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!