Monday, September 10, 2012

Return Home

CHURCH TRAVEL CWT                          DATE 17JULY12
50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST                    AGENT VH/JV BOOKING REF 3W7SJR
SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150
TELEPHONE: 801 240-5111                    BUCHKOVICH/ALEX MIC 196022-R
FAX      : 801-240-5115
 
  MISSIONARY TRAVEL
  SPAIN BARCELONA MISSION
 
SERVICE               DATE  FROM           TO             DEPART  ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
DELTA AIR LINES       22AUG BARCELONA      NEW YORK NY    1020A   110P
DL 95             WEDNESDAY AIRPORT        JOHN F KENNEDY
U ECONOMY                   TERMINAL 1     TERMINAL 3
           NON SMOKING      LUNCH                         NON STOP
                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         8:50 DURATION
                  AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-300
                            SEAT 32J NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
 
DELTA AIR LINES       22AUG NEW YORK NY    CLEVELAND OH   430P    626P
DL 6044           WEDNESDAY LA GUARDIA     HOPKINS INT    
U ECONOMY                   TERMINAL D
           NON SMOKING                                    NON STOP
                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         1:56 DURATION
                            FLIGHT OPERATED BY CHAUTAUQUA DBA DELTA C
            AIRCRAFT OWNER: RP  CHAUTAUQUA AIRLINES
                  AIRCRAFT: EMBRAER RJ135/140/145
                            SEAT 07C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
 
RESERVATION NUMBER(S)  DL/HBBHJH
 
BUCHKOVICH/ALEX MICHAEL  196022-R
     ETKT:DL/006 7102758511

Well that's all folks!

Hola!
 
Well I am not sure what my schedule will be next Monday. I will be in Barcelona for my exit interview, thus I will be probably try to spend as much time as possible visiting people in Cornellá and Granollers. And seeing as I will be home 3 days later, I am not sure if I will write. We´ll see. But just in case, I will make this my closing letter.
 
There is not much to say. It is impossible to express how I feel. As the overused phrase states, "It´s the best 2 years!" I love this work. I love my Heavenly Father. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love His Gospel. I do not want to go home, but there is a time and a season for everything. I just have to trust in the Lord and all will be well. I want to thank you for you love and support, for the letters to me, and for reading my letters.
 
On Sunday we saw a wonderful milagro. We recently met a menos activa woman, Teresa. She was excited to see us, but nervous to come back to church. She made excuses the first few Sundays about not coming. However she had a change of heart and decided that this Sunday she would go. Has he usually does in situations like this Satan tried attacking. The lady with whom Teresa works called her all Sunday morning to ask her to work that day. However, that morning Teresa´s phone was not working. By the time it started working again, it was too late for Teresa to go in to work. Thus she was free to come to church. And she did! She brought her cousin and 15 year-old son, who are not members. Her son absolutely loved church. As he left, he told us that he would never miss a Sunday and that the next week he would come in a white shirt. It is no coincidence that Teresa´s phone did not work Sunday morning!
 
Yesterday we went to an Evangelical church. It was quite the experience!! Ask me about it later.

Well as lovely as it is to keep writing, there is work to be done! Souls to be saved! See you soon, but until then I will be working hard!!
 
¡Hasta pronto!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
 
 

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Power of a Testimony

¡Hola!
 
Well this past week was fairly normal. Nothing out of the ordinary happened. Last night we ate dinner at Maria´s house. Whenever I go there we always talk about stories that happened at the beginning of my mission with Elder Lara, Elder Ames, and Elder Shields. It is always a lot of fun.
 
I heard about the whole Chik Fil A thing. I am a little confused. What does chicken have to do with gay rights? I do not understand why a boycott/picketing was necessary. Was the freedom of speech repealed while I´ve been here? They should also boycot Chik Fil A for not being open on Sundays. After all, it is ofensive to people who get hungry on Sundays. This Sunday we will boycott them. Nobody go there. Who´s with me? Well I am suddenly hungry for some chicken.....
 
This week we met Lucelly, a nice Colombian lady. We found her passing by an old investigator who no longer lives there. She recently was baptized in an evangelical church, thus when we presented The Book of Mormon her face turned into one of concern. However after hearing our testimonies and the testimony of our member, her heart softened, and she agreed to read and have another visit. Small, simple testimonies can have a powerful effect on a person´s heart.
 
Well that is all for this week.
 
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
 
ps. Next Monday is your last chance to ask for something from Spain. If not, all you get is bunch of missionary stories, which I will gladly share.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Better Late Than Never

¡Hola!
 
Due to technical difficulties, I could not finish my emails on Monday. I finally found literally 5 minutes to write. So this will be quick.
 
Last preparation day we paid 2 euros to climb up a tower that overlooks all of Valencia. Halfway up the stairs I realized that we paid money to climb up stairs (something we do daily) on our only day of rest. It was frustrating. But the view was worth it. It was gorgeous. And right as we arrived to the top the bells starting ringing.
 
One miracle this week is about baptism. We have an investigator, Juan Carlos, that is married to a member. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a while now and has been attending church regularly, but does not want to be baptized. This weekend an 8 year old from the ward was baptized. His parents are friends with Juan Carlos, so Juan Carlos came to the baptism. He felt the Spirit so strongly that after the baptism he told his friends that he wants to be baptized. Now he is super excited! He will be baptized at the end of this month when his wife returns from vacation in her country.
 
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich 

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Pictures





Noche de Talentos

Hola!
 
So this Saturday was a Noche de Talentos in our ward. It was quite fun! Paola, an 11 year-old recent convert, wanted me to sing a duet with her from High School Musical. That is not really missionary appropriate, so we sang "I hope the call me on a mission" in English. We sang it was a country song (we received the idea from the RM soundtrack). Elder Cuevas played a guitar and Elder Dixon played the violin. Paola, Elder Rockwood, and I sang with some small cowboy choreography. It was a last minute thing, but we weren´t too terrible. It was a lot of fun. There were some really good acts. Aaron, a two year old, danced Michael Jackson for 10 minutes. It was AMAZING! The Relief Society did a really funny dance, dressed like old ladies. We had several investigators that enjoyed the evening!

At the beginning of this week I was praying really hard for a miracle to start off the new companship well. On Wednesday that miracle came. Right as we ended district meeting a couple and a young woman entered the capilla to ask us about English class. As it turns out the man is a menos activo member who wants to return to the church. The wife and step-daughter are not members but are interested in learning about the Gospel. Later in the week we had our first visit with them. They are a great family! When we invited the step daughter to be baptized, she accepted! Also during the visit we met 3 other friends who are interested! This was just the miracle we needed to start off the transfer. Heavenly Father always answers righteous desires!

¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Priesthood Blessings

Hola!
 
Well we had a suprise baptism this weekend! Alejandro was baptized a week early. It is incredible how much faith he has. He bore his testimony during Elders´ Quorum. He challenged everyone to keep strengthening their own testimonies and endure to the end. It was amazing!
 
