Week 46 - May 25, 2015

Cool Thing: Went to chapel in the center of Joinville that is the very first church building ever built in the whole south America! It was awesome!

Awesome Thing: I got to see Elder Keller for the first time this week and he is doing super good!

Weekly Triumph: Baptism marked for Raul this Saturday, we are super stoked for him!!

Weekly Difficulty: the baptismal font is outside the church building and it hasn’t been used for a super long time so we have to clean it this week...also...no one was ever home when we stopped by and all of our appointments fell through big time.

Spiritual Experience: We had conference with President this week and he compared us to the army in Judges 7.

Scripture: Judges 7

Hahaha Sorry that’s all I got - but hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Buck

 Zone Meeting

 Found a cool bridge!    

We made some coxinha and pastries!!

Week 45 - May 18, 2015

Week of Walking…

Cool Thing: We have a baptism marked for the 30th of May, and this kid is so ready to be baptized! 

Funny Thing: There’s a less active member in the ward who’s name is Naor. This guy is truly awesome but in the words of my companion he’s a little, "fora da casa..." We scheduled an appointment with him after church yesterday and when showed up and he was jamming out to California Girls by Katy Perry and using the boat he was painting as a drum set. I had to try so hard to not laugh! 

Interesting Character: Jessé (jess-ay). We went to an teaching appointment that we had marked with a friend of one of the members, but when we showed up she wasn’t home. So when we were trying to mark another day to stop by, Jessé walked up and kind of started listening in on our conversation. My companion just stopped talking and turned to Jessé and said, "Hey, what are you doing tomorrow (Sunday) at about 9 in the morning?" Jessé said, "nothing, just going to be here at home doing nothing." At that moment my companion just said," so you want to go to church tomorrow with us??" And he said YES. Hahaha The best part was that he actually showed up at 9:00 at the church building and stayed for the entire 3 hours. It was awesome!

Weekly Triumph: Our numbers improved this week from the last week and it felt good to know that our hard work actually pays off.

Weekly Difficulty: WE WALKED SO MUCH THIS WEEK AND SO MANY APPOINTMENTS ENDED UP FALLING THROUGH. 

Spiritual Experience: We did a contact knocking on doors and these people let us in after talking for 30 minutes outside their house. It turned out they attend an Assembly of God church or something like that. They decided to offer a prayer for us and it was the most crazy prayer I have ever heard in my entire life. The mom started to pray and during her prayer she started yelling and stuff and then her son got into it and started praying and he started yelling and stuff during his prayer, and then before I knew it there were three other people praying for us. I didn’t understand anything and neither did my companion and it was weird. They ended and my companion didn’t even say amen... he ended up talking a little about prayer and how God is a God of Order and our prayers need to be that way too. Afterward I asked if we could say a prayer the way we say prayers and they accepted. I felt the Spirit so strong in that little room as a said the simplest prayer and it was crazy. And yeah, they were really firm in their faith and weren’t about to listen to what we had to say but I felt good knowing that we left with the spirit from that house! 

That’s all for now. Love you all!

Tchau!

Elder Buck

Borrowed my comp's hat and took some pics...

Week 44 - May 11, 2015

Joinville

Me and Dos Anjos

Meeee

So yeah yesterday was a lot better than the Christmas call, WOW hahaha. I only cried a little bit this time! It was super good to see your faces and hear your voices; it’s been too long. I didn’t even feel super trunky afterward, so that was cool!  It was really good to talk to Skylar. I hope she is doing well and hope she knows how happy and grateful I am to be her brother. 

I can feel myself changing and its not a small change, it’s a big one. I realized at home I had a testimony, but it was so weak. I can honestly say I know exactly was it feels like to have that "burning" testimony. It is so real and so TRUE!  But I love you all and hope you know that when we are doing what the Lord asks of us, those are the things that make the difference!

Love,
Elder Buck

Week 43 - May 4, 2015

DAT TIE DO

I like it here!

Well this week was mostly just updating the area book and visiting people I don’t know very well, but it was a good one! I learned out here that if someone has fallen away from the church or decided to quit going, it is most likely because that person lacks a testimony of the Restoration. Or doesn’t fully understand the Restoration. At home I had a testimony, but it was super weak. Now I know with an absolute certainty that these things are true! It has to be! It just makes so much sense! Look to understand more fully the restoration, it makes a difference. 

Cool Thing: Me and Elder Dos Anjos took a ton of time out of one of our days to organize and update the area book and there were a lot of lost investigators and less active members there. So that was awesome.

Funny Thing: This ward hasn’t had an American missionary for a while and the whole week I’ve been telling people I’m from the Bahia and everyone believes me hahaha. Good times. The members either get a really good laugh out of it or they just get kind of confused.

Interesting Character: My companion: Elder dos Anjos. He reminds me so much of Skylar its ridiculous. For example one time he got super mad for some reason and started mumbling to himself and said, "I just want to punch a wall so bad right now but won’t because it’ll hurt my hand!" And then he just kind of sat on his bed and didn’t talk for a little bit hahaha. He’s a funny kid!

Weekly Difficulty: So I thought my last areas were huge but they were super small compared to this one I am in right now. I guess it’s the largest area of the two zones of Joinville.... It is so massive. We have walked so much!

Weekly Triumph: A member gave me a sick tie yesterday (see pictures)

Spiritual Experience: So my companion has been super frustrated this whole week because of the other pair of missionaries that are living with us. It’s been kind of a mess in this area but he was super frustrated and it was something I could just see. In my last area I also got a little frustrated about something that one of the Elders did and just sat in a chair for a while to think. One of the Elders in the house approached me and said, "You alright?" I said I was fine but just a little angry. He said to me after, "you know what makes me feel better and happier?....serving. Another Elder is not feeling very good and needs a blessing, will you come help?" I said yes and we gave him a blessing and I felt so much better. So with my companion I’ve just had a thought that blessing participated in helped me out A LOT, so maybe something like that would help him. Then I was thinking to myself, well do you even really need a blessing? Then at the moment I said to myself no, but I continued thinking and the last time I had received any blessing or had anyone lay their hands on my head was when I was set apart as a missionary. I have often needed a blessing from one of my companions but always ignored the thought. So I asked Dos Anjos to give me a blessing and it was one of the most inspired blessings I have received . And It just changed our whole workflow and attitudes, and I can feel the Spirit so much more when we teach, plan, pray, study, everything. It was super cool. The Priesthood is real!

Scripture: 1 Nephi 1:1

Eu amo vocês!!

Elder Buck

I know what happened to the am pm next to our house. It's here in Joinville!