Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas! and a happy New año!

So christmas was quite different this year. I couldn`t really put my finger on it, it was just different for some reason. HAHA How was your christmasses! full of holiday cheer, turkey, presents and snow i hope!

Alright first off talking on skype is super weird. I spend all this time not talking to the fam and then i get the opportunity and i have no idea what to say. I even had a LIST! Of stuff i wanted to say but when i got on skype i guess i forgot how to read and I forgot to tell you people stuff! I Even had VISUALS because you could SEE ME and i FORGOT THEM! Come on elder buma! I had things like milk bags, pil fruit, achichayroo, salteña, all this stuff to show and i didn`t. I apologize, I dropped the ball on that one, next time will be better. Just know that overall the mission is great!

So interesting week like i said. It was awesome and weird.It was awesome cause I got to talk to my MOMMY! Love you! and i also love you other people i talked to too ;)

Anyways, then it was really cool for other reasons too. so here come the stories.

Story Number 1! We went to Veimar`s house and his dad`s nerve thing apparently stopped working so his face looked like it was melting! he couldn`t control his face and i was like GO TO THE HOSPITAL and he was like NO i went to an herbalist lady or some witch doctor I dont know and so he had this thing wrapped around his face with plants inside it which apparently cure that whatever he has which apparently commmon! I get hot at times that i feel like i`m melting but i don`t want to look like it! also it was kind of funny to see that thing on his face with plants in it. it just looked like a kid had stuffed grass in a rag and said that will help, it made me giggle. He`s fine though. His face is better if you`re wondering.

Story Number 2!

Catholics can be very frustrating! I feel your pain a little chel. Even if you teach them EVERYTHING, they understand you, they may even BELIEVE you and then if you ask them to come to church they`re like NOPE I`m catholic, gonna die catholic, tradition. GOSH! Don`t ya want the truth?! Anyways that is from a girl`s parents named Kenya. She`s a super strong member but her mom is FURIOUS that she is a member and only accepts us cause her daughter begged her to. So it`s not the most spiritual lessons. What did you do chel?

story number 3!

I am so grateful for my life! We have this investigator family Arrias and they`re awesome but really poor. They told us that before they were even more poor, they were literally living day to day. It got so bad that their kids started eating leaves from trees they were so hungry. When the hermana told us that story she just started bawling and I`m a big strong man but i ain`t gonna lie, i got choked up when i started talking to her about the love of christ and everything. It also reminded me of my family so i got a little more choked up (It also didn`t help that I had talked with my family one day before) so i just wanted to tell my family thanks for my amazing life and everything i have I love you so much.

I`m pretty much out of time but i just want to remind you all to always be examples of the believers. in every situation, every place, anytime, be an example! Love you all!

Elder buma

Feliz Christmas Day!

Feliz Christmas day!

How`s ya`ll doin?! It`s stinkin awesome here! it literally stinks and it`s literally awesome! hahahahaha man i`m funny.

Anyways it was a sweet and kinda sad week. It was sad cause I found out all these people are going home. One guy from my group and three others who have only been out 2 or 3 months. It`s not for worthiness issues, they just didn`t like Bolivia... That blew... I think they might get transfered to different missions though in the US so i hope they stay out.

On the upside we`re starting to get all christmasy up here in Bolivia! it`s not snowing or cold but still! We`ve been sharing he is the gift like crazy and that has been so fun sharing with people.

So Katerine`s getting baptized on the 17th of January! Also, her little brother wants to be baptized, and we have about four others who are progressing like the familia angulo, Simona Ortega, Rene Rocha, Erik zuñiga, and a few others that can pretty much already be baptized, we just have to get a date down. I`ll keep ya updated.

Yesterday we got to sing with all the missionaries in santa cruz in the big Plaza! It was awesome! There were lights, there was singing, there was also rain but that didn`t matter. At first it was a little rough singing wise and i learned that missionaries are blessed with the gift of tongues, not voices, but it got way better after a bit of practice. it was like a mini temple square! And SO many people came! it was super fun contacting all of them right after singing even though none of them live in my area a lot of people got really interested.

Alright so what is a Bolivian Christmas like you ask? good question. Well on christmas eve everyone stays up until midnight, then right at midnight they stinking light the city up with fireworks! Oh YA! they also eat a big dinner at midnight, open all their presents, then go to bed at like four in the morning. Then the next day they pretty much just sleep. So christmas eve is a way bigger deal.

ANNOUCEMENT so yesterday after singing the president offered to give us a ride home to our house and he told us something. There`s gonna be another mission in bolivia in six months! It`s gonna take part of our mission and it`s gonna be the la paz north mission! AH! it`s still six months away but it freaked me out!

