4/18/16

Alright, well my time is gone so here`s what I’ll let you people know.

We had stake conference this week which was awesome! Elder Moscoso from the area seventy came and his talks were awesome! Afterwards we visited a recent convert family that absolutely loooved the conference. Haha. it was so funny on Saturday night for the adult session the family thought that it was only priesthood holders and when the brother saw that there were sisters there as well he was a little confused but we explained. What was so funny was the next day he told his wife, ¨wow de verdad que perdiste algo increible!¨ wow you really missed out! Hahaha! And the way he said it made me laugh so hard. Anyways it`s always awesome to see people come to really know the gospel. It motivates me!

This week’s been really good! Working hard and meeting more people. The Murillo family is progressing well but they still have to get married....Ever is also progressing well and really interested in the plan of salvation. He also needs to get married, but they`re really liking it!

Whoops sorry! Out of time! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Elder Buma

4/11/16

Alright so there`s not much time left so I basically decided in between sending pics and writing... sending pics is easier so I chose pics hahahaha!

Really quick this week started out amazing--Ever accepted a baptisimal date for the 30^th. Murillo Alvarez had a family home evening with us in the house of the Maldonados and we ate pizza (Murillo Alvarez left before we took pics haha oh well).

There were a couple disappointing things too. Julio Cespedez, a convert who had fallen back into drinking, was progressing so well! When I met him he was super drunk but since that first visit he hadn`t had even a sip of alcohol... until yesterday... when he was getting ready for church his friends invited him to drink... and he drank...NOOOOO! It`s ok though. He`s still awesome and progressing. He`ll beat it!

Alright I love you all super much and stuff. Don`t want to sound girly or anything but it`s true!

Working super hard. Putting faith in the Lord.

Elder Buma

4/4/16

SHOOOOUUUUTT OOUUTT! On April third some very significant things happened in the church. My father Robert Buma was also born on that date. Both incredible events for my life and i´m sure grateful that i only have to remember one date haha!. I am so grateful for my poppy and for everything that he´s done for me. I love you pop with all my heart. I hope your day was amazing! and what better way to spend your birthday watching conference! haha.

That actually brings me into my next point. CONFERENCE WAS THIS WEEKEND and what a blessing it was! As always it was awesome and I can´t believe how fast it went! haha when i was little i thought it was an eternity! hahahha! I particularly loved the talk by bonnie oscarson. ¨we know the gospel, but do we believe it¨ I loooooved that. The church is MORE than just a nice little cristian club! that was great! everything was great, but i really liked her talk.

on saturday and sunday we went around inviting people to conference in ninety something degree weather in our suits and no one accompanied us conference, so we got to the chapel after a 50 minute micro ride super sweaty and alone...but others came! hha that always happens to me in the mission. the people we go personally to invite can´t come but others do!

one family that came is the murillo family. they´re a contact that my companion made before i came here. they lost contact with them a while ago but we went back last week and we clapped but no one came out so we turned to go but right when we were leaving they got to their house from work! right on time! the brother actually used to be a journalist and he´s just loving everything that we´re teaching so he actually did like an ïnterview¨ with us to do a little article in a small paper. we´ll see what happens. 

(internet just went out forever, this email´s gonna be a whole lot shorter now!)

another guy that came is ever loaiza that elder solano and i contacted a week ago on an exchange

During transfers elder Aguilar from el salvador was with my comp and i for two days and we contacted a house right? they let us come into their yard and we were talking and the lesson was going great but at the end elder agular asked them if he could take a picture of their plant. do you want to know why he wanted to take a picture of their plant? because it was a marijuana plant! they obviously told him no and were much less nice after that... man! i know it´s wrong to have a marijuana plant but you don´t need to take pictures of them. I´m pretty sure they think we´re from the FBI now... oh darn.

I love you all somuch and i hope you have a great week!

Elder Buma

3/28/16

Ah man.... time to write the "big" email.

Alright! story number 1! So the mission`s new secretary "elder sorenson" Just came in and I met him on thursday

 in district meeting. He went to bingham and while i was making small talk i asked him if he played any sports. He played tennis... That was the moment it all clicked in my head and I remembered that we actually played against each other in tennis! that dude DESTROYED me! hahahhaa! good thing he didn`t ask me if I played any sports. I don`t think he remembers so this secret is just between me and you guys ok? good.

Anyways this week went very well. We`ve had more rain which means that my area becomes a complete mud fest... i got to buy boots...

Man this week I`m really drawn at a blank for what to write... wow...

Well we`ve been working super hard in the area but we`ve had a hard time getting people to church. We live a ways away from the church and i think this is one of my hardest areas concerning getting investigators to come to church.

Probably our most promising investigators are Jesus and Mabel. They really like everything that we teach but they have no money. Jesus can`t get work cause he was in jail a while ago and just cannot get work. They don`t have any money so they can`t pay for the micro to get to the chapel. we`re going to visit them today in the night with a brother that can hopefully get him a job. at least something temporary.