We experienced another miracle as a result of prayer. We have a family that, due to difficult circumstances, usually only meets with us in a park. On Wednesday evening we knew that we would, by chance, be passing by that park, so we stopped and said a quick prayer, asking God for the family to be there and also to find a new family to teach. As we passed through the park, sure enough our family was there! And with them was one of their friends and her family! We invited both families to come to a ward noche de hogar on Friday. They came! The members welcomed them well, and they enjoyed the noche de hogar! I really have no doubt that Heavenly Father answers prayers when they are righteous desires.
 
Elder Tayler was a phenomonal missionary! He worked hard up to the end. I am so glad to have been his companion. My new companion, Elder Cuevas, is just as wonderful. Elder Cuevas was actually already here in Valencia. He was in the other area, but now he is with me. He was transferred across piso. haha. I am quite excited to work with him and see the miracles that are to come! He is super humble and open to the Spirit. Despite the Spanish name, he is American. He´s from Utah (my first Utahrd companion in over a year!). His dad is Mexican, hence the last name. Fun story, more than a year ago he spent is first day in the mission field with Elder Manotas and me.
 
Back in Burgos, I prayed to find two more Bolivian families to baptize before going home (By now you all know that I love Bolivians). Shortly after arriving in Valencia, the high priest group leader told me about two families that he wants to introduce to the church. Tomorrow we will finally have a noche de hogar with them. I am super excited. They could be my two families!
 
We gave little Iker a blessing on Saturday. It was quite a special experience to imagine that I, someone who is alive due to the priesthood blessing I received as a baby, was able to bless another young baby. Hopefully someday Iker will hold the priesthood and do the same. We visited him yesterday and the change was impressive. On Saturday he was very mellow and cried when we came too close. Yesterday he was alert, cheerful and playful. The doctors say that he keeps improving. Priesthood blessing are impressive!
 
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
 

Monday, July 2, 2012

Snow in Valencia

¡Hola!
 
Well the past few days it has been "snowing" ash in Valencia. There is a forest fire about 30-45 minutes outside of Valencia. You can even smell it here! (I do miss the smell of campfires) Sadly the fire is where we were just last weekend for the service project. All the members are really worried because is beautiful out there. It rained a little yesterday so I think that helped. Several of the members bore testimony during sacrament that they were praying for rain early Sunday morning and later in the morning it rained! I just love it when God answers prayers!
 
This week we witnessed a milagrazo! Alejandro is an old investigator who had a fecha bautismal. However due to work, he disappeared before he could get baptized. On Tuesday we had a visit planned fairly far from the capilla with another investigator. That visit, however, was cancelled just as we started walking towards it. Thus, we decided to pass by some other people near the capilla. Conveniently a recent convert called us to drop off food for us at the capilla. So, we decided to go to the capilla to meet him there. We arrived first, and as we waited we noticed a man come and sit on the bench outside the capilla (nothing too abnormal). Right after the man arrived, our recent convert came with the food. The man stopped him and started to talk to him. We immediately jumped up and ran out the capilla to talk to this man too. This man was Alejandro. He just returned to Valencia and felt like he should go to the capilla. We had a visit with him right then and set a new fecha with him! It is no coincidence that our visit fallar-ed and we were at the capilla when we were. God put us at the right spot at the right time so that He could lead His son, Alejandro, to us.
 
Maye, who was baptized several months ago, invited us over for an eating visit. She also invited her sister´s family, who are not members. Right before the visit our "third man" was called in to work. Thus we did not have a man to be able to enter. So they invited two men from the street to come eat. As it turns out the one man has a brother who is a member. And he is interested in hearing more about the church. It was really fun, though, eating with two complete strangers. That truly was one of those "only in the mission" moments. haha!
 
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

La Cueva

¡Hola!
 
It sure is hot! It reached 45 degrees celsius on Thursday!!!! And that does not include humidity!!!!
 
Saturday we had a really fun experience. The Valencia stake had a stake wide "Manos que ayudan"  (mormon helping hands) service project. We went and performed service for the morning. As a stake we went out to a small pueblo about 45 minutes from valencia to clean up/make repairs around the town. Nearby the pueblo there is a picnic area. Us four elders got chosen to go in a group to clean up trash in the picnic area. Well nearby the picnic area is a giant cave. Everyone was assigned to fill up a trash bag. Everyone stayed near the picnic area picking up trash. But we decided to slowly start venturing towards the cave. On the main path towards the cave we found loads of trash, that we were able to clean up. When we filled up our bag we decided to explore the cave. We found a small pathway that leads towards the cave. We had to weave through trees and bushes, climb up rocks/hills, etc. It felt just like a family hike on vacation. When we arrived at the cave, it was better than we could imagine! Water trickled down the front of the cave into a gorgeous spring of water. It was breathtakingly beautful. We took pictures and enjoyed a few moments of quiet. Then we heard some voices as the rest of the group made their way towards the cave. Everyone was quite surprised to see us their already. All the jovens went swimming. (i was quite jealous!) It was a fun little activity. Then we went back to work picking up trash. Afterwards a stake member who is famous for his paella (the same that made paella for los teixera) made paella for everyone. It was delicious! Service is so much fun.
 
Miracle: Angels are preparing people and softening their hearts. A few weeks ago we stopped visiting an investigator because she just was not progressing. But this Friday she randomly called us. And Sunday she surprised us by coming to church! She is suddenly a lot more open to the Gospel. Sometimes it is hard to stop teaching people, however when we put our trust in God, he continues preparing them.
 
¡Hasta luego! 
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich 

Monday, June 11, 2012

Ayuno

¡Hola!
 
¡Que calor! It is hot, hot, hot here in good ole Valencia. But I don´t mind at all! Everything is going so well. The entire zone is progressing amazingly! Our area has been seeing some up and downs, but we have some great people who will be baptized in the weeks to come.
 
My companion and I did a special fast for one of our families with a fecha, asking Heavenly Father to help them receive/recognize the answer to their prayers. Although they have been to church several times already, we felt that it was especially important for them to come this weekend in order to receive these answers. We stopped by to pick them up before church, and they were not even starting to get ready. However they promised to get ready and come a little late. During the first talk, only the mother walked in. We were a bit disappointed that only she came. However a few minutes later more of the family came walking in. It was quite a relief to see them in church! I know that Heavenly Father answered our prayers and fast by helping them come. And I am even more sure that He is answering the prayers of our investigators.
Well I do not have anymore time to write. Sorry for the short letter!
 
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Elder Sergio Lucero

¡Hola!
 
What a wonderful week! It has been an amazing experience returning to Valencia. People actually remember me! There are members that remember me, whom I do not remember! haha. It is crazy....little babies that I knew are running around, talking. I cannot believe it!!!
 
The Lord´s timing is amazing! I arrived in Valencia on Tuesday. And on Thursday Sergio, my first baptism, received his call to the Misión España  Málaga. It was one of the happiest moments of my mission!! It is so wonderful to know that he still so strong in the Gospel. He has so much faith. His family is going through so many trials. Some people are telling him to stay home. But he knows God will bless his family, and that this is the best thing he can do for his family. He is going to see so many miracles. I am so excited for him!
 
