¡Hola!
Well last Monday i woke up with a sty. I just love those!! (sarcasm). Anyway, Martín, a member from Paraguay gave me some advice on how to get rid of it quickly. He told me that in the morning when I go pee all i have to do is wet my finger with the pee and rub it on the sty. I figured I had nothing to lose so I tried it. Three days after i first got the sty, it was gone! (that is rather quick for my sties.) I am not sure if it was the pee or the medicine i was using. But something worked. haha!
The conversion story of Edwin is quite wonderful. Elder Ellis and I decided to start teaching English class soon after I arrived in Granollers. A few days before the first class, a man (Edwin) stopped us on the street to ask us if we were starting English classes soon. We happily informed him that yes we were starting that very week. Edwin came to class a half an hour late but stayed for the spiritual thought afterwards. Elder Ellis noted that Edwin seemed really interested during the spiritual thought. During the week between classes, we saw Edwin almost everyday in differing, random parts of the city. We took this as a sign that we needed to start teaching him. Thus, we decided to talk to him after the next class about learning the gospel. However, Edwin did not come to class. So we called him to tell him that we missed him in class. And, we ended up setting up a visit for the next week before English class. We were a little disappointed that we would have to wait a week to start teaching him. However much to our surprise, he called us the next morning (Sunday) to ask about church. This particular week was Stake Conference, but fortunately there was extra space for him in a members´ car. We invited him to come with us that very day to Stake Conference. And he accepted! And it so happened that the members who took Edwin are also from Venezuela. Thus, they instantly become friends with him. Later that night we visited with Edwin in the house of another member. Edwin accepted to be baptized in that first visit. And from that day he began progressing rapidly, accepting everything we taught him with ease. Three weeks after Stake Conference, Edwin was baptized by that same member who drove him there. After that first class Edwin never did come back to English class. But, from half hour of English, he found something so much greater, the restored gospel!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Baptismal Interviews
¡Hola!
Training is way more fun that I thought. I am learning so much from my new companion. Élder González is amazing! You can feel the Spirit quite strongly with him. He already teaches really well and always has wonderful insight during companionship study. At times I honestly feel like he is training me, not vice versa. He will be a great missionary. This week I am going to focus on helping him make more contacts. The ward already loves him, and with more contacts in the street we will have a flood of new investigators from members and our own efforts....all thanks to Élder González!!! Also with the new 12 week in field training program, we have 2 hours of companionship study instead of one. it is AMAZING.
On Saturday I gave my first two baptismal interviews. Our district leader had two baptims yesterday. However the zone leaders could not come up to perform the interviews. Thus President authorized me to do them. It was a new experience for me. I enjoyed this opportunity a lot.
Prayer never seems to fail me. On Thursday we had a visit with one of the families we have been teaching. I absolutely love teaching this family. They are wonderful (and Bolivian)! However sadly, they are progressing quite slowly. During the visit they weakly committed to attending church. And afterwards, we felt that sadly we would have to stop visiting this family as often. Thus for fast Sunday, I fasted specifically for them. And Saturday night before bed, I pleaded with Heavenly Father to help them come to church. The prayer was answered. The dad and two of the children came to church!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Training is way more fun that I thought. I am learning so much from my new companion. Élder González is amazing! You can feel the Spirit quite strongly with him. He already teaches really well and always has wonderful insight during companionship study. At times I honestly feel like he is training me, not vice versa. He will be a great missionary. This week I am going to focus on helping him make more contacts. The ward already loves him, and with more contacts in the street we will have a flood of new investigators from members and our own efforts....all thanks to Élder González!!! Also with the new 12 week in field training program, we have 2 hours of companionship study instead of one. it is AMAZING.
On Saturday I gave my first two baptismal interviews. Our district leader had two baptims yesterday. However the zone leaders could not come up to perform the interviews. Thus President authorized me to do them. It was a new experience for me. I enjoyed this opportunity a lot.
Prayer never seems to fail me. On Thursday we had a visit with one of the families we have been teaching. I absolutely love teaching this family. They are wonderful (and Bolivian)! However sadly, they are progressing quite slowly. During the visit they weakly committed to attending church. And afterwards, we felt that sadly we would have to stop visiting this family as often. Thus for fast Sunday, I fasted specifically for them. And Saturday night before bed, I pleaded with Heavenly Father to help them come to church. The prayer was answered. The dad and two of the children came to church!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Halloween Baby
¡Hola!
I am so excited! One of the part member families we are working with (Greicy and Alberto) had a baby this week!!! The new baby was born yesterday evening on Halloween!!! How fun!!!! They are a great Bolivian family!
Well speaking of births.....there will be another birth in Granollers tomorrow....well in missionary jargon. Today is transfers. Sadly my dear friend and companion from north of the border, Elder Ellis, is leaving me after only one transfer. He is heading to Zaragoza to reopen an area with my other friend and former companion, Elder Plaskett! And I will be a "dad"!! Yep, I am going to train. I am super nervous and excited at the same time. I will pick up my "son" tomorrow in a new missionary conference. There is a pretty good chance that he will be a nativo. That would be even more exciting! I love Spaniards/south americans!
Whenever new elders enter the mission field there are always a ton of miracles. My new companion isn´t even here yet and the miracles are already starting. Last night a man stopped us on the street and asked us to help him. He took us to his piso and broke down crying. He girlfriend and daughter had just left him. He wants to change his life so that his family will come back, and he recognizes that God is the best way to do so. We have a visit set up with him for Wednesday. I have no doubt that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help this man change is bad habits and be a loving husband (after he gets married) and father.
Well we are going to go visit Greicy in the hospital so that Elder Ellis can say goodbye. Have a great week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
I am so excited! One of the part member families we are working with (Greicy and Alberto) had a baby this week!!! The new baby was born yesterday evening on Halloween!!! How fun!!!! They are a great Bolivian family!
Well speaking of births.....there will be another birth in Granollers tomorrow....well in missionary jargon. Today is transfers. Sadly my dear friend and companion from north of the border, Elder Ellis, is leaving me after only one transfer. He is heading to Zaragoza to reopen an area with my other friend and former companion, Elder Plaskett! And I will be a "dad"!! Yep, I am going to train. I am super nervous and excited at the same time. I will pick up my "son" tomorrow in a new missionary conference. There is a pretty good chance that he will be a nativo. That would be even more exciting! I love Spaniards/south americans!
Whenever new elders enter the mission field there are always a ton of miracles. My new companion isn´t even here yet and the miracles are already starting. Last night a man stopped us on the street and asked us to help him. He took us to his piso and broke down crying. He girlfriend and daughter had just left him. He wants to change his life so that his family will come back, and he recognizes that God is the best way to do so. We have a visit set up with him for Wednesday. I have no doubt that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can help this man change is bad habits and be a loving husband (after he gets married) and father.
Well we are going to go visit Greicy in the hospital so that Elder Ellis can say goodbye. Have a great week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, October 24, 2011
Stake Conference
¡Hola!
The Vic branch recently split off from the Granollers ward. Thus the Vic elderes used to live here and know some of the members here. A member invited the four of us to eat tacos with him (because of one the Vic elderes is from Mexico). Thus the Vic elderes came down here Sunday night and spent preparation day with us. The lunch ended up being cancelled. So Elder Saldaña, from Bolivia, cooked us my favorite Bolivian dish- pique macho. It was really fun (and delicious!). I love the Vic elderes. They are hilarious. Elder Saldaña is from Bolivia as I mentioned before, and Elder Prieto is from Mexico. However, both their families now live in Spain.
It seems that stake conference always brings miracles. At the last stake conference, a member (Margareth) introduced us to her friend, Yessi. Several weeks later Yessi was baptized. This stake conference brought us another miracle. We recently started English classes. Edwin enjoyed the spiritual thought afterwards; thus we set up a visit with him next Saturday before the next English class (a week away). However, Sunday morning (the following day) we received a call from Edwin, asking us about church. We told him that this week was a special conference in Barcelona and invited him to come with us in a member´s car. Fifteen minutes later we picked Edwin up. He enjoyed the conference so much that he agreed to a visit that same night. We had a lesson zero with him, and as Spain Barcelona missionaries do, we set a baptismal fecha with him in the first visit!
It is amazing how much I have changed in the mission. This weekend we had a small trial that really showed me how I have changed. We locked our keys in piso. My companion is in charge of carrying the keys. The old me would have gotten quite angry and frustrated. But I did not let it bother me....getting angry would not have helped get back into our piso any sooner. Also as senior companion when something goes wrong it is my responsibility. The members recognized this and kept giving me a hard time and reprimanding me. The old me would have made it quite clear that is was not my fault. The old me would have quickly passed the blame. But the new me just quietly took the criticism. Afterall i should have been more responsible by giving a spare key to a member family. I learned several things about myself in this experience. However, these two examples suffice.
Bueno, pues....i believe that is all for this week. ¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
The Vic branch recently split off from the Granollers ward. Thus the Vic elderes used to live here and know some of the members here. A member invited the four of us to eat tacos with him (because of one the Vic elderes is from Mexico). Thus the Vic elderes came down here Sunday night and spent preparation day with us. The lunch ended up being cancelled. So Elder Saldaña, from Bolivia, cooked us my favorite Bolivian dish- pique macho. It was really fun (and delicious!). I love the Vic elderes. They are hilarious. Elder Saldaña is from Bolivia as I mentioned before, and Elder Prieto is from Mexico. However, both their families now live in Spain.
It seems that stake conference always brings miracles. At the last stake conference, a member (Margareth) introduced us to her friend, Yessi. Several weeks later Yessi was baptized. This stake conference brought us another miracle. We recently started English classes. Edwin enjoyed the spiritual thought afterwards; thus we set up a visit with him next Saturday before the next English class (a week away). However, Sunday morning (the following day) we received a call from Edwin, asking us about church. We told him that this week was a special conference in Barcelona and invited him to come with us in a member´s car. Fifteen minutes later we picked Edwin up. He enjoyed the conference so much that he agreed to a visit that same night. We had a lesson zero with him, and as Spain Barcelona missionaries do, we set a baptismal fecha with him in the first visit!
It is amazing how much I have changed in the mission. This weekend we had a small trial that really showed me how I have changed. We locked our keys in piso. My companion is in charge of carrying the keys. The old me would have gotten quite angry and frustrated. But I did not let it bother me....getting angry would not have helped get back into our piso any sooner. Also as senior companion when something goes wrong it is my responsibility. The members recognized this and kept giving me a hard time and reprimanding me. The old me would have made it quite clear that is was not my fault. The old me would have quickly passed the blame. But the new me just quietly took the criticism. Afterall i should have been more responsible by giving a spare key to a member family. I learned several things about myself in this experience. However, these two examples suffice.
Bueno, pues....i believe that is all for this week. ¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Another Daughter of God Baptized
¡Hola!
The baptism of Lucíana went really well. It was quite beautiful. I am so excited for her. She is such a great little girl!
Many of our efforts with the members failed this week. For example, we only had 4 entries in our concurso de empanadas. A total of 6 or so members came. However one important thing happened. On Sunday the obispo pulled us aside and asked to talk to us in his office. He then proceded to give us counsel on what we could do. They were all ideas that we are already trying. As easy as it would have been to be defensive and point out that we were already doing all of that. We felt it was important to just listen and gratefully accept his counsel. Since that moment, the obispo as been a lot friendlier than normal with us. I feel like we are developing a good relationship with him.
We found a miracle family this week! We found the father in our area book. He seemed promising so we passsed by and set up a visit. In the visit he invited his family to join. All 5 of his children came in and sat intentively on the couch, excited to meet us. Even his wife, who according to the registro did not have much interest before, gladly listened to our message. The best part is that they already know many members and named off several people who we are going to call to help in future visits.
Who else just loves the October Liahona/Ensign?!?! It bears such a great testimony of the Book of Mormon!
That´s all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
The baptism of Lucíana went really well. It was quite beautiful. I am so excited for her. She is such a great little girl!
Many of our efforts with the members failed this week. For example, we only had 4 entries in our concurso de empanadas. A total of 6 or so members came. However one important thing happened. On Sunday the obispo pulled us aside and asked to talk to us in his office. He then proceded to give us counsel on what we could do. They were all ideas that we are already trying. As easy as it would have been to be defensive and point out that we were already doing all of that. We felt it was important to just listen and gratefully accept his counsel. Since that moment, the obispo as been a lot friendlier than normal with us. I feel like we are developing a good relationship with him.
We found a miracle family this week! We found the father in our area book. He seemed promising so we passsed by and set up a visit. In the visit he invited his family to join. All 5 of his children came in and sat intentively on the couch, excited to meet us. Even his wife, who according to the registro did not have much interest before, gladly listened to our message. The best part is that they already know many members and named off several people who we are going to call to help in future visits.
Who else just loves the October Liahona/Ensign?!?! It bears such a great testimony of the Book of Mormon!
That´s all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Priesthood Blessings
¡Hola!
We have quite the busy week planned for this week! This Friday is the baptism of Lucíana. Then Saturday morning we are starting english classes. Saturday evening we are hosting a concurso de empanadas (empanada cook-off) for the ward. Then on Sunday (thanks to me volunteering) Elder Ellis and I are giving talks in sacrament meeting. The ward has not been helping us much, nor been giving us references. Thus this week were are really trying to build a relationship with them and earn their trust. It will be an important week!
As a mission were are nearing our year goal of 450 baptisms. Everyone is really excited! We had a great Zone Enfoque (a zone wide district meeting). President stopped by at the end and had me share the story of Juan Carlos from Cornellá to motivate them about the power of prayer.
This week I had to give several blessings of health. Being shy ole me, I do not really enjoy giving blessings, nor making promises in these blessings. But, I guess my faith in the priesthood is growing because this week I felt a lot more confident about the words coming out of my mouth. I know that these blessings came from the Holy Ghost. In fact during one of the blessing I tried to ignore a promise that came to mind, but it kept coming back until I finally said it.
One of the blessings I gave was to Yaneya who has lupus. She was in the hospital all last week. Today they received the results of several tests and she is doing great. Next week she can even return to school!
We can only meet with Rolando, one of our fechas, in the mornings. We knew it was super important to get a member to the visits with us, however we could never find someone who could help us in the morning. So finally we turned to Heavenly Father in a prayer during weekly planning. We asked him to help us find a member who could help. After the prayer no names came to either of our minds. But, I felt prompted to read the ward directory. The first name that popped out to me was "Miguel." We gave this Miguel a call and he gladly agreed to help us!