What the junk I totally forgot! It`s raining non stop here now and bolivians are super cool and they managed to turn this city into a giant bowl so the water comes up to our shins everywhere we go... It`s awesome! we get home and it looks like we took a shower. One day my comp forgot his rain jacket and he totally fell in a huge puddle! After that he didn`t even give a crap he just trucked through all the giant lakes until we got home. It was pretty amazing. Rain is fun. 

Alright i think that`s it for this week. Can`t think of much else... Love you all! Talk to you soon! (That last sentence is just for people who are related to me) but i love the rest of you too!

Elder buma

12/15/14

Ok time for another glimpse of my life in Bolivia! Get ready folks!

Alright so you know how we had a butt load of investigators attend last week. Well like five of them said it was really boring so they don´t want to go back... CRAP! uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don´t know what to tell those people. Maybe i should go all evangelical on their behinds and yell IF YOU DON¨T COME TO CHURCH YOU¨L BURN IN HELLFIRE! What do you guys think. Will that help?

We still have four people committed to baptism though! Elmer, Erika, Caterine, y Rene. Funny story Elmer´s birth name is Elder. Weird right! He thought we just all had the same name as him when we first met him so I explained what elder meant and he understood. Anyways, they´re all progressing pretty well but their baptisms are set for after the transfer so if i get moved out of viru viru i won´t get those baptisms. sad i know. but just as long as they get baptized by someone it´s ok.

So we had an activity in valle sanchez this week right. So me and elder coello went with the zone leaders there in trufi. which is basically a van. Anyways I had no idea what i was doing to get into my seat. There was only one seat left inbetween the driver and the passenger and i came in from the back so i had to climb over this seat thing to get into my seat. And you people know I´m not the most graceful butterfly so you can imagine that i was struggling pretty bad to get into my seat and so long story short i basically presented my bottom to the entire van for like a minute while i was struggling to get into my seat. One guy started filming me so guess who´s gonna be famous on YouTube?! ME! hahahahhahaha whoops. At least i broke the ice with a lot of people and gave out a lot of he is the gift cards. I think that actually was planned by our father in heaven.

Anyways we got to the activity which was meant for investigators to get to know the church and they were expecting like fifty investigators to come... they got two there... it was only a little awkward when the number of missionaries outnumbers the number of investigators. poor elders in valle sanchez. they felt sooooo bad. And to make things worse the branch president there went to the one KFC that´s in this place in the center of the city which is an hour away and very expensive and got KFC for fifty people... Well I enjoyed it. hahahaha I got KFC! Man I missed american things.

The stake president even went to that activity and at the end he offered to take me and my comp back to our area which was nice. It was really weird though. He´s actually got quite a bit of moneyand his car is nice and leather and just like a normal car in America, air conditioning and everything! It was a very cool thirty minute drive.

Alright shout out to the greatest woman in the world. MY MOM! I got your package this week and holy cow was it awesome! Cheez itz, beef jerky, Reeces! MAN it was awesome. Elder Robinson, Elder Zaldivar, and I only cried a little. It was awesome. Also pixi stix are awesome and we did the pixi stix challenge where our zone leader elder robinson got on the ground and we just started dumping them in his mouth. We got to thirty when things finally went south and he started laughing and got the weird sludge pixi spit on the floor... THANKS MOM! Oh! also the awesome turkey craft you sent me I´m using those in a family home evening tonight. YOU ROCK!

I love you all, I´m out of time. Stay classy

Elder Buma

December 8, 2014

Hola personas!

sorry about last week, I know you were all crushed that you didn`t get an update on the amazing mission life of elder buma. Van a desculpar. Anyways, I`m writing this first so that i don`t forget this week.

So to catch you all up and the stuff that`s gone down. First off I learned some new words haha. So here`s the story. It was thanksgiving right and I, being the super nice missionary decided to buy some ice cream and oreos to make some milkshakes for the elders in my house so they could have an awesome thanksgiving. Well I went to the little market thing and there was only ice cream that`s called, ron con pasas. The picture on the thing looked like it was vanilla with chocolate chips or something so i was like PERFECT. Well Ron does not mean vanilla and pasas does not mean chocolate chip... Anyways, i`m getting ahead of myself. So i bring the icecream back, we put oreos in it, mix it up, and BOOM we got milkshake and started drinkin. It was a really weird taste though, just really weird and we kind of just thought that it was the bolivian ice cream wasn`t as high quality. Anyways, after downing our kind of disappointing milkshakes we went to our rooms and i heard ELDER BUMA! Elder robinson had looked at the empty ice cream thing and he informed me that i had not bought vanilla with chocolate chips, i had in fact bought RUM with raisins... I laughed. Haha so we all had rum raisin ice cream. hahaha. I told my president in my interview with him and he laughed too.

