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
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