That´s all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
We have quite the busy week planned for this week! This Friday is the baptism of Lucíana. Then Saturday morning we are starting english classes. Saturday evening we are hosting a concurso de empanadas (empanada cook-off) for the ward. Then on Sunday (thanks to me volunteering) Elder Ellis and I are giving talks in sacrament meeting. The ward has not been helping us much, nor been giving us references. Thus this week were are really trying to build a relationship with them and earn their trust. It will be an important week!
As a mission were are nearing our year goal of 450 baptisms. Everyone is really excited! We had a great Zone Enfoque (a zone wide district meeting). President stopped by at the end and had me share the story of Juan Carlos from Cornellá to motivate them about the power of prayer.
This week I had to give several blessings of health. Being shy ole me, I do not really enjoy giving blessings, nor making promises in these blessings. But, I guess my faith in the priesthood is growing because this week I felt a lot more confident about the words coming out of my mouth. I know that these blessings came from the Holy Ghost. In fact during one of the blessing I tried to ignore a promise that came to mind, but it kept coming back until I finally said it.
One of the blessings I gave was to Yaneya who has lupus. She was in the hospital all last week. Today they received the results of several tests and she is doing great. Next week she can even return to school!
We can only meet with Rolando, one of our fechas, in the mornings. We knew it was super important to get a member to the visits with us, however we could never find someone who could help us in the morning. So finally we turned to Heavenly Father in a prayer during weekly planning. We asked him to help us find a member who could help. After the prayer no names came to either of our minds. But, I felt prompted to read the ward directory. The first name that popped out to me was "Miguel." We gave this Miguel a call and he gladly agreed to help us!
That´s all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, October 3, 2011
¡La Conferencia General!
¡Hola!
How fortunate are we to have the opportunity to be counselled and guided by prophets and apostles of God! I just love General Conference. I feel like each conference is better and better. I received so many answers during conference. Isn´t it wonderful!? We are all children of our God. Each and every one of us is precious in his sight. As his children it is our right and privelege to receive direction from Him. By listening or reading the words of the Conference we can receive specific answers to specific questions. I know this true. I know it is true through experience. For God, time after time, answers my questions through His Holy Spirit and holy prophets. It is just so wonderful!!!!
This week we found Saul. Saul rents out a room in the piso of an antiguo investigator. On Sunday we passed by a list of antiguo investigators. We set up a visit with the son of this particular antiguo. However when we came back for the visit on Tuesday, the son nor the mother were home. But, Saul was home. He walked over the capilla with us and we had a lesson. We talked about baptism and the Spirit was super strong. We had another visit the next day. During the second visit Saul agreed to a baptismal fecha for the 22 Octubre! He is so great! He is from the Republica Dominicana. He has a true desire to learn the truth and is super humble.
This week will mark one year in Spain for me. I will be able to say that I have not stood on American soil in over a year. When I teach in English I speak like an African. Daily I develop new Spanish habits. And I LOVE South American food. However, I am still AMERICAN through and through. Elder Ellis received a package with Morman Tabernacle Choir cd´s. One of those cd´s has Patriotic songs like God Bless America. (Side note, Elder Ellis is half American. and quite patriotic for the US). I greatly enjoyed hearing songs about the United States!
As I write this letter I am listening to the final session of General Conference. I am also uploading all of my pictures onto my flashdrive. Thus, in the weeks to come it will be quite easy for me to send pictures home!
Well that is all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
How fortunate are we to have the opportunity to be counselled and guided by prophets and apostles of God! I just love General Conference. I feel like each conference is better and better. I received so many answers during conference. Isn´t it wonderful!? We are all children of our God. Each and every one of us is precious in his sight. As his children it is our right and privelege to receive direction from Him. By listening or reading the words of the Conference we can receive specific answers to specific questions. I know this true. I know it is true through experience. For God, time after time, answers my questions through His Holy Spirit and holy prophets. It is just so wonderful!!!!
This week we found Saul. Saul rents out a room in the piso of an antiguo investigator. On Sunday we passed by a list of antiguo investigators. We set up a visit with the son of this particular antiguo. However when we came back for the visit on Tuesday, the son nor the mother were home. But, Saul was home. He walked over the capilla with us and we had a lesson. We talked about baptism and the Spirit was super strong. We had another visit the next day. During the second visit Saul agreed to a baptismal fecha for the 22 Octubre! He is so great! He is from the Republica Dominicana. He has a true desire to learn the truth and is super humble.
This week will mark one year in Spain for me. I will be able to say that I have not stood on American soil in over a year. When I teach in English I speak like an African. Daily I develop new Spanish habits. And I LOVE South American food. However, I am still AMERICAN through and through. Elder Ellis received a package with Morman Tabernacle Choir cd´s. One of those cd´s has Patriotic songs like God Bless America. (Side note, Elder Ellis is half American. and quite patriotic for the US). I greatly enjoyed hearing songs about the United States!
As I write this letter I am listening to the final session of General Conference. I am also uploading all of my pictures onto my flashdrive. Thus, in the weeks to come it will be quite easy for me to send pictures home!
Well that is all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, September 26, 2011
Bolivianos!
¡Hola!
Well Cornellá spoiled me!!!!! Wow it is different here. We have to work super hard. Well actually the truth is that Granollers is a great area. It is a lot like Tarragona. So it is fairly successful. The only problem is that Cornellá was SUPER successful and so now I am not satisfied with anything less. It is ok though. Because now I have a lot of motivation to work hard here to have the same success as Cornellá.
In fact, somehow, sometime, I really don´t know how or when, I won the confidence of President (more accurately, God, seeing as transfers are done through inspiration/revelation) as an area builder/saver. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to talk to Elder Allphin (my ayudante friend). The first thing he said to me was, "I could not believe you got moved AGAIN! But I was there and it was complete revelation. You are really needed in Granollers...." And then he began to list a bunch of things that President is expecting me to do here. One of the things is to really help my companion, Elder Ellis grow into a missionary. Then on Thursday I received a call from the zone leaders telling me the exact same things.
We´ve already gotten to work. Friday was a day of miracles for us. Thursday our zone leaders called us and gave us the advice to talk about baptism with every investigator. We decided to listen to our zone leaders and put their counsel to test. By listening to our leaders, we saw miracles on Friday as we set 4 new fechas bautismales!
I really do love it already in Granollers. Why? Because there are a ton of Bolivians! From the start of my mission, since Sergio´s baptism, I have just loved Bolivians. Their food is amazing and they are super nice. Some of my best friends here in Spain are Bolivians. I have already met so many great Bolivian families in Granollers! I am so excited.
Another exciting thing....Elder Greep is in my district here. He stayed in Tarragona for two more transfers and is now is Mataro. It is really exciting because we are super close. And now I can hear about everyone in Tarragona.
All the facebook birthday wishes were finally forwarded to me. Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday. (Y a mis amigos en españa, ¡Muchas gracías!)
I suppose that is all for today.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well Cornellá spoiled me!!!!! Wow it is different here. We have to work super hard. Well actually the truth is that Granollers is a great area. It is a lot like Tarragona. So it is fairly successful. The only problem is that Cornellá was SUPER successful and so now I am not satisfied with anything less. It is ok though. Because now I have a lot of motivation to work hard here to have the same success as Cornellá.
In fact, somehow, sometime, I really don´t know how or when, I won the confidence of President (more accurately, God, seeing as transfers are done through inspiration/revelation) as an area builder/saver. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to talk to Elder Allphin (my ayudante friend). The first thing he said to me was, "I could not believe you got moved AGAIN! But I was there and it was complete revelation. You are really needed in Granollers...." And then he began to list a bunch of things that President is expecting me to do here. One of the things is to really help my companion, Elder Ellis grow into a missionary. Then on Thursday I received a call from the zone leaders telling me the exact same things.
We´ve already gotten to work. Friday was a day of miracles for us. Thursday our zone leaders called us and gave us the advice to talk about baptism with every investigator. We decided to listen to our zone leaders and put their counsel to test. By listening to our leaders, we saw miracles on Friday as we set 4 new fechas bautismales!
I really do love it already in Granollers. Why? Because there are a ton of Bolivians! From the start of my mission, since Sergio´s baptism, I have just loved Bolivians. Their food is amazing and they are super nice. Some of my best friends here in Spain are Bolivians. I have already met so many great Bolivian families in Granollers! I am so excited.
Another exciting thing....Elder Greep is in my district here. He stayed in Tarragona for two more transfers and is now is Mataro. It is really exciting because we are super close. And now I can hear about everyone in Tarragona.
All the facebook birthday wishes were finally forwarded to me. Thanks to everyone who wished me happy birthday. (Y a mis amigos en españa, ¡Muchas gracías!)
I suppose that is all for today.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
On The Road Again
¡Hola!
Well the Lord is really trying to teach me to accept change. Once again after only two transfers (3 months) I have been transferred. I am not going to lie, at first I was quite frustrated. This is the second time in a row that I have been transferred from an amazing ward so quickly. I was looking forward to stake conference where I could see everyone from Lleida and Tarragona. And we have 6 fechas bautismales here. Indeed I was quite frustrated. But then I got over myself. Now I have a lot of excitement to go to my new area. In fact I am actually starting to like change. I get to meet new people and work super hard in many great places. And change keeps things interesting. Being transferred a lot is quite humbling. This is a great lesson for me.
I am going to Granollers. It is about a half hour north of Barcelona. My new companion is Elder Ellis. He is now my second non-American companion.....yep he is from Canada! It will be fun. He is from Vancouver Island. This will be his third transfer in the mission. I look forward to working with him a lot.
Oh sadly, the miracle of me not being allergic to seafood has come to an end. Yesterday in a member´s house (super embarrassing) my allergies returned in full force. There was vomiting and hives. I had to return to piso, take a Benadryl, and rest for a bit. It completely ruined our plans to despedirme a todos.
This week I learned why we have such great missionaries here in the Spain Barcelona Mission. The missionaries have great parents! We invited the father of one the Hermanas who is returning home this week to help us in a visit with an African woman. This investigator has a fecha, but is having trouble with the Word of Wisdom. The father of the sister missionary bore an amazing testimony and everytime he spoke we could feel the Spirit super strongly. She could feel it too. He helped us out greatly. With the faith of our fathers we are performing miracles here in Spain!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well the Lord is really trying to teach me to accept change. Once again after only two transfers (3 months) I have been transferred. I am not going to lie, at first I was quite frustrated. This is the second time in a row that I have been transferred from an amazing ward so quickly. I was looking forward to stake conference where I could see everyone from Lleida and Tarragona. And we have 6 fechas bautismales here. Indeed I was quite frustrated. But then I got over myself. Now I have a lot of excitement to go to my new area. In fact I am actually starting to like change. I get to meet new people and work super hard in many great places. And change keeps things interesting. Being transferred a lot is quite humbling. This is a great lesson for me.
I am going to Granollers. It is about a half hour north of Barcelona. My new companion is Elder Ellis. He is now my second non-American companion.....yep he is from Canada! It will be fun. He is from Vancouver Island. This will be his third transfer in the mission. I look forward to working with him a lot.
Oh sadly, the miracle of me not being allergic to seafood has come to an end. Yesterday in a member´s house (super embarrassing) my allergies returned in full force. There was vomiting and hives. I had to return to piso, take a Benadryl, and rest for a bit. It completely ruined our plans to despedirme a todos.
This week I learned why we have such great missionaries here in the Spain Barcelona Mission. The missionaries have great parents! We invited the father of one the Hermanas who is returning home this week to help us in a visit with an African woman. This investigator has a fecha, but is having trouble with the Word of Wisdom. The father of the sister missionary bore an amazing testimony and everytime he spoke we could feel the Spirit super strongly. She could feel it too. He helped us out greatly. With the faith of our fathers we are performing miracles here in Spain!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Answer to Prayer
¡Hola!
Bueno pues, the website where we write our weekly reports to Presidente isn´t working, thus I actually have time to write today. The only problem is....I´m not used to having time to actually sit and think. Well this past semana...We have continued working super hard. We took some time of Preparation Day again today to visit Pedro and Rolando. Elder Parry came with me to do the baptismal interview. They are going to be baptized mañana. A Tuesday baptism is a little strange, but they are too busy with chess tournaments on Saturday. Pedro and Rolando are really great. Pedro went to a JAS (young single adults) dance on Friday and really enjoyed it. He fit in quite well. Then this Saturday Germán is getting baptised. We taught him all the lessons, but he lives in another ward in the area of the Hermanas. So he´s technically not "our" baptism. But we are still really excited for him. Stacey (a woman from Nigeria) and Rossy (the 11 year old daughter of a menos activa) might get baptized this weekend. But it´s more likely that they´ll be baptized in one or two semanas.
This is probably my last week with Elder Manotas. Can you believe it´s already time for transfers again!?!?!
Bueno a miracle story. Well as if I wansn´t already convinced that God answers my prayers, he gave me another reason to believe it this week. There is a recent convert here from Nigeria. His name is Kachi. He does not really understand much about the Church or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been trying my best to help him. But I´ve had little success. Thus I´ve been praying for help. Well this week, his friend Godwin moved here. Godwin is a super strong member who originally introduced Kachi to the church in Mallorca. Plus Africans understand other Africans better. So Godwin will help a ton. Godwin was supposed to move to Holland but he missed his flight. So he has to stay here. I know Godwin is the help I´ve been praying for. it´s no coincidence that Godwin missed his flight. God wants to all His children to grow in their testimonies and will do whatever it takes to help them understand His Gospel.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Bueno pues, the website where we write our weekly reports to Presidente isn´t working, thus I actually have time to write today. The only problem is....I´m not used to having time to actually sit and think. Well this past semana...We have continued working super hard. We took some time of Preparation Day again today to visit Pedro and Rolando. Elder Parry came with me to do the baptismal interview. They are going to be baptized mañana. A Tuesday baptism is a little strange, but they are too busy with chess tournaments on Saturday. Pedro and Rolando are really great. Pedro went to a JAS (young single adults) dance on Friday and really enjoyed it. He fit in quite well. Then this Saturday Germán is getting baptised. We taught him all the lessons, but he lives in another ward in the area of the Hermanas. So he´s technically not "our" baptism. But we are still really excited for him. Stacey (a woman from Nigeria) and Rossy (the 11 year old daughter of a menos activa) might get baptized this weekend. But it´s more likely that they´ll be baptized in one or two semanas.
