Week 58 - August 17, 2015

A gecko we discovered in our house that got smashed by the door.

A leaf with a bunch of caterpillars!

Me and the Rabbit (Elder Coelho)!

Monday: Nothing really special happened…

Tuesday: We had talked with a person at the bus stop who curiously looks like my aunt Leanna and ended up getting to know her. So this past week we went to her house ended up teaching she and her husband about the book of Mormon and the restoration. Was super cool to see their brains starting to work and realize that the things we tell people have a very strong and true argument. They committed to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Wednesday: We visited Leonir and asked him if he had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true and he said he wasn’t sure because he just felt good saying a normal prayer from the heart instead of saying a decorated Catholic prayer so that was super cool to hear. He was also able to explain super well the things we marked for him to read which was cool. We visited Laelcio and he said that his mom doesn’t want us to turn her son away form the teachings of the catholic church...so looks like we won’t be visiting him any time soon. It’s a bummer because he seemed super uninterested when we showed up...

Thursday: We knocked SO MANY DOORS but found a person to start teaching named Pamela. We taught her the first part of the restoration and about families and stuff but with a twist using the Liahona from this month. Before leaving I had a super strong impression to ask her if she likes to read and she said, "who doesn’t like to read, I love to read!" SO...we are kind of short on Book of Mormons at the moment so I ended up giving her a copy of the Liahona instead and told her I wanted it back (as an excuse to go back to visit her again)! I’m so smart! Elder wasn’t too pleased with me giving her the only Liahona from the month of August that we had, but I am hoping it’ll turn out okay!

Friday: We walked a lot this day just looking for unknown members of the church that the Bishop gave to us and it was pretty rough... We had dinner at a member’s house though, so that was cool!

Saturday: We had a meeting with the second counselor of the bishopric to talk about the activities we are going to be doing these next few months to get the ward excited about missionary work because this ward is dead! We are hoping that these activities will bring some investigators to church because it has been a while... we knocked a bunch of doors this day and found a married couple! So that was cool, we taught them and they seemed pretty interested!

Sunday: We went to church and taught a couple lessons and it was a great day!

Love you all!

Elder Buck

Week 57 - August 10, 2015

Monday: I don’t really have much to say about this day...

Tuesday: We had a lunch appointment marked at a house on the other side of the universe and we took the bus. The worst choice of bus ever...We ended up taking a tour of a large part of Joinville that was completely out of our area and we showed up at the members house 2 hours late....But we did end up finishing up our day with a bang having family home evening with a less active member and his non member family which was cool. After that, we had a good lesson with Anita and her 10-year-old daughter Mariani. Afterward, Anita PROMISED she would go to church on Sunday too. The visit was really strange actually... Mariani was hosting a Bible study class thing at her house like half hour after we arrived and when we finished, the Catholic ladies started showing up and we thought about sticking around but the Spirit said no hahaha....yeesh. 

Wednesday: We had interviews with President and that guy is super cool! His scriptures are super crazy.

President Silva's scriptures vs. a missionary's scriptures

Thursday: We did a lot of contacting this day and found 4 new people to teach.... It was way cool! The first is Lealcio. He is 22 and when we knocked on his door and started talking about the apostasy he got super interested. He let us in, we taught him about the restoration and then he agreed to let us come back and talk more about it. Then there’s Marilda....she is kind of weird and doesn’t understand very much but yeah... We knocked on a door last week and a guy answered and told us to come back this week and when we returned he let us in and his situation is pretty interesting. He was super interested in the Book of Mormon, and he’s read the Bible 6 times cover to cover…in jail....Soooo we left the book with him and they PROMISED that they would go to church Sunday too.

Friday: We did a ton of trackting again... its rough hahaha, but later that day we visited Naor, a less active member, and he tried convincing us that dentists just want to rip teeth out of people’s heads and that 7 guys tried killing him for leaving the Catholic church and it was weird.... We continued knocking doors after and his dad found us on the street (Naor is a grown man living with his dad...) he told us that he has schizophrenia...that cleared up some stuff for sure.

Saturday: We had a lesson with Leonir and Cleonisse (investigators we found knocking doors...) And Leonir read the part we marked in the Book of Mormon 4 times. It was awesome! Cleonisse is getting there... And we asked him if he prayed to know if the book is true and he said no. He said he didn’t want to pray because he feels like he’s asking God for a sign haha. But he said he would pray anyway and let us know, He’s so cool! 

