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

6/6/16

Hola mis queridos amigos!

Que semana buena y fría!

So I know as missionaries we´re not supposed to swim but with the rain we´re basically swimming in mud here... haha! i remember three weeks ago I bought a pair of boots and my companion told me ¨Why did you buy boots! they´re expensive!¨ and I told him ¨You´re gonna eat your words when i´m happy in boots and you´re slipping, sliding, and fallin in mud.¨ My prophecy was fulfilled this week. Long story short, my companion is buying boots today.

So yesterday it was raining and we were worried that no one was gonna come to church. We even passed by a few people and most of them told us that they weren´t going to be able to attend. So there we were, waiting for a mico bus in the street, wet, and investigatorless. So we got to church and saw the stake president squeegying the walkway cause there was a huge puddle so what did we do? took the squeegy away from the stake president and started squeegying like madmen! That was fun haha some members even started taking pictures of us doing it cause we were doing it really fast and the water splashes were huge haha.

so anyways back to the story, after squeegying we were still investigatorless, wet, and waiting. Sacrament started and BAM Carol moralez got there with her aunt and her grandpa. That made us happy. Then sacrament was passed and BAM the Terán family got there (the mom and three of her kids) we got a returned missionary to sit by them. then the first testimony was given and BAM Rafael Siles (less active that we met this week) and his wife and kids (investigators) came. we sat with them. How wonderful! and they were all there for several testimonies and also to hear the stake president talk. there was also a ton of fellowshiping done... I count that as a great blessing.

I think we found the catch with Maria Rene this week. her member friend Dana fell this week and broke her knee so she can´t really get around and without her we´re not sure how much Maria will want to attend. We´ll see this week. She´s still progressing really well though.

We ate at the familia coca´s yesterday. They just moved to the ward. the brother is a doctor and they´re great. when the sister served the food the first thing she said was ¨I have one rule... you have to eat until you cannot breathe¨... I am so happy that i was fasting... I turned into a human vaccum.

Just another week in paradise! love you all!

Elder Buma

5/30/16

what a wonderful week in Bolivia.

We´ve been in micros a ton this week going into the center. We went to the center on tuesday to turn in some papers, on wednesday we had interviews with the president and on thursday we had a multizone conference.

In my interview with the President we talked a lot about ending the mission cause we´re both getting to the end haha. It was the last interview that I will have with him... that´s weird. haha my very last interview will be with Presidente Cabezas. I just wanted to say that i am incredibly grateful for having such a wonderful mission President. There are mission presidents of many kinds. Some are very stern and direct, others are very kind and caring, and all are called of God. I believe that part of why I was called to Bolivia santa cruz north was to have him as my president. He´s awesome. And i still have three more weeks with him too!

Investigators continue to progress. Maria Rene continues to be a great investigator, her dad already gave us permission for baptism too... it´s all going so smoothly... what´s the catch! If things keep going well she´s going to be baptized on the 18th of june with victoria huanca, stephen cespedez, and Jose Eduardo. 

We also had an awesome experience this week. We were walking in the street when a moto comes up to us and lo and behold it was a less active member that my companion contacted in his last area that is now living in our area! his name is Eslin Torán and we had an awesome lesson with him and his family this week. He´s a member but no one else in his family is. They are super nice and even accepted baptism! woot woot!

So we found the leader of a Jehova Witness congregation this week... I LOVE FINDING THEM! they´re always so into talking about the bible and the gospel. They´re stinking duros but they always make me wake up haha. They just don´t want the book of mormon! i shared 2 nephi 32 7 hahaha! and we left

The Lord is blessing us and I know that He loves us. There are trials but He´s here with us. 

love you!

Elder Buma

5/23/16

Quit it with the trunky emails! i still got time people! haha. But i did just find out that one of my best buds on the mish ¨Elder Wade¨ who shared the same hotel room with me the night with me when we got here to bolivia already finished... say whaaaaat! he broke his shoulder apparently so he went home to get it fixed.

Anyways, this week was saweeet! super cold but saweeeeet!

So there´s a sister that has a van in our ward named hermana amanda. she´s awesome. so we had an idea to have her help us pick up investigators and less actives yesterday. good idea right? anyways, she liked the idea and agreeed to help us. little did we know that her van doesn´t have any seats in the back because she uses the van to distribute soda to stores... so there we were in the back of her van bouncing all around the place on the dirt roads picking people up hahaha! sadly because of the cold Jesus and mabel didn´t come and neither did maria rene... but they´re still awesome.

The familia moralez came though! they´ve been inactive for like 5 years and missionaries have visited them forever and the never attended!... That is until yesterday! hahahahhaa! ya! not the whole family attended but it´s a start! Juan moralez even came with his granddaughter that is nine and wants to be baptized! we´ve set her date for the 18 of june.

victoria huanca also attended. she´s awesome and a mom of a recent convert. her son is going to baptize her!

Julio cespedez is sober again and came to church yesterday with his nine year old son! guess what his son´s name is... Stephen!!!!!! how awesome is that! his date is also set for the 18 of june. Man i really want to baptize someone named stephen.

So elder pitarch and i had an idea a few weeks ago before the transfer to have a fireside at church to help the missionary work. We had it yesterday and it was awesome! we had fifty people from the ward come and it was really cool. we watched a sweet video about missionary work, i spoke, my companion spoke, and the bishop spoke, then all of the missionaries in the ward sang onward christian soldiers. it was cool. hopefully we´ll see more references now!

loving life, loving the mission. loving everything.

love ya

Elder buma

5/16/16

Buenos Días mis queridos amigos!

This week was just dandy. All weeks are dandy, all weeks have their problems, and all weeks are filled with the spirit.

ok, this week was Transfers!!! aaahhhhhh!!!! well don´t get too excited though cause i´m in the same place haha. AND i´m loving it! haha. My companion changed though. Elder Pitarch went to Viru Viru, my first area! Elder Villalta from Arenillas, Ecuador came to be my comp. Man! I already love this Elder! He actually knows Jared forester from our stake back home. Jared served in his city in Ecuador. Anyways he´s awesome. really good at teaching.

while we were helping missionaries go to their new areas i ran into elders that are serving in viru viru, warnes, and montero. It was awesome to ask them how the areas are doing and the people there still remember me! that made me feel good inside haha.

Anyways so on my last day with elder pitarch we were walking right? we turn around and see that a little cute puppy is following us. when the dog sees us look at him he starts to turn back to go to his house. now, quick note for parents, don´t have your children read this part of the email if they really like dogs. Anyways, the dog starts going back to his house and WAM! got nailed by a car... i was stunned. my comp told me afterwards that i screamed WHOAH when it got hit... woops. Anyways, the story doesn´t stop there. After we see the dog get hit we saw a young girl start to cry, pick up the dog, and take it to her house. Does this sound like a perfect time for misionaries? i say yes. so we went up to the house, the dad came out to talk to us, and we start talking about the plan of salvation haha. and long story short we´ve basically taught them every day since. their name is the family Monasterio... Always got to be looking for opportunities to teach! hahahahah!

the young girl we met last week came to church and we didn´t even go to pick her up!... Again, ¨that was easy¨hahaha! she´s progressing well. haha we have a family home evening with the raldes family and her tonight haha.

Jesus and Mabel and their kids came to church yesterday! not sure if you remember about them but they came to church! they came they came they came! yes!

woops, got to go, but this week was great. hope to hear from you guys next week!

love you!

Elder Buma

5/9/16

I´m gonna keep this one short cause i want time to be able to download some conference talks before getting off. I loooove listening to conference talks! especially the older ones. I´ve basically been searching for talks from Gordon B. Hinckley and thomas s monson.

I was reading the bible this week and i found a great scripture in acts 6:8-10. if you want to look that up... that`d be great haha.

This week when we were looking for a less active family we clapped at a house and a young woman came out and we asked her about the family and she said that she knew the family, she led us there, we met the family, turns out the family is one of the pioneers in the church, the young woman stayed for a small spiritual thought with my companion and me, and everyone came to church yesterday... well that was easy... ahahaa! don`t know what`s gonna happen with this family or the investigator but so far it´s going well. haha the family´s name is the familia Raldes.

Another investigator named Jakelin Gutierrez showed up to church this week on her own!... she got to church exactly when church ended but still! it was great!

Having fun, working hard. In the words of ronald mcdonald I´M LOVIN IT!

love you all,

Elder Buma

5/2/16

Shout Out!... Not sure if that is loud enough... 

SSSSSHHHHHHOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTT OOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That`s better. Shout out to one of my favorite people on this planet. Emily Buma! Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Today is my sista`s birthday! Em, I`ve always loved our adventures together, going down to Provo to visit, and hitting up Jdawgs or JCW`s. Em, you`re one of my best examples and it`s no surprise that you got the rookie of the year award at work! You da best. Merry Birthday ya filthy animal! hashtag home alone.

Well this week was a little crazy. It got ridiculously cold all of a sudden! Weird... also, two elders all of a sudden were told this week that they had to leave their house by today because the owner needs the space. We`ve been helping them look for a house and the house that we found wasn`t approved so we have to go help them move to our house right after we get off of internet.

Also, we`ve had an exchange with the elders from Los Pinos 2 pretty much all week. I was with Elder Calderon from Chile. He`s a little chubby, nice guy--a really precious soul seriously.

The other we left a house and the investigator`s dog followed us all the way to our next appointment and waited for us until we left! At first I thought it was kind of cool until when we were passing by a member`s house with a german shepherd... It was GO TIME! That german shepherd did not want that dog in his neighborhood. I had no idea what to do and I only remember thinking ¨If Sampson (the member`s german shepherd) kills this dog, it`s owner will never listen to us again! ¡) haha luckily the member got them apart and it was all ok haha.

Because of the cold, everyone`s gotten sick. There weren`t any investigators in church but we`re working hard and loving life!

Sorry! I`m out of time! I`ll talk to you later! Have a great week!

Elder Buma

4/25/16

Oh what a week what a week.

Well this week we couldn´t proselyte as much as we would have liked, but besides that it was great!

I got my teeth whitened on Monday by a member who does it really cheap for missionaries. haha my comp told me that I was doing it just so I can get married faster when I get home hahaha!

On Tuesday I got to go back to Charcas on an exchange! It´s been more than a year since I’ve been there and it was awesome! I went to a couple old investigators like Ana Soruco that I used to visit! Sadly, most of them had stopped investigating but we had really cool visits with them so we´ll see what happens!

On Wednesday Elder Calderon came to our mission. AAAAHHHHHH!!!! He´s an area seventy that was actually the president of our mission right before President Zambrano and let me tell you, they are polar opposites. I hope my trainer, Elder Beltran reads this cause he used to tell me all about Elder Calderon haha. Elder Calderon kinda yells a lot and gets in your face a bit whereas President Zambrano is pure love. I personally loved the conference, not sure about the disobedient elders haha, but if you were obedient there was nothing to fear from him. He talked a lot about how we need to baptize more and be a lot more direct in our teaching too so we´ve made the goal to be more direct in teaching.

The Murillo Alvarez family is progressing really well. They want to get married and everything, now we´re just waiting for the brother´s divorce to come through and they´ll be ready to get married and baptized.

Julio Cespedez (a recent convert that fell back into getting drunk) had a rough week this week. He got drunk and fell and nailed his head right by his eyebrow and now has a huuuge herida... don´t know how to say herida (wound)... anyways we´re working with him and loving him a lot. MAN addictions are hard to overcome!

Out of time! Love you!

Elder Buma

4/18/16

Alright, well my time is gone so here`s what I’ll let you people know.

We had stake conference this week which was awesome! Elder Moscoso from the area seventy came and his talks were awesome! Afterwards we visited a recent convert family that absolutely loooved the conference. Haha. it was so funny on Saturday night for the adult session the family thought that it was only priesthood holders and when the brother saw that there were sisters there as well he was a little confused but we explained. What was so funny was the next day he told his wife, ¨wow de verdad que perdiste algo increible!¨ wow you really missed out! Hahaha! And the way he said it made me laugh so hard. Anyways it`s always awesome to see people come to really know the gospel. It motivates me!

This week’s been really good! Working hard and meeting more people. The Murillo family is progressing well but they still have to get married....Ever is also progressing well and really interested in the plan of salvation. He also needs to get married, but they`re really liking it!

Whoops sorry! Out of time! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Elder Buma

4/11/16

Alright so there`s not much time left so I basically decided in between sending pics and writing... sending pics is easier so I chose pics hahahaha!

Really quick this week started out amazing--Ever accepted a baptisimal date for the 30^th. Murillo Alvarez had a family home evening with us in the house of the Maldonados and we ate pizza (Murillo Alvarez left before we took pics haha oh well).

There were a couple disappointing things too. Julio Cespedez, a convert who had fallen back into drinking, was progressing so well! When I met him he was super drunk but since that first visit he hadn`t had even a sip of alcohol... until yesterday... when he was getting ready for church his friends invited him to drink... and he drank...NOOOOO! It`s ok though. He`s still awesome and progressing. He`ll beat it!

Alright I love you all super much and stuff. Don`t want to sound girly or anything but it`s true!

Working super hard. Putting faith in the Lord.

Elder Buma

4/4/16

SHOOOOUUUUTT OOUUTT! On April third some very significant things happened in the church. My father Robert Buma was also born on that date. Both incredible events for my life and i´m sure grateful that i only have to remember one date haha!. I am so grateful for my poppy and for everything that he´s done for me. I love you pop with all my heart. I hope your day was amazing! and what better way to spend your birthday watching conference! haha.

That actually brings me into my next point. CONFERENCE WAS THIS WEEKEND and what a blessing it was! As always it was awesome and I can´t believe how fast it went! haha when i was little i thought it was an eternity! hahahha! I particularly loved the talk by bonnie oscarson. ¨we know the gospel, but do we believe it¨ I loooooved that. The church is MORE than just a nice little cristian club! that was great! everything was great, but i really liked her talk.

on saturday and sunday we went around inviting people to conference in ninety something degree weather in our suits and no one accompanied us conference, so we got to the chapel after a 50 minute micro ride super sweaty and alone...but others came! hha that always happens to me in the mission. the people we go personally to invite can´t come but others do!

one family that came is the murillo family. they´re a contact that my companion made before i came here. they lost contact with them a while ago but we went back last week and we clapped but no one came out so we turned to go but right when we were leaving they got to their house from work! right on time! the brother actually used to be a journalist and he´s just loving everything that we´re teaching so he actually did like an ïnterview¨ with us to do a little article in a small paper. we´ll see what happens. 

(internet just went out forever, this email´s gonna be a whole lot shorter now!)

another guy that came is ever loaiza that elder solano and i contacted a week ago on an exchange

During transfers elder Aguilar from el salvador was with my comp and i for two days and we contacted a house right? they let us come into their yard and we were talking and the lesson was going great but at the end elder agular asked them if he could take a picture of their plant. do you want to know why he wanted to take a picture of their plant? because it was a marijuana plant! they obviously told him no and were much less nice after that... man! i know it´s wrong to have a marijuana plant but you don´t need to take pictures of them. I´m pretty sure they think we´re from the FBI now... oh darn.

I love you all somuch and i hope you have a great week!

Elder Buma