Rain
Hey Family!
I got your letter! Ha-ha no worries. I hope everything goes well with Kali and her baby, that’s crazy everyone is pregnant right now ha-ha. That’s good to hear the Thomsons stopped by… how is Walker doing??
I am also looking forward to the general conference this week. I LOVE HEARING THE PROPHETS TALK! I have almost all of the general conference talks on my iPod and listen to them every time I get the chance. That is a really good talk about judging others, I will apply it.
I, pretty much judge myself and sometimes my confidence could be a lot better. But its alright...This week was a good week. It seemed really long this time. But that’s alright.
I tried putting a lot of the things that Elder Clark talked about in practice but, the members here still don’t want too work with us or my companion. Ha-ha He is a very stubborn person but I love him and we work hard. Teaching went good I have no problem teaching anymore I have learned a lot of scriptures. My favorite thing to do though is teaching Gospel Principles class. I taught in Sacrament and I also taught the Elders Quorum I talked about how the Church of Jesus Christ was when Jesus Christ was on the earth. There is a lot more participation from the members as far as the classes.
We weren’t affected by the hurricane itself this past week but there is a lot of rain, it just rains and rains and rains. And then when there is a bunch of rain there are also a lot of mosquitos. Puerto Cabezas (where I was about a year ago) got hit hard but no serious damage was done.
I took your advice dad about totally just changing my attitude and filling with my mind with good thoughts.
I have always carried around a notebook and usually use it to study more Spanish words but haven’t been using it lately and just had it in my pocket because by habit it’s what I take with me everyday. But here are some thoughts and experiences I wrote down.
September 21, 2010
"Today at 3:15pm we were leaving a lesson with Tatiana and Dariam which went really awesome today. I’m on divisions with my zone leader and we passed by this drunk guy we always see and he says "Hey hermanito tiene un poca de comida alli??" (hey brother do you have a little food you can give me) but 2-3 days before I gave him a pamphlet for the word of wisdom and asked if he "read the pamphlet" and he said "oooooooh, SI GRACIAS POR LA PAGINA!, y Dios le bendiga" (ooooh, yes thank you for the page and let God bless you) lol I thought it was funny because he is a really crazy drunk guy.
My newest convert Juan Pablo is going to be conferred the Aaronic Priesthood this next week and ordained as our WARD MISSION LEADER!! He is so excited and so am I! He will also be teaching the gospel principles class next week.
4:00 pm We just had an awesome member lesson with Manuel and Rosa. THEY ARE SO COOL! We just set a baptismal date with Fransisca (good friend of Rosa) Fransisca is born and raised catholic but we are going to try and baptize her with the help of Manuel and Rosa WE WILL DO IT!"
September 22, 2010
We were coming back from noche de hermanamiento from the church, and my companion wanted to hitch-hike back so he goes over to a truck that’s waiting to turn on to the main street. The driver rolls down his window and my companion asks him if he could give us a ride. I told my companion we are not going to the house yet, so my companion told him never mind and waved him off. As we kept walking the same truck pulls over and the guy driving asks in English (because he was an American) "Where are you guys headed??" and I was the closest to the truck so I responded "over there no more, no more then there" and I couldn’t talk in English! I couldn’t make a full sentence in English that made any sense ha-ha, so I said, “ Sorry we are fine IM JUST FORGETTING ENGLISH!" and then he laughed and said "okay" and drove off."
September 24, 2010
"We taught an awesome lesson on the plan of salvation to an investigator Wilfredo and he took no interest, I don’t understand that? I just found a scripture that can help me Alma 17:11.....
And that was about it as far as what I wrote in my note book this week.
I did work hard in studying my patriartical blessing but only got the first 4 paragraphs memorized I get distracted so easily. I am in good health and I need to buy new shoes… the ones I have have holes in them so my feet are always cold and wet.
I went and did some shopping and bought a lot of cool stuff from Nicaragua. Im sorry mom that I wont be able to mail you a package with your birthday present. There have been a lot of robbing from packages that missionaries send back to the states (supposedly).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I still haven’t gotten the package you sent and im not sure if I have changes this week or not.
I love you all
Elder Buck
Missed a Post Home
I did not write last week because we had meetings with Elder Clark. They were so awesome!! He is so funny, I thought he was going to be super strict (cause that’s what they say). It was really cool though, he talked about a lot of mission stuff most I don’t remember but I have it written down. The main thing I learned the most was how to use the ward members more effectively. Which is awesome… but my branch right now has just simply given up. We did have a good attendance at church with 81 people, so it’s starting to improve here in Totolate.
