Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Happy Groundhog's Day

¡Hola!

Well not much has happened this week. Just another normal week. Elder Plaskett and I had another fairly good week. We are still having trouble with the other companionship. Luckily the Lord has strengthened me A LOT. I have a lot more paciencia. Whenever they do something to us (and let me tell you this week was full of them causing issues for us) I don´t get angry. When Elder Plaskett gets in an argument with them I just walk away. I don´t yell at them for eating my food, etc. anymore. For example I recently saved up to buy some REAL Heinz ketchup (the ketchup here tastes funny and i had to save up cuz Heinz is expensive here). Elder Da Silva used it without asking, bathing his food in it and using more than double than what I had already used (and i had been using it for about a week). Now I love ketchup (i´m my dad´s son)...but i didn´t loose my temper. I just reminded him that is was mine and expensive, asked him to ask me next time, and walked away. Some would call that being a pushover. I really don´t know. But I´d much rather them eat my food, lie to the members about us, etc. than argue with them. Because when I get angry it only drives the Spirit away from me and effects my ability to teach the Gospel. Thus, I am done arguing. And it is impressive how much peace the Lord had given me, especially helping me not get angry.

In one of the menos activo/part-member families that we are teaching, there is a 5-6 yr old boy who is ADD or ADHD. The first few visits with the family, he was super rowdy and disruptive. He didn´t really like us. Now though he sits still, quietly listening to us. And this past week when we came over, he searched his entire room until he found his Book of Mormon storybook to show us. I think the son´s excitement towards us is having an impact on his nonmember father who isn´t interested in the church, but is slowly warming up to us now.

We have a several new investigators. We met a man this week named, Johan. He used to attend our English class in the past when other elders were here. We helping him learn how to use computer basics, like Microsoft Word. (I´m not really sure if that is allowed...I´ll have to ask President during entrevistas this week). Anyway the catch is that we get to share a spiritual thought. He seems really interested. The are others too but I´m running out of time (i don´t like paying too much here at the locutorio) and I want to tell one more story.

I forgot a story last week from zone conference. During zone conference we read the names of every who got baptized in the mission. Afterwards we shared stories. President Hinckley told us a story about a girl named Johana from Valencia (sound familiar?). Anyway in case you didn´t realize this is the same Johana that Elder Lara and I worked with a lot. President told the story like this (not exact wording and a bit summarized to save time). "In Valencia there is a 17 year old girl who has been attending church for 5 years. Her mom wouldnt give her permission to be baptized. There were a couple of elders in Valencia who worked really hard with her mom and built a close relationship with the family. Finally her mom decided for Christmas she would allow Johana to get baptized. Johana got baptized on a Friday evening. There was a youth temple trip the following day. The youth really wanted Johana to go and Johana really wanted to go. So the Bishop gave me a call asking if she could get confirmed right after the baptism instead on Sunday. I said it was ok. And Johana was baptized, confirmed, had a temple recommend interview with the Bishop, and got to go to the temple the next day." isn´t that an AWESOME story!!!

well i´m out of time. attached is a pic of my new coat. i had to get one that my chappa could fit in. i got it for 70% off for rabajas. it´s from zara!

¡Hasta Luego! Happy Groundhog´s Day!

love,
Elder Buchkovich

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