I am writing late (in the mission office) because we had zone leaders´ concilio today. It was amazing! I learned so much from President. It was super spiritual. The mission really is something special. I am so grateful to be out here. I can not even express myself when it comes to talking about how amazing the mission is. I love it so much!!!
 
There are way too many miracles in Valencia. One that especially strikes me happened with Jorge, who was baptized this weekend. It really shows the power of the priesthood and faith. Jorge had his baptismal interview on Thursday. After the interview he told us that he had been smoking that morning and asked us for a blessing. After the blessing he confidently told us that he would never smoke again. Later we found out that as I anointed him with oil, he felt an energy like electricity go through his body, starting from his head. After the blessing he threw away his cigarettes and has not smoked a single one since. The priesthood is real. Miracles really happen through the priesthood when we are worthy and have faith!
¡Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich

The story begins and ends in Valencia

¡Hola!

Well as seems to be the pattern in my mission, my best areas last only
3 months. We were quite shocked by transfer calls this past week. I
spent the entire day travelling. I have returned to Valencia as a zone
leader. It will be the same ward that I started in! I am super
excited! It still has not hit me that I am in VALENCIA again.

It was truly sad leaving Burgos. The members there are amazing and I
love all of converts there. We saw some great miracles in Burgos!!

I cannot fully express how exciting it is to be in Valencia. Maybe
next week I will do a better job. I am so excited to see everyone
again and actually be able to speak with them!

Last miracle story from Burgos:
Two weeks ago we passed by a menos activo´s piso, but he was not home.
While my companion spoke to him on the phone to set up a visit, I
looked across the street and saw two women with whom I felt we should
talk. I immediately turned to my companion and said that we neeed to
cross the street quickly. My companion was quite confused as to what
the rush was but followed me as I ran and crossed the street. We
started to catch up to the two women, but the sidewalk was thin and
due to people walking in the opposite direction, we could not overcome
them to talk to them. Finally at the next street corner, I caught them
and started talking to them. They are the mothers of two Ecuatorian
families that live together. We visited them for the first time this
week. When we arrived, two of their friends were there. It turns out
that these two women invited their friends (another Ecuatorian
family)over just to visit with us. In one visit we started teaching
three new families, all of which were really excited to start reading
the Book of Mormon and find peace in the lives!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Record attendance in Burgos

¡Hola!
 
This was a great week for Burgos! We did not teach as many lessons as we have been, but we finally reached ALL of the "new" pautas de excelencia!! Also Daniel was baptized. He is a great little kid. I am glad he could finally get baptized. I felt really bad though for his cousin Diego. He did not receive permission from his mother to be baptized. He looked really sad at the baptism and teared up a little bit as Danny left the water.
 
Sunday was amazing!  The asistencia in Burgos was 73!!!! That is ward-like!! The members are super excited! The only problem. There is no room in the capilla. There were literally people sitting out in the hall because there was no room in the sacrament room. The next few months will be really fun here in Burgos!
 
Again there were various miracles this week! One miracle resulted from trying something new that I would normally be against doing. The story starts Saturday night at the end of planning. As we ended the closing prayer, my companion felt inspired that José, the friend of a member, could be a possible baptism this weekend. The next day as the passing of the Sacrament ended, we counted only 5 investigators present in Sacrament Meeting. Again one short of the pautas. However, José popped into my mind. He was not at church and needed to come to Sacrament meeting one more time before being baptized. In a split decision we decided to follow President Hinckley´s and Elder Caussé´s counsel to do everything to get people to church, even if it means leaving. Luckily he lives right by the capilla. As we were waiting for him to get ready, we spoke with his mother. It turns out her brothers are active returned missionaries! She also has nephews who served missions. She is super interested in meeting with us. Luckily we got José back in Sacrament on time to listen to the High Counselor speak. Tonight we are going to meet with José to talk about baptism. The miracle is my companion`s inspiration at the end of planning. There are two great blessing from this miracle. First of all we finally met José´s mother. Secondly, we got José to church. Now he can be baptized this weekend!
 
!Hasta luego!
 
Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, May 14, 2012

Baptism Pictures






Quiero Barcelona

¡Hola!


Well I had a nice conversation with Mom and Dad yesterday. The Rays joined in for a while. And luckily, mostly due to technical issues, I was able to say "hi" to the Reeds for 5 minutes before ending the call. For those of you who could not be a part of the phone call here is a quick update. I had to go to Barcelona for a few days to take care of some residency. I am finally legal again!!! That was really fun. We had some free time before a visit so we haggled with a Muslim man to sell us cheap fake Barç jerseys. I bought Piqué and Alexis. I really love the city of Barcelona. It has become a home away from home for me. It felt so nice returning there for few days, hearing Catalan again, seeing all the palm trees. I LOVE BARCELONA!!


Everything is still amazing in Burgos. This week was filled with many amazing miracles. I would say that the biggest miracle is with Felix´s mother. She was quite angry about his baptism. This week after praying with Félix and his wife, she felt that she needed to be baptized too! It is a complete miracle. The Spirit of God can soften any heart.


Tuesday morning we did not have any fijo-ed visits planned. Thus we decided to use this time to pass by some antiguos. Upon leaving piso we prayed to find a family to baptize. Througout the morning we only ever came across old, grumpy men who did not want anything to do with us. Finally as were returning to piso we saw our family. We were only one block away from piso when we saw a young Ecuatorian family walking towards us. We immediately started talking to them. As it turns out the wife has relatives who are members in Ecuador. We had our first visit on Saturday. They accepted our invitation to be baptized, however we will set the actual fecha during our next visit when we will also meet their 11 year old daughter. We prayed to find a family. And of course God answered our prayers!


Another miracle happened Wednesday right before English class. A man walked into the capilla and told us that he was ready to take his life seriously and make some changes. He is an old investigator that attended church years ago. Now he is ready to accept the Gospel. We asked him to come back later after English class to have a visit. He came and accepted a baptismal date! On Sunday we were not expecting him to come because he told us that he had a prior commitment with another church. We were quite surprised when he walked into Gospel Principle class!


¡Hasta luego!


Love,

Elder Buchkovich


¡Hola!


It has been an interesting week. We continue to work hard! We had a zone enfoque in Bilbao (zone wide district meeting lead by the zone leaders). For the second have of the meeting the zone leaders called 4 of us "old" missionaries to the front. We had a question and answer session with the rest of the zone. It was fun sharing advice with younger missionaries, but I really wish people would stop reminding me that I am going home soon. I still have lots of time!


We also did an intercambio. It was fun! I went up to Vitoria. I served in a trio with Elder Rhead and Elder Archibald. Elder Poinar went to burgos with Elder Shiflet. We had a great time in Vitoria. Elder Shiflet suffered a bit. Elder Poinar is quite interesting to put it nicely. He managed to offend ALL of our recent converts and quite a few members. They were all super excited when I got back. I can´t go into much detail. I don´t have time.


