1/31/15

Hey! man! what a week! By far I`ve felt the spirit more during this week than probably all of the rest of my mission combined! Man it was hard though!

So the mission pres is back and he is soooooo cool. Every single meeting we have I can just feel the spirit!. He`s so amazing! We`ve talked about just all subjects and it`s just amazing!

So this week? Why did i feel the spirit so much you ask? I`m a missionary, a representative of the Lord that`s why! This week we didn`t have to many lessons cause i was helping a lot of missionaries with medical things and my comps had few medical appointments too and our area`s a little tough. But there was one day in particular, Monday in fact, when we were tracting with a member and we walked by a guy sitting outside and we walked by him but then we all decided we should go back. He ended up letting us in, we met his mom and we really hit it off. We found out he`s a thorasic surgeon (no idea how to spell that in english) and his mom is veeeery catholic. We ended up talking about eternal families and we really touched his mother. She told us at the very beginning that she didn`t want to change religions, didn`t want to listen to us and said that after we die we aren`t married anymore. I have never felt the spirit as strong as when we were testifying about families and the importance of the ordinance of being sealed. The spirit worked through us. They were touched. There was silence is the right times, it was just amazing.

i`m already out of time so i got to write fast. We just had a pday activity with the pres. we watched conozca los mormones and it was amazing! the pres watched it in normal clothes with us which was super weird. He is one fashionable guy. Man he`s awesome.

I love you all. talk to you later. Gosh dang it there`s never time!

Elder buma

1/24/15

Hello! 

Alright first thing shout out to Rachel for getting her mission call to the coolest COUNTRY ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET! Didn´t get the coolest mission, but close enough.(friend Rachel Batty was called to Santa Cruz Bolivia--Stephen is in Santa Cruz North. He had to go see the secretary of health in that mission this past week so he has been to their offices).

Alright so this week was fun. The President went to Beni and Pando with his family to talk to the missionaries there so they don´t have good cell connection so while they were away Hermana Zambrano (mission president's wife) gave me a sheet with sicknesses and what we do for each of them for when missionaries call when they´re sick cause she won´t be able to help them. Long story short, I've gotten a million phone calls in the past couple days and none of their symptoms are on my little paper! Now I know why in medical school they give you books cause it don´t all fit on just one piece of paper. It´s ok though, no one has died so i think I´m doing a pretty good job hahahaha. This is a fun job. I like it.

So investigators. That´s the one thing about this new assignment that I don´t like. I left all of my investigators in my old area and I heard yesterday that the family I was teaching The Angulo family, are getting baptized this saturday. Mom, Dad, and two kids. DANG IT! It´s ok though I was able to go to Katerine´s baptism last week which was cool. (Katerine´s a girl from my old area that i taught) so they´re all doing great back there!

Here it´s a little different story, we´re in a pretty wealthy place now where everyone just has intercoms so they don´t even come to the door. DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO CONTACT SPEAKING INTO AN INTERCOM! Not fun! But it´s ok. We´re getting more investigators.

Ana Soruco for example. She likes listening to everyone, understands the restoration and told us the other day that she believes we´re the most correct she´s ever heard. She believes it all but she has absolutely no support from the family. The rest of them do NOT like mormons so she still doesnt want to get baptized. Suggestions?

Luis Urquiza is the husband of a member and he also understands that only our church holds all the truths of the gospel but he doesn´t really care beyond that. He told us ya I think you´re right but I don´t want to leave the house alone and go to church. I believe and that´s enough. Suggestions?

Besides them we have a few menos activos that we´re teaching right now and we contacted a few people so we´ll see where that goes. This area is a looooot different that my last one but it´s really cool. Out of time! I had more stories but I really got to go. Love you!

Elder Buma

1/17/15

Hiiiiiiiiii

How is everyone! Everything good? Alright so apparently my momma didn´t get the letter from last week so i resent it, hopefully you get it and hopefully you get this one too.

So being in the offices is really cool. i´ve been dealing with a lot of different stuff though. this last week somehow a missionary got a bleed in his intestine and we got him all fine but that dummy told his mom in an email that he had a bleed without telling her that he was fine! she called, emailed, even smoke signaled us in the office until we called them and informed them everything. It was kind of cool. I got to translate for the president. I could just feel is power inside of me when I was translating. It was really cool. but that missionary is fine now and the momma is too. Side note, that mom totally reminded me of my mom. She was super loud, super freaked out, super animated, to be honest a little annoying, you guys know my mom, and i loved it. It made me miss my momma. Love you mommy!

So the mission pres has a special son who´s actually gonna finish the rest of his time here in bolivia as a service missionary here in the offices doing family history with elder zelaya. Elder zelaya is a PODEROSO elder who had to get eye surgery so he can´t proselyte for a while so for the next five months he´s gonna do family history with daniel zambrano. it´s so cool. We´re even gonna bring him in with the new missionaries in february, give him elder zelaya as a trainer, and he may even come live in our house with us. SUper Cool.