Sunday: We went to church and none of our investigators showed up. We did have a lesson with some less actives (this is memorable) and this member (Silvana). She just thinks super outside the box and she asked me if the apples in the US taste the same as apples in Brasil and if we have bananas there. Sometimes I feel like I’m from a different planet.

But it was a great week!

Elder Buck

Week 56 - August 3, 2015

Took this picture today for all of you!

Joinville Sun!

I had a fantastic week and hope I can put it all in this one Email...

Monday: It was an awful start to a good week - EVERYTHING fell through! But we did talk with a drunk guy on the street and he said we could pass by his house that doesn’t exist. We tried hahaha. 

Tuesday: We had a lunch appointment with a less active member (Maria) who lost her mom this past week. We had the opportunity to talk to her a little more about the plan of salvation and how God’s plan for us is perfect and how He has a perfect love for all of his children. She wanted to quit believing in God and one of the Elders said something really interesting. "Do you think that not believing in God will make your life better?" And it is so true! We can never stop going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying daily. Our situation may be a lot different than hers, but we never really know what life has in store for us!

Wednesday: We had a lesson with an inactive member and he was struggling with some of the same things as Maria (minus the loss of a loved one) and wanted to stop believing In God. He is a member who almost went on a mission and didn’t because of some worthiness problems and now lives with his girlfriend. He has no job, doesn’t go to church, has a baby boy, and is super lost and far from the Spirit. Luckily, I learned a valuable lesson from my dad when I was a small boy. I asked him to imagine that I was the Spirit and he was himself. I asked for everyone to start talking at the same time and then I quietly started trying to talk with him. I started to move myself into other part of the house, and every time he "sinned" placing myself farther and farther away from him until he couldn’t hear me anymore. As we taught this super cool lesson about God and the Spirit, he remembered how he felt as a little boy and he understood very well the principle we were teaching!  Thank you Dad hahaha. We also taught a lesson with Leonir and his wife about families and it was way cool! Also taught a girl who smokes a ton and her boyfriend about the Word of Wisdom and she has been trying to stop little by little. 

Thursday: We dedicated this day to just knock doors to find new people to teach. When we approached this house, we saw this young man sitting in the doorway and before we could say anything, he went inside and a woman from another part of the house told us to enter (we were super weirded out because nobody ever does that...) We went inside and there was a huge family inside a dark room and on the wall was a picture of the temple in Curitiba. The dad introduced himself and they were a less active family from Rio de Janeiro who had been looking for a church the past 2 months and haven’t been able to find one. It was like God placed us at their doorstep and they ended up going to church and it was crazy! They have 3 sons, Israel, Mosias, and Moroni. Yeah!

Friday: Was another day dedicated to knocking on doors and just before we were finished we saw a woman closing her window and decided to talk with her. We asked her name and she got all weird and asked us why, so we told her who we were and she seemed super uninterested. We went to leave and just then she said, "Wait! You know, God answered my prayer... I just received an answer." We were kind of confused…but she asked us if we could return the next day and we said YES! (see Saturday)

Saturday: We returned to this woman’s house (Edisangela and Diego) and got to know them. She explained to us that she was sitting in her window asking if God could give her an answer to know if He really exists. Right then we sort of popped in and she was super shocked. When she was telling us what happened she got super emotional and was so happy to know that God really does answer us when we need Him the most. It was super cool! Her husband didn’t seem too interested but I’m anxious to see what will happen!

Sunday: We went to church and the meetings were awesome. Afterward, Elder Coelho and I had a lesson and since everything else kind of fell through we did some contacts and nothing was really working out…BUT Bishop did realize that the missionaries need help in this ward. It was just such a great and awesome week! That’s all!

Tchau,

Elder Bailey Buck

Week 55 - July 27, 2015

Elder Buck didn't have time to write a big email this week, but he did send some pictures. Enjoy!

Mission Conference!

with Elder Shakespaere

with current and two former companions

Enjoying the one-year celebratory box of treats and new clothes from home!

Me in my new clothes

Joinville!

Week 54, July 20, 2015

Drawn by an Elder in my last district...haha

Cool Thing: I have a new companion and he’s pretty sweet! He’s Brazilian and works super hard and has a lot of energy. It’s been a good change!

