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





More Pictures



Christmas Pics




Pictures




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