Monday, March 14, 2011
The Rain In Spain
¡Hola!
Well aside from our French border trip, nothing really happened this week. Just another regular week in the mission. In fact the most exciting thing that happened is that it rained a lot more than usual.....which actually gets quite annoying when you have to walk all day long! haha. We do have some new Dominican investigators who love baseball, so it will be fun to talk baseball with them once the season starts (uh...i mean it will be fun to use baseball as an anology for teaching lesson.....or uh baseball will be a great way to bond and build a good relationship with them). haha. Another cool thing is that we did meet a girl from Algeria. I have met so many people from around the world. It´s great!!!!
Oh I did foget something in last week´s letter. That first week in March was actually Carneval. Last Saturday (March 5 i believe) EVERYONE was out in costumes and at parties. All four of us elders were helping out at a service project that night so we walked home together. As we walked home we passed several large crowds of people. Everyone thought that we were dressed up as Mormon missionaries and not actually Mormon missionaries. Elder Hughes played it up and pulled up his pants and tried to look as ridiculous and nerdy as he could. It was hilarious!
Well nothing really worth reporting happened. We are trying to spread the good word, while still having some fun....maybe too much fun...lol...don´t worry we are behaving; we all just get along super well! Well I promise to have more stories to tell next week. There is zone conference this week and I plan on going out there and finding some miracle stories this week!
Keep the faith. ¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Well aside from our French border trip, nothing really happened this week. Just another regular week in the mission. In fact the most exciting thing that happened is that it rained a lot more than usual.....which actually gets quite annoying when you have to walk all day long! haha. We do have some new Dominican investigators who love baseball, so it will be fun to talk baseball with them once the season starts (uh...i mean it will be fun to use baseball as an anology for teaching lesson.....or uh baseball will be a great way to bond and build a good relationship with them). haha. Another cool thing is that we did meet a girl from Algeria. I have met so many people from around the world. It´s great!!!!
Oh I did foget something in last week´s letter. That first week in March was actually Carneval. Last Saturday (March 5 i believe) EVERYONE was out in costumes and at parties. All four of us elders were helping out at a service project that night so we walked home together. As we walked home we passed several large crowds of people. Everyone thought that we were dressed up as Mormon missionaries and not actually Mormon missionaries. Elder Hughes played it up and pulled up his pants and tried to look as ridiculous and nerdy as he could. It was hilarious!
Well nothing really worth reporting happened. We are trying to spread the good word, while still having some fun....maybe too much fun...lol...don´t worry we are behaving; we all just get along super well! Well I promise to have more stories to tell next week. There is zone conference this week and I plan on going out there and finding some miracle stories this week!
Keep the faith. ¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Monday, March 7, 2011
Bonjour Mes Amis!
Bonjour!
Today was by FAR the BEST Pday ever!!!!! I have known for quite a while that our area goes all the way up to the French border. However Elder Shields and Elder Hughes are new to Lleida and did not know that. When they found out that the border was in our area that got super excited (just like me when I first found out). Thus we took some action. Last week got a map of Catalunya and found the closest pueblo to the French border that we could find that was still in our area. So then last Thursday we bought bus tickets to Les, Spain. We left Lleida this morning at 9:30 and arrived in Les at about 12:45. The drive was wonderful! Los Pirineos son muy bonitos! Gorgeous! We took hundreds of pictures! We drove along this river for most the time. There were dams, reservoirs, rapids, etc. We went through a ton of tunnels. And they weren´t like tunnels in the US; they were holes carved through the rock without cement. Only the longer tunnels were made with cement like the US. One of those longer tunnels was 5 km long! The mountains and pueblos were beautiful.
Les is located 5 km from the border. Thus bus stopped at Les, so we had to walk the remaining 5 km to the border. It was a bit scary because we had to walk along a winding, rural road. But, we survived. The weather was wonderful too. We thought it would be super cold. But it was sunny and about 15 or so degrees celsius. We were actually sweating a lot! At the border we took a bunch of pictures by the France and España signs. Don´t worry we never fully crossed into France; we only ever put one foot in France. (at least we think so. we aren´t completely sure where the actually border line was. we only had the signs.) After the pictures we walked back to Les.
