Week 27 - January 12, 2015

 Me and Elder Coelho....

 Light pants in the summer is a NO people...

Oi!

So it was a fantastic week with a ton of cool stuff that happened, I try to explain it the best I can...

Cool things: We have 2 Investigators that are progressing so fast. Rosinha: She is a middle-aged lady with super bad depression and every time we teach her she is laying down on her bed. She had prayed about the Book of Mormon and she knows it is true! We marked a date to get her baptized and she said she would try! She’s really awesome, but the only problem is she never leaves her house much less her room. We gave her a priesthood blessing and met with her again this week and she was up about walking around and it was the first time I had every seen her walking, or sitting up while we taught to her. Wow the church is true! The other is Francinaldo: He is a twenty five year old guy who we have been teaching and he also has a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He knows it is true! And he’s part of the spiritual experience this week:)

Interesting character: JACKSON: We taught this guy and his girlfriend a little about the restoration and how the gospel blesses families. At first he was super skeptical of the LDS religion and began kind of trying to break us apart... we answered all of his questions, started with a prayer, taught about families and stuff and by the end, he was completely different. He is super intelligent and stuff but I think he realized that the internet is not the most reliable source for information, but the spirit is! :) We will be teaching him again this week.

Funny thing: We gave a blessing to a baby this week because she was sick, and during the blessing she grabbed my tie and put it in her mouth. It was really cute!

Weekly difficulty: The drunken people just love the missionaries.... Also, we left the window open for a whole day while it was raining and Elder Burton’s bed got drenched and our room was a mess.

Spiritual Experience: We had a lesson with our investigator on Saturday and he said he would love to go to church with us. We told him what time the bus would come around to pick up all members (the chapel next to where we work still hasn’t opened so we meet at a different chapel far away) and told him that we could stop by his house in the morning and walk with him to the bus stop place. We went to his house in the morning, knocked on his door and nothing.... we waited like five to ten minutes outside his house and knocked again.... nothing. Dang. So we walked to the stop and waited another 10 minutes before the bus came. The bus rolled up and we all got in. As we sat down I look up and Francinaldo is in front of my face and just says," good morning ;)" he sat down and he went to church with us and it was seriously one of the best sacrament meetings I had ever been to. It was awesome. 

Scripture of the week: Isaiah 53: 3-5 ....My favorite "Christ scripture" :) Oh and last week was Luke 2:52…

Welp, that’s pretty much it for this week, Love you all! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Some time of "pie in the face" activity for Zone Conference...

Our Zone...

Week 26 - January 5, 2015

What did I get for New Years? America.

Welp folks, It’s officially been 6 months. That’s weird! But here we go with the week....

Cool thing: New Years Eve! We got to spend time with our bishop and eat a lot of food and stuff it was fantastic. And new years day, we weren’t allowed to go outside so we had our own barbeque and it was awesome. We cook meat so good! Matt would be so proud! (Don’t leave raw meat in the trash can, it stinks really bad after a couple of days...) But on top of that, there were fireworks going off the ENTIRE NIGHT and it was really annoying but cool! I missed home a lot on that day!

Funny thing: Elder Burton and I were on the public bus going to the center for a district meeting and I was sitting down and for some reason he was standing up. He was holding on to one of the railings above his head and he said he kind of zoned out for a little bit, but he totally did a “George of the Jungle” swing on the bus when a sharp turn was made. So if y’all can imagine a little missionary guy a little shorter than me swinging into the bus doors in the moment a sharp turn was made, you would know that it looked really hilarious and really embarrassing. It was a good laugh I had!

Weekly difficulty: Elder Burton and I were teaching a lesson outside this old lady’s house and in the middle of me talking about how Jesus suffered for our sins and through Him we can return back to the presence of our Heavenly Father, Her little Chihuahua decided to pee on my shoe.... and my pants.... and my sock.... I wanted to kick that dog so bad. But regardless of the dog peeing on me the Spirit still testified of the truth! And it rained really hard that night and because we don’t have umbrellas Elder Burton and I got absolutely drenched. We decided to jump in some giant puddles and I jumped in one and totally wrecked my ankle...