I bore my testimony on Sunday. I mentioned my dear mother. I will write in in the next email....if i remember.


One miracle this week came from a recent convert. Isabel has a really strong testimony; however, due to work, she has not been able to come to church over the past few weeks. With some encouragement from us and her visiting teachers, Isabel finally worked up the courage to ask her boss for Sundays free. And he agreed! It is a miracle alone that her boss so willingly let her have Sunday free without any problem. But it does not end there. Isabel was so excited to come back to church that she invited her boyfriend to come. He came and loved it! He participated in classes and afterwards Isabel, while smiling, told us that he was really excited about church. I love recent converts! They bring so many people to the Gospel!!


¡Hasta luego!


Love,

Elder Buchkovich

Monday, April 30, 2012

Only ten more to go!

¡Hola!


Nancy was baptized this weekend! It was an interesting service. During the visits Nancy always talked about her dog. One morning I jokingly mentioned to Elder Shiflet that she was probably going to want to bring her dog. That statement proved to be prophetic. That same day she asked us if she could bring her dog to her baptism. The branch president was with us in the visit and he agreed to allow it only if someone was holding it at all times. The dog behaved well during the service, but before and after the service it ran around the capilla wreaking havoc with the primary kids. My rule of not baptizing seems to not work anymore. We could not convince Nancy to let a member baptize her. But I do not really mind. I am now only 10 baptisms away from my mission goal!!


We still do not know how Nancy´s phone called us in the middle of the night! The Gospel has really blessed her life. Before she started meeting with us she could not sleep well due to nightmares. However since she starting meeting with us, she has been sleeping really well at night. Her life is a lot more peaceful.


My miracle story this week comes from contacting. Recently we have been trying to place a stronger emphasis on contacting. We are always running from visit to visit; thus sometimes we forget the Lord´s counsel in Doctrine and Covenants to not travel swiftly while people all around perish. Therefore we have been trying harder to contact. We have seen several miracles from this. Although most of our contacts have rejected us, God has greatly blessed us for our finding efforts. We met two wonderfully golden families during a visit with one of our baptismal fechas. Then on Saturday one the members showed up with his friend from work, who is already reading the Book of Mormon! To top the week off, Jackson came to church. Jackson is a menos activo we contacted two weeks ago. He was literally the only person on the street. He came to church with his two young daughters, one of which is 12 and unbaptized. She really enjoyed the Young Women´s class and wants to come back! Although contacting is not the most effective finding technique, God always blesses us for our efforts!


¡Hasta luego!


Love,

Elder Buchkovich

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Visiting Teaching

¡Hola!

It has been another great week in Burgos! To cap of the week Burgos saw an attendance of 59 people in church! They are getting quite close to ward numbers!!

The members in Burgos continue to impress me with their dedication to home/visiting teaching. They are working MIRACLES in missionary work, even when we are not there! Everytime we visit Xandra, our recent convert, we always ask her about her cousin. We have been trying to contact her cousin for a while now. This past week Xandra´s visiting teachers visited her to teach one of the new convert lessons (I love that!). And lo and behold, her cousin happened to pass by that day. The visiting teachers invited her to the lesson, and she agreed to listen. They found out that she is meeting with the Testigos, but invited her to meet with us. The members are working so hard here!


President approved one of the pisos were looking at. Thus, the office is currently making arrangements with the landlord. Hopefully soon we will be moving into our new piso!! We did a pretty good job with the piso we found. It is reallynice and really cheap. President was quite excited by how much cheaper it is than our current piso.


Día de Sant Jordi was yesterday. But since we are not in Catalunya, it was not as big as a deal here. There was still "Día del Libro" but it isn´t is as big as Sant Jordi and you have to be selling books to participate. So we just handed out Books of Mormon between visits. It is actually funny how much I have changed from the beginning of my mission. When we first arrived in Spain we used a taxi to go downtown to do paperwork. We were all really afraid to talk to the taxi driver and all i remember saying is "gracias! adios!" as we left the cab. Well yeasterday while helpìng some members move, they called a taxi for us to get to the new piso from the old one. Upon entering the taxi, I immediately started talking to him and before leaving the cab, gave him a Book of Mormon. It was great fun!


¡Hasta luego!


Love,

Elder Buchkovich

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Estoy en Espana

¡Hola!

Well it snowed again yesterday. In fact it has been quite chilly this past week. The weather is really random. One moment it is warm and sunny, the next it is snowy and windy! I am starting to wander if I am actually in Spain or if I am serving in Cleveland, Ohio. haha! We actually met a man from California yesterday. He is hiking el camino de Santiago. He told us that he might go home early though. He came to Spain expecting to enjoy warm, beautiful weather. Instead he has been freezing cold in snow! The poor man!!

I cannot believe I have been in Burgos for a whole transfer already. It was by far my most successful transfer!! Better than Cornellá!! We are working really hard and have seen a ton of success thanks to the members here. They really want to be a ward.

A miracle this week was the Noche de Hogar that we had with Cecilia and Felix. We originally invited them to hold a Noche de Hogar to help them form a stronger relationship in their marriage. We planned to teach them how to hold a small, simple but spiritual noche de hogar so that they could begin to hold them regularly as a family. We also asked them to invite the Romanian family that they live with. Well Cecilia and Felix went the extra mile with this noche de hogar. They not only invited the Romanian family, but everyone that lives with them. During the noche de hogar Cecilia shared a super powerful testimony on families and the Gospel. It was amazing! Normally the people living in this piso go their separate ways and do their own things. But during this noche de hogar you could realy note the unity and love between everyone. Thanks to this noche de hogar and the testimony of Cecilia, the Romanian family (whom were already teaching) is a lot more receptive to our message, and we have begun teaching Yamilka, one of the other piso-mates. The power of members is incredible!

Our recent converts are well cared for by the ward. They are all being visited by their home/visiting teachers. This Sunday during ward council our branch president read a letter from the stake that mentioned members teaching the new convert lessons. All the ward council members were really excited about doing this so that "the missionaries can focus more on investigators." I am thoroughly impressed with Burgos. It is a small branch, but the members really understand that they are the key to success. And they are excited about that!

Next week preparation day will be on Tuesday again because Día de Sant Jordi falls on Monday. So my emails will come on Tuesday.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, April 9, 2012

My Easter Snow Curse

¡Hola!

For as long as I can remember we have always had snow on Easter weekend. The first nice Easter in Cleveland in a long time was when I was at BYU, where it snowed. Then finally I thought that at least in Spain I would have two Easters without snow. Well I was wrong! Last year it was a nice Easter. BUT this year it snowed all morning Saturday. Another Easter weekend with snow. No matter where I am for Easter it always snows!!! haha. oh well.

I really LOVE Easter!! I just love celebrating the resurrección of our Lord Jesus Christ! He lives!!! It is a lot more special, now that I have such a deeper understanding of the Atonement. He suffered so that we don´t have too. Cualquier illness, pain, problem, etc. that we have, He suffered already so that He could comfort and help us (Alma 7:11-13). He payed the price for our sins and weakness, and all he asks of us are few simple things such as being baptized by the proper authority and keeping the commandments. His infinite amor for us is increible!

