Stephens Homecoming!

Stephen comes home this Friday!

 

His homecoming will be this Sunday, July 24, at 9 am. Chapel is on 2130 East 10000 South Sandy, UT 84092. Please come to our home after to greet Stephen and have some food.

Buma residence: 10042 S. Rockview Drive, Sandy UT 84092

7/18/16

Hello! This week´s been great!

Eliseo Arias and Herlan Tito were both baptized on Saturday! Herlán was baptized in the afternoon and Eliseo in the night. I particularly liked Eliseo’s baptism. His whole family are members but he waited like 25 years or something like that to be baptized. His grandchildren sang in his baptism and he cried. He then told us yesterday that it hurts him that he waited so long to be baptized. It was a great lesson. We´re going to see him again on Tuesday.

So the gringos already left but on Tuesday. We had a talent show and a lot of funny stuff happened. One funny thing was that a less active girl came with her boyfriend who turns out to be from California.. so we talked in English and had a lesson with him. He´s really cool... Has a super dirty mouth but besides that he´s really cool haha.

Another thing that happened in the talent show was that a Chinese family just showed up in the chapel and took pictures and videoed the entire thing. We tried contacting them but they don´t speak Spanish. They actually work with one of our investigators Ismael in petroleum…how cool! They´re not Christians and I doubt they´ll take the lessons but it was funny.

Yesterday in church the bishop called me to give my last testimony to the ward... I couldn´t believe that the moment had come. I already love this ward and the members. Couldn´t have asked for a better way to end the mission.

I still can´t believe that this is my last time that I´m going to write ¨Elder Buma¨ at the end of this letter... All I can say for now is that I´m so incredibly grateful that I decided to serve a mission and that I´m incredibly grateful for the Lord and all of you for supporting me. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us, I know that He will help us in our trials. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is that true church of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I still have much to learn but I know of these things. 

Well, back to work, Still got two more days in the field!

Love you!

Elder Buma

7/11/16

Ok I´m not sure if I said this last week but the gringos that are here dress really funny... I don´t like it.

Anyways we´ve had another great week here in Centenario! Eliseo Arias and Herlán Tito are going to be baptized this Saturday! Fernando was also going to be baptized but he didn´t come to church this week that lazy little punk! Oh well, he´ll still be baptized haha.

This week in church a young man from the Los Pinos ward (my old ward) showed up at church and gave me a big hug. It was awesome but I didn´t remember him... I almost died but then he told me where he lives and I realized that he lives in my old ward but not in my old area so I felt a little better.

In church yesterday I got to talk about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost in sacrament meeting. All the members laughed when i said that jesus was baptized by juan el bautista, no juan el taxista hehe. it was also funny seeing all the gringos faces... They didn´t understand much... haha!

I just wrote my old comp and he told me that the familia Teran is going to get baptized the day after I get home! Awesome.

The work continues to move forward!

Love you all,

Elder Buma

7/4/16

Another wonderful week in paradise my friends.

Last Monday I think was the last time I´m going to play soccer on the mission. My shoes have officially given up the ghost. I left it all out on the field though. Honestly, the best soccer I´ve played in the mission. I´m talking Messi and Ronaldo status, haha!

Anyways, this week´s been great! On Thursday in district meeting the new President came to introduce himself to the zone and stayed in my district meeting for the rest of the time. It was awesome to have him there and have his comments to help the investigators. He seems like an awesome man. He´s from Sucre, Bolivia, but lives in La Paz.

This week a group of gringos from HEFY came to do some service and they attended church with us this week and they will next week too... it is weird... cool, but weird. One of the young women is apparently from our stake too. Mom, do you know the Ogden family from the Highland Ward? Apparently their daughter´s here.

It´s really cool to have them here though. On Saturday they provided a musical number for the baptism of Vilma Sangari.

Yesterday we did splits! Before they weren´t really allowed in the mission but we thought that with the new president we might be able to so we called him and he said yes! It was awesome. We broke my record for lessons this week.

On Saturday we were on our way to the church to get everything ready for the baptism, but I saw a young man washing his clothes and I had the feeling to talk to him, so we stopped and we contacted him, had a five minute lesson, and committed him to come to church, and he came yesterday! His name is Romer Cristian.

During splits yesterday, Jose Claros and I went to this one brother who´s been an investigator for like 25 years (his name is Eliseo) and I asked him how he felt about everything and he said that he wants to get baptized the 16th of July... AWESOME! I asked him what changed and he said that while his wife was reading the chapter of the Book of Mormon that I had left them (he can´t read) he felt like he needed to be baptized. That was super cool.

The work continues to go forward. Everything is happy and awesome here. Love you!

Elder Buma

PS I´m supposed to give a lesson about the family in Spanish and in English in a family home evening tonight with the gringos and some investigators... we´ll see how that goes hahahah!

6/27/16

Hello!

So last sunday was my birthday so on monday i asked president for permission to go to the center with a couple elders that i got to bolivia with to celebrate and also to say bye. He said yes, and while we were eating President Zambrano showed up with the missionaries from the office and a couple others too. It was a par-tay mis amigos. It was a great way to say bye. We also had american hamburgers... heaven.

Anyways, I got transfered! I´m in a ward called centenario! it´s sooooooo different. It´s a ward in the center of santa cruz and pretty much everyone here is a returned missionary... It´s amazing! We destroyed my old record of lessons with member this week. I´m super pumped to work here. I love the members.

I´m in a trio with Elder Bastias (chile) and Elder Garcia (Cochabamba). It´s really weird. I havent been in an official trio before. They both have like eight months. It´s also weird cause i´m leaving before the end of the transfer so i was told that i have to train elder garcia to be district leader so that he can to it when i leave. weird but cool.

Centenario is in the center and when I heard that Papa Johns delivers to the house what was the first thing we did when we got home at night?... We planned for the next day. But the second thing we did was order PIZZA!

It´s super weird being in the center. when i was in the office my area was in the center but that was a long time ago and there were hardly any returned missionaries in the ward.

So i´m totally lost in this area but i´m getting to know it quick. We went to visit a sister this week that apparently just didn´t want to get baptized even though she has all the lessons and goes to church cause she didn´t feel ready. Her name is Vilma. our ward mission leader told us to ask her the baptisimal questions and then challenge her to baptism again. So we did it and she accepted... ¨well that was easy¨

man! I´m already out of time but you have all just got to know that this area is sweet!

love you all!

Elder Buma

6/20/16

Well... a lot of stuff has happened this week and I have no time... here we go.

On Thursday we had the last district meeting for the transfer and that was great. We had Elder Hansen and Elder Day give their last testimonies cause they end this week! Man I still remember me and Elder Hansen got here to Bolivia together and I remember just how much we didn´t know! Haha, he´s awesome! We also had Papa Johns...what an awesome district meeting!

Victoria Huanca, Carol Xespedez, and Lucy Chirimani were baptized this week! Yay! We also have the familia Teran´s baptism set for the 16th of July, and several others like Enrique Cardenas and Mari Luz.

Everything went super well on Saturday; everyone was baptized and everything good... there was one kid that puked on the bathroom floor but besides that, cien puntos!

My birthday was great. Had a cake for lunch and the sister made us Mexican food cause she loves us, then we kept working.

Transfers are this week so we´ll see if I stay here for my last transfer! Ahhhh! crazy! I love being a missionary, it´s awesome. The only part that I´m not liking right now is that a lot of my friends go home this week and we have to take them to the office tomorrow... man!

Got to go! Love you all!

Elder Buma

6/13/16

Hola!

I´m still a teenager! Until Sunday that is still true. It´s funny though cause when people find out how much time I have on the mission and then they find out that I´m still nineteen their minds are blown haha. They also tell me that I have the face of a 25 or thirty year old... eso no me gusta

I got the birthday package! Thank you! Feeling the love. I gave all my treats to the elders in the zone, they liked them a lot too. Thank you!

This week´s been awesome. In Sacrament meeting this week there just so happened to be an area seventy on the stand and he gave a great talk on keeping the Sabbath holy. The funny thing was that most of our investigators got there during his talk so we would quietly stand up and quietly and awkwardly help them find seats while he was talking and looking at us... hahahaha!

This week Carol Cespedez (she´s getting baptized on Saturday) Victoria Huanca (she´s also getting baptized on Saturday) la familia Teran (mom and four kids), Yesica Pacheko and her sister and brother in law Liliana and Erik, Maria Rene, The Siles Family (less active dad with his investigator wife and four kids), and Carmela Flores (wife of a less active member) all came! I think I´m forgetting about someone too... woops anyways it was great! It was ridiculous getting them all to go to the right classes, getting them fellowshipped and three of them interviewed for baptism and stuff like that... I had a headache afterwards but it was worth it!

Seriously miracles have happened. OH! Enrique Cardenas is the other that attended... We haven´t even visited him. He just came and said that he wanted to make changes in his life and get baptized...Ok we can help you with that...¨Well that was easy.¨

We haven´t even been doing anything really different, just working hard and cool stuff has happened. We have three baptisms this week (Lucy Chirimani, Carol Cespedez, and Victoria Huanca) Lucy´s the daughter of a less active, Carol also, and Victoria´s the mom of a recent convert.

We met the Teran family just walking in the street and they contacted us. They now have dates for my last Saturday in the mission! the 16th of July.

Yesika Pacheko we contacted her house this week and she came. Awesome.

It´s been really cool to see what the Lord´s doing here in Los Pinos.

Hopefully I´ll send you some pics of baptisms this week!

Elder Buma