I had my first interview with the pres. It was awesome. Man whenever I talk to him I can just feel his spiritual power. He`s gonna be in the next avengers movie, i know it.

We also had a multi zone conference and guess who led that bad boy, ME! it was awesome, we felt the spirit and we talked about He is the Gift. MAN that iniciative is cool! Apparently you all have cards to pass out too so DO IT! the only problem with that initiative is that in spanish it`s el es la dadiva and no one knows what dadiva means so we have to explain that it means regalo. The people here generally aren`t super edumacated so that`s a little hard sometimes but it`s still an awesome iniciative.

So zone meetings are not my fave. Very long, just a little boring, and for the past three months instead of district meeting we`ve had zone meetings every week from 10 to 12:30 to basically retrain the entire mission. So they`re really long and not gonna lie, I`ve fallen asleep the past four times, mouth open, snoring, the whole shebang. So it goes without saying they always pick on me to do the practices at the end because i slept through the whole thing. They even had me teach the class one time so i wouln`t fall asleep. Haha ya that`s something i could probably improve on. hahahahahah

So the latino elders here are suposed to learn english right? well i dont know how but they always learn the words faggot and the n word very quickly and it`s all i can do to keep from laughing and tell them to stop saying that. I`m like Cam from modern family when he listens to kids swear. It`s fun.

We got Nine people to come to church this week and four of them have a date for the end of the month! Woo! man, it`s been a bit since my last baptism so i`m excited. We really work A LOT with less actives so sometimes we dont have a lot of time with investigators so i`m stoked. I`ll let you know how it goes.

Well i think that`s it. Hmmmm. what else, oH, i have a bug in my stomach that doesnt really hurt but i`ve gotten very bad gas to the point that my companion now sleeps with air freshener... poor guy... hahahahahahaha

Love you all. See ya soon fam.

Elder buma

Pictures!

11/10/14

Hola familia y amigos! Como estan. Todo bien. Claro que si todo esta bien aya! Ustedes estan en lo mejor pais del mundo!

AMERICA! man america`s awesome right? i was just thinking about that cause every bolivian here always talks to me about america. The weird thing is that they all think that japan and china are way more advanced than america... WHAT?! don`t you dare say that china or japan is better than america! They all think that america is fighting china right now and that china is just straight cities and there`s no country or anything... they all have interesting ideas about the world and sometimes i just have to keep my proud american mouth shut and nod and agree. it`s a little difficult sometimes haha.

Anyways, it`s been a little interesting week. It`s still got it`s really fun moments but everyone in the house is really stressed cause the work is kind of slow right now, companionship issues with some of the other elders, and stress. So in the house it`s been just a bit hard. Everyone keeps saying that they`re trunky which blows. cause when everyone just keeps talking about being trunky it makes you trunky, so that wasn`t very fun. But whatever missions aren`t perfect.

OH! i ate cow stomach this week! and guess what! I totally know why no one in america eats cow stomach... cause it`s nasty junk! hahahaha. and my pensionista knew that i`d hate it too! she handed it to me and just started laughing! that evil little lady. Still love her though. I`m totally gonna come home and make panza for you people. It`s great, i promise. You`ll only want to puke a little. 

So in our pensionista their kids always watch disney movies while we eat and not gonna lie, sometimes in the corner of my eye i see what`s they`re watching sometimes while i`m enjoying my cow stomach. They watched frozen this week. Man i miss that... dang. oh well. 

this week me and my companion got so much food! literally everyone made us churazco which is like a barbecue basically so we almost died from too much food. that was awesome! Go BEEF.

Anyways we`re a little frustrated with investigators not keeping commitments but we`re still pushing along. Veimar already has a calling as ward missionary so he`s been accompanying us like every day haha. he looooves it. he keeps laughing and saying that two days ago he was the investigator and now he`s the missionary ahaha man he`s literally just the best guy ever. you people just got to meet him.

i can`t really think of anything else right now... dang! a bunch of other junk happened this week too but i can`t think! Hmmmm... sorry, just imagine me preaching powerfully, dripping sweat, and all that good stuff. 

i love your stinking guts, peace out

Elder buma

Baptism and pictures!

Alrighty so time for yet another chapter in the book of the missionary life of elder buma.

So this week was cool. Numbers wise it wasn`t as good cause we had to do some random junk but it was cool all the same.

First off. We had an intercambio this week! I totally forgot how to say that in english... It`s when two companionships switch companions for the day... anyways so I had a different companion for the day and it was another gringo! Elder Wade. He`s also from my group and when we found out we`d be companions we were just like... CRAAAAP! he`s awesome  and actually one of my besties here but you know, we still aren`t the best at spanish... But me being super smart planned an awesome day. So in our area there`s actually some pretty nice areas and in those areas there are some people who know some english! Also, there`s this one investigator from south africa named simon and he actually speaks better english than he speaks spanish! hahaha! So that day we actually taught two lessons in english and only one in spanish. Man am I good or what?! hahaha. Oh and the spanish lesson was actually pretty sweet too. We must have gotten something across to him cause he actually came to church yesterday. GO GRINGOS!