Nancy is one of our big miracles from this past week. About two weeks ago, in the middle of the night, we received two missed calls from her. Her number was saved in our phone, but neither of us knew an investigator named Nancy. So we excitedly called her back the next day. When we called she was quite confused as to how we had her number. When we told her that she had called us, she said, "I could not have called anyone last night. I was sleeping!" Nonetheless she agreed to come to our baptism that weekend. She could not stay for conference after the baptism, but agreed to a visit this past Tuesday. At the visit we learned more about Nancy. When she was a young girl in Peru her parents always wanted to be baptized but never did. For a time the missionaries even lived in her house! She has always known she needs to be baptized and is now set on being baptized here in Burgos! We still do not know how her phone called us (we suspect her dog), but somehow Heavenly Father provided a way for the missionaries to find one of His lonely daughters in need of the Gospel.

The mission really does prepare one for life. Right now I am learning how to search for a new piso. It is quite fun. Although we spent our entire preparation day looking at pisos. = /

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Best Weekend of My Life

¡Hola!

What is better than General Conference weekend? General Conference weekend + 2 baptisms!! This weekend Felix and Xandra got baptized. It was wonderful! I don´t have time to write about both of them. Here is Felix´s story. Xandra´s story will come next week.

God never forgets his children. Never. The conversion story of Felix is proof of this. God works in mysterious ways to meet the needs of all his children. We have been working with Felix, the husband of a menos activa, for about a month now. Despite having several momentos claves, Felix still had many doubts the Wednesday before his baptism, especially when his parents protested and called him crazy. The visit Wednesday evening started terribly when Felix and his wife began to argue about the baptism. The visit was miraculously saved when their home teachers randomly showed up. This is where the hand of God is manifested. Recently new home teaching companions and assignments were handed out. Hermano Luis in months passed never really took much time to do hometeaching. But this week he felt really impressed to complete his hometeaching for the month with his companion, Hermano Fabian. All day Wednesday he FELT that is was really important to visit Cecilia and Felix. He also strangely felt that the missionaries would be there when he went. Thus hermanos Luis and Fabian decided to visit Felix on Wednesday evening. They arrived just in time to save our visit. Hno Luis began to share is own conversion experience. With the addition of Hno Luis´s and Hno Fabian´s testimonies to our testimonios, Felix´s heart had one more momento clave. That night at 1:00 in the morning Felix randomly woke up his wife just to tell her that he was getting baptized. As he explained it, he "just woke up and knew he needed to be baptized." And so on Saturday Felix was baptized by his hometeacher, Hno. Luis. I am so grateful that the Lord inspired Hno Luis to do his hometeaching. I am even more grateful that Hno. Luis acted on his impressions. It is truly miraculous the change in heart that occured that night, all do to a member´s testimony and willingness to follow the promptings of the Spirit.

I´ll also talk more about conference next week. As usual I loved Elder Holland and Pres. Uchtdorf´s talks. Pres. Monson was inspiring like always.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Spain Barcelona Mission Blog Picture

Monday, March 26, 2012

Still More

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Pictures





Happy General Conference

¡Hola!

I am writing a little late today. We had visits this morning (during preparation day) thus we ran out of time to write earlier. Luckily we had a pocket of free time to write now.

Nothing really new happened this week. We are just working really hard as usual. We had a nice preparation day. We found Dr. Pepper in Burgos!!! Elder Shiflet LOVES dr pepper, thus he is really quite excited. I am too. I havent had any since my last headache before the mission.

I did just remember. We had zone conference this week. It was wonderful, as usual! It was very spiritual. I just love President Hinckley! We played a Book of Mormon game. Both Elder Shiflet and I made it to the final round, but we lost to the zone leaders.

Elder Shiflet and I are still finding blessings from the promise from President Hinckley for March. We found another former fecha! Although he will not be baptized during the month of March, finding him is still quite miraculous. Somehow we had missed his registro earlier this month when we went through the area book looking for fechas. This week we happened to be calling people on an old list of potential investigators that other missionaries left behind. Desmond answered and was quite excited to set up a visit with us. During the lesson zero Desmond was filled with excitement and glady accepted a new fecha for the 14th of April!

Well that is all I have time for this week!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, March 12, 2012

Milagroso Marzo

¡Hola!

Burgos is wonderfully amazing! I miss Granollers a ton. And I miss Catalunya quite a bit. However, Burgos is great too! The only bad thing is that it is still winter here. However it looks like that is going to change this week. It is already quite a bit warmer today.

It is really hard to choose a miracle for this week. There have been so many! On Friday we were in the capilla making phone calls to antiguo investigators when the timbre rang. At the door was a woman who we had never seen before. The first thing she said to us was, "¡Elderes! ¿Cuando empiezan las reuniónes aqui?" Her name is Valesca. She is a member from Chile who lives about 30 minutes away. She did not know that there was a capilla here. She does not come to down too often. However this day she happened to be here, walking down the main street, when to her great surprise she not only saw the capilla, but it was opened. She is really excited to return to church and better her relationship with God.

On Sunday another man randomly came to church. He had been contacted by missionaries on a bus several months ago. Also on Sunday we set a baptismal fecha with a Portuguese woman who randomly came to church the week before. She is amazing and super prepared for the Gospel!

On Wednesday when we went to Vitoria for district meeting we ran into a member from Valencia. Veronica was a recent convert when I was there. She remembered me! haha. The great thing is that she just moved to Vitoria and was still searching for the capilla (it´s kind of hard to find there). She was so excited to see us.

It is kind of funny. I have become quite acustomed to say several words/phrases in Catalan. It is really hard for me to drop them. Everyone looks at me really weirdly here when I say things in Catalan. Burgos is actually one of the only areas the mission that doesnt have two languages. In the other areas there is Catalan, Valenciano, Mallorqui, Basque, etc. Here there is only Spanish.

Well I suppose that is all for now.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

New Address

Well i got transferred from Granollers. I have left Catalunya completely. I am clear on the other side of the mission. My new address is:

c/San Bruno 6,6,C
09007 Burgos

Adeu Catalunya

¡Hola!

Sadly after 6 months the time came for me to leave Granollers. I will always love that ward! I just love the people there so, so much. It was really sad to leave. I can not even express how much I love Granollers.

Not only have I left Granollers, I have left Catalunya completely. I am now in Burgos. Clear on the other side of Spain! It is the only city in the province of Castilla y Leon that is in our mission. We are right on the border with the Madrid mission. It is weird not seeing everything written in Catalan. I will miss Barcelona/Catalunya a lot!