Les is very small. We had difficulty finding a place to eat because everything was closed for medio dia. I don´t see the logic there because medio dia is when people eat, so shouldn´t restaurants be open? Anyway we ended up eating at some small bar/restaurant. (my second time doing that in spain). They only served appetizer type food. Sooo...i tried snail. It wasn´t bad! I liked it. My only gripe is that it takes too much work to eat. I´m too lazy to pull the snail out of the shell all the time. I prefer food that is ready to stick in my mouth. Apparently caviar from the Pyrenees is world famous. So we went to a market to buy some. It was super expensive. But, we told the lady we were missionaries, flattered her a little and got it for cheaper. We all pitched in for one thing of cavier. So we´ll only get a bite each. I hope it is worth it. (we didn´t have time to eat it in Les). So that was a quick summary of our Pday today.
This week was another good week. We got off to a slow start. Elder Shields had some crazy allergic reaction Tuesday when we were helping someone move. His eye got super pufffy and red. It was really painful and wouldn´t go down with benedryl. thus we ended up having a zero lesson that day. by wednesday his eye was better and we got to work. Lleida A´s 20 lesson streak is now at 5 weeks! Apparently more and more missionaries around the mission are having the same success. It´s amazing what a little change in attitude and obedience can do to an entire mission. We are so lucky to have President Hinckley to teach us and inspire us!
Well I suppose that will suffice for this week. Au revoir!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
Today was by FAR the BEST Pday ever!!!!! I have known for quite a while that our area goes all the way up to the French border. However Elder Shields and Elder Hughes are new to Lleida and did not know that. When they found out that the border was in our area that got super excited (just like me when I first found out). Thus we took some action. Last week got a map of Catalunya and found the closest pueblo to the French border that we could find that was still in our area. So then last Thursday we bought bus tickets to Les, Spain. We left Lleida this morning at 9:30 and arrived in Les at about 12:45. The drive was wonderful! Los Pirineos son muy bonitos! Gorgeous! We took hundreds of pictures! We drove along this river for most the time. There were dams, reservoirs, rapids, etc. We went through a ton of tunnels. And they weren´t like tunnels in the US; they were holes carved through the rock without cement. Only the longer tunnels were made with cement like the US. One of those longer tunnels was 5 km long! The mountains and pueblos were beautiful.
Les is located 5 km from the border. Thus bus stopped at Les, so we had to walk the remaining 5 km to the border. It was a bit scary because we had to walk along a winding, rural road. But, we survived. The weather was wonderful too. We thought it would be super cold. But it was sunny and about 15 or so degrees celsius. We were actually sweating a lot! At the border we took a bunch of pictures by the France and España signs. Don´t worry we never fully crossed into France; we only ever put one foot in France. (at least we think so. we aren´t completely sure where the actually border line was. we only had the signs.) After the pictures we walked back to Les.
Les is very small. We had difficulty finding a place to eat because everything was closed for medio dia. I don´t see the logic there because medio dia is when people eat, so shouldn´t restaurants be open? Anyway we ended up eating at some small bar/restaurant. (my second time doing that in spain). They only served appetizer type food. Sooo...i tried snail. It wasn´t bad! I liked it. My only gripe is that it takes too much work to eat. I´m too lazy to pull the snail out of the shell all the time. I prefer food that is ready to stick in my mouth. Apparently caviar from the Pyrenees is world famous. So we went to a market to buy some. It was super expensive. But, we told the lady we were missionaries, flattered her a little and got it for cheaper. We all pitched in for one thing of cavier. So we´ll only get a bite each. I hope it is worth it. (we didn´t have time to eat it in Les). So that was a quick summary of our Pday today.
This week was another good week. We got off to a slow start. Elder Shields had some crazy allergic reaction Tuesday when we were helping someone move. His eye got super pufffy and red. It was really painful and wouldn´t go down with benedryl. thus we ended up having a zero lesson that day. by wednesday his eye was better and we got to work. Lleida A´s 20 lesson streak is now at 5 weeks! Apparently more and more missionaries around the mission are having the same success. It´s amazing what a little change in attitude and obedience can do to an entire mission. We are so lucky to have President Hinckley to teach us and inspire us!
Well I suppose that will suffice for this week. Au revoir!
¡Hasta luego!
Love,
Elder Buchkovich
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