It is still raining, it rains every day of the week so that is pretty cool (NOT!!!) Chech out my YouTube video. I haven’t received my package yet or I won’t get it until changes which are next week. We have 3 months now between interviews or multi-zone events…so idk when I will get my package.
My companion is doing well. We set some goals but so far no good. It’s alright as long as he likes to work I’m happy because he actually does work hard…But I love him.
The teaching is always good we are always finding people but they drop like flies because the members here don’t fellowship and don’t give us references.
Tanner and Emily are going to have another baby?! WOW.....that’s cool cuz at least I will be there before the baby is born. If he starts working in the air force does that mean he would be living on or near the base?? or how does that work??
Im looking forward to general conference too that will be really cool to watch and listen too. Im going to try and mail of a package it’s kind of cheap and hope it gets to the states before moms birthday.
That’s awesome that Grandma is doing all that genealogy work… it sounds interesting. I have been doing a lot of studying with the gospel principles book and it talks a lot about that. Thank you grandma for your letters!
I really thank you guys for your letter this week. That’s actually something that can help me out is telling you what my weekly goals are. My personal goals for this week are first not to become discouraged when everything drops and we lose investigators. I could do more service for my companion and work at completing more of my daily goals. Not complaining (I have kind of developed a Laman and Lemuel attitude since I have been here). Talk more and help members, especially the organization leaders. My goals for my companion and I are try and get along better. Um....get on his good side (which is by not talking to him). Um loving him more.
I want to be a better MISSIONARY! But there are some days im not going to lie, where I just don’t have anymore fight in me. It is trying to help people understand when they have doubts and once we clear the doubts they will listen. But idk....I haven’t lowered my standards or anything like that but I have been discouraged a lot more lately. Another challenge to help me grow? But I love the mission im sad that it’s coming to a close. I will never be able to do what im doing again.
This week was a pretty good week though. Our area here is getting pretty dangerous, one night we were coming out of our food visit. And a couple houses down they were having a party so there were a whole bunch of drunks outside. One comes up to my companion and has two huge rocks in his hands (cause they fight with rocks here) and he is talking to my companion like he knows him then when my companion wasn’t looking he tried reaching into his pocket to steal his money but my companion caught him.
The drunk left and went down the road to another house and then out of no where a police truck drives up with some bad guys already in the back they picked up for fighting. They got out of the truck and found the guy with the two rocks and he starts fighting the cops and so one of the cops picks him up and throws him in the back of the truck. The drunk guy stands up and is like "you guys got the wrong guy, your wrong"! Then the cops get in the back of the truck and just start beating him and then they drove off. After that my companion and I had to wait for another half an hour because right after the police left two gangs show up and start fighting each other. It was pretty crazy, but Im safe.
My health is good! What a MIRACLE! And Im having fun!
Love you all!
Elder Buck
P.S. Who ever read my letters I would like it if they could send me an letter or email or something I hardly ever get anything expect from my parents.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Rainy Days
Hello Family!
We had our first baptism here in Matagalpa, the converts name is Juan Pablo. He was so scared to get confirmed in sacrament meeting though. We explained before what we were going to do but he was stilled scared to do it, but at least we had a baptism.
There were a lot of drunks down here this week too. Right now, as I'm typing, there is a weird religion guy from the states talking to me about theology... calling out, " The Mormon's go back to the dead sea scrolls and all that fun stuff that doesn't make any sense. "
Thank you for sending off that package. I will be waiting to receive that...
As far a money to live on monthly, we receive less in this mission than any other missions in Central America. We do eat almost all meals at the house-fast food place every day, besides breakfast. When we have a chance we can usually go into town and get some bread and other foods. Really, the living conditions here in Matagalpa are better than any place I have lived so far on my mission.
Right now my companion and I have colds, head ache, low fever, cough and a sore throat. As long as my companion is not being a jerk i will be alright. I think we caught cold from all this rain, my rain jacket doesn't work as good as i though it would so i will need to get a new one. It rains here every day so i am never dry and then when i need to go take a shower the water is freezing cold so that stinks...
