Week 94 - April 25, 2016

 Our ward cooking competition was a success!

So this week was super busy with the activity. Getting people to commit to bring desserts for the organizations was really stressful, but the result turned out to be so much more than I thought it would be! We had a solid 17 non-members and a bunch of less active members there. It was by far the best activity that I’ve ever planned in my mission. It was really great to see the ward get together to set up everything and eat and talk together. I have never seen so many people in that chapel the whole time I’ve been here. We also got a couple of referrals (the first since I’ve been here may I add hahaha) and it was so worth all the stress! Now we will just see what happens. So the work is progressing a bit, we just have a lot of following up to do now! 

And for more big news: I started my very last transfer in the field TODAY :)

Love you all! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 93 - April 18, 2016

Hey y’all so lets see where to begin....

So this week flew by super fast as me and Morales have been preparing for an activity this week. It’s an activity I’ve done in my past areas and it worked super well! It’s a dessert competition where all the organizations (Elders Quorum, Relief Society, Primary, etc) will all be bringing in desserts to be judged. The judges are the non-member friends and family that the members bring with them. We’ve been planning it for a whole month so that this activity can help the ward here grow a little bit! It’s been kind of nuts trying to get people excited for it! We’ll see how things go...

As for investigators...It’s been super tough getting anyone to really progress and seek for their own testimony. But we have some investigators that committed to go to the dessert competition so we'll see if they come! We do a lot of tracking and a lot of knocking doors, and a lot of walking. I don’t think I have ever felt so tired in my entire life. All I want to do these days is sleep hahaha. But Morales and me are going hard in the paint here and really doing this area good! It seems like a lot of the areas I’ve been sent to in my mission are ones that were struggling, but I have to say I wouldn’t have had it any other way because I have seriously learned so much from it! From organizational skills, patience, diligence, following up with people, etc... I’ve definitely taken so much away from it all for sure! I just hope I will be able to apply it when I get home.

Have a great week y’all!

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 92 - April 11, 2016

This week was pretty uneventful, we have walked a lot and been working hard at getting the members involved here a bit more. The work is MEGA SLOW but we have been planning activities to give the members more opportunities to do missionary work. The biggest problem we face is that the members sometimes have the idea that missionaries just knock doors and stuff, when in reality that is the MOST INEFFECTIVE working tactic that exists! Hahaha Work with the missionaries y’all, they need help!

As for investigators, we have found it super hard to find anyone that wants to really progress. We have 4 pretty solid investigators (meaning investigators that we consistently visit but are not necessarily...progressing). We consistently find a lot of people to teach but we get cut quite a bit... but its all part of the work I guess. The most we can really do at the moment is trust that God will help us to "find the pearl in the mud”. On the bright side we are learning to have a lot of patience!

And exciting news: I dry-cleaned my suit coat for the first time in my entire mission this week!

Have a great week y’all, till next time.

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 91 - April 4, 2016

Well this week was great with conference and everything. We honestly only had about 2 whole days of work and the rest of the week we were in the areas of other missionaries for zone meetings and general conference broadcasting, so I don’t have anything very special or interesting to report. We went to the stake center in Chapecó to watch conference and it is a 2 ½ hour bus ride (not too ridiculous). We slept in the same place with 10 other elders... it's awful! The mattresses are so nasty too! hahaha I’m definitely happy to know I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight (sort of...)!

One of my favorite quotes though from conference was, "The best leaders are the best followers..."

I made my very last planner and I think it’s a beauty! But there are still 3 more weeks before I can even use it...

Have a good week everyone! Tchau

Elder Buck

Week 90 - March 28, 2016

I got soaked and Elder Morales sleeps with his eyes open! #creepy

I’m just going to wrap up this email very simply by saying that we had a really great week of finding and teaching. I really like my companion because he’s a hard worker and makes my life a lot easier sometimes! We have been working super well together and we have seen a lot of the fruits of our labor, I think partly because of the Harmony we have in our companionship! We have been gaining a lot of trust with the members and seems like the missionary work is starting to fire up. And I have to say that my testimony hasn’t grown as much in my entire life as it has in these past 21 months. It is incredible to look back and see how much I’ve grown and progressed personally and how much the Lords work has progressed. I know that the church is true and that "after all that has been said, our greatest and most important duty is to preach the gospel." I know this to be true because I live it!