This is probably my last week with Elder Manotas. Can you believe it´s already time for transfers again!?!?!
Bueno a miracle story. Well as if I wansn´t already convinced that God answers my prayers, he gave me another reason to believe it this week. There is a recent convert here from Nigeria. His name is Kachi. He does not really understand much about the Church or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have been trying my best to help him. But I´ve had little success. Thus I´ve been praying for help. Well this week, his friend Godwin moved here. Godwin is a super strong member who originally introduced Kachi to the church in Mallorca. Plus Africans understand other Africans better. So Godwin will help a ton. Godwin was supposed to move to Holland but he missed his flight. So he has to stay here. I know Godwin is the help I´ve been praying for. it´s no coincidence that Godwin missed his flight. God wants to all His children to grow in their testimonies and will do whatever it takes to help them understand His Gospel.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Two More Baptisms
Hola!
Well this month is already a little less interesting. Bishop H. David Burton (General Bishop of the Church) was supposed to come for a special mission conference. But he cancelled. However we are already off to a great start in Septiembre. Francisca and Paul were both baptized this weekend. Francisca is from Paraguay. She is the cousin of a member, Maura. And Paul is from Peru. He was about to baptized there, but then moved to Spain. Here he found the church and showed up one Sunday. Two weeks later he got baptized! We have 3 fechas set for 17 Septiembre. Also Pedro and Rolando, the professional chess playing Cubans, will be baptized during the week next week! We are super animated for this month!
I have learned so much from the Lord this past week. However I lack time. Thus I won´t explain. Just remember to always find yourself on the Lord´s side, even in the small things.
Miracle story: Two weeks ago a lady from Nigeria contacted us on the street. She told us that she was really busy but she wanted to show us where she lived. There was no man home so we set up another time to visit. When we returned she was not there. Well it turns out that she had taken us to her friend´s house. Her friend, Stacey, informed us that she (the original lady) is not fully healthy in the mind. We have not seen the original African lady again. However we started teaching Stacey, the friend. We gave her a tour of the capilla this week. And when we showed her the baptismal font, she told us that she would like us to baptize her. She told us the same again when she came to our baptism on Saturday. She speaks Spanish well and to her own excitement has already made several new friends in the ward!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well this month is already a little less interesting. Bishop H. David Burton (General Bishop of the Church) was supposed to come for a special mission conference. But he cancelled. However we are already off to a great start in Septiembre. Francisca and Paul were both baptized this weekend. Francisca is from Paraguay. She is the cousin of a member, Maura. And Paul is from Peru. He was about to baptized there, but then moved to Spain. Here he found the church and showed up one Sunday. Two weeks later he got baptized! We have 3 fechas set for 17 Septiembre. Also Pedro and Rolando, the professional chess playing Cubans, will be baptized during the week next week! We are super animated for this month!
I have learned so much from the Lord this past week. However I lack time. Thus I won´t explain. Just remember to always find yourself on the Lord´s side, even in the small things.
Miracle story: Two weeks ago a lady from Nigeria contacted us on the street. She told us that she was really busy but she wanted to show us where she lived. There was no man home so we set up another time to visit. When we returned she was not there. Well it turns out that she had taken us to her friend´s house. Her friend, Stacey, informed us that she (the original lady) is not fully healthy in the mind. We have not seen the original African lady again. However we started teaching Stacey, the friend. We gave her a tour of the capilla this week. And when we showed her the baptismal font, she told us that she would like us to baptize her. She told us the same again when she came to our baptism on Saturday. She speaks Spanish well and to her own excitement has already made several new friends in the ward!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Wonderful End to August
¡Hola!
Well this week was a wonderful week. Every week in the mission is wonderful, especially in the Spain Barcelona Mission. We beat our record of baptisms-missionwide-in-a-single-weekend. 20 children of God were baptized and confirmed this weekend! Last week I believe I shared a story about Juan Carlos. Well I have an update. He got baptized!!!!!!! It was a beautiful baptismal service. Juan Ricuardo, a young single adult who about to leave on a mission, baptized Juan Carlos. And Luis Alfredo, another youth who helped us with the visits, gave an AMAZING talk. We even had surprise guests, Los Hinckley. Last Thursday at a capacitacion, I told Hna Hinckley the miracle story. She loved it. It turns out that their son-in-law served as a branch president in Torino, where the girlfriend of Juan Carlos lives. Thus she said they would like to come. When the Hinckleys called to wish me happy birthday I reminded them about the baptism. Hna Hinckley said that they had another baptism to go to. But in the end they came to ours! I always love seeing the Hinckleys! The ward was super animated to have the Hinckleys come.
Yesterday Juan Carlos was confirmed by Elder Manotas. During priesthood class, I ordained Juan Carlos to the priesthood. It was my first time giving someone the priesthood. And of course blessing are always a challenge in Spanish because I´m not used to talking in "tu" form. And it was on the spot. I thought the Bishopric or someone would do it. But they asked me. I hope it went alright.
Everything here is still wonderful. September is going to be quite the exciting month. I won´t say anything yet. But it should be a good month, with a lot of learning and miracles!
And for the weekly miracle story.....
The Relief Society president has been asking our ward mission leader to have us visit a menos activa member who lives in a nearby pueblo. Finally this week he called us with her address and we set up a time with him to go visit her. When we passed by her house, she was not home. However, we met her 11 year old daughter who is not baptized. We set up another time to visit and returned later that week. We found out that the daughter was ready to be baptized once before, but one of the missionaries was transferred and she never got baptized. She still has strong desires to be baptized, so we set a new fecha with her! Our Relief Society president was quite excited when she found out we followed through on her "assignment."
Keep safe with all that crazy weather!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well this week was a wonderful week. Every week in the mission is wonderful, especially in the Spain Barcelona Mission. We beat our record of baptisms-missionwide-in-a-single-weekend. 20 children of God were baptized and confirmed this weekend! Last week I believe I shared a story about Juan Carlos. Well I have an update. He got baptized!!!!!!! It was a beautiful baptismal service. Juan Ricuardo, a young single adult who about to leave on a mission, baptized Juan Carlos. And Luis Alfredo, another youth who helped us with the visits, gave an AMAZING talk. We even had surprise guests, Los Hinckley. Last Thursday at a capacitacion, I told Hna Hinckley the miracle story. She loved it. It turns out that their son-in-law served as a branch president in Torino, where the girlfriend of Juan Carlos lives. Thus she said they would like to come. When the Hinckleys called to wish me happy birthday I reminded them about the baptism. Hna Hinckley said that they had another baptism to go to. But in the end they came to ours! I always love seeing the Hinckleys! The ward was super animated to have the Hinckleys come.
Yesterday Juan Carlos was confirmed by Elder Manotas. During priesthood class, I ordained Juan Carlos to the priesthood. It was my first time giving someone the priesthood. And of course blessing are always a challenge in Spanish because I´m not used to talking in "tu" form. And it was on the spot. I thought the Bishopric or someone would do it. But they asked me. I hope it went alright.
Everything here is still wonderful. September is going to be quite the exciting month. I won´t say anything yet. But it should be a good month, with a lot of learning and miracles!
And for the weekly miracle story.....
The Relief Society president has been asking our ward mission leader to have us visit a menos activa member who lives in a nearby pueblo. Finally this week he called us with her address and we set up a time with him to go visit her. When we passed by her house, she was not home. However, we met her 11 year old daughter who is not baptized. We set up another time to visit and returned later that week. We found out that the daughter was ready to be baptized once before, but one of the missionaries was transferred and she never got baptized. She still has strong desires to be baptized, so we set a new fecha with her! Our Relief Society president was quite excited when she found out we followed through on her "assignment."
Keep safe with all that crazy weather!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
A Year of Growth
¡Hola!
One year down.....you can believe it?! The truth is, this is super sad. I only have one year left in Spain. Only one year left devoting all my time as a full-time missionary. Today happens to be my real birthday. On a day were most jovenes in the US. celebrate their right to legally purchase alcohol, I am out serving the Lord. I believe I am having more fun!!!
Well I had a lot to say. But the computer froze and I had to restart. And now I dont have time. Everything here is wonderful. We have baptisms scheduled for every weekend for the next few weeks.
We saw MANY miracles this week. It is amazing how blessed we were by the Lord! However it is hard for me to remember off hand all the different miracles because one affected me profoundly. We left our last visit on Monday quite discouraged. At the beginning of the month we had several fechas set for the month of August. However some of them found work, others moved away, and others we lost contact with. On Monday our last fecha for August told us that she wanted to wait until September (we later found out she has problems with the Word of Wisdom). As senior companion I felt really bad. I kept thinking of all the things we could have done better with our investigators. I felt as if I had let my companion down and President down (because he had received revelation about every companionship baptizing this month). That night during my nightly prayer I asked God for a miracle. I told him I had the faith that he could lead us to one of his sons or daughters who was ready to be baptized. On Thursday we met Juan Carlos. He had been attending church for several weeks. We thought he was a member until his girlfriend approached us during church that Sunday before to set up a visit. His girlfriend, a member, is on vacation here, visiting him for several weeks. She brought him to church and has been teaching him everything. He even started reading the Book of Mormon. During the visit Thursday, we invited him to be baptized on 10 September. When we did so, he turned to his girlfriend. She interrupted, telling us, "Well the problem is that I leave on the 30th." And then he followed saying, "Yeah. And I would like her to be here." So problem-solved...we set the date for 27 August! I know that the Lord answered my prayer. I know it without a doubt. When we have the faith, the Lord guides us to his prepared sons and daughters.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
One year down.....you can believe it?! The truth is, this is super sad. I only have one year left in Spain. Only one year left devoting all my time as a full-time missionary. Today happens to be my real birthday. On a day were most jovenes in the US. celebrate their right to legally purchase alcohol, I am out serving the Lord. I believe I am having more fun!!!
Well I had a lot to say. But the computer froze and I had to restart. And now I dont have time. Everything here is wonderful. We have baptisms scheduled for every weekend for the next few weeks.
We saw MANY miracles this week. It is amazing how blessed we were by the Lord! However it is hard for me to remember off hand all the different miracles because one affected me profoundly. We left our last visit on Monday quite discouraged. At the beginning of the month we had several fechas set for the month of August. However some of them found work, others moved away, and others we lost contact with. On Monday our last fecha for August told us that she wanted to wait until September (we later found out she has problems with the Word of Wisdom). As senior companion I felt really bad. I kept thinking of all the things we could have done better with our investigators. I felt as if I had let my companion down and President down (because he had received revelation about every companionship baptizing this month). That night during my nightly prayer I asked God for a miracle. I told him I had the faith that he could lead us to one of his sons or daughters who was ready to be baptized. On Thursday we met Juan Carlos. He had been attending church for several weeks. We thought he was a member until his girlfriend approached us during church that Sunday before to set up a visit. His girlfriend, a member, is on vacation here, visiting him for several weeks. She brought him to church and has been teaching him everything. He even started reading the Book of Mormon. During the visit Thursday, we invited him to be baptized on 10 September. When we did so, he turned to his girlfriend. She interrupted, telling us, "Well the problem is that I leave on the 30th." And then he followed saying, "Yeah. And I would like her to be here." So problem-solved...we set the date for 27 August! I know that the Lord answered my prayer. I know it without a doubt. When we have the faith, the Lord guides us to his prepared sons and daughters.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, August 15, 2011
Elder Malan de Mallorca
¡Hola!
BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!! I am so tired! But I love it! jaja!!! Anyway we had the opportunity to be a trio again this week. Elder Malan is from Mallorca (well actually Ecuador but raised in Mallorca). He is actually serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission but has been waiting for his visa to enter the States. Thus for the past 4 months he has been serving in Zaragoza. He finally got his visa. So, he came and served with us for several days so that he could be close to Barc for interviews with President and such. He is a great missionary! We´ll miss him in the Spain Barcelona Mission.
We were in a lesson with one of our investigators who has a fecha bautismal, Pablo. We were teaching the Restoration. Halfway through the lesson, I felt inspired to go back and summarize what we had thus far taught, relating everything to how Heavenly Father loves him. After we did this, he got excited and said, "Oh, I am starting to see the body of the message." Meaning, he understands the importance of everything we were teaching. At the end of the lesson he was really excited and told us he was going to talk to his girlfriend about meeting with the missionaries. Again I am reminded of how we do not convert people, the Spirit does!
This week we should have a baptism. Fran(cisca) from Paraguay. She is wonderful!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!!! I am so tired! But I love it! jaja!!! Anyway we had the opportunity to be a trio again this week. Elder Malan is from Mallorca (well actually Ecuador but raised in Mallorca). He is actually serving in the Salt Lake City South Mission but has been waiting for his visa to enter the States. Thus for the past 4 months he has been serving in Zaragoza. He finally got his visa. So, he came and served with us for several days so that he could be close to Barc for interviews with President and such. He is a great missionary! We´ll miss him in the Spain Barcelona Mission.
We were in a lesson with one of our investigators who has a fecha bautismal, Pablo. We were teaching the Restoration. Halfway through the lesson, I felt inspired to go back and summarize what we had thus far taught, relating everything to how Heavenly Father loves him. After we did this, he got excited and said, "Oh, I am starting to see the body of the message." Meaning, he understands the importance of everything we were teaching. At the end of the lesson he was really excited and told us he was going to talk to his girlfriend about meeting with the missionaries. Again I am reminded of how we do not convert people, the Spirit does!
This week we should have a baptism. Fran(cisca) from Paraguay. She is wonderful!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, August 1, 2011
Standards of Excellance
¡Hola!
AUGUST ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In every mission there is something called the "Standards of Excellance." They are the numbers that every companionship should strive to achieve. They are not easy to reach, but neither are they impossible. For most of my mission the standards of excellance have always eluded me barely. We would always barely miss reaching all the standards of excellance by one lesson or one fecha or something. Well this week we finally reached all of the standards of excellance!!! We have been working like crazy! We constantly have to go on splits with the members. President is thinking about putting another companionship in Cornellá. I hope he does! The funny thing is I thought reaching the standards would make me feel super accomplished. But I feel normal. In fact I am even more motivated to do better. August is going to be an amazing month. Many children of our Heavenly Father are going to enter the waters of baptism and begin the path to salvation!!!!!
