9/7/15

well I guess I have quite a bit of time in the mission now cause i`ve officially gotten to the point where only my dear mommy writes me. SHOUT OUT to my momma for being the best! She also had a birthday this week. I will not say what age because i am not sure if she wants me to tell you people.

Anyways, this week was pretty great. This whole transfer has been pretty cool and it just flew by. Transfers are this week!

So last monday we couldn`t go to Santa cruz right? so we stayed in warnes and decided to go on a nature walk in the outskirts of warnes in a neighborhood called beljica by the river pirai. It was super fun! but when we got to the river it was all dried up! I felt like i was in the movie holes or something haha.

During the week me and my compañerito have been working hard and we have a tooooooon of investigators. But at the same time they all live super far from each other so it`s been kind of hard to find time for all of them and help them progress. so me and my comp talked during weekly planning how we can work a little more effectively to help them progress more and not waste time.

The branch is progressing so much! in our branch council the president was actually smiling and saying really good things about the branch! it was awesome! we all had a good time in the meeting, we laughed, and all left with specific assignments. It was awesome to see that.

So in english class this week i taught them how to pray in english. It was fun and we`re getting some more people to come. I`ve found that it`s much better to make the lesson into an activity or game or something so that they learn more and enjoy the class more. Also buying treats always helps. I feel like i`m totally prepared to be a primary teacher now haha.

So this week i had to go back to the clinic to get a rabies shot for when i got bit by that monkey and afterwards we had to go to the offices to get reembursed for some stuff. Anyways when we got there the president just looked at me and said. Seen any monkeys lately? haha i`m not sure, but i think he knows that i got bit... Haha actually because of my bite the health secretary talked in the leadership meeting about avoiding animals and all the zone leaders had to remind their missionaries to avoid animals. whoops haha!

Alrighty i think that`s gonna be it for this week. I can`t remember anything else. i keep forgetting to write stuff down haha oh well. Hope everything is good with you guys. Love you all! Keep strong and remember that when you stand with the lord you never stand alone!

Elder Buma

8/31/15

HEYO!

So me and the other missionaries from Warnes are writing you people from Warnes this week cause there`s a protest in Santa Cruz where we normally email. Oh well, hope the internet`s good.

Our electricity box thing broke this week so we had to use flashlights a couple nights to plan and couldn`t use fans in the night...it was like we were camping! Haha, but we got it fixed and it`s good now.

We`ve been having English classes the last couple weeks. They`re really fun! I like teaching English. When people don`t pay attention I throw chalk at them and say something in English that totally doesn`t make sense so they think I`m lecturing them. For example a young man from the branch wasn`t paying much attention so I threw the chalk at him and said peanut butter turtles! Hahahah! He thought I was mad! Of course I let them know I am just having fun with them. Haha. Anyways, I usually just teach from the grammar book thing that the Latino missionaries use to learn English with a couple gospel related things but at the end I always ask if they want to learn a specific phrase. Then I teach them that phrase or a funny phrase like “to infinity and beyond” or something.

In our activity on Thursday we had a lot more people come and it was super fun! We even had a girl come who we met about two weeks ago. We haven`t really been able to teach her yet though cause she`s a girl and we need a guy to accompany us to visit her. Anyways, in the activity she told us, “Guys! Guess what?! I got baptized last week! Isn`t that great?!” We were thinking uh....we didn`t baptize you. We asked where did you get baptized? In the assembly of God church. DANG IT! Hahaha, think we need to teach the restoration to her.

Sunday was super cool. We walked all over in the morning reminding investigators to come to church and pretty much everyone said that they couldn`t this week. That frustrated us so we went to church by ourselves and this random guy came up to us in the church, explained that he was from Santa Cruz, that he had friends here in Warnes, and then proceeded to introduce us to 7 investigators! Woo! they`re pretty much all for the other Warnes missionaries, but it was super cool to have that happen! Love seeing members share the gospel!

Alright I`m almost out of time but I want you all to know that I love you and that bear... beats... BattlestarGalactica.

Elder Buma

8/24/15

Hey everyone! I hear classes are starting again! Exciting!

Another great week in paradise!

So this week was good. The activities didn´t have a ton of people go but it was the first week with them on tuesdays and thursdays but they were a lot of fun! we played games, shared spiritual messages and helped members make friends with others. We even had Ramon and Guadalupe come! They´re progressing really well and want to get baptized but still don´t want to get married yet. Well they want to get married but their parents don´t want them to get married too much...they´re awesome though and I really believe that they´ll get married here soon.

So I got bit by a monkey this week... HAHAHAHAHA! I got bit by a monkey! hhahahahahahaha! His name is Tincho and we´re totally homies now. So me and my comp decided to go to Barrio Las Barreras this week. We didn´t know anyone there but we heard that there are a couple less actives that live there so we decided to go. It´s a ways aways but super pretty. Anyways, we got there and just started walking and we saw this monkey chained to a tree in this guys yard. I like monkeys so we decided to contact the house. The guy who lives there was drinking a beer and was chewing coca but he was super nice. You could tell that he felt awkward at first like everyone else when we contact them. We broke the ice by talking about his monkey and he let us into his yard and took a couple of pictures. We kept talking and I was actually gaining confidence with the monkey and the monkey held my hand! It was so cute! I felt awesome! But then I took my attention away from the monkey and started talking to the guy about church and stuff and it was a really good conversation when all of a sudden the monkey jumped on my shoulder! He wasn´t upset or anything, he just wanted to sit on my shoulder, but it scared me a bit so I bent down really quick and the monkey almost fell so he bit my shoulder a little bit to keep from falling. I refuse to believe that he wanted to bite me. We´re best buddies! haha.

Anyways, so after the monkey bit me I took down the guys info, his phone number and stuff and then we shook his hand and left. Super chill. But after we left I told my comp. I think we should go to the hospital, haha. So we went to Montero to get the bite cleaned and then we had to go all the way to Santa Cruz to get a rabbies shot, haha. It´s not a big bite at all and I´m totally fine. It was just funny.

This week we found some Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists to talk with. I actuallly like finding people that are pretty strong Baptist or something. They listen more intently and always have really good questions. We´ll see what happens there.

Good things are happening. The Lord is pouring blessings upon us every day. Thanks for the love. Talk to you later.

Elder Buma