10/12/15

Alright first things first. Shout out to another incredible influence in my life. This man has taken me to baseball games for years, taken me on guys trips just the two of us, motivated me, comforted me, and supported me in everything I`ve done. I would not be who I am today without him. Thank you big ol' Poppy Robert Buma for being my dad. I am incredibly blessed to have two parents that love me so much. Thank you.

So this week was awesome as usual! I got to work with Elder Concha for a day;  he`s from Chile and speaks almost perfect English. He`s going home soon so it was really cool to teach with someone who`s got all that experience.

Gabriela got baptized and confirmed! YA! My comp baptized her and it was his first baptism so that was really cool to see him do that. He was excited. it was awesome and her dad who I had never seen smile before smiled and also came to church this week! That was awesome. It was kind of funny though. It`s been super hot the past couple weeks and then all of a sudden last week it got super cold and it was super cold for her baptism. She acted like how Emily does when she get into the pool--she got into the font, squealing and everything haha.

Alright so there`s this member in the branch named Edwin. Super nice guy and he got baptized a year ago. Anyways, he recently lost his job and I know that it`s usually a bad thing when someone loses their job but he just said oh well, now I`m going to go on a mission and accompany you guys every day until then! Well that made me suuuuper happy! Win Win! I`m wondering if I should pray that some other potential missionaries lose their jobs... haha.

So yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and Sister Lopez got up to bare her testimony. She`s super nice and it`s easy to get her to laugh but she`s not one to show much other emotion. (She`s from Cochabamba and they`re a little more closed than Cruzeños.) Anyways, she got up and talked about how the gospel has helped her through the toughest times in her life. She was sealed to a guy after they both got baptized ten years ago but about 3 years ago he had some problems, fell away, and left them. This sister has gone through a lot but I've never seen her complain or cry until yesterday when she bore her testimony and the tears just came. I have a lot of love for this sister and she`s an incredible example to me about perseverance.

Well I`m not done but it`s time to go so sorry! I hope everyone is great! Always smile and always look for opportunities to serve! you may just be an answer to a prayer!

Elder Buma

PS Go BYU!

10/5/15

Alright before I get into the email I have to talk about one of the greatest people in my life. In my life I have two saviors, Jesus Christ, and my angelic mother Carolyn Buma. I could not imagine how my life would be without that woman. She has supported me in everything, taught me, and loved me throughout my life. Thank you mommy, and thank you to all the mothers, aunts, grandmas, and everyone for being amazing. But most of all, thank you mommy.

So I don`t have a lot of time this week cause my computer`s being a little stubborn but it`s ok.

Wasn`t conference just awesome?! As a missionary it`s been such a blessing to be able to watch conference. I`m not gonna lie, I was known to sleep through conference before... I`m not perfect, DON’T JUDGE! But I`ve been able to enjoy it soooo much more now. Taking notes helps a toooooon. I`ve already gone over mine a few times and have remembered some awesome stuff. My comp and I got lucky and found a really nice laptop to borrow from a less active to use to watch conference in English! Unfortunately on Saturday the chapel’s computer didn`t work so we used the laptop to watch it in Spanish with everyone using a projector. My comp wasn`t too happy about watching it in Spanish the first day but it was still awesome! I also learned how to fix the chapel’s computer internet issues so on Sunday we were able to watch it in Spanish on the chapel’s computer and my comp and I watched it in English in another room! Yay!

We had a great noche de hermanamiento about putting on the armor of god! Remember to put on the armor of God! We are in a battle between good and evil! No knight would go to battle without a sword, shield and armor. We cannot fight for good if we do not have our spiritual armor on! Testimony, scripture study, prayer, service, living purely are great ways to put on the armor of God. Remember that!

Sorry I`m out of time! My area`s awesome, Bolivia continues to be my favorite place on earth. Gabriela`s getting baptized this Saturday! I love you all!

Elder Buma

9/28/15

Alright, a few shout outs this week. First one goes to my Aunt Diane. She´s turning 35 ;) this week. Congrats! Second one goes to my Aunt Teri who had back surgery. Hope you are feeling better. Lastly, to my Gramps who is having a knee replacement this week. Hope you are also getting better. Love you all so much and I’m praying for you!

Alright so this week was awesome as usual. It was a little hard at first cause I was still a little sick but not sick enough to stay in the house. I´m all good now so it´s ok!

So we were in district meeting this week right and my comp is the English tutor and he decided to do an activity playing Jeopardy to learn in a more fun way. The first week with Jeopardy was awesome but this week everyone showed up to district meeting upset and they didn´t really participate. That naturally made me a little upset so I grabbed the bag of candies that we bought to be the prizes and started chucking them at the elders and yelled BE HAPPY! That got a couple laughs so it ended up ok but it would have been more fun if they were happier from the start.