That was just such a good day too cause we got to speak in english, joke around, talk about stuff that we have in common and hmmmm... what else. Oh ya! a morbidly obese, COMPLETELY nude guy (seriously, totally nude, yucky) was just walking up and down the street we were passing by and he kind of started to follow us so we pretty much ran away. I`m all up for preaching the gospel to strangers but i got to draw the line somewhere. My personal line is that they at least have to have boxers on. You may say im discriminating but hey, that`s just me

So the intercambio weas great. We also had a baptism this week! Veimar Moreno. He`s 18 and not only is he awesome but he wants to go on a mission and is already helping us out get new investigators and junk. Man he`s cool. It was funny though he told me that when i finish my mission i have to come back and we`re going to do a tour of bolivia. He was telling us all about cool places in bolivia and it was awesome, there`s only one problem. Every single place he talked about is out of my mission haha. So i asked him where in my mission we`ll tour when I come back like riberalta or cobija or trinidad and guess what he told me. He said. Those places are terrible. They`re worse than the devil`s armpit and I never want to go to any of those places... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA so apparently my mission is like the stinkhole of bolivia... HAHAHA man that made me laugh... and cry just a little ;)

So Veimar`s baptism was awesome and guess who baptized him? ME! And I got it right on my second try! haha the first time he didn`t get the way under... But the second time i made sure that fool went all the way under. HAHA after the second time he told me. Dude i thought you were trying to drown me or something... HAHAHAHAHA so i guess i`m not the most graceful baptizer haha. But he felt the spirit and he`s awesome so it`sall good. HAHA I also kind of forgot to tell him that his confirmation wo0uld be during sacrament meeting the next day  so when they called him up to be confirmed he had NO idea what was going on. After we confirmed him he asked me. Was that where I receive the gift of the holy ghost and everything? I didn`t know it would be during sacrament meeting... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA so i taught him all the doctrine and everything and he`s got a testimony but maybe I should make sure he knows when exactly all the ordinances are going down... It was my first baptism without my trainer and I`m training so cut me some slack! HAHA i`m a goober

So Bolivia`s cool and I realized that popped collars and ripped jeans are still really popular here. haha that made me giggle. Also their testimony meetings are awesome here. There is NEVER a silent moment. Everyone wants to bear their testimony and theyre all way good testimonies too. I love these members.

Crap! We were also a trio for one day. Elder camargo`s comp was in the hospital with another missionary so he came to work with us and he pretty much is awesome. He know`s how to teach and he also just took my clothes out of my hand at night and washed my clothes for me! I didn`t have to wash clothes for the first time in like a month! It was a great day. The title of that story is called, Enjoy Laundry Machines.

Alright, I`m out of time so until next week ya? alright it`s a date. ;)

Love you people

Elder Buma

10/27/14

Hello everybody! Just another week spreading the good news.

So anyways you guys know that I sweat a bunch right? Ya, well it´s been quite the sweaty week. It´s quite interesting haha. So we were in district meeting right and we´re in the chapel and no one is sweating... That is except for me. I was literally dripping into my eyes, clothes, everything. Everyone was asking me. Are you sick or something? Haha and then during lunch my pensionista commented while we were eating our soup that i was eating more sweat than soup cause i was sweating in it. HAHAHAHA the sad thing is that it´s true. Haha oh man enjoy feeling dry cause that is something that i took for granted.

So I was taking a shower this morning right. Anyways while I was singing T Swift at the top of my lungs all of a sudden I smell smoke. My first thought was. I know I´m smokin good lookin but I don´t smell like smoke. So I looked up and the shower head wires were on fire! I only screamed a little. I put the fire out then me and elder zaldivar spent like 20 minutes stripping wires and stuff to fix it. it looks like a piece of junk but we still have hot water! We´re pretty amazing.

I apologize that i haven´t sent a bowel movement story for a few weeks. It´s actually been pretty normal. That is until like two nights ago... I was sleeping, dreaming about my lovely life when all of a sudden in my dream i really had to go... ya know. And that made me wake up and I realized i didn´t dream that i needed to... you know. So in the middle of the night I had to BOOK it to the bathroom and it was quite the experience. I don´t think I´ve ever run faster. I didn´t get any in my pants though! The commotion woke up my companion too so when I got out we had a nice laugh and went back to bed. Everything´s good now though. 

