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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

 

 

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.

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 

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

 

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

Zone Leader Excursion

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 

Zone picture

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

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

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

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

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