Good week to you all, Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 89 - March 21, 2016

Welp y’all, I’d really love to fill you in on what happened this week, but I’m afraid it would bore you to death...but mom insists so I guess I’ll say what happened hahaha. I’ll just start on Wednesday...

Wednesday: We had an appointment marked with a member that hasn’t been going to church for a while so we talked to him about Jesus and the atonement. It went really well. Afterwards we went to lunch at a restaurant nearby, ate quickly, and ran back home to get our stuff packed. There we took a bus at 4:30 going to Chapecó. There, Morales and I split up. I went with the companion of one elder all the way to Florianópolis and we got there at about 6:00 am or twelve hours later the next day.

Thursday: From the bus terminal we walked to the mission home and got there at about 6:30, then we went to the Internal Revenue Service place (Receita Federal) to get my CPF done (which should have been done a long time ago...) After that we ate lunch with the staff there in Floripa and then ran to the Bus terminal to get on the bus at 1:30 going to Itajaí (my second area and where the mission tour would take place the next day). When we arrived we went to the missionaries’ house there since no one was home, I decided to visit a couple families (fubeca!) that I used to know from that area hahaha. The missionaries got back and it was Elder William and his companion! We then helped them get stuff ready for the mission tour and then visited a dear family there (see picture) :) We slept over night in the same house with 14 other missionaries (16 in total...Que Horror) and....

Friday: We woke up early (to shower and stuff, I was looking and smelling like an animal) and we all headed over to the church building. We waited around forever for everyone to show up (100 missionaries and Elder Zwick). After the meeting, we had lunch and then me and 9 other missionaries sang a special musical number where I sang a SOLO for the first two lines of the song (QUE MEDO). We did pretty well I think....I mean, I didn’t screw up to bad this time!! And the meeting with Elder Zwick was super cool and I learned a lot on how to "Simplify, Intensify, and Testify". It was super great! Then at 4:30 pm we got back on the bus going back to Chapecó and arrived the next day (Saturday) at 5:30am.

Saturday: We walked from the chapel in Chapecó to the missionaries' house and we all slept for about 2 ½ hours before we had to wake up again and go to the bus terminal to get on our bus at 9:30. We got back to our area (Concórdia) at 11:30 where we walked home (super fast) to drop off our stuff and run to our lunch appointment at 12:00pm. (haha We took a taxi because my body wasn’t functioning properly I think.) We got there right at 12:00 and ate, we went home and I took a shower and died. Until Sunday morning haha…

Sunday: We went to church and afterwards had to walk up the biggest hill in the universe to go to a ward council meeting. Afterwards it starting raining like crazy for the rest of the day so we called it quits bahaha...

Exciting huh??? :)

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 88 - March 14, 2016

 I love Guaraná #heartemoji

So there isn’t much to report this week, but Morales and I are working hard on getting this ward united again! There is a lot of drama here because of missionaries from the past, old leadership problems, apostasy, etc... But it looks like things are getting whipped into shape on our part. The members are marking more lunch appointments, people are coming back to church, referrals are starting to roll in, so it’s all good. We missionaries don’t have a lot of authority in respect to the members, but we sure are doing our part and everything they ask us to (within our limits).

My testimony has really grown a lot about sustaining our leaders and fulfilling our callings. Sometimes we just need to sustain our leaders and do our part and the rest (ward growth, unity, etc...) will all come around naturally. Put our pride to the side and let God’s will happen. My mission has not been anything less than great! One thing I have figured out on my mission is that if we put our faith in a people, we can expect to be disappointed. The only person we should put our faith in fully is Jesus Christ because He is not capable of letting us down or disappointing us. He will always lift us and help us to become better people. It must be part of God’s plan for us to learn to trust and confide solely in Christ.

Morales and I are doing really well together though! hahaha I swear we lived the same life before the mission! We have so many things in common its kind of creepy. Great guy! …and he’s teaching me Spanish too! You know what they say, " you gotta take advantage when the opportunity comes around." -Elder Buck

Love y’all and have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Buck