Man Bolivia is just interesting. So we were walking to an appt. right? Then we turn a corner and there´s like four horses in the dirt road on their backs scratching their backs, kind of like what sophie does. So we had to do some ninja moves to get past them and we made it to the cita on time so no worries.

You know cock fighting? Like how it´s illegal and stuff. Well here it´s LEGALISSIMO! HAHAHA we went over to a members house and he was talking all about it forever. Man it was awesome. He also has a cock fighting chicken that he is very proud of and he let me hold it! That bad boy has had like 5 fights and it still hasn´t died!... apparently that´s really impressive. I wouldn´t know but it was awesome. That chicken could probably kill me too if it wanted.

We ran into a white guy from the US this week! He´s Bahai... Interesting religion but super nice guy. We talked in english and it was just amazing. he´s lived in south america for like forty years and just doesn´t want to leave. Wow. Bolivia´s awesome but I don´t think i´ll want to live here my entire life. Utah´s just a bit better haha. Anyways I have an intercambio with elder wade this week and he´s only been out one transfer so his spanish is pretty eh too so we´re totally gonna teach that guy. IN ENGLISH!

Speaking of english we also contacted this dude from south africa and he knows english too! And he´s gosh dang rich too. He´s got like four houses in santa cruz, two in south africa, and one in france or something. He´s such an interesting guy. He told us that he just owns a factory or something so he never does anything. He doesn´t drink, smoke, or even leave his house, he just sits in his house all day. He also told us that he just wants to learn everyhting from us. His only belief is God. A very firm belief in God, and he also reads the bible like crazy. So that´s gonna be interesting teaching him. Totally gonna teach him thursday too.

anyways, now to spiritual stuff. Beymar´s getting baptized! This saturday! Not only that but he was talking to us during a lesson and he told us. You know, lately during my prayers I´ve felt like I really want to serve a mission... My heart just soared. I´m doing my job! He is just the stinking best. He told us that from when we first started teaching him to now he´s changed a lot and he´s so much happier! That just reminded me why I´m here. To help people be happier. That was just awesome.

We´re working a lot more with members this week which is awesome cause they help with teaching soooooo much. My spanish is still a little eh and my comp still doesn´t know everything so lessons with members have just been golden.

Training is better but still interesting. My comp still thinks I know everything which is good when really I´m just learning with him. Don´t tell him that though. he´ll lose the respect he has for me. And I demand respect.

All in all everything´s good. Just sweating and trying to figure everything out. Suggestions are welcome haha. Sorry these are always so unorganized. I just write whatever´s in my head, which isn´t much, hahahaha. Loving life. Be good!

Love ya

Elder Buma

It's getting hot!

Hola Amigos! well that`s all the spanish i got so there ya go. Anyways this week was good. Fun stuff. Hard training but i`m learning a lot. Haha it`s kind of funny my comp always looks to me whenever there`s a problem or something that we have to do and on the inside i`m like, I have no stinking idea! Your guess is as good as mine, and on the outside i have to be like, It`s ok here`s what we`re gonna do, and i just wing it hahahahahaha! Oh man am I the greatest trainer or what! Oh goodness.

anyways during lessons is interesting cause my comp knows spanish but he doesn`t know what junk to say so i`m pretty much the only one who talks still. Sometimes I refuse to talk and i make my comp teach and so he gets something out and then looks at me and i take over again. He gets super ticked at me when i do that but he`ll never learn if i`m the only one who teaches right? Ya, Im right. Oh! And also we`ve had like four lessons this week where all the investigator does is quote random junk from the bible and random crazy questions and I just have no idea what to say. Even if i get an answer to one he just brings up another random question and he doesn`t even care about my response... That`s frustrating. Ni modo.

Anyways it`s fetchin hot. Like holy goodness. Every bit of clothing that I have gets completely soaked with sweat it`s ridonculous. Haha i start the day with grey pants right, but by the end of the day they look charcoal cause my sweat... Hahahahahaha! It`s kind of gross....ni modo. Apparently if bolivian newscasters and members are to be believed this week has set heat records for santa cruz. So ya... it`s hot... Enjoy air conditioning you piggies!

In general the food here`s actually decent. Except it`s all just rice and chicken and bread. It makes you fat pretty quick... You guys remember the really chucky stephen right? Well he`s back, chunckier and more loveable than ever! I just feel bad for my pants... Oh and there`s also this one food here called chunyo and members love to give it to us and it be nastay. it`s just gross and the members are always like. It`s so hard to make chunyo but you missionaries are worth it... Uh... It`s ok hermana, don`t worry about it. Thank you so much for thinking that we`re worthy to eat food that looks like swamp water chunks but don`t worry... that`s what I want to say but i don`t. 