So we have this family that we´re teaching that´s from Cochabamba. They like everything we teach and they´ve even seen Meet the Mormons. The interesting thing that happened with them this week is that they said that all Mormons are rich...all Mormons are super rich and that we show it in our temples and stuff and they asked me if it was a requirement to be rich in our church.... uhhhh.... no. I almost laughed cause pretty much everyone I have taught has been really poor...

In fact we´re visiting this part member family that is incredibly poor. The sister has this little clothing store that doesn´t sell like much and she was really sad yesterday... the family is the familia Parabá and I love them soooo  much. Even though they don´t have much they always give us something to eat even though it´s just a piece of chicken and plain rice. They´re soooo nice. I love humble people. The sister was pretty sad yesterday cause her shop hasn´t been doing well but she was really thankful for us coming over and she still has faith that the Lord will sustain her. Now that´s faith!

We have this other recent convert that isn´t quite as spiritual, more like hormonal. He´s 18 and girl crazy. He said that he can´t come to church anymore cause he likes one of the young women but her friend likes him so it´s a love triangle or something and he wants to avoid that... oh, immature teenagers... not really sure how exactly to retain this convert. Anyone with a degree in Teen Drama 101?

I got a great letter from my mom this week that said, “People will probably forget what you say but they won´t forget how you made them feel.” Go make someone feel great this week!

Conference is this week! It´s the most wonderful time of the year! Enjoy!

Love you all!

Elder Buma

9/21/15

And another week is done... AH! TOO FAST!

Alright I heard BYU lost but they`re still the best. Just wanted to start with that...

Anyways, this week was awesome. It`s getting pretty hot again, which isn`t my favorite thing in the world but what can ya do. But do you want to know what the worst thing in the world is? Having a fever and have it be hot outside at the same time! On Saturday I had another infeccioncito so I had to stay in the house and just sweat my guts out. I can officially say that I`ve made a bed angel. That’s a snow angel but you do it in your bed with your sweat hahahahaha! I`m fine now though.

Even though I was sick one day we still workrf really hard this week. We have a few really cool investigators that we are planning on baptizing the 10th of October Gabriela Choque and Jose Luis Ortega. They`re both really cool. They`re not a couple--two different houses. Two of my old investigators in the other part of Warnes have also committed to the tenth of October so it seems like we`ll be having a great October tenth! HOPEFULLY! PRAY PLEASE!

Alright so last night was interesting. So we go into the familia Mejia`s house to teach them and we found out that they`re not praying so we started to talk about the importance of prayer when Guadalupe stands up and goesoutsid. Her aunt followed her and came back in and told us that Guadalupe was starting to give birth... I HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO! Do you know what I did do? I said alright well then we`re gonna go ahead and end with a prayer and then you guys can go to the hospital...talk about a rushed prayer hahahahah. But we ended with a prayer so it totally counts as a lesson! haha

So Elder Francis (from Utah) gave me a book of new exercises this week. Elder Francis is awesome--just imagine the typical high school quarterback that`s always happy and nice to everyone and full of energy and that`s him. He makes me think of high school every time I talk to him.

Anyways, he gave me these exercises last Monday and me and my comp have been doing them at night and they destroyed me! We would do them and just laugh at how weak we are haha I was so sore on Thursday! I walked around so weird that day haha.

Anyways that`s about it for today. Just one last thought. Don`t gossip. That`s a huge problem here with the members. Just be nice to everyone and don`t judge them. I know gossip`s super juicy and stuff but it`s not that great.

Anyways I love you all. Thank you for all the support you give me. Have an amazing week. It`s always better to smile than frown!

Elder Buma

9/14/15

Ni hao! Someone told me that that means “hello” in Chinese. So i`m pretty much trilingual now haha.

Anyways! Transfers were this week and I got transferred suuuuuuuper far away to the other side of....... Warnes... COME ON! There are only two companionships in Warnes and we live in the same house but I still had to move all of my stuff from my old room to the other room like five steps away... super weird. Also Elder Olmos is still inWarnes too so I see him every day still. It`s kind of weird. Cool though too. I really like Warnes and I love the branch and seeing the chapel a lot more filled now so I`m really glad that I got to stay. A lot of people make fun of my pitiful transfer though haha.

My companion is Elder Ryan from Yakima, Washington. He`s such a little goober! I love him so much hahahaha!He always does turtle impressions and just funny stuff. He`s just awesome. He`s also my first real gringo companion. My trainer`s also from the states but he knew Spanish perfect. Elder Ryan... not so much. He knows a lot but he just doesn`t know how to conjugate verbs. He`s really smart though and just a nice guy. A little timid but awesome!

So on Saturday I was studying right and then in the other room i hear Elder Olmos put in his EFY music, or at least he thought it was EFY music... it was CARRIE UNDERWOOD Jesus Take the Wheel! I laughed my head off! He told me, but it says Jesus, it has to be from the Church! He doesn`t know English, he just heard Jesus...it was funny, hard to tell him that we shouldn`t listen to that though haha.