Scripture: Luke 2:42... With the whole New Years thing, we should be making our goals, but this scripture is a good guide to know what kind of goals. It’s a good one!

Spiritual Experience: So I forgot to tell about this last week, but I helped with my first confirmation in the mission! Its a weird story but there was a lady who Elder Burton and his other companion baptized, but didn’t get confirmed until 2 weeks after I showed up here so that was cool. Elder Burton did the blessing, but it was in front of a lot of people because 2 wards from this stake had to do sacrament together, but it was super cool experience! We have also had some really great lessons with some very cool people this week so that was awesome as well!

Hope you all have a great week! Tchau

Elder Buck

The BQ we did in our house...

What we use to mop the house...

Week 25 - December 29, 2014

We saw Santa sellin' drinks, so we took a picture. HAHA

Honestly I don’t even know where to start with this letter but Christmas was freaking bomb! Talking with the whole family and stuff was probably the best thing ever! I love my family so much!

Cool thing: Got to talk with the family! That was sweet! And we got to eat a ton of food and stuff so that was awesome! And on the thought of good food, I had Mexican food yesterday for lunch at a member’s house for the first time in the mission.... I died. It was delectable.

Funny thing: We were at a member’s house eating lunch and this lady showed us a video of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. Someone caught it on "video" And so that was interesting.... She was so convinced.

Weekly Difficulty: Hanging up the phone when I was talking with the family on Christmas.....And we totally got our umbrellas stolen so we’ve been walking in the rain without umbrellas the past couple of days. It has been effective way to get into peoples homes though, it’s hard not to let someone in you house who doesn’t have an umbrella in the pouring rain! hahahaha

Spiritual Experience: We were running in the rain because we were getting absolutely destroyed and some people saw us running in the rain and let us in their house. It was awesome! We totally shared a message with them and everything. BAM. We have 21 new investigators this week, I knew all the rejection would pay off! This week will be busy!

Scripture of the Week: 1 Peter 1:7-9

Love you all and hope y’all have a fantastic week and a HAPPY NEW YEAR! Tchau!

Elder Buck

In the words of Dad, "I don't care what white man say, Santa Claus is a Black Man."

Christmas Day... BOOYAH!

Week 24 - December 22, 2014

A family from the branch in Biguaçu.

Our investigators Lucia and Guilherme.

Elder Magalhães and I before leaving Biguaçu!

Welp…it’s been a really awesome week. I love my companion and my new area. It is WAY different here. First, it’s a ward. YIPPIE! Not a branch. And second, we teach so much here, it’s the best! It is not that I don’t like doing contacts or anything.... but teaching is awesome.

Cool thing: Its ALMOST NATAL!!! The ward members gave all of the missionaries in the ward Christmas baskets with a ton of food and candy in it so that was dope. And my companion is American, so I’ll be brushed up on my English a bit before talking to y’all!

Interesting Character: The Pastor guy. We totally had a lesson with a pastor of a church and his friends so that was cool. I’ll be talking a little bit about that in the call...

Weekly difficulty: The house is disgusting so that’s just great...

Spiritual Experience: Well there was a ton this week. We have been teaching a Christmas lesson for all of our investigators and the people we meet and using the “He Is The Gift” video thing. That has been awesome. We have a bunch of investigators and a lot of people who seem genuinely interested in hearing about the church. That video is super powerful and super cool! But yeah the work is so much different here. 

Scripture of the week: Lucas 2 :)

Well that’s really all I have time to write about this week, but I love you all and hope you have a very Merry Christmas! Tchau!

Elder Buck

A member here has a parakeet - so that was fun...

Hey...and Feliz Natal! 

Week 23 - December 15, 2014

Transferred DOOOOD!!

Hey! So it was a really really good week!

Cool thing(s): Conferencia de Natal! A ton of missionaries got together and played a bunch of games and talked and ate and stuff, super awesome! And on top of that, I totally got transferred to a city called Itajaí! I got off the on a bus about four hours ago and met up with my new companion, Elder Burton. He is from South Carolina and is super cool. He will most likely be finishing his mission with me as his companion. So that’s cool...