As always it`s hard for me to meet people that are going through problems and not know exactly how to help them... But as I`ve met with more and more people here that are going through problems it`s helped me realize just how blessed i am and even when i`m sick or whatever they still need more help than i do. I`m already out of time cause i don`t really know how to describe this but just for this week i`d like to make the challenge to everyone, especially if you`re going through a trial, to go help someone else and I sincerely feel that the Lord will help you as well in the process.

I certainly hope that this has made sense. I love you all and i hope to hear and talk to you next week!

Elder Buma

3/21/16

Hey!

I`m soooo sorry for last week. I forgot about the big email...whoops.

Anyways this week was good. I have very little time but we`ll see what i can get you guys caught up on. LET`S GO!

Alright first story. Our pensionista`s husband is a great guy but he comes off as a little grumpy or a little immature. this week we were going to visit a lady named Susana but we didn`t have a guy to accompany us, so we went to his house and asked him if he could come with us but he said he was sore from playing soccer and stuff so we begged and he agreed. While we were teaching Susana she said stuff like she`s never felt like she felt while we were teaching her with any of the other missionaries she`s ever accepted like Jehovah`s witnesses and stuff. She actually said it scared her. The Brother Maldonado (our pensionista`s husband) started talking to her and I`ve never really seen him act so serious or kind. We ended the appointment, committed her to read and pray, and left. MAN! That guy was walking on cloud nine after that appointment! It was awesome! He was so happy and we had a great little mini testimony meeting during dinner with them. It was super cool.

This week I got to work with Elder Hernandez (from Provo, I call him my MAIN MAN ELDER HERNANDEZ!) and Elder Huallpa (from Lima Peru, super cool elder). Elder Hernandez came to my area and he`s only been in the very center of Santa Cruz up to this point in his mission (he has four months) and he just kept talking about how weird it was to walk on dirt streets and have to walk a long ways to another house hahaha! It was great. It`s funny, his dad is Mexican but he never learned Spanish before the mish! Crazy!

With Elder Huallpa, I got to go to his area and it was cool working more in the center. Lots louder with cars and stuff. Sadly his comp went home this week cause he missed home but he`s a great guy (Elder Rengel) I hope him the best.

Sorry! I`m out of time! Love you!

Elder Buma

3/7/16

Este Gringo Està Perdido!

Man, I don`t like having to get to know new areas! I feel like a little monkey just following Elder Pitarch around all day haha! It`s ok though. I`m getting to know the area.

Ok, my first week back in Santa Cruz and what happens to me? I get pickpocketed! I was so mad I almost broke out in Mormon profanity like dang fetch, oh my heck…but I kept my cool. That dude snaked me like 150 bolivianos! That`s about 20 dollars! MAN! its ok though... I won`t cry.

Besides that this week has been really cool. We met two really cool couples, Jesus and Mabel and Alex and Epifania this week. Jesus and Mabel really need the gospel in their lives. They have a loooot of family issues but they listen really well and I truly believe that the Lord sent us to them.

Epifania was actually a street contact and when we met her husband, Alex, he didn`t seem to interested. He said that he was busy so we said cinco minutos no mas and he let us in and we set the timer for 5 minutes. We got in a quick prayer, basically said that the gospel has been restored and ended with a prayer. It was super fast, but the next day we got a call from someone and lo and behold it was Alex! He wanted us to come back that night so we went and we`re teaching them now. They`re super cool. We`ll see what happens there.

Todo bien aqui. Everything good here. I hope you guys are all starting to defrost from winter and are doing well!

Love you all!

Elder Buma

2/29/16

Hey everybody!

So this week`s been super busy with transfers and stuff so I haven`t been able to take any photos so sorry and I`m running low on time here so we`ll see how much I can write.

So like I said this week was transfers and sadly I got transferred... not expecting that one. I`m in a ward called Los Pinos in the stake Paraiso. It`s super weird. I haven`t been on a micro (bus) for over a year cause my last three areas were outside the city so there`s only motorcycle taxi.

Los Pinos is awesome! Also the first ward that I`ve worked in for a year. It`s the same as a branch, the only problem is that I keep calling the bishop president cause I think I`m in a branch still haha.

My new companion is Elder Pitarch. He`s from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Super cool guy, we share a lot in common. He`s got a year in the mission and it`s super cool to teach with him. he actually had kidney stones last transfer (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! poor guy!) so he was out of commission here for three weeks last transfer. This week we`ve basically been recontacting all their investigators that he and Elder Wilbee had last transfer. Sadly for the rain, no investigators came to church this week cause our area`s really far away from the chapel and micros (buses) weren`t working for the rain.

Everything`s awesome here! Hope you are all doing well and hope you have an amazing week!

Love you!

Elder Buma