At church yesterday, a brother from the branch said i needed to go rest that i don't look good. Later that night i wasn't feeling good at all when we left the house to go eat. Then i asked my companion if he was feeling better and he fakes it by saying, "Yeah I'm feeling great, i have the same thing you have"! We walk outside and I have my jacket on and its still raining. He is walking outside with no jacket on, getting all wet and coughing up his lungs. (I swear this kid is so stubborn, he doesn't take pills cause he says his faith will heal him) I couldn't help myself so I said, "Wow, your kind of dumb did you not listen at all to Dallin H. Oaks talk about what Brigham Young said "FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD". We still need to use cold medicines and take care of our health along with our faith." He just called me a baby, I'm weak and all that....)
I decided I wasn't that hungry and said I was going back to the house and he yells "NO YOUR NOT" and keeps yelling crap at me. When we get back to the house he walks up and holds his hands over the lock and is like "your not getting in..." I said "whatever" and just sat down on the steps. He then starts telling me that I will regret everything I do and that I'm not a missionary; that a real missionary would make sacrifices. Then he starts doing little kicks at me and saying, "ELDER BUCK, ELDER BUCK GET UP!, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE A BABY THEN WE WILL GO INSIDE!" I got up, went inside, got in bed and fell asleep. Today I am feeling about the same but i am happy to hear from you guys.
This area is the hardest area. Our attendance in church this week was 55 people and the normal here is about 110, so we are doing horrible at getting members and investigators to come to church. None of the members here are even worthy for a temple recommend and we are doing the best we can to increase the attendance but nothing has worked so far.
We have no investigators progressing since last week but we did have the one baptism. Out of 17 converts who have been baptised the past year only 5 are still coming to church. None of the members are fellow shipping our investigators when we introduce them to the members, so all our new investigators are dropping like flies.
BUT....I CAN DO HARD THINGS!
I love you all and thank you for all your support
Elder Buck
We had our first baptism here in Matagalpa, the converts name is Juan Pablo. He was so scared to get confirmed in sacrament meeting though. We explained before what we were going to do but he was stilled scared to do it, but at least we had a baptism.
There were a lot of drunks down here this week too. Right now, as I'm typing, there is a weird religion guy from the states talking to me about theology... calling out, " The Mormon's go back to the dead sea scrolls and all that fun stuff that doesn't make any sense. "
Thank you for sending off that package. I will be waiting to receive that...
As far a money to live on monthly, we receive less in this mission than any other missions in Central America. We do eat almost all meals at the house-fast food place every day, besides breakfast. When we have a chance we can usually go into town and get some bread and other foods. Really, the living conditions here in Matagalpa are better than any place I have lived so far on my mission.
Right now my companion and I have colds, head ache, low fever, cough and a sore throat. As long as my companion is not being a jerk i will be alright. I think we caught cold from all this rain, my rain jacket doesn't work as good as i though it would so i will need to get a new one. It rains here every day so i am never dry and then when i need to go take a shower the water is freezing cold so that stinks...
At church yesterday, a brother from the branch said i needed to go rest that i don't look good. Later that night i wasn't feeling good at all when we left the house to go eat. Then i asked my companion if he was feeling better and he fakes it by saying, "Yeah I'm feeling great, i have the same thing you have"! We walk outside and I have my jacket on and its still raining. He is walking outside with no jacket on, getting all wet and coughing up his lungs. (I swear this kid is so stubborn, he doesn't take pills cause he says his faith will heal him) I couldn't help myself so I said, "Wow, your kind of dumb did you not listen at all to Dallin H. Oaks talk about what Brigham Young said "FAITH WITHOUT WORKS IS DEAD". We still need to use cold medicines and take care of our health along with our faith." He just called me a baby, I'm weak and all that....)
I decided I wasn't that hungry and said I was going back to the house and he yells "NO YOUR NOT" and keeps yelling crap at me. When we get back to the house he walks up and holds his hands over the lock and is like "your not getting in..." I said "whatever" and just sat down on the steps. He then starts telling me that I will regret everything I do and that I'm not a missionary; that a real missionary would make sacrifices. Then he starts doing little kicks at me and saying, "ELDER BUCK, ELDER BUCK GET UP!, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE A BABY THEN WE WILL GO INSIDE!" I got up, went inside, got in bed and fell asleep. Today I am feeling about the same but i am happy to hear from you guys.
This area is the hardest area. Our attendance in church this week was 55 people and the normal here is about 110, so we are doing horrible at getting members and investigators to come to church. None of the members here are even worthy for a temple recommend and we are doing the best we can to increase the attendance but nothing has worked so far.
We have no investigators progressing since last week but we did have the one baptism. Out of 17 converts who have been baptised the past year only 5 are still coming to church. None of the members are fellow shipping our investigators when we introduce them to the members, so all our new investigators are dropping like flies.