Elder Arce and I witnessed so many great miracles during our last week together. I wish we had had more than one transfer together. Anyway, recently Presidente Hinckley made us a promise about finding someone in our area book who is ready for baptism. I really love it when he makes specific promises to the mission. Miracles always follow. And we found several great miracles in the area book! I thought I had met every single antiguo investigator in Granollers, but I was wrong. After searching through the area book we found several potential people. On Thursday, after a visit fell through we decided to pass by one of these antiguos. He is a 16 year old boy named Ricky. When he answered the timbre, he was super excited to let us in. We had a powerful lesson, during which he told us how he missed the feelings he had back when he was meeting with the missionaries. He accepted to prepare for baptism on the 17th of March. His mother also has interest in listening to us (also as Presidente promised.) The Lord always complies with promises made by Him/his servants!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Friday, March 2, 2012

Swimming

Hola!

It appears that spring has already arrived here in Granollers. I hope I dont jynx anything by saying that. But it has warmed up a bit. The weather is just perfect for missionary work!

Well I went "swimming" for the first time this weekend. In missionary jargon that means I performed the baptism. I have a personal rule about members performing the baptism. However, José insisted that I do the baptism. Everything went well with the baptism. It was really nice. I absolutely love his family and so it was quite wonderful to finally see him be baptized. However it was a little sad too, because his little sister backed out at the last minute.

I just love the conversion story of José. And so I am going to tell it again. (I believe i told two weeks ago).

José is a 14 year old joven. His family came as a reference from his uncle who is a menos activo that works as a chef in a restaurant owned by another menos activa. We have been working with José and his family for several months now. However his momento clave finally came only a few weeks ago. José opened up to us and told us that he was unsure about the existence of God. We invited him to pray with all his heart and then stop to listen to his feelings. We also invited him to a youth activity the following weekend. At the activity we pulled him aside to share a message and follow up on his prayer. His answer was incredible! He told us that after praying he felt full of joy and hapiness. And that he knew without a doubt that God exists. Then he told us that the next step for him was baptism! Yes he told us!! He agreed to be baptized the following weekend. Unfortunately his parents were really sick last weekend, thus he waited another week. Finally he was baptized this weekend! Several hundred years later, God still answers the prayers of 14 year old boys named José! haha

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, February 20, 2012

Silencio

Hola!

I did an intercambio with Elder Greep Thursday/Fruday so that he could do the baptismal interview for José and Iveth. We had such fun together again! He has become one of my best friends. We´re are super afraid that this next transfer we will be separated and will no longer be in the same district.

José and Iveth were super sick this week. We gave blessing of health and they both got better. However their parents were still super sick on Saturday. Thus the baptism got postponed to this weekend.

My favorite miracle this week came from a moment of silence. We were in the middle of teaching a lesson when I felt that we just were not connecting with this menos activo. It felt more like teaching a lesson and not teaching a person. While my companion spoke I tried to figure out/seek inspiration on how we could help this man. When it was my turn to speak again I felt that I should not say anything. Thus when I did not speak my companion began to speak again. I slightly tapped him with my knee and he stopped. We both just sat there, waiting. After what seemed like 10 minutes of silence, this menos activo began to open up to us. It was a complete change in him. And the Spirit overtook the lesson. We have been trying to win the trust of this menos activo for months because his wife is not a member. Finally after letting the Spirit talk to his heart during a moment of silence, we have had this momento clave that we have been searching.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, February 13, 2012

Cena de Amor y Amistad

¡Hola!

It is still quite cold here. But not as bad as home, so I can´t complain. We had a great week. On Thursday and Friday we had two days of special training with President. As always we left super uplifted. Friday evening the jovenes hosted a Cena de Amor y Amistad to raise money for an upcoming temple trip. We went with quite a few investigators. ¡Fue genial! I really LOVE Granollers.

Heavenly Father answers his children´s prayers! This past week God answered my prayers and the prayers of a young joven. José and his sister Iveth have had several fechas in the past, but never went through with their baptisms. We eventually had to stop visiting them regularly, which was probably the hardest thing I have had to do in my mission. However last week when all of our plans fell through we decided to pass by to see how they were. We had a great lesson! Although we had not been visiting him, angels had still been preparing the heart of José. He finally opened up and told us the doubts he had about God. So we invited him to pray and ask God if he existed. On Friday José came to the ward activity. During the activity we pulled him aside for a lesson. We asked him about his prayers. And his response to our question was amazing! He told us that he had indeed prayed. He felt in his heart happiness as his answer that God does exist. And thus he wants to enter through the gate to heaven, which is baptism. We immediately invited him to be baptized and set the fecha for this upcoming Saturday. The next day his little sister expressed desires to be baptized too! I never prayed so much for another family (that is isnt my own) as I have been praying for this family. And finally they are getting baptized!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, February 6, 2012

NIEVE EN BARCELONA!?!?!?!?

¡Hola!

Direct quote from my email to Mom last week: "enjoy the snow! i havent touched any in 2 years!!!" Well I have to be more careful about what I say in my emails. On Thursday it snowed for the first time in 2 years in the Barcelona area. And let me tell you, it snowed! Nothing compared to home, however it did start to stick a little bit. Luckily it was weekly planning time so we did not have to leave for proselytismo. however we enjoyed watching it fall. all weekend there were temperatures around freezing and sunday it snowed a little bit more...nothing too much though. i tried catching snowflakes with my tongue. a lady saw me and started laughing. haha i guess i havent changed much.
We have been really trying to apply better the techniques for finding. We have seen quite a few miracles as a result of this. To escape the cold we have been visiting the members more. We share a spiritual message and leave, having been warmed by the calefacción and the Spirit. Also we have been focusing more on contacting. In general as a result of these two things, we have been finding a lot more investigators and our total number of lessons has increased substantially.

Edwin (who got baptized in november) is amazing! He accompanied us on some visits this weekend. His timidness seemed to disappear! He shared such a great testimony in each visit. The last person we visited is an investigator with whom he is friends. When we invited her to come to church, she was not very excited. However Edwin convinced her come!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Monday, January 30, 2012

Goal for February

¡Hola!

Well all is well here! Things are going great with Elder Arce. However we talk way too much about Tarragona. haha! I made some meatloaf for a member family yesterday. It did not quite come out like Mom´s, but it was still okay.

I experienced another miracle related to goal-setting. Last night the zone leaders sent out a message reminding us to set a baptismal goal for February. My companion and I talked a little bit about possible goals (3 or 4 baptisms), but decided to finish the conversation and pray during companionship study the next morning. Before going to bed I decided to pray about the possible goal of 4 baptisms. I felt an overwhelming feeling that 4 baptisms is possible/is the goal that the Lord wants. However this morning during companionship study I began to doubt for various, logical reasons. We could not decide on a number so we prayed for guidance. After the prayer I felt frustrated because I did not feel any inpiration. Just then the thought, "Why do you lack faith?" came to my mind, and I felt chastised. It was then that I remembered my prayer from the night before. I already knew what the goal should be. I asked my companion what he felt, and he too felt inspired to set the goal at 4 baptisms.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Elder Arce

¡Hola!