My new companion: Elder Coelho

Interesting Character: Roberto. Elder Coelho and I were waiting at the bus stop and a random guy pulled up to give us a ride to the bus terminal (this was probably not the smartest thing but he was old and alone so....) we accepted and hopped in. We talked with this guy and he was a super gospel preacher guy and he was pretty hilarious. And he dropped us off and everything turned out fine. HaHa

Funny Thing: Elder Coelho and I were going to get the Book of Mormon from one of the Haitians we have been teaching, because he wasn’t really progressing (we cant "give" people books we let them "borrow" the books). It turns out he actually started reading the Book of Mormon and has been reading about Nephi and everything. It’s awesome! So he still has the book.

Weekly Triumph: We have received a bunch of referrals lately, which is super not normal so that was cool!

Weekly Difficulty: The referrals happen to live on the other side of the universe.

Spiritual Experience: We were talking to this guy (Luis) in front of his house this week and he was telling us how he doesn’t really believe in God and stuff and Elder Coelho bore one of the most powerful testimonies about the reality of the Savior and his ministry and how He actually lives and guides His church today though the living prophets. I got the chills so bad it was awesome!

Welp that’s all for now but hope you all have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 53 - July 13, 2015

The District...

Cool Thing: It is transfer week so looks like I’m getting a new companion tomorrow!!

Interesting Character: NICOLAS...Nicolas is the 3 year old son of one of the less actives in this ward and he has a really bad allergy to mayonnaise, but he LOVES mayonnaise! He like eats it plain, and when he is finished, his mouth gets all red and stuff. But I asked myself, "Why do his parents let him eat it?" I found out real soon when they tried taking it away and he threw THE BIGGEST FIT. It was funny. He also likes the skin of roasted chicken. Hahah He’s crazy!

Funny Thing: I made like 3 pizza cookies this week and they were delicious and now everyone wants me to make one for FHE and stuff! Thanks Skylar!

Pazookie!!

Weekly Triumph: We found a long lost member this week and we invited him to come to church and he CAME. He’s been going to other churches for the past few years and just hasn’t felt anything for a long time. We invited him to church again and he said it felt good to be singing normal hymns and to feel welcome somewhere! That was cool!  I will also be getting a new companion from Bahia. I think it will be a good change for me cause this Elder is really calm. Hahaha It will be a dramatic change. I am still in a district with 6 Brazilians and 1 American (me) so that’s fun!

Weekly Difficulty: Finding people to teach. This week was super slow because of transfers and doctor appointments and Elder dos Anjos saying goodbye to the members, but we did return to a lot of contact’s houses. It turns out that only one family really wants to hear what we have to say.

Saying goodbye to Elder dos Anjos...

Spiritual Experience: This week I had another confirmation that Joseph Smith really was a prophet called of God. When we were giving the first lesson for one of our investigators, I don’t know what our investigator felt, but what I do know is how I felt when giving my testimony. The church is true!

Scripture: Omni 1:26 my new favorite scripture!

Everyone have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 52 - July 6, 2015

***ONE YEAR TODAY!***

Thank you all for your love and support!

Hellooo friends and family!

Cool Thing: Elder dos Anjos and I had the opportunity to participate in the CTR class this Sunday and bear our testimonies and draw pictures and stuff this week! Those little children are so cool! And one of their names is Néfi! 

Funny Thing: We taught an older lady this week from a different church and she was super pumped when it came to saying prayers! We offered the first prayer and asked her if she would like to say the closing prayer. Before she started, she told us to throw our hands in the air to praise God and stuff and she said a super colorful prayer....hahaha

Weekly Triumph: one of our other investigators, Anitta, read the Book of Mormon and thought it was cool! She is golden!

Weekly Difficulty: I nearly freeze to death every night because it is so flipping cold. (The cold and I don’t do well together...) 

Interesting Characters: IRLAN & RITA... So Elder dos Anjos and I were waiting for our bus at the terminal to go home and there was a guy there who started a "conversation" with us (he had been drinking). Later on in the discussion we found out that he was actually baptized in our church 3 years ago. The bus arrived and we hopped on and I continued talking with him. Elder dos Anjos sat down next to this lady and she was not anyone dos Anjos or I knew.... She started talking with dos Anjos while I was talking to Irlan and later we came to find out that she was actually baptized in our church and was inactive too. It was kind of weird situation, but looks like we have 2 more people to visit!

Spiritual Experience: When dos Anjos and I got to participate with the little ones in the CTR class, I felt such a peace and sweet spirit radiating form those little kids. The teacher asked them if they would want to serve a missions like us and they all said yes with so much enthusiasm and I seriously wanted to cry. It was so awesome to see that they all had testimonies at such a young age! That made my whole week!

Scripture: Psalms 118: 24

That’s all for now! ‘till next week! Tchau!

Elder Buck