BUT....I CAN DO HARD THINGS!
I love you all and thank you for all your support
Elder Buck
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
A Good Week
Hello Family!
I’m glad you enjoyed my pictures and video! I won’t be able to download more photos or videos because I don’t have my camera today but I will try to get some for next week. This week it has been raining every day....I don’t like the rain ha-ha. Only in Arizona I like the rain. Here when it rains it gets so cold and wet!
This week I have some pretty good stories ha-ha.
First I want to apologize for sending crappy letters home for a while, I have been pretty discouraged, but now I have my focus back and I’m probably working harder now then I ever had (or trying to at least).
Well last Monday was pretty good. We are suppose to have Family Home Evenings with other people but no one wanted the missionaries over, so my companion and I did tracking… trying to look for new people to teach and we found five.
Tuesday was one of those mas o menos kind of days. It was good just a hard day. We went to all the members’ house that are in our area and visited them to see how they are doing. Lots, for right now...have the normal problems, but for the majority of them it has to do with member obedience. No one is trying. They are giving up. The leaders of the church, down to the mission presidents, and us as missionaries are their only examples for right now. We passed by every single member and taught them some really good lessons to encourage them to give us a reference and out of the 28 members we taught we didn’t get one reference. So for Tuesday we spent it looking all day for new people to teach.
Wednesday My District Leader and I went on divisions together to go encourage and help out members because he has more time here than I do and he knows them better. While we were doing that the assistants called us and told him he has emergency changes, so we went back to the house and packed up all of his stuff because he had to be in his new area in Managua in less then 3 hours. Then his companion, who is new (but a hard worker), was with me and my companion for the rest of the day until 7 pm that night when his companion (Elder Lebaron) came. Now that we have E. Lebaron we are also doing a lot better as a district. He is a really good kid and was in my last zone in Bello Horizante.
Thursday During the morning from 10am -Noon we do our weekly planning. The water has been out for two days in our area and the zone leaders called us and told us that the sisters were going to come to our house to take showers cuz we have a water reservoir that collects the rain we shower in. (freezing cold ice water) So we had to leave the house. During that time my companion and I went to teach some people until lunch time. After lunch we went tracking in a part of our area that we have never been before and we found a cool family that had a little bit of knowledge about the Mormons (unfortunately, the bad knowledge of Mormons, multiple wives, etc) So we answered all of their questions and doubts. Then they wanted to know why we are called Mormons and I explained it’s a nick name that we received from the Book of Mormon. Then the guy (Gudiel) posed an awesome question. "What were our ancestors doing here in the America’s when the bible was being written?" I loved that question and then it lead me to talk a bit about the Book of Mormon and were it comes from and of whom it testifies. Then we left them with the invitation to pray to God and ask if it is true and a baptismal date.
After that we went to Rudy’s house who is going to be baptized this week along with his brother Erwin and they seem to be doing really well right now. They are really cool kids.
Then after that we went to one of our most positive investigators named Juan Pablo and taught him more about the Book of Mormon and he HAS ALREADY PRAYED AND KNOWS THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!! He will be baptized this Tuesday.
Friday we went to Rudy’s house at 11am. He twisted his ankle in soccer and has it wrapped up but won’t let it stop him from being baptized he says. We taught him tithing and Word of Wisdom. Then after lunch we went to town because I had to go to the bank and take some money out of my account… I have no money. My companion and I went super far to visit some people. We taught a woman a powerful lesson on the restoration, that could’ve converted this ‘until death to us part catholic’ but her brother came home late in the lesson and persuaded her that we are a false church. so......
Saturday was just a pretty slow day not much happening. Our Best investigator Franklin introduced his friend Franklin to the gospel and invited him over for the next discussion with us so that was really cool cuz his friend was really excited and accepted baptism too.
Sunday We were suppose to have what’s called a Mormon Battalion where all the young men and women help us find inactive members, but that wasn’t very successful. Out of all the 28 kids that said they would come there were only 2 so we worked our butts off for the rest of that day trying to get all our Recent Converts and investigators to church. None of our Recent Converts have a friend in the church because all the church members have problems and don’t want to fellowship the converts. So that was a bummer...At church we had an attendance of 83 members and last week was 65, so it was a little bit better. I had one member I was depending on to bring one of our investigators who is a really good friend with this person, but the freaking member didn’t even feel like going to church that day so neither came.