On Sunday we had such a good attendance in sacrament! Like, wow! We had left really early in the morning to bring people to church and either they didn`t answer the door or they said they couldn`t go... so we went to church a little upset, but we did what we could so we trusted the Lord. When we got to church, there was practically no one there...and all of a sudden right at the stroke of nine o clock, a herd of cattle--EVERYONE came and we almost filled the chapel! It was soooooo cool to see that. Even the people that didn`t answer their door in the morning came! I`m lovin it!

The only scary thing was that I had to give a talk during sacrament, and all those eyes looking at me. For those of you who know me, when I get nervous I am known to do dumb things... so I said a prayer, got up there and guess what! I gave one of the best talks of my life! don`t want to sound prideful or anything, but I think my words were helpful to some. 

Anyways, it`s been a great week, loving life, working suuuuuper hard! Git er done! Talk to you guys later!

Elder Buma

9/7/15

well I guess I have quite a bit of time in the mission now cause i`ve officially gotten to the point where only my dear mommy writes me. SHOUT OUT to my momma for being the best! She also had a birthday this week. I will not say what age because i am not sure if she wants me to tell you people.

Anyways, this week was pretty great. This whole transfer has been pretty cool and it just flew by. Transfers are this week!

So last monday we couldn`t go to Santa cruz right? so we stayed in warnes and decided to go on a nature walk in the outskirts of warnes in a neighborhood called beljica by the river pirai. It was super fun! but when we got to the river it was all dried up! I felt like i was in the movie holes or something haha.

During the week me and my compañerito have been working hard and we have a tooooooon of investigators. But at the same time they all live super far from each other so it`s been kind of hard to find time for all of them and help them progress. so me and my comp talked during weekly planning how we can work a little more effectively to help them progress more and not waste time.

The branch is progressing so much! in our branch council the president was actually smiling and saying really good things about the branch! it was awesome! we all had a good time in the meeting, we laughed, and all left with specific assignments. It was awesome to see that.

So in english class this week i taught them how to pray in english. It was fun and we`re getting some more people to come. I`ve found that it`s much better to make the lesson into an activity or game or something so that they learn more and enjoy the class more. Also buying treats always helps. I feel like i`m totally prepared to be a primary teacher now haha.

So this week i had to go back to the clinic to get a rabies shot for when i got bit by that monkey and afterwards we had to go to the offices to get reembursed for some stuff. Anyways when we got there the president just looked at me and said. Seen any monkeys lately? haha i`m not sure, but i think he knows that i got bit... Haha actually because of my bite the health secretary talked in the leadership meeting about avoiding animals and all the zone leaders had to remind their missionaries to avoid animals. whoops haha!

Alrighty i think that`s gonna be it for this week. I can`t remember anything else. i keep forgetting to write stuff down haha oh well. Hope everything is good with you guys. Love you all! Keep strong and remember that when you stand with the lord you never stand alone!

Elder Buma

8/31/15

HEYO!

So me and the other missionaries from Warnes are writing you people from Warnes this week cause there`s a protest in Santa Cruz where we normally email. Oh well, hope the internet`s good.

Our electricity box thing broke this week so we had to use flashlights a couple nights to plan and couldn`t use fans in the night...it was like we were camping! Haha, but we got it fixed and it`s good now.

We`ve been having English classes the last couple weeks. They`re really fun! I like teaching English. When people don`t pay attention I throw chalk at them and say something in English that totally doesn`t make sense so they think I`m lecturing them. For example a young man from the branch wasn`t paying much attention so I threw the chalk at him and said peanut butter turtles! Hahahah! He thought I was mad! Of course I let them know I am just having fun with them. Haha. Anyways, I usually just teach from the grammar book thing that the Latino missionaries use to learn English with a couple gospel related things but at the end I always ask if they want to learn a specific phrase. Then I teach them that phrase or a funny phrase like “to infinity and beyond” or something.

In our activity on Thursday we had a lot more people come and it was super fun! We even had a girl come who we met about two weeks ago. We haven`t really been able to teach her yet though cause she`s a girl and we need a guy to accompany us to visit her. Anyways, in the activity she told us, “Guys! Guess what?! I got baptized last week! Isn`t that great?!” We were thinking uh....we didn`t baptize you. We asked where did you get baptized? In the assembly of God church. DANG IT! Hahaha, think we need to teach the restoration to her.

Sunday was super cool. We walked all over in the morning reminding investigators to come to church and pretty much everyone said that they couldn`t this week. That frustrated us so we went to church by ourselves and this random guy came up to us in the church, explained that he was from Santa Cruz, that he had friends here in Warnes, and then proceeded to introduce us to 7 investigators! Woo! they`re pretty much all for the other Warnes missionaries, but it was super cool to have that happen! Love seeing members share the gospel!

Alright I`m almost out of time but I want you all to know that I love you and that bear... beats... BattlestarGalactica.

Elder Buma