We were able to teach more this week. Ana Soruco and luis urquiza are our best investigators and we have a couple new ones too. The only really hard things is that everyone is stinkin in looooove with elder neuhaus the missionary here before me. They all miss him so much and i just want to yell at them and say I¨M COOL TOO! but it´s ok, they´re starting to fall in love with me too. No one can resist the incredible charm of elder buma. it´s impossible.

So the office can be a bit stressful so we take our steem out on each other when we get home with towel whipping! It is sosoooooo fun! We found a new way to fold the towels to make it slap waaaay harder! Man it hurts but man it´s fun. Elder mancheff, who´s like a flipping ape nails everyone so hard. It´s just awesome.

Another shout out to the glovers for the fake mustaches and grow animals. took a sweet photo and the hermana zambrano really likes the grow animals, super fun.

alright, out of time,

love you

Elder BUma

1/3/15

HELLO! I`m writing on a Saturday! Totally breaking rules like a bad boy! Haha don`t worry, I`m not breaking any rules, this is my new pday, haha. Transfers were this week and I`m the new secretary of salud, I mean salad, i mean health. That took me by surprise. I`m super stoked to be working in the offices but it`s also really sad too.

First, the really cool parts about being in the office. We received all of the newbies on Tuesday and it was sooooooo fun hahahah. I`ve only been out for a bit but they totally reminded me of how I felt when I got here. The first things they asked me were, how much time do you have, how long does it take to get Spanish, what do you do to become an office missionary, and is it always this hot? Hahahaha, it wasn`t even a hot day. Poor boys got to get accustomed but they`re a great group and there`s a lot of potential in this group. Mom, remember that waiter at the Garden that said his brother was coming to this mission? Well I received him this week, super cool guy, and he got the best trainer EVER Elder Loehner. He was the assistant until this transfer.

After receiving the newbies we went to the offices did all their junk, then went to dinner at MED. OH MY GOODNESS! That was sooooo good. I ate pork ribs for goodness sake! In this mission we can`t eat strawberries, lettuce, pork, or anything else like that and in one meal I ate all of that because it`s safe in MED! We also ate at Tanta and another really really nice place. I had NO idea these places even EXISTED in Bolivia, it`s really cool. It was really funny though the President looked at me while we were eating and said, you just barely told all these missionaries that they can`t eat any pork, lettuce, or strawberries and you`re eating all of them at once! Hahahahaha, I laughed.

Another good thing about this gig is our house. It`s kind of dirty but there`s hot water in the shower! and air conditioning in one room! and a laundry machine! That`s super nice.

I also get to work a lot with the President which is cool, he`s awesome.

Now the sad stuff about this job.

I haven`t taught a lesson since Monday. Since I got here all we did was capacitar... uh... capacitate, iniciate... whatever, we helped out the newbies, and did all the work for the transfers. I haven`t slept a lot either cause we have had to get up suuuuper early like everyday to get everyone to the airport and back and stuff so that`s a bummer. Also, there`s this one elder who has to stay with us in the office cause he got really sick in Riberalta so he`s in a trio with me and Elder Sullca for now and we tried to go working yesterday but that elder coudn`t so we just sat in the house...boring.

It`s also pretty stressful in this job. Everyone in the mission has some weird fungus or something and I set up appointments with them and the doctors and the doctors never want to work with our insurance so I have to convince them to use it and how to use it. It`s stinking hard cause the old health secretary taught me how to do everything in like fifteen minutes and then had to get on a plane for Cobija. So I`m kind of stressed. If you have a minute this week if you could pray for me to learn how to do this quick that`d be appreciated.

My entire mission so far has been pretty stressful, I trained after six weeks, then I was a trainer (my son is also now training by the way THAT'S MY BOY!) and now I`m in the office. Sometimes I feel like I still need to be trained how to just be a missionary. But the Lord knows what he`s doing. It`s stressful but I`ll learn.

Oh I`m also getting fatter now cause all we do is eat here. It`s really good food though so i ain`t complaining. There`s a saying here "six months to sexy." So I`ll worry about looking good in about a year.

Oh! My companion! his name is Elder Sullca and he`s from Bolivia but he speaks almost perfect English! He`s such a little nerd and I love him soooo much! It`s kind of weird though, when we`re in the house i`m not allowed to talk to him in Spanish so he can get ready for his English exam at the end of the mission so I`m speaking a lot more English now. I also taught him how to do the rubik`s cube and he learned in like three days WOW! he`s a genius, seriously. He`s also such a good example to me. His lung stinking EXPLODED during the mission and he`s still serving! What a tough guy!

So it`s very different right now but I really like it. I`ll let you all know how it`s going. Keep me updated ya? I love you all!

Elder Buma

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