Anyways that`s kind of this week in general. Stress from training. We have a baptism the first of november, and i`m getting really fat. Good update? I think so. ya. Love you all so! See ya later.

Elder Buma AKA chunky hunky monkey 

Training!

What a week! So full of emotions! I felt like a girl for a little while, not gonna lie. Why so full of emotions you ask? Great question. Let me tell you.

So the week started and it was really weird cause my comp was dying (Going home) in like two days so we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to people. HAHA it was so funny several times my comp said his last goodbye to investigators and it was sad and stuff and then i was just like. Hey so when can I come back to teach ya? HAHA I`m such a goober. It was weird and funny.

Anyways after that we got our transfers! And I don`t know How to say this so I`m just going to say it. I`M A PAPA! That means I`m training. When I found out that i`d be training I almost puked. Which was actually kind of a nice feeling cause i usually feel like I`m gonna diahrea but i`m getting off track. HAHA so my comp is from Honduras, he`s 23, and he knows like nothing about Preach my gospel and the scriptures and stuff. Just like me! haha so we`re learning them together. haha it is so weird thinking that he`s five years older than me. It`s weird thinking that I`m training haha...

Anyways being a trainer is stinking hard. I have to teach him literally everything from the schedule, to how to plan, to getting to know the area, just everything. I`m still learning that stuff too haha! We`re having lessons though and they`re spiritual so that`s awesome. 

Yesterday was elections so we couldn`t leave the house so we just chilled out, it was AWESOME. So much fun just talking with the other elders in the house. time passes way slower though when you`re not working so that was interesting.

Oh! There`s also this elder from argentina in our house and he is so orgulloso (this means proud)! He is pretty stinking rude to me and is super upset that I`m training. He basically called me a sinner and a bad missionary yesterday which felt pretty good haha. He is really upset that he has eight months and he`s only been the junior comp. So I told him that I didn`t choose to train, I`m just trying my best. He`s still pretty rude but we`re working it out. Oh Well. that`s really the only thing right now. He`s a great elder, just hard to get along with. I`ll work on that. Anyways so it was an eventful week. Thank you all so much for the updates! Keep them a comin. Love you all!

Elder buma

Another week down!

Hello People with safe food! How are ya? Good I hope.

Anyways, this week was pretty cool. It started off pretty bummy cause my tummy hurt but i went to the doc, he gave me a pill, it all worked out. Just have to be careful with the food for a while. Haha when I went to the doc the president was around there so he came by with his wife and his son.So we were talking and he asked how I was and I said that i was better. The unfortunate thing was that I tried to tell him that I can´t really go to the potty well. Anyways the word that a latino missionary taught me is apparently the s word so i told my president that i´m having issues shizzing. HHAHAHAHAHA he laughed his butt off. I´m lucky to have such a cool president.

Anyways, This week it rained. And when i say it rained I mean it dumped! The roads were flooded and there were a lot of places where we were walking where the water was up to our shins. It blew! It was pretty cool though. Haha when i came out here I didn´t think the water would really be that bad. I was dead wrong. Hahaha. So needless to say i´m buying boots this week haha.

So we taught a lot more this week and we had a baptism! His name´s ariel and he´s awesome! He was pretty much ready to be baptized forever we just had to teach him the lessons. It was awesome and this week we´ll give him the priesthood! Woot woot.

We also have this other investigator Beymar. He agreed to be baptized and he´s awesome and sooooo smart! We taught him the plan of salvation and it was ridiculous how well he understood it! I wish you could have been there. His comments would basically make my jaw drop at how well he understood. I can´t really think of any specific examples but he understood so well that we gave him the whole enchilada of the plan of salvation. Not just the basics in preach my gospel. It was probably my favorite lesson by far. He loves the teachings and he already has a testimony he just has to go to church! He went once but since then he keeps not being able to go which is frustrating but ni moda. He´ll get there eventually.

My spanish is at the point where I can basically explain all the prinicples and I can get my point across with everything. I just can´t understand everyone yet which is so frustrating! We´ll be in a lesson and i´ll ask if they have any questions and I won´t understand so my comp has to take over. It´s frustrating but it´s coming along.

Thanks for all the updates! Love you all so much! Bolivia´s awesome. I´m convinced it´s trying to kill me but i´m sure we´ll be best friends soon. 

Love ya guys!

Elder Buma

Elder Buma still has his sense of humor!:)

Hey People!

Interesting week. So we had a jam packed week planned with appointments and stuff right. Well pretty much all of them fell through! i was tiiiiiiicked. I felt like a bad missionary. And on top of that I was going to ask this one investigator if I could use his baño but he didn´t come to the door so i nearly went potty in my pants! That investigator´s name is Erik and he is now my least favorite investigator.