We had a cita cancel on us and our back plan was to pass by antiguos investigators in the area. So we timbred the home of Lorena, an antigua. Lorena was not home. However her family was. We met her mother, boyfriend, and younger sister! Her boyfriend and younger sister were really receptive to our message. Being missionaries of "El Faro," we invited the younger sister (Maria José) to be baptized during this first visit. And she accepted! The boyfriend of Lorena (Armando) will follow as soon they get married. Finding families really is the best!
I met some French members in church yesterday. It made me miss French a bit. I wish I hadnt forgotten so much of it.
Well with loads of work and being senior companion, I had un monton de cosas to report to Presidente this week. Thus I may have spent all of my time writing him this week. Sorry for the short letter. Everything is wonderful!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
AUGUST ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In every mission there is something called the "Standards of Excellance." They are the numbers that every companionship should strive to achieve. They are not easy to reach, but neither are they impossible. For most of my mission the standards of excellance have always eluded me barely. We would always barely miss reaching all the standards of excellance by one lesson or one fecha or something. Well this week we finally reached all of the standards of excellance!!! We have been working like crazy! We constantly have to go on splits with the members. President is thinking about putting another companionship in Cornellá. I hope he does! The funny thing is I thought reaching the standards would make me feel super accomplished. But I feel normal. In fact I am even more motivated to do better. August is going to be an amazing month. Many children of our Heavenly Father are going to enter the waters of baptism and begin the path to salvation!!!!!
We had a cita cancel on us and our back plan was to pass by antiguos investigators in the area. So we timbred the home of Lorena, an antigua. Lorena was not home. However her family was. We met her mother, boyfriend, and younger sister! Her boyfriend and younger sister were really receptive to our message. Being missionaries of "El Faro," we invited the younger sister (Maria José) to be baptized during this first visit. And she accepted! The boyfriend of Lorena (Armando) will follow as soon they get married. Finding families really is the best!
I met some French members in church yesterday. It made me miss French a bit. I wish I hadnt forgotten so much of it.
Well with loads of work and being senior companion, I had un monton de cosas to report to Presidente this week. Thus I may have spent all of my time writing him this week. Sorry for the short letter. Everything is wonderful!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, July 25, 2011
¡SUPER-BIEN!
¡Hola!
As far as numbers, this was the best week of my mission. There is so much work here in Cornellá!!!! Unfortunately there are not enough missionaries in the mission to split the area. However next transfer there is an odd number of missionaries coming in. So I am hoping maybe we could have a tripanionship and constantly go on splits. We´ll see though.
We had interviews with President this week. As always I learned so much from talking to him. He told me that he has noticed a big change in me. During the interviews, the zone leaders gave an amazing training. Again, I learned so much. I really love being a missionary. I look forward each Monday to starting another great week!
This week we met Morelia, a member of the church. She had plans to visit her son and the temple. However, she missed her flight. Thus, she is stuck here in the Barcelona area, staying with some friends who are nonmembers. Sunday morning we visited her to arrange a way for her to come to church. While we were talking she mentioned to us that she is close friends with the family she is staying with and that she has been praying for them. We invited the family members who were present to join us for a spiritual thought. They enjoyed our message and invited us back to eat some food and have another charla! We learned two things from this experience. First, the Lord does answer our prayers for loved ones. Second, the Lord will do whatever it takes to introduce the elect to the missionaries, even if it means someone has to miss a flight!
We had another great experience involving an ice cream man. One of the member families gave the ice cream man a Book of Mormon. We wanted to pass by him this week but we weren´t sure which ice cream man he was. The members were never home to take us to him. Finally on Saturday we were passing by various investigators wiht our word mission leader. We passed by a small ice cream stand and noticed the man inside was reading. Then we noticed what he was reading....a small blue book (the book of mormon). I couldn´t believe it! We went over to talk ot him. Antonio, the ward mission leader thought we were going to buy ice cream and yelled, "¡Elderes no! ¡Estamos en ayuno!" (We had been fasting for a few investigators.) We talked to the ice cream man, German, and invited him to church. He already had plans to come with the member family. He came! He is going to come to a Noche de Hogar with the same family and us tonight.
I love missionary work!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
As far as numbers, this was the best week of my mission. There is so much work here in Cornellá!!!! Unfortunately there are not enough missionaries in the mission to split the area. However next transfer there is an odd number of missionaries coming in. So I am hoping maybe we could have a tripanionship and constantly go on splits. We´ll see though.
We had interviews with President this week. As always I learned so much from talking to him. He told me that he has noticed a big change in me. During the interviews, the zone leaders gave an amazing training. Again, I learned so much. I really love being a missionary. I look forward each Monday to starting another great week!
This week we met Morelia, a member of the church. She had plans to visit her son and the temple. However, she missed her flight. Thus, she is stuck here in the Barcelona area, staying with some friends who are nonmembers. Sunday morning we visited her to arrange a way for her to come to church. While we were talking she mentioned to us that she is close friends with the family she is staying with and that she has been praying for them. We invited the family members who were present to join us for a spiritual thought. They enjoyed our message and invited us back to eat some food and have another charla! We learned two things from this experience. First, the Lord does answer our prayers for loved ones. Second, the Lord will do whatever it takes to introduce the elect to the missionaries, even if it means someone has to miss a flight!
We had another great experience involving an ice cream man. One of the member families gave the ice cream man a Book of Mormon. We wanted to pass by him this week but we weren´t sure which ice cream man he was. The members were never home to take us to him. Finally on Saturday we were passing by various investigators wiht our word mission leader. We passed by a small ice cream stand and noticed the man inside was reading. Then we noticed what he was reading....a small blue book (the book of mormon). I couldn´t believe it! We went over to talk ot him. Antonio, the ward mission leader thought we were going to buy ice cream and yelled, "¡Elderes no! ¡Estamos en ayuno!" (We had been fasting for a few investigators.) We talked to the ice cream man, German, and invited him to church. He already had plans to come with the member family. He came! He is going to come to a Noche de Hogar with the same family and us tonight.
I love missionary work!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, July 18, 2011
Discurso
¡Hola!
Not too much exciting happened this week. Just a normal week in the mission field. Oh wait....we were talking to the ayudantes the other day and Elder Allphin told me great news from Tarragona! Natalie and her brother Luis have baptismal fechas!!!! We were working so hard with Natalie and her dad Manual. Luis sat in on a few visits. I am so excited that they have fechas!!! This means that Natalie has already read half the Book of Mormon. And from what Elder Allphin said, Manual will set a fecha soon. I am so excited. They are such a great, humble Ecuatorian family!
We are working hard here. We have a fecha with a girl named Maria José. She is the cousin of a member family. She wants to get baptized on the 31st of July, but her mom is not too happy about it. So, we have lots of work ahead of us. however we are also teaching her sister and she is progressing a lot too. It won´t be long before the mom softens her heart.
I gave a talk during sacrament meeting yesterday. It was a train wreck. I really do HATE public speaking. My mind always gets all jumbled up. In English I can usually manage to get through making at least a little sense. But in a different language....oh man. And I ran out of time super quickly. I only got to give about a third of my talk!
The ward council gave us a list of menos activos to pass by. Wednesday morning we decided to pass by the houses of these menos activos. Before leaving, we looked up the addresses in the ward directory. Elder Manotas read them out loud and I wrote them down in my planner. We passed by what we thought was the piso of one of these menos activos, only to find out he does not live there. So we tried the piso below. And, the lady who answered the door was very interested. She invited us back to visit her and meet the four other people she lives with! We later realized that when Elder Manotas read me the address I did not hear the building number. Thus instead of going to C/Bonestar 66, 10, 2, we went to C/Bonestar 10, 2. It´s amazing how the Lord leads us to the elect!
Well I suppose that is all for this week. ¡Hasa luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Not too much exciting happened this week. Just a normal week in the mission field. Oh wait....we were talking to the ayudantes the other day and Elder Allphin told me great news from Tarragona! Natalie and her brother Luis have baptismal fechas!!!! We were working so hard with Natalie and her dad Manual. Luis sat in on a few visits. I am so excited that they have fechas!!! This means that Natalie has already read half the Book of Mormon. And from what Elder Allphin said, Manual will set a fecha soon. I am so excited. They are such a great, humble Ecuatorian family!
We are working hard here. We have a fecha with a girl named Maria José. She is the cousin of a member family. She wants to get baptized on the 31st of July, but her mom is not too happy about it. So, we have lots of work ahead of us. however we are also teaching her sister and she is progressing a lot too. It won´t be long before the mom softens her heart.
I gave a talk during sacrament meeting yesterday. It was a train wreck. I really do HATE public speaking. My mind always gets all jumbled up. In English I can usually manage to get through making at least a little sense. But in a different language....oh man. And I ran out of time super quickly. I only got to give about a third of my talk!
The ward council gave us a list of menos activos to pass by. Wednesday morning we decided to pass by the houses of these menos activos. Before leaving, we looked up the addresses in the ward directory. Elder Manotas read them out loud and I wrote them down in my planner. We passed by what we thought was the piso of one of these menos activos, only to find out he does not live there. So we tried the piso below. And, the lady who answered the door was very interested. She invited us back to visit her and meet the four other people she lives with! We later realized that when Elder Manotas read me the address I did not hear the building number. Thus instead of going to C/Bonestar 66, 10, 2, we went to C/Bonestar 10, 2. It´s amazing how the Lord leads us to the elect!
Well I suppose that is all for this week. ¡Hasa luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Por Fin! Yessi es bautizada!
¡Hola!
I really wish I had more time to write, but today has been CRAZY! To start out, Yessi finally got baptized on Saturday. It was a wonderful baptismal service. I actually don´t have many pictures but I believe she is going to post some on facebook. Then Saturday evening came the surprising transfer call. Sadly I got transferred already! My new area is Cornellá. It is a suburb of Barcelona. I am really excited. It too has been seeing a lot of success. My new companion is a native, Elder Manotas. He has been in the field for only one transfer, but he is a stud missionary. We are really going to work hard together.
I promise to update on everything next week. I have so much to tell. Los Birnbaumer threw a party for my farwell/Elder Greep´s birthday. It was so great. I almost cried.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
ps. Ask my mom for my new address.
I really wish I had more time to write, but today has been CRAZY! To start out, Yessi finally got baptized on Saturday. It was a wonderful baptismal service. I actually don´t have many pictures but I believe she is going to post some on facebook. Then Saturday evening came the surprising transfer call. Sadly I got transferred already! My new area is Cornellá. It is a suburb of Barcelona. I am really excited. It too has been seeing a lot of success. My new companion is a native, Elder Manotas. He has been in the field for only one transfer, but he is a stud missionary. We are really going to work hard together.
I promise to update on everything next week. I have so much to tell. Los Birnbaumer threw a party for my farwell/Elder Greep´s birthday. It was so great. I almost cried.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
ps. Ask my mom for my new address.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sad Dream
¡Hola!
Well how about some good news to start! We finally had the miracle that we have been praying for! Yessi has been very upset over the lack of support her sister has been giving her. Yessi has been making several big changes in her life and is quite prepared for baptism. However her sister has refused to give her support. Yesterday, we finally received a text from Yessi saying that her sister is finally okay with her baptism. When we asked Yessi what happened to change her sister´s mind, she said, "I don´t know. She just changed. It must be all the changes I´m making." We know what happened. The Lord answered Yessi´s prayers by touching and softening the heart of her sister. Yessi will finally be baptized this weekend without any further obstacles!
Next week is transfers again....already! I really cannot believe how quickly the time is passing. I just do not know where it all goes. Time flies when you are working hard....and having fun doing the hard work!
I had an interesting dream this week. It was the end of my mission. In the dream it was normal for the mission office to do a big presentation/ceremony for the elders going home. Anyway all of us elders going home arrived together in a bus and all the parents were waiting for us outside. From the moment I got off the bus all the way through the entire ceremony I was crying because I didn´t want my mission to be over. I am not even halfway through my mission yet and I am already afraid of going home! Luckily for me I don´t have much time to think about that. And I still have plenty of time to enjoy bring souls unto salvation!!!
I think that is all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well how about some good news to start! We finally had the miracle that we have been praying for! Yessi has been very upset over the lack of support her sister has been giving her. Yessi has been making several big changes in her life and is quite prepared for baptism. However her sister has refused to give her support. Yesterday, we finally received a text from Yessi saying that her sister is finally okay with her baptism. When we asked Yessi what happened to change her sister´s mind, she said, "I don´t know. She just changed. It must be all the changes I´m making." We know what happened. The Lord answered Yessi´s prayers by touching and softening the heart of her sister. Yessi will finally be baptized this weekend without any further obstacles!
Next week is transfers again....already! I really cannot believe how quickly the time is passing. I just do not know where it all goes. Time flies when you are working hard....and having fun doing the hard work!
I had an interesting dream this week. It was the end of my mission. In the dream it was normal for the mission office to do a big presentation/ceremony for the elders going home. Anyway all of us elders going home arrived together in a bus and all the parents were waiting for us outside. From the moment I got off the bus all the way through the entire ceremony I was crying because I didn´t want my mission to be over. I am not even halfway through my mission yet and I am already afraid of going home! Luckily for me I don´t have much time to think about that. And I still have plenty of time to enjoy bring souls unto salvation!!!
I think that is all for this week!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
A Culture of Obedience
¡Hola!
This week was my third zone conference in the Lleida Zone. It was also the third ever Lleida Zone Conference. It was amazing, as always. I just love listening to President Hinckley. We focused a lot on working with members again. Zone conference always gives you the refueling you need and a new drive to keep working hard. Spain is really seeing many miracles right now. The month of May was the best month on record in the mission. President told us a story about Elder Jacinto, one of my old zone leaders. He went home almost 2 transfers ago and has already come back to visit. He told President a story about his friends. Elder Jacinto had been with a group of friends. They were all telling stories about missionaries who were sent home from their missions for disobedience (you only get sent home for really bad actions). They turned to Elder Jacinto and asked him for a story. He merely told them, "We didn´t do that in our mission. Noone was sent home my entire mission for disobedience. But uh...we got home late once." The truth about our mission is that it really does have a culture of obedience and hard work. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such diligent missionaries!
