Week 97 - May16, 2016

The mirror selfie

Pizza with the boys

This week was super busy with a lot of traveling and stake conference and stuff so I don’t really know what to report...We did have interviews with President and they were super good. Not to mention that it was the last interview I will have with him until I go home...In 23 days! hahaha sorry but yeah!

This week we visited a family that is really struggling to stay together and they really opened up to us and are willing to try to make some changes. We also have a little girl that we are teaching that looks like will be baptized here soon; she’s a daughter of some members here and is really making some progress! 

Morales and me have found serving in this area pretty difficult because of the lack of unity here, and unfortunately nothing seems to get better. I’ve really learned to be more patient with how things happen and how God has something to teach the people in this area that is outside of my control. Our job is to teach and exhort and sometimes that is all we can do. But in the words of president in our latest interviews, "We cannot get discouraged elders, just keep working."

And that’s all there is to it! The church will never stop being true! Love you all and keep your heads up even when it’s hard! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 96 - May 9, 2016

Winter in Brasil!

Outside the temple *cough cough...sorry I meant the chapel

FROZONE IS IN OUR MISSION!!! oh wait thats just Riberão Preto (Elder Ribeiro)

My grandpa!!!!

So this week was really good! We traveled quite a bit to our zone meetings and slept over at the zone leaders house again so that was basically awful. Hahaha The training that we received was good though; we talked about the role of the Spirit in conversion. We learned a lot!

We have some investigators we are teaching now that are showing a bit of interest, which is way cool. I don’t know if they are going to follow though with certain commitments, but it’s good to be teaching. We have a little girl that we are teaching who is the daughter of a member here and looks like shell be making the commitment soon to get baptized.

I forgot to tell everyone last week that we did a split in the other area in our district and it was freezing there. Literally. hahaha. I think its pretty rare for Brazil temperatures to go down to 32 degrees but it did and we about froze to death. I’m going die when I go home. And on top of everything, while we were there, I met my grandpa in the mission (or in other words, my trainers trainer)! He is a pretty cool guy, now I know where I get it! ;)

But everything is good with us here. I hope you all have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 95 - May 2, 2016

5 Weeks Y’all!

So this week was really uneventful, but the members are helping us out a bit more these days, which is really good. It’s a big difference today from when we got here. It’s a good feeling to know that we are making a little bit of a difference here, even though some days it doesn’t seem like it. Some days it is hard for us to not get discouraged because of some things that happen here with the people (and not excluding the members). Unfortunately, there isn’t much harmony and without harmony there is NO PROGRESS. So sometimes it is sad to see the church here being separated or broken up into groups.

I have learned a lot about people though, and how the real changes that need to happen in the church are in the hearts of the members. Sometimes I think, “why doesn’t God help us find new people to teach and why is it so hard some days”, but then I think about the ward and what could happen to a recent convert. I’ve decided that maybe our real work hasn’t been necessarily baptizing, but rather organizing, planning, helping, sustaining, and doing our part. Sometimes we just got to let God do his part and we do ours.

No matter what I wouldn’t give up these experiences for anything, because its all part of Gods plan for us to learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. The church will never stop being true! Stay strong my friends! Love you all!

Tchau!
Elder Buck

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