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