My miracle story this week comes from asking someone to be baptized. We usually have a visit with Lucho once a week. He is the husband of one of our strongest members. Lucho knows the church is true and that he needs to change. He has known the missionaries for YEARS! Yet he won´t be baptized. Several times he has come close but never committed. This week during the visit it was only him, his daughter, and us. The Spirit was super strong. I felt deeply impressed in my heart to invite him to be baptized. Knowing Lucho´s history and I laughed to myself and ignored the Spirit. (I am a BAD example). A little later on I felt the same prompting. I was worried because I didn´t want to ruin our relationship with him by pushing him to be baptized like everyone else has. Thus I decided that I wouldn´t. I also decided that later that night I would pray about it, and if I still felt good, I would invite him the next visita. Well a little bit later my companion turned to Lucho and said, "I know you´ve been asked this a lot....will you follow...." The rest is history. The amazing thing is that Lucho said, "Yes." And that baptism is something he wants. His only worry is that he has a few things to change. We asked him if there is anything we can do to help with these few things. And thus the topic drifted and we didn´t have the chance to set a formal date. There is always the next visit! To me this is a miracle because it shows that the Spirit really does talk to all of us. He knows what is best and when is best! I am also grateful to have a companion. With the both of us feeling the Spirit it is easier to follow His promptings.
There haven´t been anymore cockroaches. Thank goodness!!
The members here in Tarragona are great! They are so excited about missionary work. We have received so many references and a ton of help!! It is wonderful. We are super close with one family, Los Birnbaumer. They are from Bolivia. The older daughter, Margareth, is the one who brought Yessi to church. (She has also given us several more references). They fed us during mediodia today because it´s a fiesta (holiday). We ended up spending a lot of our Preparation day with them just merely talking about Gospel related themes. They are such an amazing family! The Spirit is super strong in their home!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
This week was my third zone conference in the Lleida Zone. It was also the third ever Lleida Zone Conference. It was amazing, as always. I just love listening to President Hinckley. We focused a lot on working with members again. Zone conference always gives you the refueling you need and a new drive to keep working hard. Spain is really seeing many miracles right now. The month of May was the best month on record in the mission. President told us a story about Elder Jacinto, one of my old zone leaders. He went home almost 2 transfers ago and has already come back to visit. He told President a story about his friends. Elder Jacinto had been with a group of friends. They were all telling stories about missionaries who were sent home from their missions for disobedience (you only get sent home for really bad actions). They turned to Elder Jacinto and asked him for a story. He merely told them, "We didn´t do that in our mission. Noone was sent home my entire mission for disobedience. But uh...we got home late once." The truth about our mission is that it really does have a culture of obedience and hard work. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such diligent missionaries!
My miracle story this week comes from asking someone to be baptized. We usually have a visit with Lucho once a week. He is the husband of one of our strongest members. Lucho knows the church is true and that he needs to change. He has known the missionaries for YEARS! Yet he won´t be baptized. Several times he has come close but never committed. This week during the visit it was only him, his daughter, and us. The Spirit was super strong. I felt deeply impressed in my heart to invite him to be baptized. Knowing Lucho´s history and I laughed to myself and ignored the Spirit. (I am a BAD example). A little later on I felt the same prompting. I was worried because I didn´t want to ruin our relationship with him by pushing him to be baptized like everyone else has. Thus I decided that I wouldn´t. I also decided that later that night I would pray about it, and if I still felt good, I would invite him the next visita. Well a little bit later my companion turned to Lucho and said, "I know you´ve been asked this a lot....will you follow...." The rest is history. The amazing thing is that Lucho said, "Yes." And that baptism is something he wants. His only worry is that he has a few things to change. We asked him if there is anything we can do to help with these few things. And thus the topic drifted and we didn´t have the chance to set a formal date. There is always the next visit! To me this is a miracle because it shows that the Spirit really does talk to all of us. He knows what is best and when is best! I am also grateful to have a companion. With the both of us feeling the Spirit it is easier to follow His promptings.
There haven´t been anymore cockroaches. Thank goodness!!
The members here in Tarragona are great! They are so excited about missionary work. We have received so many references and a ton of help!! It is wonderful. We are super close with one family, Los Birnbaumer. They are from Bolivia. The older daughter, Margareth, is the one who brought Yessi to church. (She has also given us several more references). They fed us during mediodia today because it´s a fiesta (holiday). We ended up spending a lot of our Preparation day with them just merely talking about Gospel related themes. They are such an amazing family! The Spirit is super strong in their home!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
La Cucaracha
Hola!
Well I almost made it a year in my mission without finding a cockroach in my piso.....my streak of luck ended this week! After planning Wednesday, Elder Greep went into the kitchen to eat some dinner before bed. Immediately as he walked in, he started screaming for us all to come to the kitchen. I immediately came running over to the kitchen took one glance in, did a 180, and went right back out of the kitchen. Because....on the cupboard doors under our sink was the largest cockroach that I have ever seen. And I have seen some pretty large cockroaches on the side of the road. Elder Greep ending up killing it as it came charging at him (yes he claims the cockroach charged him). Unfortunately we did not take any pictures. We were being too big of sissies and disposed of the body immediately by way of the toilet. We convinced ourselves that we were okay. That a cockroach that big could only have come from outside. And that if we had a problem/investation there would be smaller cockroaches. Well two days later I turned the light on in one of the bathrooms and there lying on the floor, acting dead, was another cockroach! And this one was smaller! The good news is that it was still huge. Pictures of the second one (post death) are included. We told a member about them and she told us that those types of cockroaches live in the streets and come in through windows and doors. Thus I believe we are safe. We are yet to see any baby cockroaches so I don´t think we have an infestation. And we have been extra careful about the windows and so no more (that we know of) have come inside. On the bright side everyone finally agrees with me that we need to keep our kitchen cleaner!
We had a great week. Our investigators are progressing so well!
On Saturday we finally had our first visit with Yessi after she cancelled her baptism the previous week. She is still progressing amazingly! Unfortunately because we were really rushed to catch our bus, we did not have time to teach a good lesson. As we were hurrying to leave, I felt impressed that we should stay and not worry about catching the bus. Thus we stayed. We ended up clearing up several small questions about the Word of Wisdom and piercings. When we finally left, we decided to try taking the train, since we had missed the bus. We arrived at the train station five minutes after the departure time, but the train arrived 10 minutes late. Thus we caught the train and made it to our next visita with time to spare. And the next day at church, Yessi no longer had her tongue piercing!
Natalie´s father, Manual, finally came to church yesterday. We have been trying endlessly to get him to come. Everytime he gives a flojo (flimsy) response of maybe and never comes. We decided to stop directly asking him and wasting time on trying to persuade him through words. This week we focused hard on following the Spirit in our visits. On Saturday we finally mentioned church again to verify that Natalie was coming. She of course said, "Yo, sí!" Then we turned to Manual to extend the invitation and he said, "Yes. We have already made the plans." And he came! (Natalie did too of course!)
Gerard, one of our recent converts, has had quite the miracle story! He really wants to serve a mission. However, unfortunately, the university only allows students one year off of classes. A mission is two years. Gerard has been trying to get permission to take two years off for a mission. However, everytime he tries, he gets pushed from office to office and is treated quite poorly. Finally Gerard decided to pray to Heavenly Father, telling Him of his desires to serve and how he needed help getting permission. That same day Gerard tried again. This time the receptionists treated him nicely, helping him out the best they could. By the end of the day, Gerard had permission from the president of the university to take two years off of classes at the end of the next school year. Next summer Gerard will be serving a mission!
If you take time to actually listen during your prayers....it´s amazingly miraculous the inspiration and revelation you receive...and how clear the answers are. Just something I have learned on my mission.
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well I almost made it a year in my mission without finding a cockroach in my piso.....my streak of luck ended this week! After planning Wednesday, Elder Greep went into the kitchen to eat some dinner before bed. Immediately as he walked in, he started screaming for us all to come to the kitchen. I immediately came running over to the kitchen took one glance in, did a 180, and went right back out of the kitchen. Because....on the cupboard doors under our sink was the largest cockroach that I have ever seen. And I have seen some pretty large cockroaches on the side of the road. Elder Greep ending up killing it as it came charging at him (yes he claims the cockroach charged him). Unfortunately we did not take any pictures. We were being too big of sissies and disposed of the body immediately by way of the toilet. We convinced ourselves that we were okay. That a cockroach that big could only have come from outside. And that if we had a problem/investation there would be smaller cockroaches. Well two days later I turned the light on in one of the bathrooms and there lying on the floor, acting dead, was another cockroach! And this one was smaller! The good news is that it was still huge. Pictures of the second one (post death) are included. We told a member about them and she told us that those types of cockroaches live in the streets and come in through windows and doors. Thus I believe we are safe. We are yet to see any baby cockroaches so I don´t think we have an infestation. And we have been extra careful about the windows and so no more (that we know of) have come inside. On the bright side everyone finally agrees with me that we need to keep our kitchen cleaner!
We had a great week. Our investigators are progressing so well!
On Saturday we finally had our first visit with Yessi after she cancelled her baptism the previous week. She is still progressing amazingly! Unfortunately because we were really rushed to catch our bus, we did not have time to teach a good lesson. As we were hurrying to leave, I felt impressed that we should stay and not worry about catching the bus. Thus we stayed. We ended up clearing up several small questions about the Word of Wisdom and piercings. When we finally left, we decided to try taking the train, since we had missed the bus. We arrived at the train station five minutes after the departure time, but the train arrived 10 minutes late. Thus we caught the train and made it to our next visita with time to spare. And the next day at church, Yessi no longer had her tongue piercing!
Natalie´s father, Manual, finally came to church yesterday. We have been trying endlessly to get him to come. Everytime he gives a flojo (flimsy) response of maybe and never comes. We decided to stop directly asking him and wasting time on trying to persuade him through words. This week we focused hard on following the Spirit in our visits. On Saturday we finally mentioned church again to verify that Natalie was coming. She of course said, "Yo, sí!" Then we turned to Manual to extend the invitation and he said, "Yes. We have already made the plans." And he came! (Natalie did too of course!)
Gerard, one of our recent converts, has had quite the miracle story! He really wants to serve a mission. However, unfortunately, the university only allows students one year off of classes. A mission is two years. Gerard has been trying to get permission to take two years off for a mission. However, everytime he tries, he gets pushed from office to office and is treated quite poorly. Finally Gerard decided to pray to Heavenly Father, telling Him of his desires to serve and how he needed help getting permission. That same day Gerard tried again. This time the receptionists treated him nicely, helping him out the best they could. By the end of the day, Gerard had permission from the president of the university to take two years off of classes at the end of the next school year. Next summer Gerard will be serving a mission!
If you take time to actually listen during your prayers....it´s amazingly miraculous the inspiration and revelation you receive...and how clear the answers are. Just something I have learned on my mission.
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Bring on the Heat
¡Hola!
Whoa it is hot!!!! 30 degrees celsius with lots of humidy is not fun proselyting weather! Summer has arrived! With has come lots of work. We have so many great investigators!
Yessi was not baptized this weekend. She did not want to be baptized without the approval of all of her family. We had several spiritual visits with her mom present, so she gained the approval of her mother and subsequently her father. Her brothers are indifferent about religious matters and didn´t care. Thus the only one who didn´t approve of her baptism was her sister. Thus she did not get baptised in fear of upsetting her sister. Elder Greep and I are not too concerned. After a visit or two with her sister, we believe that the Lord will soften her sister´s heart and she will get baptized.
Natalie is our most progressing investigator. She has come two church 3 times with a menos activo family! She attended mutual this week for the first time and LOVES going to young women´s activities. We are also teaching her dad and brother who aren´t progressing as quickly. Todavia they are great people. In our last visit with her dad, we asked him to give the closing prayer. He struggled to through a simple heartfelt prayer. This was odd because I have heard him pray before. At the end of his prayer in the most sincere humility he asked us to help him learn to pray better so that he can pray with his family.
We also have Fatima. She is the niece of one of our eternigators (eternal investigators), Lucho (through a previous marriage). Lucho is married to one of our strongest members in the ward and his daughter, Milagros, is one of the other strongest members in the ward. Thus, Fatima is indirectly related to two of the strongest members of our ward. Fatima is really interested in learning more about our message. She has already been to the Work and the Glory movie night and a baptism.
Ramiro has been really hard to get a visit with due to his work schedule. He genuinely wants to learn more about his relationship with God. We taught him the Restoration in our last visit and the entire time he asked us questions and took notes on scripture references.
We have so many more great people! But I don´t have much time. This was a good week. I really felt the Lord working through me. It is an indescribably great feeling!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Whoa it is hot!!!! 30 degrees celsius with lots of humidy is not fun proselyting weather! Summer has arrived! With has come lots of work. We have so many great investigators!
Yessi was not baptized this weekend. She did not want to be baptized without the approval of all of her family. We had several spiritual visits with her mom present, so she gained the approval of her mother and subsequently her father. Her brothers are indifferent about religious matters and didn´t care. Thus the only one who didn´t approve of her baptism was her sister. Thus she did not get baptised in fear of upsetting her sister. Elder Greep and I are not too concerned. After a visit or two with her sister, we believe that the Lord will soften her sister´s heart and she will get baptized.
Natalie is our most progressing investigator. She has come two church 3 times with a menos activo family! She attended mutual this week for the first time and LOVES going to young women´s activities. We are also teaching her dad and brother who aren´t progressing as quickly. Todavia they are great people. In our last visit with her dad, we asked him to give the closing prayer. He struggled to through a simple heartfelt prayer. This was odd because I have heard him pray before. At the end of his prayer in the most sincere humility he asked us to help him learn to pray better so that he can pray with his family.
We also have Fatima. She is the niece of one of our eternigators (eternal investigators), Lucho (through a previous marriage). Lucho is married to one of our strongest members in the ward and his daughter, Milagros, is one of the other strongest members in the ward. Thus, Fatima is indirectly related to two of the strongest members of our ward. Fatima is really interested in learning more about our message. She has already been to the Work and the Glory movie night and a baptism.
Ramiro has been really hard to get a visit with due to his work schedule. He genuinely wants to learn more about his relationship with God. We taught him the Restoration in our last visit and the entire time he asked us questions and took notes on scripture references.
We have so many more great people! But I don´t have much time. This was a good week. I really felt the Lord working through me. It is an indescribably great feeling!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, May 23, 2011
BUSY BUSY BUSY
¡Hola!
