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

Week 87 - March 7, 2016

No pictures today...apparently the cord to the camera isn't working...

Hey!

Morales and I are going hard in the paint here, but the work is still getting going....

Monday: Our appointments fell through and we were left to looking up houses of less active members.

Tuesday: We walked and walked and walked looking for houses of members and ex-investigators and it was a super rough day. hahaha

Wednesday: We had a 30-minute lunch appointment with the 1st counselor of the bishopric and after walked to an appointment we had marked with an investigator and that fell through. After we walked around trying to find less actives, we visited a less active member and his wife. We had a great lesson with them and they committed to go to church.

Thursday: We got to our lunch appointment at the Bishop’s house 40 minutes late because of the bus problems and all, but we had a great lunch. Afterward Bishop walked the 7 kilometers from his house to the chapel with us because his car broke. He was telling us how everything happened and how Satan is trying to get him off the right track, but Bishop said some really inspiring things, "Satan is trying to bother me and I’m not going to let him because I have responsibilities I need to take care of with God." The guy is super humble and just wants to help! I love this man!

Friday: Our lunch appointment fell through, and after we had planned to visit an investigator we have. We got to his house and he was home! We taught about prophets, authority, and Christ’s church. We had a great discussion! AH! Earlier that day we had our district meeting and mostly discussed the situations in the wards and with investigators. It went pretty well, because the two areas of our district are going through a lot of the same things.

Saturday: Our lunch appointment was fantastic! The member brought some friends over to eat with us and it was just really really good. They were already going to another church and didn’t have much interest in the LDS church, but it was good because this member caught the vision of what lunch appointments with missionaries could be! It was great!

Sunday: We had our fast and testimony meeting and it went really well! (Even with the spiritual experiences/visions of the members and what not...) We went home to drop off our jackets and stuff then walked to a neighborhood to teach some gospel. We had a couple of really good discussions and found ourselves a new investigator! It was a good day!

Hope I didn’t bore y’all to death...

Tchau!
Elder Buck

Week 86 - February 29, 2016

Hey...Just 100 more days to go y'all!

Since there weren't pictures today, here is a throwback to 

when Elder Buck received his call - to now.

     

So this week was FULL of trackting, and nothing really happened at all.... Wait...

Cool Experience: So Morales and I went to a lunch appointment this week and afterward the member offered to give us a ride to the area of which we would be working. We go to the very house that was in the area book (ex investigator) and we knocked on the door and the person didn’t live there anymore. So we asked the woman who responded if we could share the message that we were going to share with the ex investigator and she accepted! We went into her house and she has a giant family and everyone looked super interested in the church and everything! That area book really helped us out quite a bit!

The church is true everybody!

Tchau!

Elder Buck

Week 85 - February 22, 2016

 Me and Elder Morales

So this week was really really good, we basically just knocked on a ton of doors and walked until the dogs came home! hahaha

Monday: We looked for some houses around the city that the other elders had written down before me and Morales got there, and that list didn’t help very much! We are so lost in this city!

Tuesday: We had a lunch appointment on the other side of the planet and since the bus system here is super unorganized, we didn’t get home until like 3, and then we still had to travel 2 ½ hours for our interviews with president. We slept and the Zone Leaders house there, but Morales and me slept on the tile because there weren’t enough mattresses. It was a long night.

Wednesday: We had our interviews with president and he talked with us about a talk given by Elder Cook, and it went really well. During the interview with Elder Morales the President expressed some concerns he had about the area and the ward, but really helped us out with our questions and gave us some awesome direction. He’s really opened up a lot to the missionaries these past few months. He’s a great guy! After that we had to travel back to our area...we got home late.

Thursday: We went trackting hard core looking for some people to teach and seriously the people here are so much nicer than in my other areas it’s crazy! Its super nice to have people let you into their homes to sit down and talk!

Friday: Morales and I came up with our plan and decided we were just going to knock doors and find new people to teach (while in the process look for less actives in the same area). We talked to a lot of old people, but all were humble and nice, so it was all good!

Saturday: We sacrificed our whole day to knocking doors and it was good...

Domingo: We had a really strange lunch appointment with some members and then afterward we just knocked on more doors…

Interesting week eh?! Hahaha hope you all have a great week! Tchau!

Elder Buck

This arrived today with things EB didn't want to lug around anymore!

Week 84 - February 15, 2016

Elder Peterson and I, great kid!

Hey Y’all!

So this week was pretty nuts but Ill try to wrap up what happened...

So I was transferred to an area with my new companion (Elder Morales from Costa Rica) and the trip was pretty long! So I took a bus to Joinville from my last area (São Francisco) and slept in the apartment of the zone leaders Wednesday night. The next morning (Thursday) at 7:00 I had to get on a bus going to Blumenau where I’d meet up with Morales. We stayed there that whole day until 11:15 pm when Morales and I got on a bus going to our new area. We got to our new area at 6:30 in the morning where we took a taxi to get to the apartment here in Concórdia. It was exhausting, but we got inside and the house was a mess (surprise surprise) and it’s on the top floor of the tallest apartment building really close to the church. The apartment is really REALLY nice but poorly taken care of. It’s all good :) 

So Elder Morales and I are whitewashing, it’s fun! The chapel here could literally be a temple it’s so HUGE. 5 Floors... but only 30 people in attendance. It is way huge! The area is good and we are working (walking) hard to get to know the area a bit more hahaha. The temperature here is way cooler here than in São Francisco (thank goodness) so sleeping hasn’t been an issue for us!

As for the work, its really really slow but we are figuring out the city a bit here and look forward to the challenge ;) 

OH! The bishop here is one of the most humble guys I’ve probably ever met. The guy is way cool and excited to work! 

Tchau!

Elder Buck

View from the apartment

View from the front of the chapel