Well another 6 weeks have passed. For the first time in my mission I will have at least 6 months in an area. I will stay in Granollers!! I am really excited. It is a great ward. I am sad though. My "hijo" was transferred to a ward in Barcelona. He is such a great missionary. I am so proud of him. I was quite surprised to hear who my new companion is. It is Elder Arce! I knew him as "Camilo" before his mission. He lives in Tarragona, but for some reason was called to the Barcelona Mission. He helped us out quite a lot when we were teaching Yessi. and now he is my companion. how fun!!!! we are so excited!! he has been in the mission for only 3 months now, but is already a maquina!

This week we created the Ward Mission Plan for 2012 with our ward mission leader. We were using the plan from the last two years as our guide. When we were determining the goal for total baptisms we decided to just leave it at what the old goal was before. However after moving on, I felt that we need to return and reset the goal. Thus I suggested that we pray. After praying, all three of us (our ward mission leader, my companion, and I) felt that this goal was not what the Lord has in mind for this area. With the help of the Holy Ghost we set a new goal for baptisms. Planning and goal setting is a lot easier and better when we include the Lord.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

ps. I still have a lot of time left in the mission. It is waaay too early to start talking about life after the mission. I would prefer to keep talk on this subject to a minimal. Thank you!

Sunday, January 22, 2012



Cornella 6





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Christmas Pics




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Finding

¡Hola!

This week Elder González had to return to Madrid for two days to do some paperwork for his nationality. He went with another elder who had to do residency paperwork also. Thus I spent beginning of the week with the ayudantes and office elders. It was a lot of fun. We also had interviews this week with President. As always it was a great interview. Transfers are next week. I am not sure if I will stay or leave.... =/

I learned a very valuable lesson this week. Normally I do not like to be with members during proselyting time when we could be out finding and teaching. However we decided to accept the invitation from President to meet with each ward counsel member, offer our help, and then help them. Two great things happened this week from helping the members. First of all, although we dedicated more time to visiting and helping members, we still ended up with visits and even ended the week with more visits than normal. Secondly, through the young men´s president we have found a wonderfully prepared woman. On Thursday we met with the Young Men´s president. Upon offering to help with his goals, he immediately resonded, "Seriously? Can you come to mutual tomorrow? I need help animating the young men for Duty to God. They respond to you elders better." So on Friday we attended mutual and helped teach the young men about the importance of goals, scripture study, etc. I suppose the Young Men´s President was quite grateful for that, because the next day he asked us to meet him later that evening at another member´s house. When we arrived they were waiting with their friend, with whom we then had spiritual lesson. When we dedicated our "finding time" to help the members and gain their trust, they in turn did the finding for us!

¡Hasta luego!

¡Adeu!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Los Reyes

Hola!

Well the Holidays are finally over. I was able to experience Reyes (Kings´ Day) more this year. This year we happened to be in the right spot at the right time and were able to witness the parade of the Kings in Granollers. It was fun to watch. Then on the way to visits in Canovelles (adjacent town) we saw the end of its parade. Also this year a member gave us some Kings´ Day cake and candy. So all in all it was a nice cultural experience.

After every nightly planning session we always ask the Lord to help us know if we should change any of our plans. Several times this past week we have received answers to these prayers. One afternoon we were walking to our next visit when we ran into an old investigator who we were planning on passing by later that evening. He informed us that he had actually moved (from the piso we were planning on visiting) and that he would not be home that evening, but we could visit his new piso another day. We thus had enough notice to modify our plans for that evening. Then another morning we were walking to our first visit when we came across another investigator who we were planning on visiting during the afternoon. He informed us that he would not be home that afternoon. Again we had enough time to modify our plans. God knows how precious time is and is willing to help us use it as effectively as possible!

We actually had a little miracle visiting Edwin (recent convert) this week. I have been thinking a lot about what Elder Caussé said about baptisms being like mushrooms and coming in packs. I have been trying to figure out who else was being prepared with Edwin. He is here alone and works many hours. We have been trying to animate him to share the Gospel with his family in Valencia and Venezuela. But we have not had much success because he is super shy. This week we were in the middle of the lesson when his dueña walked in and smiled at us. She asked us,confusing us with former missionaries, "Do you remember me?" We were a bit embarrassed to say no. However we quickly found out that her daughter, Veronica, is an old investigator. As it turns out several of her family members are old investigators. We actually tried to visit them before, but had no success. However, this time they are much more receptive to us, now that they associate us with Edwin!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

451

¡Hola!

Great news!!!! Due to "special circumstances" two people were confirmed at their baptism during the week instead of at sacrament meeting on Sunday. Thus, in 2011 the Mission España Barcelona baptized and confirmed 451 children of God!!!! We reached our goal! It was the best year in more than 20 years. When the church was first restored, there was a great amount of success in Europe with missionary work. Many of the early converts were European. The Area Seventy in Europe recently has profesied of a "second harvest" in Europe. That second harvest has already begun in Spain!

We had a nice New Year. Like last year, we recieved permission to stay out until 11 pm. After a normal day and evening of proselyting, we ate dinner with an Ecuatorian family of members. We finished planning and updating the area book just on time to welcome the New Year. This year we celebrated with the eating of 12 grapes. It´s quite fun! After eating the grapes, we went to bed.

Thursday, we arrived, unexpectedly, at the piso of a menos activo on the day that his family was moving. His wife was at work. Therefore, he was struggling to prepare and pack everything alone while at the same time care for his young daughter and baby son. We were able to help him prepare everything before the moving van came. When his nonmember wife (who does not enjoy talking to missionaries) arrived home, she was super grateful, thanking us profusely and even calling us angels. We had no clue that they were moving that day but we were guided by the Lord to assist a struggling father and soften the heart of a non-believing mother.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

¡Feliç Reis!

449

¡Hola!

I hope you all enjoyed Christmas! I certainly enjoyed this year a lot more than the previous!! haha This year with full health, I enjoyed all the food and traditions of Catalunya....I am really going to miss turró. And of course the call home was delightful!

The mission goal this year was 450 baptisms (and confirmations). Yesterday was the last Sunday of the month, thus it was the last Sunday of the year that someone could get confirmed. We sadly did not reach our goal. In the year 2011, 449 children of God were baptized and confirmed in the church of Jesus Christ. One short!

The members continue to impress me and always bring miracles. For example in a visit with an investigator there were two members present. They practically taught the entire lesson, covering every point that my companion and I had felt inspired to share. They bore strong testimonies and the Spirit was really strong. It felt more like a lesson with missionaries present than a lesson with members present. Then in another lesson with a recent convert family, we took our ward mission leader and his wife. Our ward mission leader wants to be more active in teaching recent converts (as Preach my Gospel says) so he offered to share a message. For the first time in weeks, this recent convert family came to church!

Seeing as I called home last night...instead of writing a lot and repeating everything that I said yesterday, I will send some pictures and try to catch up a bit.

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Feliz Navidad

¡Hola!