We also had like five investigators commit to come to church and when we went to go pick them up they weren´t there! They´re awesome investigators too. We wanted to challenge them to baptism but they weren´t flipping there! I think that´s the most frustrating thing about bolivia. The people say that they´ll do something but then they don´t follow through with it.

It´s ok though. We´ve got a bapism planned for this saturday for ariel. he´s the bishops nephew and we´ve been teaching him a ton and he really really really wants to get baptized. So we´re having some success right?

We got a cold front! Oh my goodness you have no idea how happy I was when I was shivering last tuesday. It was so weird. Literally the day before the cold front I thought I was melting away and the next day I had to put on a sweater. Bolivia´s crazy like that haha. Seriously though it was probably my favorite day walking around in a sweater and not sweating. Just fantastic.

I gave a talk in church this week. HAHAHAHA it was rough. But I got a few really good laughs out of the crowd so it´s ok. Still not sure if they were laughing at my joke or at my spanish... we´re going to say that they laughed at the joke.

So we got haircuts this week. My hairstylist was totally gay and it was weird. A gay guy tried to flirt with me in spanish... Now that doesn´t happen every day haha. Anyways a typical haircut here costs like 15 boliviano which is like 2 bucks. Well I guess we went to the wrong place cause ours cost 50 boliviano! So ya sorry mom just make sure you keep money on my personal card cause I´m going to run out of money if I keep getting swindled like that haha. Donka. I mean Gracias

All in all everything´s good. Just a little frustrated and my body´s still getting used to Bolivia. Stomach hurts but I think it´s getting better. Just as long as I don´t poop my pants I´ll be ok. haha

Thanks for all the updates! Keep them a comin! Love you all!

Elder Buma

Week 3!

hey everyone!

So this week was awesome. Bolivia´s awesome. Be jealous. 

Anyways, so you know how I really like rolls? well that´s like one of the only substantial food things you can buy from the little stores and it is faaaaantastic! I just walk around nibbling on a piece of bread with some melted cheese. goodness it´s great!... I´m gonna get fat... oh well!

So to get around here we use these things called micros and they are so cool! they are like buses but they just stop wherever the gosh dang place you want! haha you have to get on and off of them quick though cause they just keep going. it´s so much fun! I don´t know why i love them so much and my comp thinks I´m weird cause of it but I was born weird so ya know, whatevs.

We also buy most of our junk from places called ventas and they´re awesome too. Pretty much all they have is milk, bread, oreos, and powerade. It´s awesome!  And they´re so stinking cheap to buy cookies and stuff. It´s just awesome.

I´m feeling wayyyy better but I still am not having solid 2s hahhahaha. sorry, but it´s all good. 

We got some investigators to come to church yesterday! A mom and dad whose kids are already members and an eighteen year old named beymar. The couple´s basically already members. We are just waiting for them to get all their documents to get married. No one has their frickin documents in this country! Ugh! Everyone we talk to who wants to be baptized still has to get married and they don´t have their docs! COME ON!

Anyways, Beymar´s really cool and we´ve been meeting with him. He felt the spirit so strongly during the sacrament it was crazy! afterwards he was just like, man I felt something so strong during the santa cena. And I was just like THAT´s THE SPIRIT and he was like COOL! It was super cool. We challenged him to be baptized and he accepted so that´s cool I guess hahahaha. He just needs to be taught the rest of the lessons and go to church two more times and then he´s getting dunked! I mean baptized. sorry

Our ward´s awesome. Super cool members but there´s a few funny things. There´s this one member who was telling everyone during his testimony in sacrament meeting that he uses sesame seed oil to give blessings and he also gives blessings over the phone... They actually asked me during elder´s quorum, since I´m from utah and would obviously know, if it´s ok to use sesame seed oil so i explained why you need to use olive oil and I felt so smart. NBD 

My spanish still blows. GOSH DANG! it´s so frustrating! But i just make some jokes about myself and my awful spanish and then the people laugh and like me. So it´s ok but stinking frustrating!

So we´re focusing a lot on reactivation. We have like 50 converts in the ward and only like 14 attend. So we got some rescuing to do!

All in all it´s awesome! Fricking hot and tiring but awesome. Thanks for all the updates! keep them a comin!

love you all

Elder Buma

He made it to Bolivia!

Hey Guys!

Holy cow crazy two weeks! So we finished up in the MTC and now I´m in bolivia! It´s kind of ridiculously crazy. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE the people. So stinking nice.

So Anyways I got here tuesday night after thirty hours of traveling from slc to LA to miami to la paz to santa cruz. I was stinking tired but I got to talk to a lot of cool people and I gave a lot of people pass a long cards. So I´m kind of a big deal. Not even in the country yet and I already got some investigators. NBD haha.