Sorry I don´t have much time. The work here is really taking off! I don´t have much time to write because I spent most of my hour of email time updating President Hinckley in our weekly report letter.
The greenie, Elder Salmon, is really great. Elder Allphin is doing a great job training him. He´s from Alabama, so it´s nice not to have another Utahrd. haha. He´s really nice. Took Spanish in high school so he knows a good bit for an new elder. although we still have to help him out a ton. it makes me appreciate how much i´ve improved in my spanish. i have to be quick to set a good example.
We are going to have a baptism this Saturday! Her name is Yessi. She is 18 years old. We met her when she came to stake conference with a member friend, Margareth. Yessi is super prepared! I can´t wait for her baptism!!!
Well I am sorry it is so short!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Sorry I don´t have much time. The work here is really taking off! I don´t have much time to write because I spent most of my hour of email time updating President Hinckley in our weekly report letter.
The greenie, Elder Salmon, is really great. Elder Allphin is doing a great job training him. He´s from Alabama, so it´s nice not to have another Utahrd. haha. He´s really nice. Took Spanish in high school so he knows a good bit for an new elder. although we still have to help him out a ton. it makes me appreciate how much i´ve improved in my spanish. i have to be quick to set a good example.
We are going to have a baptism this Saturday! Her name is Yessi. She is 18 years old. We met her when she came to stake conference with a member friend, Margareth. Yessi is super prepared! I can´t wait for her baptism!!!
Well I am sorry it is so short!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A Death and a Birth(missionary jargon)
¡Hola!
It was really sad to see Elder Hansen leave. He was such a great missionary! We worked really hard as a companionship. We had the trust of the members and we had a lot of success. I hope I can keep it all going. He was also the best district leader I have had so far. I learned so much from him! Well I am going to stop talking about him before I get too sad. It was really weird seeing a missionary "die" (go home). Usually at transfers you know there is a good chance of seeing your old companion again at zone meetings, in the mission office, etc. But with Elder Hansen, I won´t see him anymore during the mission. It´s super sad.
Yesterday, Elder Allphin left with Elder Hansen to Barcelona. Elder Hansen was obviously going to Barç because he is going home. Elder Allphin went with him because early this morning he had a meeting on how to train new elders. Yep, Elder Allphin is going to train this transfer. And his companion, Elder Greep, is now my companion! We are very excited! Elder Greep and I came in together! This means no more being junior companion! (we are listed as "special assignment). So as a recap...the changes in Tarragona are as follows: Elder Hansen´s new area is South Jordan, UT, and his new companion....well he´s going to start looking for her this week ; ]. Elder Allphin is staying in Tarragona B with a new elder. (we still don´t know anything about the new elder). And Elder Greep and I are working in Tarragona A (my area before). Elder Greep and I have a lot work ahead of us, but we plan on continuing Elder Hansen´s success here!
This week we finally set a fecha bautismal con Yessi. She is really excited to get baptized, but is worried about how her family feels about it. When she told them, they were not too pleased at all. Since she is 18, she can get baptized without her parents´ approval, but we still want them to be okay with it. We told her to keep praying. To pray about the truth of our message, to pray for strength and courage in talking to her family, and to pray for her family to accept her baptism. The next day we got a text from Yessi. She was super excited because she had gained the approval of her mom to get baptized. The Lord answers our prayers! I know that slowly the Lord with soften the hearts of the rest of Yessi´s family.
Well I took forever writing President Hinckley this week, so I don´t have much time. That is all I will write for today.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
It was really sad to see Elder Hansen leave. He was such a great missionary! We worked really hard as a companionship. We had the trust of the members and we had a lot of success. I hope I can keep it all going. He was also the best district leader I have had so far. I learned so much from him! Well I am going to stop talking about him before I get too sad. It was really weird seeing a missionary "die" (go home). Usually at transfers you know there is a good chance of seeing your old companion again at zone meetings, in the mission office, etc. But with Elder Hansen, I won´t see him anymore during the mission. It´s super sad.
Yesterday, Elder Allphin left with Elder Hansen to Barcelona. Elder Hansen was obviously going to Barç because he is going home. Elder Allphin went with him because early this morning he had a meeting on how to train new elders. Yep, Elder Allphin is going to train this transfer. And his companion, Elder Greep, is now my companion! We are very excited! Elder Greep and I came in together! This means no more being junior companion! (we are listed as "special assignment). So as a recap...the changes in Tarragona are as follows: Elder Hansen´s new area is South Jordan, UT, and his new companion....well he´s going to start looking for her this week ; ]. Elder Allphin is staying in Tarragona B with a new elder. (we still don´t know anything about the new elder). And Elder Greep and I are working in Tarragona A (my area before). Elder Greep and I have a lot work ahead of us, but we plan on continuing Elder Hansen´s success here!
This week we finally set a fecha bautismal con Yessi. She is really excited to get baptized, but is worried about how her family feels about it. When she told them, they were not too pleased at all. Since she is 18, she can get baptized without her parents´ approval, but we still want them to be okay with it. We told her to keep praying. To pray about the truth of our message, to pray for strength and courage in talking to her family, and to pray for her family to accept her baptism. The next day we got a text from Yessi. She was super excited because she had gained the approval of her mom to get baptized. The Lord answers our prayers! I know that slowly the Lord with soften the hearts of the rest of Yessi´s family.
Well I took forever writing President Hinckley this week, so I don´t have much time. That is all I will write for today.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Conferencia de la Estaca de Hospitalet
¡Hola!
This week was stake conference. The stake center is in Hospitalet, which is the last metro stop south in Barç. The ward filled up two buses to make the 1 or so long trip up to barc. This was a miracle in itself. The Bishop was so pleased that they had to get a second bus. We got to ride up with the ward in one of the buses. it was really good because we got to talk to members and build up our relationship with them. I realized on the way there that no matter where you are in the world, members are exactly the same! You have the same stereotypes of different groups of members. And everyone always ends up singing hymns to pass time! haha. The bus ride was beautiful! Many times the coast was in view from the highway. You looked out one direction at sea and the other direction at mountains covered in trees. Absolutely beautiful. Right outside of Barç there is this really cool cemetary. The cemetaries here are buildings. And this particular one covered and entire hillside!
Conference was amazing! The speakers were all really good. First the stake president gave a moving talk about Joseph Smith. Then three returned Spanish sister missionaries shared their testimonies. Israel from Lleida who is about to serve in San Francisco also bore his testimony. After the intermediate hymn, two general authorities from the Area Presidency spoke. I don´t remember the name of one of them. Elder Caussé (or something like that) spoke last. He is French. He spoke in English, pausing after every other sentence for someone to translate into Spanish. I actually found myself listening more the Spanish than the English. The choir sang really beautfully too.
I got to see a lot of members from Lleida! It was really fun. They were all excited to see me. It made me feel loved! I hadn´t had a chance to get a picture with Mario, the ward mission leader, before leaving. I was finally able to take a picture with him.
The conference was not held in our stake center. It was held in the new Barcelona stake center. The new stake center opened just recently in January. It is the most expensive stake center in Europe! ¡Es super guay! You walk in and your jaw just drops! There are three floors. And a hardwood basketball court! It´s hard to explain. I didn´t take many pictures because I was too distracted talking to people. But some of the other elders did. I will get the pictures from them. Apparently the elders in Barç get quite a few new references each week from people stopping by to see what that beautiful building is.
Well that´s all exciting that really happened this week. We are really excited for the near future in Tarragona. Everyone we are teaching is a member reference. Thus, there is a lot of potential! This is the way missionary work is supposed to happen- member references!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
This week was stake conference. The stake center is in Hospitalet, which is the last metro stop south in Barç. The ward filled up two buses to make the 1 or so long trip up to barc. This was a miracle in itself. The Bishop was so pleased that they had to get a second bus. We got to ride up with the ward in one of the buses. it was really good because we got to talk to members and build up our relationship with them. I realized on the way there that no matter where you are in the world, members are exactly the same! You have the same stereotypes of different groups of members. And everyone always ends up singing hymns to pass time! haha. The bus ride was beautiful! Many times the coast was in view from the highway. You looked out one direction at sea and the other direction at mountains covered in trees. Absolutely beautiful. Right outside of Barç there is this really cool cemetary. The cemetaries here are buildings. And this particular one covered and entire hillside!
Conference was amazing! The speakers were all really good. First the stake president gave a moving talk about Joseph Smith. Then three returned Spanish sister missionaries shared their testimonies. Israel from Lleida who is about to serve in San Francisco also bore his testimony. After the intermediate hymn, two general authorities from the Area Presidency spoke. I don´t remember the name of one of them. Elder Caussé (or something like that) spoke last. He is French. He spoke in English, pausing after every other sentence for someone to translate into Spanish. I actually found myself listening more the Spanish than the English. The choir sang really beautfully too.
I got to see a lot of members from Lleida! It was really fun. They were all excited to see me. It made me feel loved! I hadn´t had a chance to get a picture with Mario, the ward mission leader, before leaving. I was finally able to take a picture with him.
The conference was not held in our stake center. It was held in the new Barcelona stake center. The new stake center opened just recently in January. It is the most expensive stake center in Europe! ¡Es super guay! You walk in and your jaw just drops! There are three floors. And a hardwood basketball court! It´s hard to explain. I didn´t take many pictures because I was too distracted talking to people. But some of the other elders did. I will get the pictures from them. Apparently the elders in Barç get quite a few new references each week from people stopping by to see what that beautiful building is.
Well that´s all exciting that really happened this week. We are really excited for the near future in Tarragona. Everyone we are teaching is a member reference. Thus, there is a lot of potential! This is the way missionary work is supposed to happen- member references!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Happy Easter
¡Hola!
He is risen! Yesterday was Easter! What a great holiday! The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ. It is through him and no other that we can attain eternal life. Through faith in Christ and his gospel, we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. We can remain with our families for eternity in happiness. How great is this?! Doesn´t it just make you smile?! Christ suffered in the Garden Gethsemane and died for our sins and sufferings. Then three days later he rose from the tomb. Truly miraculous. A great show of love! I am so grateful for all the Christ did and still does for me!
This week was fantastic! Well the week was normal. The weekend was awesome! Friday we finally baptized Sandra! It was a nice baptismal service. Since it had been rescheduled, not many people attended. But there was still good support from the ward. It was also a nice length, not too short or too long. It was great to be at a baptism again. It helps give you animo and reminds you of the purpose of missionary work! And I love how spiritual baptisms are! We had a small scare on Sunday when Sandra arrived to church late. We walked out to meet her husband and had to run to the capilla in order to get there on time to get her confirmed this Sunday. If she had been late, she would have had to wait two more weeks becuase next week is stake conference and so we won´t have normal church. Oh by the way...I don´t know if I mentioned this before...I met Sandra way back in January when I came here for intercambios. She couldn´t get baptized back then because she wasn´t married to the father of her children, whom she was living with. They finally got married so she could baptized.Thus, since I already knew her, it is really cool that she is my first baptism in Tarragona.
Saturday was by far probably the coolest day of my mission. It was packed full of Cataluñian culture! It was el Dia de Sant Jordi. I explained it a little last week. This year was special. The members told us that never before (in recent years) has Dia de Sant Jordi, Semana Santa (Easter holiday), and a Saturday occured at the same time. There were crowds and crowds of people along the Rambla (the main road/blvd in Tarragona with a small park separating the opposite directions of traffic). If Grandma ever comes to Cataluña during dia de sant jordi, she will be in her glory! The street/park was lined with table after table selling books. Grandma wouldn´t be able to choose which books to look at. There were hundreds! There were also a lot of stands selling roses. There were craft stands and information stands, just like a fair. There were even boy and girl scouts walking around selling baked goods. We set up our table and pancarta (giant picture board thing) at the end of the Rambla, near the beach. We were blessed with great weather. It rained all day Friday and they were calling for rain all weekend. We woke up to rain Saturday, but by the time we got set up, there were clear blue skies. It stayed nice all day, then rained all day Sunday and today. A miracle! Anyway it was really fun handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and talking to people about the church. We made some great contacts. We were set up right next to a stage. It sat empty all day and we didn´t know why it was there. Then in the evening at about 7 pm a band set up on the stage. The band played traditional Cataluñian music and people in the crowd, of all ages, started dancing a traditional Cataluñian dance. The dance was a bit boring, but still cool to watch. A little later we looked down the Rambla in the opposite direction and saw teams making castelles (human towers). It was such a fun day!
Last night we had a noche de pelicula (movie night) for nonmembers to come and watch "The Work and the Glory" to learn more about the history of the church in an interesting, nonpreachy setting. Well, it wasn´t too successful at all. A handful of members and three investigators came. However the 3 that did come came with members and have great potential. It was fun watching the Work and the Glory....a nice change from the Restoration movie and Finding Faith in Christ.
That is all I will write this week so that I can upload some pictures.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
He is risen! Yesterday was Easter! What a great holiday! The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ. It is through him and no other that we can attain eternal life. Through faith in Christ and his gospel, we can return to live with our Father in Heaven. We can remain with our families for eternity in happiness. How great is this?! Doesn´t it just make you smile?! Christ suffered in the Garden Gethsemane and died for our sins and sufferings. Then three days later he rose from the tomb. Truly miraculous. A great show of love! I am so grateful for all the Christ did and still does for me!
This week was fantastic! Well the week was normal. The weekend was awesome! Friday we finally baptized Sandra! It was a nice baptismal service. Since it had been rescheduled, not many people attended. But there was still good support from the ward. It was also a nice length, not too short or too long. It was great to be at a baptism again. It helps give you animo and reminds you of the purpose of missionary work! And I love how spiritual baptisms are! We had a small scare on Sunday when Sandra arrived to church late. We walked out to meet her husband and had to run to the capilla in order to get there on time to get her confirmed this Sunday. If she had been late, she would have had to wait two more weeks becuase next week is stake conference and so we won´t have normal church. Oh by the way...I don´t know if I mentioned this before...I met Sandra way back in January when I came here for intercambios. She couldn´t get baptized back then because she wasn´t married to the father of her children, whom she was living with. They finally got married so she could baptized.Thus, since I already knew her, it is really cool that she is my first baptism in Tarragona.
Saturday was by far probably the coolest day of my mission. It was packed full of Cataluñian culture! It was el Dia de Sant Jordi. I explained it a little last week. This year was special. The members told us that never before (in recent years) has Dia de Sant Jordi, Semana Santa (Easter holiday), and a Saturday occured at the same time. There were crowds and crowds of people along the Rambla (the main road/blvd in Tarragona with a small park separating the opposite directions of traffic). If Grandma ever comes to Cataluña during dia de sant jordi, she will be in her glory! The street/park was lined with table after table selling books. Grandma wouldn´t be able to choose which books to look at. There were hundreds! There were also a lot of stands selling roses. There were craft stands and information stands, just like a fair. There were even boy and girl scouts walking around selling baked goods. We set up our table and pancarta (giant picture board thing) at the end of the Rambla, near the beach. We were blessed with great weather. It rained all day Friday and they were calling for rain all weekend. We woke up to rain Saturday, but by the time we got set up, there were clear blue skies. It stayed nice all day, then rained all day Sunday and today. A miracle! Anyway it was really fun handing out copies of the Book of Mormon and talking to people about the church. We made some great contacts. We were set up right next to a stage. It sat empty all day and we didn´t know why it was there. Then in the evening at about 7 pm a band set up on the stage. The band played traditional Cataluñian music and people in the crowd, of all ages, started dancing a traditional Cataluñian dance. The dance was a bit boring, but still cool to watch. A little later we looked down the Rambla in the opposite direction and saw teams making castelles (human towers). It was such a fun day!
Last night we had a noche de pelicula (movie night) for nonmembers to come and watch "The Work and the Glory" to learn more about the history of the church in an interesting, nonpreachy setting. Well, it wasn´t too successful at all. A handful of members and three investigators came. However the 3 that did come came with members and have great potential. It was fun watching the Work and the Glory....a nice change from the Restoration movie and Finding Faith in Christ.
That is all I will write this week so that I can upload some pictures.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Dia de Sant Jordi
¡Hola!
Remember how I said last week would be busy? Well this week will be even busier! Since we had to leave Tarragona last week, we couldn´t keep daily contact with Sandra. We tried calling everyday to keep her excited for her baptism and the other elders offered to meet with her for us. However, she went out of town too and wasn´t answering her movil (cell phone). Thus when we finally talked to her again, we all decided it would be best to wait until this week. So, this Friday will be Sandra´s baptism.
Then, on Saturday, is el Dia de Sant Jordi. This is a Cataluñian holiday. This is a day for couples. The male buys a present and a rose for the girl. And the girl in return buys the male a book. Thus all day Saturday we are going to run a table with free (like always) copies of the Book of Mormon. Our ward mission leader, Jordi (appropriately named), is really excited. He has a ton of plans for the table. He wants to have as many members as possible helping, a small choir, laptops with Mormon Messages playing, and more. It should be a fun day. We hope to get bastante referencias! Then on Sunday we are going to have a Noche de Pelicula, showing The Work and the Glory, at the capílla. We are inviting a lot of menos activos and nonmembers to come learn more about this history of our Church, while watching a movie that isn´t too preachy and is of Hollywood quality. Also this week we are visiting some recent converts who live 1 hour away and another who lives 1 1/2 hours away. We have been promising to pass by for past few weeks but haven´t made it. Thus it will be another busy week.
I really enjoyed my week in Zaragoza. It is a beautiful city! I met some great members and investigators there. I also enjoyed my time with Elder Hastings, the greenie. I learned a lot about myself being with him. For example, my Spanish is waaaaay better than I thought. Thus I need to stop being overcritical of myself and start being more confident when I talk to others. Also I was reminded what it is like to have the enthusiasm of a new missionary. It kind of renewed my own enthusiasm; for I have fallen into too many ruts, ie. only contacting certain types of people when I should be contacting anyone and everyone. Elder Hastings is really nice too. The entire week, whenever he prayed, he thanked God for the opportunity to work with and learn from me and for our new friendship. It made me feel good. He also made me laugh a few times with his naive comments like "We can just run to the store and get some Brownie mix." (we were making brownies for some members) and "They don´t have peanut butter here?!" As fun as it was, though, I have NO desires to be a trainer! haha. The weather in Zaragoza reminded me of home. It was cloudy and windy! haha. I am glad to be back in warm, sunny Tarragona. We did our studies outside, today, by the river. My base tan is starting to come in!
Hmmm....let´s see....an update on the work here. Cesar, the husband of a recent convert, is super close to baptism. He told us this weekend that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc. We are really excited!
I suppose that´s all for this week. Maybe I´ll upload some pictures.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Remember how I said last week would be busy? Well this week will be even busier! Since we had to leave Tarragona last week, we couldn´t keep daily contact with Sandra. We tried calling everyday to keep her excited for her baptism and the other elders offered to meet with her for us. However, she went out of town too and wasn´t answering her movil (cell phone). Thus when we finally talked to her again, we all decided it would be best to wait until this week. So, this Friday will be Sandra´s baptism.
Then, on Saturday, is el Dia de Sant Jordi. This is a Cataluñian holiday. This is a day for couples. The male buys a present and a rose for the girl. And the girl in return buys the male a book. Thus all day Saturday we are going to run a table with free (like always) copies of the Book of Mormon. Our ward mission leader, Jordi (appropriately named), is really excited. He has a ton of plans for the table. He wants to have as many members as possible helping, a small choir, laptops with Mormon Messages playing, and more. It should be a fun day. We hope to get bastante referencias! Then on Sunday we are going to have a Noche de Pelicula, showing The Work and the Glory, at the capílla. We are inviting a lot of menos activos and nonmembers to come learn more about this history of our Church, while watching a movie that isn´t too preachy and is of Hollywood quality. Also this week we are visiting some recent converts who live 1 hour away and another who lives 1 1/2 hours away. We have been promising to pass by for past few weeks but haven´t made it. Thus it will be another busy week.
I really enjoyed my week in Zaragoza. It is a beautiful city! I met some great members and investigators there. I also enjoyed my time with Elder Hastings, the greenie. I learned a lot about myself being with him. For example, my Spanish is waaaaay better than I thought. Thus I need to stop being overcritical of myself and start being more confident when I talk to others. Also I was reminded what it is like to have the enthusiasm of a new missionary. It kind of renewed my own enthusiasm; for I have fallen into too many ruts, ie. only contacting certain types of people when I should be contacting anyone and everyone. Elder Hastings is really nice too. The entire week, whenever he prayed, he thanked God for the opportunity to work with and learn from me and for our new friendship. It made me feel good. He also made me laugh a few times with his naive comments like "We can just run to the store and get some Brownie mix." (we were making brownies for some members) and "They don´t have peanut butter here?!" As fun as it was, though, I have NO desires to be a trainer! haha. The weather in Zaragoza reminded me of home. It was cloudy and windy! haha. I am glad to be back in warm, sunny Tarragona. We did our studies outside, today, by the river. My base tan is starting to come in!
Hmmm....let´s see....an update on the work here. Cesar, the husband of a recent convert, is super close to baptism. He told us this weekend that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet, etc. We are really excited!
I suppose that´s all for this week. Maybe I´ll upload some pictures.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Crazy Week Ahead
¡Hola!
Well this past week I spent getting to know everyone in the area. We have an interesting area. Recently Elder Hansen gave most of our area in Tarragona to the other elders here because they were having trouble finding people to teach. Thus, we don´t work very much in Tarragona. We work in several pueblos. Torredembarra is a really nice pueblo on the coast. And St. Pere y St Pau is a nice pueblo super close to the coast also. Most of our focus, though, is on Reus. It´s a nearby city that is only slightly smaller than Tarragona. There used to be a rama (branch) of the church there. My goal over these next few months that I am here is to do all that I can to prepare the city for a rama again. Elder Hansen is great. It´s a little sad that I´ll only be working with him for one transfer before he goes home.
This week is going to be crazy. There is leadership training in Barç this week. All the district and zone leaders attend. Since my companion is district leader, he has to go. Thus while he is there, I will be in Zaragoza. Of the four elders in Zaragoza, 3 of them have leadership positions so I have to go there and be with the greenie who is left over. This causes a problem because we have a baptism this weekend we have to prepare for. We can´t send the greenie here because then there would be no elders in Zaragoza. Thus i have to go there and the other Tarragona will have to help prepare our baptism. We´ll get back Friday and still have quite a bit to prepare. It will be interesting. But I am excited to go to Zaragoza. I love seeing new areas in the mission!
Well we have to go catch the train soon. Sorry for the super short letter!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well this past week I spent getting to know everyone in the area. We have an interesting area. Recently Elder Hansen gave most of our area in Tarragona to the other elders here because they were having trouble finding people to teach. Thus, we don´t work very much in Tarragona. We work in several pueblos. Torredembarra is a really nice pueblo on the coast. And St. Pere y St Pau is a nice pueblo super close to the coast also. Most of our focus, though, is on Reus. It´s a nearby city that is only slightly smaller than Tarragona. There used to be a rama (branch) of the church there. My goal over these next few months that I am here is to do all that I can to prepare the city for a rama again. Elder Hansen is great. It´s a little sad that I´ll only be working with him for one transfer before he goes home.
This week is going to be crazy. There is leadership training in Barç this week. All the district and zone leaders attend. Since my companion is district leader, he has to go. Thus while he is there, I will be in Zaragoza. Of the four elders in Zaragoza, 3 of them have leadership positions so I have to go there and be with the greenie who is left over. This causes a problem because we have a baptism this weekend we have to prepare for. We can´t send the greenie here because then there would be no elders in Zaragoza. Thus i have to go there and the other Tarragona will have to help prepare our baptism. We´ll get back Friday and still have quite a bit to prepare. It will be interesting. But I am excited to go to Zaragoza. I love seeing new areas in the mission!
Well we have to go catch the train soon. Sorry for the super short letter!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Roman Summer
¡Hola!
Well, unfortunately I was only companions with Elder Shields for one transfer. And I had to leave Lleida earlier than I wanted to. Due to the high number of elders finishing their missions and the lack of any new elders coming in, two areas had to be combined with other areas. One of the areas that combined was Lleida. The two areas in Lleida combined into one area. Elder Parrish was transferred to Logroño. Elders Hughes and Shields became companions in Lleida. I moved a whopping 30 minutes by AVE to Tarragona! I am super excited. I really enjoyed Tarragona when I did intercambios here in December. Lleida and Tarragona are in the same district again now, so I will still see Elders Shields and Hughes every week. Plus stake conference is this month so I will get to see a lot of the Lleida members there. Also, my new companion, Elder Hansen, is the district leader. Thus we will being travelling to Lleida soon for baptismal interviews, and we will be doing intercambios with Lleida. So I will get to go back several times! Tarragona is an awesome city. It was founded as a Roman colony and has several Roman ruins. Also it is on the Mediterranean coast; thus I will be spending the summer on the coast! haha....not that it makes a difference as a missionary. It will be hard seeing tourists and others heading to the beach. Oh well, there is work to be done!
Elder Hansen is great. I loved him as a district leader two transfers ago. I look forward to working with him. I will actually "kill him" in the mission. He goes home after this transfer. This actually makes me a little nervous. There is a HUGE group of new elders coming in next transfer and the transfer after a HUGE group leaves. This means all of the older and middle missionaries will be either in leadership positions or training in the next few transfers. Our mission is very, very young and so I am now a middle missionary, thus it is very likely (seeing as I´ll need a new companion) that I could be made a senior companion....or even train or be district leader (if President is crazy).
General Conference was AMAZING as usual. What a special privelege we have to listen to a Prophet of God and his Apostles! I know without a doubt that they are called of God to lead His children. Everyone should take the time to listen to their words and counsels and apply them in his/her own life. Several times I felt as though I was being singled out. haha. I had recently decided (due to my new confidence and less weight) that after my mission I was going to save money and enjoy life as a bachelor,dating as many girls as I can, and someday (at 28 or so) returning to Spain to find a wife. Well that idea was thrown out the window this weekend by the Prophet, Elder Scott, and several others. They destroyed all my excuses...being too poor to marry, wanting to have fun, etc. Oh well, I still have almost a 1 1/2 years until I have to worry about marriage. My favorite talk was during the Priesthood session by President Uchtdorf. He gave a great talk about living up to the priveleges of the Priesthood and its blessings. I want to apply it to being a missionary and start living up more to the potential I have as a missionary and be worthy to receive blessings and miracles in the work.
The schedule for Conference was wierd here, seeing as we are 8 hours ahead of Salt Lake City. We watched the Saturday morning session live at 6 pm here. Then we watched Priesthood the next morning at 11 am and the Saturday afternoon session at 2pm. At 6 pm we watched the Sunday morning session live. The plan was to watch the Sunday afternoon session live at 10 pm. However, right before President Monson spoke during the morning session, it started to rain and we lost our satellite connection at the capilla. Thus we didn´t bother trying later for the afternoon session and merely watched parts of the that session and the prophet´s talk on Monday at a locutorio. We had several investigators there when the connection was lost, who were quite disappointed they didn´t get to hear the Prophet.
Tengo una montaña de fotos a compartir con ustedes, pero no lo tengo mi camera conmigo. Entonces la proxima semana voy a envoyer muchos fotos de mi ultima semana en Lérida y cosas como así.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well, unfortunately I was only companions with Elder Shields for one transfer. And I had to leave Lleida earlier than I wanted to. Due to the high number of elders finishing their missions and the lack of any new elders coming in, two areas had to be combined with other areas. One of the areas that combined was Lleida. The two areas in Lleida combined into one area. Elder Parrish was transferred to Logroño. Elders Hughes and Shields became companions in Lleida. I moved a whopping 30 minutes by AVE to Tarragona! I am super excited. I really enjoyed Tarragona when I did intercambios here in December. Lleida and Tarragona are in the same district again now, so I will still see Elders Shields and Hughes every week. Plus stake conference is this month so I will get to see a lot of the Lleida members there. Also, my new companion, Elder Hansen, is the district leader. Thus we will being travelling to Lleida soon for baptismal interviews, and we will be doing intercambios with Lleida. So I will get to go back several times! Tarragona is an awesome city. It was founded as a Roman colony and has several Roman ruins. Also it is on the Mediterranean coast; thus I will be spending the summer on the coast! haha....not that it makes a difference as a missionary. It will be hard seeing tourists and others heading to the beach. Oh well, there is work to be done!
Elder Hansen is great. I loved him as a district leader two transfers ago. I look forward to working with him. I will actually "kill him" in the mission. He goes home after this transfer. This actually makes me a little nervous. There is a HUGE group of new elders coming in next transfer and the transfer after a HUGE group leaves. This means all of the older and middle missionaries will be either in leadership positions or training in the next few transfers. Our mission is very, very young and so I am now a middle missionary, thus it is very likely (seeing as I´ll need a new companion) that I could be made a senior companion....or even train or be district leader (if President is crazy).
General Conference was AMAZING as usual. What a special privelege we have to listen to a Prophet of God and his Apostles! I know without a doubt that they are called of God to lead His children. Everyone should take the time to listen to their words and counsels and apply them in his/her own life. Several times I felt as though I was being singled out. haha. I had recently decided (due to my new confidence and less weight) that after my mission I was going to save money and enjoy life as a bachelor,dating as many girls as I can, and someday (at 28 or so) returning to Spain to find a wife. Well that idea was thrown out the window this weekend by the Prophet, Elder Scott, and several others. They destroyed all my excuses...being too poor to marry, wanting to have fun, etc. Oh well, I still have almost a 1 1/2 years until I have to worry about marriage. My favorite talk was during the Priesthood session by President Uchtdorf. He gave a great talk about living up to the priveleges of the Priesthood and its blessings. I want to apply it to being a missionary and start living up more to the potential I have as a missionary and be worthy to receive blessings and miracles in the work.
The schedule for Conference was wierd here, seeing as we are 8 hours ahead of Salt Lake City. We watched the Saturday morning session live at 6 pm here. Then we watched Priesthood the next morning at 11 am and the Saturday afternoon session at 2pm. At 6 pm we watched the Sunday morning session live. The plan was to watch the Sunday afternoon session live at 10 pm. However, right before President Monson spoke during the morning session, it started to rain and we lost our satellite connection at the capilla. Thus we didn´t bother trying later for the afternoon session and merely watched parts of the that session and the prophet´s talk on Monday at a locutorio. We had several investigators there when the connection was lost, who were quite disappointed they didn´t get to hear the Prophet.
Tengo una montaña de fotos a compartir con ustedes, pero no lo tengo mi camera conmigo. Entonces la proxima semana voy a envoyer muchos fotos de mi ultima semana en Lérida y cosas como así.
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, March 28, 2011
General conference... this week already?
¡Hola!
This weekend is General Conference! Can you believe it!? The time is just FLYING by. Of the 4 General Conferences taking place during my mission, this weekend is already the 2nd! I honestly cannot believe that 6 months have past since the last General Conference. This means very soon I will have been in Spain for 6 months! Transfers have become a regular unit of time for me. haha. The only problem is that they are too short! I could possibly be leaving Lleida next week! I don´t want to! It still feels like I just got here and I love the people so much. I am not ready to leave. I feel like I have unfinished business here. Also it doesn´t feel like Elder Shields and I have been together long enough. We work so well together; we need more than one transfer together. I am probably just nervous for nothing. The pattern I have noticed about Lleida is that most elders spend 4 transfers here. I have only spent 3. Plus I spent so little time in Valencia, I don´t think president will move me yet. But we´ll see. This transfer will be interesting. There are a TON of missionaries leaving and I believe there aren´t any coming in.
Again I apologize for not sharing more missionary experiences. Miracles and feeling the Spirit have just become an everyday part of life. Thus, I don´t feel the need to share them constantly. But here are a few.
We are working with a Spaniard named Ismael. Various companionships have been in contact off and on with him since 2006. He is super evangelical and likes to argue. Since we started working with him in late January, he has been kind to us, but still likes to argue but in a nice way. Yesterday was the first time he actually just quietly listened to us. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it! Planning for the cita we weren´t sure what to teach him. But that morning I said a prayer asking for inspiration on what to teach. Going into the cita I felt impressed to talk about faith and Alma 32. At the beginning he tried to "catch" us with a Bible verse. But when it supported what Alma was saying, he became quiet. He answered questions when we asked him, but generally he just listened.
One of my favorite things about Valencia was how people contacted us! They would walk up to us and ask for a Book of Mormon or ask to meet with us, etc. That has happened a few times here in Lleida. Now that Elder Shields and I are together, it has been happening more than usual. We must just be easy to approach. Last week we had several people approach us. One in particular was a lady from Brazil, named Lucia. She had a Book of Mormon in Brasil but accidentally left it there, and she also knew a little about the Church. She moved to Spain 6 or 7 years ago and has seen the missionaries several times. Finally last week when she saw us she felt (the Holy Ghost, quizas? sí!) like she should talk to us this time. We had a really good cita with her, but unfortunately we had to hand her over to the other elders. In fact, all of the golden investigators that have contacted us have lived in the other elders´ area. I think God is trying to teach Elder Shields and me a lesson on being self-less. We should be happy for these people´s salvation, not upset that we don´t get to baptize them personally.
Well I´m out of time for today. If I want to get a napolitana today, I need to get off the computer now before my bill gets to high.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYONE GIVES ME! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
This weekend is General Conference! Can you believe it!? The time is just FLYING by. Of the 4 General Conferences taking place during my mission, this weekend is already the 2nd! I honestly cannot believe that 6 months have past since the last General Conference. This means very soon I will have been in Spain for 6 months! Transfers have become a regular unit of time for me. haha. The only problem is that they are too short! I could possibly be leaving Lleida next week! I don´t want to! It still feels like I just got here and I love the people so much. I am not ready to leave. I feel like I have unfinished business here. Also it doesn´t feel like Elder Shields and I have been together long enough. We work so well together; we need more than one transfer together. I am probably just nervous for nothing. The pattern I have noticed about Lleida is that most elders spend 4 transfers here. I have only spent 3. Plus I spent so little time in Valencia, I don´t think president will move me yet. But we´ll see. This transfer will be interesting. There are a TON of missionaries leaving and I believe there aren´t any coming in.
Again I apologize for not sharing more missionary experiences. Miracles and feeling the Spirit have just become an everyday part of life. Thus, I don´t feel the need to share them constantly. But here are a few.
We are working with a Spaniard named Ismael. Various companionships have been in contact off and on with him since 2006. He is super evangelical and likes to argue. Since we started working with him in late January, he has been kind to us, but still likes to argue but in a nice way. Yesterday was the first time he actually just quietly listened to us. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it! Planning for the cita we weren´t sure what to teach him. But that morning I said a prayer asking for inspiration on what to teach. Going into the cita I felt impressed to talk about faith and Alma 32. At the beginning he tried to "catch" us with a Bible verse. But when it supported what Alma was saying, he became quiet. He answered questions when we asked him, but generally he just listened.
One of my favorite things about Valencia was how people contacted us! They would walk up to us and ask for a Book of Mormon or ask to meet with us, etc. That has happened a few times here in Lleida. Now that Elder Shields and I are together, it has been happening more than usual. We must just be easy to approach. Last week we had several people approach us. One in particular was a lady from Brazil, named Lucia. She had a Book of Mormon in Brasil but accidentally left it there, and she also knew a little about the Church. She moved to Spain 6 or 7 years ago and has seen the missionaries several times. Finally last week when she saw us she felt (the Holy Ghost, quizas? sí!) like she should talk to us this time. We had a really good cita with her, but unfortunately we had to hand her over to the other elders. In fact, all of the golden investigators that have contacted us have lived in the other elders´ area. I think God is trying to teach Elder Shields and me a lesson on being self-less. We should be happy for these people´s salvation, not upset that we don´t get to baptize them personally.
Well I´m out of time for today. If I want to get a napolitana today, I need to get off the computer now before my bill gets to high.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE SUPPORT EVERYONE GIVES ME! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Friday, March 25, 2011
Happy (Belated) St. Patrick's Day
¡Hola!
This week was Zone Conference. As usual it was amazing! We focused on leveraging the power of members in missionary work. THIS WAS SUPER HELPFUL! The members in Lleida do not help out very much. Thus the work has not been progressing much; it is statistically proven that more member references are baptized and remain active members than street contacts. We learned a ton that will hopefully help us increase the animo of the members here and help the work catch fire. At one point during the conference, Hermana Hinckley took the sisters out for a special lesson and President Hinckley taught the elders a special lesson. I´m not sure if the sisters actually got a lesson or if they just helped Hna Hinckley prepare for lunch. But on the other hand President Hinckley gave us a warning lesson on what happens in Spain during the summer. He started out by saying, "In a few days this rain will stop and the sun will come out." He turned to one of our zone leaders, Elder Jimenez, who is a native to Spain and asked,"What happens after that?" Elder Jimenez responded, saying, "The girls go crazy!!" Then President spent 15 or so minutes giving us advice on how to keep virtuous and chaste thoughts while there are so many "distractions" around.
Back in February Elder Plaskett and I worked with the Bishopric to plan a special Sunday where all the talks and lessons are simple doctrine aimed at investigators. This way members could feel more comfortable bringing friends and us missionaries could bring more people to church by using the Special Sunday as an excuse for people to come. The Bishopric at the time didn´t give us a specific date. We only knew that it would be the 20 or 28th of March. To be honest I kind of forgot about it until last Sunday. The Bishopric nor us advertised it. Last Sunday (the 13th) a lot of the talks seemed focused on the Restoration and the nature of God- simple doctrinal topics. This reminded me of the special Sunday. I was too embarrassed to ask the Bishopric if that was it so I just assumed that we had forgotten and it was too late. Well Saturday evening the Second Councilor came up to us to see if we were planning on during anything during Sacrament Meeting for the Special Sunday. Elder Hughes on the spot offered to do a special musical number. This was bad for two reasons. A. I can´t sing and we had no time to prepare. B. This means that we hadn´t already had the special sunday. It was the next day and we had not advertised it at all. Needless to say we made a lot of phone calls that night trying to get people to come to church and to bring people to church. We actually had quite a few nonmembers come, but not near as many as I would have hoped. Also the musical number turned out well. Josh accompanied us on the piano as we sang the first two verses of "Llamados a Servir" and we invited the congregation to sing the 4th verse with us. It was really nice. Unfortunately all of our adult investigators had to leave after sacrament meeting. The remaining nonmembers and investigators were youth and primary age. Thus we had nobody for gospel principles class. One member didn´t approve of this. He assumed that since nobody was at class that nobody had come to sacrament. And he chewed us out. It was really annoying because if he wants fijo investigators, he should help us out with references!!!!! At the end of his scolding of us he did offer to help us in citas on weekends, so that made it a little less annoying and discouraging. We ended up going to Gospel Doctrines class, which was a nice change.
Currently Elder Shields and I are teaching several part member families. We feel pretty good about them and hope to have some baptisms soon. We are still teaching a couple Africans. One of them is a nice lady named Charlotte. She is nice, but a bit loca! Elder Parrish came on intercambios with me. During the lesson his lips got dry so he licked them a tiny bit. Charlotte freaked out and grabbed his tongue, telling him that we are not animals. It was hilarious!!! When we got home for medio dia he immediately brushed his teeth. haha!
Well I suppose that is all for today. ¡Hasta luego! Happy Belated St. Patrick´s Day!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
This week was Zone Conference. As usual it was amazing! We focused on leveraging the power of members in missionary work. THIS WAS SUPER HELPFUL! The members in Lleida do not help out very much. Thus the work has not been progressing much; it is statistically proven that more member references are baptized and remain active members than street contacts. We learned a ton that will hopefully help us increase the animo of the members here and help the work catch fire. At one point during the conference, Hermana Hinckley took the sisters out for a special lesson and President Hinckley taught the elders a special lesson. I´m not sure if the sisters actually got a lesson or if they just helped Hna Hinckley prepare for lunch. But on the other hand President Hinckley gave us a warning lesson on what happens in Spain during the summer. He started out by saying, "In a few days this rain will stop and the sun will come out." He turned to one of our zone leaders, Elder Jimenez, who is a native to Spain and asked,"What happens after that?" Elder Jimenez responded, saying, "The girls go crazy!!" Then President spent 15 or so minutes giving us advice on how to keep virtuous and chaste thoughts while there are so many "distractions" around.
Back in February Elder Plaskett and I worked with the Bishopric to plan a special Sunday where all the talks and lessons are simple doctrine aimed at investigators. This way members could feel more comfortable bringing friends and us missionaries could bring more people to church by using the Special Sunday as an excuse for people to come. The Bishopric at the time didn´t give us a specific date. We only knew that it would be the 20 or 28th of March. To be honest I kind of forgot about it until last Sunday. The Bishopric nor us advertised it. Last Sunday (the 13th) a lot of the talks seemed focused on the Restoration and the nature of God- simple doctrinal topics. This reminded me of the special Sunday. I was too embarrassed to ask the Bishopric if that was it so I just assumed that we had forgotten and it was too late. Well Saturday evening the Second Councilor came up to us to see if we were planning on during anything during Sacrament Meeting for the Special Sunday. Elder Hughes on the spot offered to do a special musical number. This was bad for two reasons. A. I can´t sing and we had no time to prepare. B. This means that we hadn´t already had the special sunday. It was the next day and we had not advertised it at all. Needless to say we made a lot of phone calls that night trying to get people to come to church and to bring people to church. We actually had quite a few nonmembers come, but not near as many as I would have hoped. Also the musical number turned out well. Josh accompanied us on the piano as we sang the first two verses of "Llamados a Servir" and we invited the congregation to sing the 4th verse with us. It was really nice. Unfortunately all of our adult investigators had to leave after sacrament meeting. The remaining nonmembers and investigators were youth and primary age. Thus we had nobody for gospel principles class. One member didn´t approve of this. He assumed that since nobody was at class that nobody had come to sacrament. And he chewed us out. It was really annoying because if he wants fijo investigators, he should help us out with references!!!!! At the end of his scolding of us he did offer to help us in citas on weekends, so that made it a little less annoying and discouraging. We ended up going to Gospel Doctrines class, which was a nice change.
Currently Elder Shields and I are teaching several part member families. We feel pretty good about them and hope to have some baptisms soon. We are still teaching a couple Africans. One of them is a nice lady named Charlotte. She is nice, but a bit loca! Elder Parrish came on intercambios with me. During the lesson his lips got dry so he licked them a tiny bit. Charlotte freaked out and grabbed his tongue, telling him that we are not animals. It was hilarious!!! When we got home for medio dia he immediately brushed his teeth. haha!
Well I suppose that is all for today. ¡Hasta luego! Happy Belated St. Patrick´s Day!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
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