After church we had a district counsel and the leaders of the district came and just chewed out the branch so it was pretty useless. My companion and I left church and it started pouring rain. We got soaked to the bone, but we had a visit that we had to go to so off we went in the rain. We got to visit only (Jessica) her husband (Levi) was on an errand. We visited with them two days before and they were really interested in the church. Levi is a pastor of a church so when we got to their house the second time they just had a bunch of crap to say to us. I asked them if they prayed to know if our previous message was true? I taught them a very powerful spiritual lesson about the restoration that left me almost in tears and them with guilt. I taught him everything he needs to know about the Priesthood and now he knows he doesn’t have the priesthood authority to baptize. He was mad at first but then I think he opened his heart and he told me he will "think about praying to know if it’s true" I only hope he does.
Later that night, we went to eat at a comedor which is pretty much like a hole-in-the-wall fast food restaurant. While we were eating inside the little house, a car drove up with really loud music playing and the guy that was driving was drunk. While he was ordering food he looked in the door and saw us sitting there. He yelled something at me but I just ignored him. Then about 5 seconds later my companion said he went back to his car and pulled out a baseball bat. When I turned around to look at him, he (the drunk) waved me over to him, soI got up and walked over to him. He was all mad and and fuming (breathing deeply with anger ha-ha) and stinky with beer breathe. He came up to my chin and was a pretty big guy probably in his thirties.
Then he said, "You like baseball?"
I was like "Yeah?"
Then he said, "You want to play?"
I said, "Yeah, where are we going to play at?"
"Right here!" he said, and raised up the bat.
I asked him, "You got a ball?"
That kind of made him mad but it also distract him enough so I had time to pick up the bar stool behind me to defend myself…incase he starts swinging. Then two strangers came up and broke us up.
He was yelling a everyone, "Get away from me, keep your space from me!" He then got in his car and skid away.
My companion told me after he left in his car, that when he first looked at us eating he was sizing us up and that’s when he went and got his bat out of his car. I talked about it with the other Elders who later came to our house to see what happened and we had a good laugh about it. Just a drunk looking to pick a fight with someone! That is about it for my adventures here in Nicaragua for the week.
I’m glad to hear everyone is doing well and Carly is working hard on pointless math out lines. I love you all and am doing a lot better as far as health and spiritually. I KNOW I CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!
Love
Elder Buck
I’m glad you enjoyed my pictures and video! I won’t be able to download more photos or videos because I don’t have my camera today but I will try to get some for next week. This week it has been raining every day....I don’t like the rain ha-ha. Only in Arizona I like the rain. Here when it rains it gets so cold and wet!
This week I have some pretty good stories ha-ha.
First I want to apologize for sending crappy letters home for a while, I have been pretty discouraged, but now I have my focus back and I’m probably working harder now then I ever had (or trying to at least).
Well last Monday was pretty good. We are suppose to have Family Home Evenings with other people but no one wanted the missionaries over, so my companion and I did tracking… trying to look for new people to teach and we found five.
Tuesday was one of those mas o menos kind of days. It was good just a hard day. We went to all the members’ house that are in our area and visited them to see how they are doing. Lots, for right now...have the normal problems, but for the majority of them it has to do with member obedience. No one is trying. They are giving up. The leaders of the church, down to the mission presidents, and us as missionaries are their only examples for right now. We passed by every single member and taught them some really good lessons to encourage them to give us a reference and out of the 28 members we taught we didn’t get one reference. So for Tuesday we spent it looking all day for new people to teach.
Wednesday My District Leader and I went on divisions together to go encourage and help out members because he has more time here than I do and he knows them better. While we were doing that the assistants called us and told him he has emergency changes, so we went back to the house and packed up all of his stuff because he had to be in his new area in Managua in less then 3 hours. Then his companion, who is new (but a hard worker), was with me and my companion for the rest of the day until 7 pm that night when his companion (Elder Lebaron) came. Now that we have E. Lebaron we are also doing a lot better as a district. He is a really good kid and was in my last zone in Bello Horizante.