This weekend was the ward Christmas dinner. MUCH MUCH MUCH better than last year. Granollers knows how to party. jaja! But seriously it was a wonderful ward activity. They used all the capilla. In the primary room there was music/dancing. In the cultural hall/chapel the tables were set up for eating/chatting. And in the relief society room there were two ping pong tables. There was an amazing turn out too. Active members, menos activos, nonmembers....all types of people! Elder González and I prepared a surprise musical numbers....I hope it has not surfaced on the internet already. We sang three songs a Mexican Christmas song called "Burrito Sabanero", "Feliz Navidad", and "Eschuchad el son triunfal" (hark the herald angels sing). One of the young men who always helps us, Sergio, accompanied us on guitar. We sang terribly, but it went well.

One day this week when our visit and back up plans all failed, we felt that we should pass by the piso of a menos activo. Usually this menos activo is less than excited to see us and always has an excuse to not visit with us. But still we decided to follow the prompting to visit him. When we arrived it was not the menos activo who answered the door, but the mother of another family that lives in the same piso. We are now teaching her. And the menos activo, by helping us teach, is becoming reanimated and even came to the ward activity this weekend with his own family. When we act on our faith by following inspiration the Lord will lead us to those who need us.

Have a wonderful week. And a great Christmas!!
¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

FelizNavidad.BonNadal.MerryChristmas!!!

ps. Don´t forgot the reason we celebrate Christmas.....the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

What a Wonderful week

¡Hola!

What a wonderful week! We had a special conference with Elder Caussé of the Seventy. He is in the area presidency for Europe. It was an amazing conference. I learned so much! I think the most important lesson I learned was about faith. Siempre we need to add to our faith. Towards the beginning of my mission I did not have the faith that I could baptize every month. But then through repentance, I grew and developed the faith to baptize every month. And since June, I have been. I have been quite content with myself, thinking, "I have changed so much. Now, I have the faith to baptize once a month!" But what I learned from Elder Caussé is: it is good that I developed the faith to baptize every month. But it is not enough. I need to continually improve and develop the faith to baptize two, three, four, 300 people a month. This is afterall how we arrive at salvation and perfection, by continually improving each day.

Elder Caussé taught us so much and gave us so many new ideas. He also promised us that in every area of the mission there are at least 300 people ready to listen to the Gospel and be baptized! How great is that!!

I gave another talk on Sunday during Sacrament meeting. I think it went a lot better than my recent past talks.

(Miracle story) There is an antigua investigator, named Julisa, who the missionaries before us were teaching. Although we are not currently teaching her, she always stops us in the street to tell us that she is coming to church on Sunday. Well, she never comes. This past week, we decided to take action. When she told us she was coming, we said, "Oh wonderful! When can we come by to pick you up?" We set up a time to pass by. However when we went to pick her up, she was still sleeping. We honestly did not think she would come. But she did! She came a little late with one of her sons. Afterwards she thanked us greatly for waking her up. Then she asked us for a visit, telling us that this time she is serious and wants to help her two sons get baptized!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

FelizNavidad.BonNadal.MerryChristmas!

The Lord Always Provides

¡Hola!

Recently I have learned a lot about patience. And also that God really does provide for our needs. I have had several neat experiences but I will share only two. One day Elder González and I were passing by the pisos of some antiguo investigators. We hadn´t eaten much that day and were quite hungry. We passed a kebab place that looked tasty and it had a great deal for kebabs. We were quite tempted, but decided to keep working. We decided to wait patiently until we returned to piso that night. Well a few minutes later a member called us offering to buy us kebabs and to help us out with visits afterwards!

The second story: About a month ago I noticed that Zara still had some suits on sale. And I have lost so much weight that really my black suit from missionary mall is a bit ridiculously large. It was really tempting to buy a new one. But I thought, "no. i can wait for a cheaper one during rebajas in january. and i need to ask Dad´s advice." So I decided to wait. Well last week we were visiting our convert, Edwin. The boss of one of his roommates was going to throw away a bunch of new Mossimo Dutti (super pijo brand) suits. Thus Edwin´s roommate brought them home instead. And offered me one!! It is still large on me. But because it is the European style, it looks more fitted and less ridiculous. Patience pays off. And the Lord knows our needs. If we are keeping his commandments and living righteously, he ALWAYS provides for us.

The miracle story this week comes from church. In our ward, the ward counsel meets very rarely. Thus we had gotten a little lazy with the informes. Finally last week we got tired of waiting for consejo. For the first time in a while we did an informe with pictures and informative paragraphs about our investigators. During church we handed out the informes to all the leaders. The miracle this week came from the leaders in the ward. Usually we have trouble getting members to talk to investigators, etc. But this week when one of the families from the informe came, the leaders of the ward practically swarmed them in excitement. I am not sure if I have ever seen such a warm welcome from an entire ward. It reminded me that the SMALL things, like better informes, really do make a BIG difference.

BonNadal.FelizNavidad.MerryChristmas!!!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

Dia de Gracias

¡Hola!

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Gianmarco. He is the ward mission leader. He is half-American and half-Italian. He loves the United States so much. And we are teaching his mother-in-law. Thus, he invited us for a Thanksgiving meal. He and his Hondurian wife did a really good job. Their oven is too small for a full turkey so we only had turkey breast. But the food was really good. Even the stuffing was delicious! It was really nice, especially since I did not have Thanksgiving last year.

I am really excited for Christmas! We set up the tree last preparation day!!

Well my favorite miracle from this week really strengthened my testimony on using conversion plans (plans we prayerfully make to help people who have planned baptismal goals/dates). When Yaneya accepted the baptismal invitation, it was a super weak commitment. We feared that she only accepted because her two siblings were excited. Thus when we created the conversion plan, we prayerfully searched scriptures that would especially help her. The day following the invitation, we presented the conversion plan. On Tuesday (about a week after giving them the plan) we had a visit. When we arrived, Yaneya was ready with her Book of Mormon and was super animated during the entire visit, answering more questions than normal. What caused this great change of heart? She started following the conversion plan and completed the reading assignments! I have no doubt that reading the Book Mormon invites the Spirit to testify of the truth. The Book of Mormon has the power to change your heart. All we have to do is create a simple plan to help our investigators get started!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich

BonNadal.FelizNavidad.MerryChristmas!!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

¡Hola!

This week was a pretty average, normal week for a missionary. I can not think of anything interesting to report. I am really sick of rain. haha. Elder González is amazing and learning quite rapidly. We have been working really hard with a Bolivian family that I just absolutely love. The kids should finally get baptized soon!

A miracle from this week has been with the members. We have been working fervently to better our relationship with the members. We are finally starting to note differences. For example before we thought that the members did not have any friends because we never met any. But this past week we have met several friends of members. And the members are willing to let us teach them! Also the hombres jovenes are excited to help us in visits. The greatest miracle has been with the Obispo (our relationship with him has been rocky). He seems more excited to see us/talk to us now. Also he used to never invite the missionaries over his house. Now, he keeps inviting us over in the evening. With the new refocus (rule) on eating/visiting with differing members, if he invites us again we are going to have to decline!

Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for.....EVERYTHING!! No really I am. Everything I have is a blessing from my Father in Heaven. I am also grateful for milagros. We see so many miracles every day!!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich