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