Thursday During the morning from 10am -Noon we do our weekly planning. The water has been out for two days in our area and the zone leaders called us and told us that the sisters were going to come to our house to take showers cuz we have a water reservoir that collects the rain we shower in. (freezing cold ice water) So we had to leave the house. During that time my companion and I went to teach some people until lunch time. After lunch we went tracking in a part of our area that we have never been before and we found a cool family that had a little bit of knowledge about the Mormons (unfortunately, the bad knowledge of Mormons, multiple wives, etc) So we answered all of their questions and doubts. Then they wanted to know why we are called Mormons and I explained it’s a nick name that we received from the Book of Mormon. Then the guy (Gudiel) posed an awesome question. "What were our ancestors doing here in the America’s when the bible was being written?" I loved that question and then it lead me to talk a bit about the Book of Mormon and were it comes from and of whom it testifies. Then we left them with the invitation to pray to God and ask if it is true and a baptismal date.
After that we went to Rudy’s house who is going to be baptized this week along with his brother Erwin and they seem to be doing really well right now. They are really cool kids.
Then after that we went to one of our most positive investigators named Juan Pablo and taught him more about the Book of Mormon and he HAS ALREADY PRAYED AND KNOWS THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!! He will be baptized this Tuesday.
Friday we went to Rudy’s house at 11am. He twisted his ankle in soccer and has it wrapped up but won’t let it stop him from being baptized he says. We taught him tithing and Word of Wisdom. Then after lunch we went to town because I had to go to the bank and take some money out of my account… I have no money. My companion and I went super far to visit some people. We taught a woman a powerful lesson on the restoration, that could’ve converted this ‘until death to us part catholic’ but her brother came home late in the lesson and persuaded her that we are a false church. so......
Saturday was just a pretty slow day not much happening. Our Best investigator Franklin introduced his friend Franklin to the gospel and invited him over for the next discussion with us so that was really cool cuz his friend was really excited and accepted baptism too.
Sunday We were suppose to have what’s called a Mormon Battalion where all the young men and women help us find inactive members, but that wasn’t very successful. Out of all the 28 kids that said they would come there were only 2 so we worked our butts off for the rest of that day trying to get all our Recent Converts and investigators to church. None of our Recent Converts have a friend in the church because all the church members have problems and don’t want to fellowship the converts. So that was a bummer...At church we had an attendance of 83 members and last week was 65, so it was a little bit better. I had one member I was depending on to bring one of our investigators who is a really good friend with this person, but the freaking member didn’t even feel like going to church that day so neither came.
After church we had a district counsel and the leaders of the district came and just chewed out the branch so it was pretty useless. My companion and I left church and it started pouring rain. We got soaked to the bone, but we had a visit that we had to go to so off we went in the rain. We got to visit only (Jessica) her husband (Levi) was on an errand. We visited with them two days before and they were really interested in the church. Levi is a pastor of a church so when we got to their house the second time they just had a bunch of crap to say to us. I asked them if they prayed to know if our previous message was true? I taught them a very powerful spiritual lesson about the restoration that left me almost in tears and them with guilt. I taught him everything he needs to know about the Priesthood and now he knows he doesn’t have the priesthood authority to baptize. He was mad at first but then I think he opened his heart and he told me he will "think about praying to know if it’s true" I only hope he does.
Later that night, we went to eat at a comedor which is pretty much like a hole-in-the-wall fast food restaurant. While we were eating inside the little house, a car drove up with really loud music playing and the guy that was driving was drunk. While he was ordering food he looked in the door and saw us sitting there. He yelled something at me but I just ignored him. Then about 5 seconds later my companion said he went back to his car and pulled out a baseball bat. When I turned around to look at him, he (the drunk) waved me over to him, soI got up and walked over to him. He was all mad and and fuming (breathing deeply with anger ha-ha) and stinky with beer breathe. He came up to my chin and was a pretty big guy probably in his thirties.
Then he said, "You like baseball?"
I was like "Yeah?"
Then he said, "You want to play?"
I said, "Yeah, where are we going to play at?"
"Right here!" he said, and raised up the bat.
I asked him, "You got a ball?"
That kind of made him mad but it also distract him enough so I had time to pick up the bar stool behind me to defend myself…incase he starts swinging. Then two strangers came up and broke us up.
He was yelling a everyone, "Get away from me, keep your space from me!" He then got in his car and skid away.
My companion told me after he left in his car, that when he first looked at us eating he was sizing us up and that’s when he went and got his bat out of his car. I talked about it with the other Elders who later came to our house to see what happened and we had a good laugh about it. Just a drunk looking to pick a fight with someone! That is about it for my adventures here in Nicaragua for the week.
I’m glad to hear everyone is doing well and Carly is working hard on pointless math out lines. I love you all and am doing a lot better as far as health and spiritually. I KNOW I CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!
Love
Elder Buck
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