So once I got here I met the other greenies in my group and we met our president who is a super cool guy by the way and we had our entrance interviews then we basically just did immigration stuff until thursday night.Thursday night we got our new companions and went out to our areas. I´m in viru viru 2 which is in the 6th to the ninth ring of santa cruz.

I´ve learned some stuff about myself since getting here. I´ve learned that I have allergies and that my stomach is a baby. Since like the second day getting here I´ve been battling something. I´m still doing work everyday but I´ve had a few close calls where I almost didn´t make it to a bathroom in time. Haha I´ve even a couple of times had to ask random people if I can use their potty. And let me tell you, I have gone into bathrooms that would make you vomit. hahahaha! It kind of blows dealing with it but as I´m writing this it´s pretty funny. Sorry if I grossed you out but that happened and it´s interesting.

I also learned that our house in Utah is stinking Paradise! We live in nothing like that here and it has been quite the humbling experience. I´ve also never sweated this much in my life! Holy Cow it´s hawt! hahaha it´s quite the experience

So the work here is pretty cool. Me and my companion are kind of opening up an area so neither of us know anyone in the area so we just started contacting and it was so cool. Literally everyone we talked to were so easy to get into the door. We´d just say that we´re missionaries and that we have a message and they´d invite us in. haha I´m not sure Ben´s getting much of that in Belgium. So it´s way fun to contact. My comp keeps refusing to talk when we go in somewhere so I´m forced to kind of take the lead in the lesson and it´s stinking hard cause my spanish still blows but it´s coming along.

So I´m super uncomfortable, sweating, and my stomach kills but it´s ok. I´m just praying not to have an accident. hahaha oh man this is quite the adventure. Remember to always pray and read your scrips! Thanks for all the updates! Love you guys!

Week 1!

Hey everyone!

Holy cow this place is crazy! Super hard too. Whoever said the MTC is super easy are dirty rotten liars! I'm in the advanced class so I've never ever ever heard a word of english from my teachers and I'm never allowed to speak in english in class. It's stinking hard. I understand most everything but when I try to teach in spanish it's pretty rough. I'm having a lot of fun though. My district is soooo funny. We always talk about stupid movies or something. One time we even laughed so loud that pretty much the entire cafeteria shut up and it was really awkward... haha. We probably speak in english too much but we really get to work when we need to.

This is my suggestion to any missionaries that are coming in. Every single day, every single second it's awkard and stinking hard. But every single night, after every single prayer I feel happy. I'm probably one of the worst spanish speakers in my district and it frustrates me so much that I don't already have it down and sometimes I've wanted to just go take a nap. But at the end of the day, when I say my prayers, I feel happy, even though I know that I'm going to tank in teaching the next day. It's one of the weirdest experiences ever. Every day I feel awkward and inadequate, but every night I feel peace and joy. So if you're coming into the MTC anytime soon know that it's gonna be rough, but worth it.

So our investigators names are elena and fulgencio and they're really just our MTC teachers but I still try my hardest every time we teach them. We also got a real investigator yesterday, Roberto, and man he is a piece of work! He is very firm that God hates all of us and he expects us to prove to him that we're right and that there is a reason that out of love God made homosexuals. He wants proof! He doesn't want faith. So he's hard but he got me pumped up and I gave one of the most kick butt testimonies in spanish ever and that shut him up for a few moments. I don't have the answers to all of his questions, but I can help him feel the spirit.

My companion is from guatemala, Elder Alvarez. He's super nice, has a super strong testimony, knows the scriptures, but he kind of treats me like I don't know anything and it's just been a little rough. He's actually going to the Salt Lake City south mission and so our house is in his mission!

Today has been cray! We got to go to the temple which was awesome but afterwards when we went to catch the bus back to our campus it never came! We waited for over two hours! My whole Pday went bye bye. So sorry if this letter has been dumb and hasn't made sense but I'm kind of rushing here.

Thank you so much for all the letters, care packages, and emails. My district also thanks you for the cookies and other snacks.

Oh! There is something about this MTC food. From the moment I've started eating it I've been farting, it's kind of  a problem. But I've been blessed, they don't smell during a class or lesson, but during lunch they smell like a dumpster.

I got to see Branden stuart and Brandon Chamberlain! It was awesome. We took a pic. Not on my cam because mine's broken but it's ok.

Oh! I also have my travel plans! I leave the 25th and my flight leaves at6:50 at night. I fly to LA then to Miami, then to La Paz, then to santa cruz. I'm stoked and scared! Woo Hoo!

Guys so far it's been really hard but it's really cool. I've been humbled and my testimony of the power of prayer and reading the scriptures has skyrocketed. Always remember to pray and read your scriptures. Ok I got to go. Love you guys! I'll try to get my thoughts together more. Talk to you soon!