Interesting Character: Ronaldo knew Beethoven...

 I don’t have time to write the rest but I will next week. Love you all!

Elder Buck

Week 22 - December 8, 2014

A cool dock here is Biguaçu and also the nasty nasty water that flows beneath it...

Oi!

So I don’t really remember all that much from this week other than it was really REALLY hot and sunny. But I have to say I am super grateful AZ prepared me for it! Haha Its hard to want to go outside right now, but we have work to do! The weeks have been pretty tough to remember, but I’ll give it a go.

Cool Thing: We had investigators show up for church! That was awesome. I love it when investigators decide to come to fast and testimony meetings, the spirit is always so strong. 

Weekly Difficulty: Like I said the weeks have been pretty tough in respect to teaching people. We teach a lot of the first lesson for people and after that a lot of them decide it’s not what they want to hear. So I guess the difficulty of the week(s) have been just not having a ton of people to teach for the amount of contacts we do. 

Interesting Character: I have to say this honor goes to Cleusa. We were doing a ton of contacts on Friday and we came to a house and met this woman. We came to find out that she actually is a member, has two kids, one of them is in the US going to school at BYU, and her husband is not a member. That was an interesting find! 

Spiritual Experience: This week was about prayer. I can tell each and every one of you that I know with all certainty that our Heavenly Father really hears and answers prayers. And that He truly loves every one of you and me more than we could possibly imagine. 

Scripture of the Week:  2 Nephi 4. I love this chapter. 

Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

Elder Buck

Brasileiros make killer hot dogs! (And Nick you would die over this soda)

Our last district meeting together! (In order from left to right) Elder Mendieta, he arrived in the field the same day as me and he's from Panama! Super cool guy, probably my best friend in the field! Next to him is Elder Anderson. He's American and from Pennsylvania...and next to him is Elder Magalhães my comp!

Week 21 - December 1, 2014

Look who I found at Zone Conference....

The Weeks are Staring to Fly…

Cool Thing: We had zone conference this week but this time with a General Authority. Claudio R.M. Costa is truly a man called of God, I have no doubt in my mind! So that was cool.

Interesting Character: Drunk Guy. There is this guy who walks around the center of Biguaçu looking for shoes to shine. This week he was walking around completely hammered, totally fell over and hit his head on a parked car, and cut up his hands and elbows. Elder Magalhães and I helped him up and stuff and this man was kinda gross. I touched his armpit.

Weekly Difficulty: I got my first in-grown toenail in my life this week so that was a treat...

Spiritual Experience: Last week I had made an appointment to visit a family who the other Elders had been teaching but kind of stopped teaching because none of them were making any real progress. So... Elder and I taught Lucia (mom) and Guilerme (son) about the Holy Ghost. She had explained to us a little about why she didn’t make a commitment to get baptized and it was partly because she felt like she was being forced to do something she wasn’t ready for yet...(sounds familiar). So we began teaching a little about the Holy Ghost and stuff and Elder asked, "Do you remember a time when you were just the happiest you’ve ever been? A time when you were just so happy you could hardly contain yourself?" He asked Guilerme and as he was thinking, Lucia started crying (first of all, Lucia is the type of person you would never see crying. She got in a ton of school fights and stuff when she was younger, She smokes, pretty intense personality, etc...) Guilerme said, "I’m trying to think but nothing is coming to mind..." After he said this, Lucia said, "I can. When you saw your brother." He broke down in tears (a 14 year old boy breaking down in tears is not very normal) I don’t really know the whole story behind the brother thing but that’s not the point! We explained a little about some of the fruits of the Holy Ghost and it was a moment when you just know for a fact that they felt the Spirit and things just make sense in their head. It is beautiful!

Scripture of the Week: Matthew 17:14-21. It talks a little bit about faith and there is a part that I found kind of funny in verse 20...Its good!

Love you all and hope you have another good week! Tchau!

-Elder Buck

On top of the world...

My level of animation at this moment is just off the charts.

It's that time of the year!