June 18, 2012

hola familia,




okay so first of all hahaha those pictures are awesome! the cardboard cut out of me looks really funny hahaha but thats sweet!! did you take pictures of the reception and stuff? I wanna see those too. man I'm mad I missed it... okay so this week has been a hard crazy week! okay so where to begin.. so last week after I finished writing you guys my power blanket jacket that brad gave me got stolen... so mad about that. It would be sweet if you could get me another one cause I really loved it :) um so this past week I have been pretty sick again.. which really sucks. okay so earlier this week we had a problem with the familia silva that we have been teaching and we baptised the little boy last week. we almost basically "lost" them cause of a problem that I dont really have time to explain but everything is fine now and I baptised the 14 year old yesterday and the 12 year old will get baptised next week. It was pretty awesome though! they are such an awesome family. the only problem is they arent married and they are having a real problem with that cause the moms birthdate was february 29 in 1974 I think. but apparently there wasnt a february 29 that year. It was in 72 and 76. so thats a real problem for them and its sad cause they mom is progressing so good and knows she is sinning by not being married and wants to get married really soon so she can be baptised. so we are working with that. It was sweet on friday the familia cruz that we always eat with on friday was the mom and the 2 daughters and their 2 non member friends. we ate and everything and then started to share something and then the one daughter left and so we continued and then it turned into a huge discussion and almost an argument between the mom and the daughter that stayed. okay well the 2 girls arent her daughters they are her nieces and their mom is in peru. but yeah so it was really crazy and it was about parents forcing their kids to go to church and how everyone has to gain the desire to go on their own and everything. but it was awesome cause I was able to kinda bring the spirit into the discussion I guess and helped them out and used a scripture that I read and loved that morning in my study and then that night I used that same scripture with another family that I know really needed to hear it. It was awesome to be able to do that. okay and so juan lost the charger to his phone so it was dead and we couldnt call him last week and he was gone the whole weekend and so we couldnt teach him and he didnt get baptised cause he wasnt there. we found him yesterday finally and reset his date for this next sunday so we will see. we still have to teach him the law of chastity, profet, and tithing but we will see how it goes. we had a really funny experience the other night with 2 drunk guys that recognized us as mormons by our bikes. not really sure how but he took us to his house and met his little kids and wife and it was really funny and really sad. their house inside is literally the size of our bathroom at home in utah. yeah I will explain that experience more in a year and a half haha ;) the other day also we met a bunch of young teenage kids and went to visit them the next day and ended up playing soccer with them right there and after like 10 minutes of playing we got to talk to the dad and older brother and so we will see what will happen with that. I earned their respect cause I'm a greengo that knows how to play soccer and my companion kinda got their respect from whiffing the ball a couple times pretty bad hahaha. It was kinda funny. so by sunday we were and are running low on investigators and stuff so the zone leaders told us and everyone in our zone that we need to go out on sunday and set 4 baptismal dates. I literally said yeah right... but what do ya know. somehow we were blessed and found juan and reput his date and then we found 2 new investigators that live by a recent convert and we put dates with them and then we visited familia gutierez and put a date with their friend. I think I have told you about familia gutierez before. they are so funny and fun and awesome!! but yeah so we put 4 new dates yesterday which was awesome! and yeah also this is the last week of the transfer so I may or may not be leaving on monday but we will see. I will for sure take pictures with some of my favorite families this week and send you pics next week. but yeah I'm ready for a new area and a new companion so I'm kinda really hoping that I will get transferred. I guess we will see though. hmm also a couple more things. a quote thing that was in our letter from the president last week I really liked and thought you would like it mom. "the past is to be learned from, not lived in. faith is always pointed toward the future. faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet occur." yeah not sure why but just thought I'd share that haha. also were you going to send that missionary picture to me that I asked you for either last week or the week before? and also it would probabaly be a good thing if you could send me my white temple pants and tie cause I dont have baptism clothes of my own haha.. so yeah hmm I think thats the main stuff that happened last week. it was definitely one of the weirdest and craziest weeks of my mission and I wish I could explain everything but obviously I cant. today we played soccer again but it was all wet and so it was way slippery and hard to play but a member in our ward thats 18 thats preparing for his mission finally came and played with us and that was pretty fun. we have a noche de hogar with them tonight and they are making me a cake :) so that will be awesome! they are way way cool! they also have a daughter thats 20 and a daughter thats 17. so yeah they really help me with my castellano too. so hmm I think thats about it for now.




haha yep see I knew you would get accepted to both of them! que capa que sos!! :) wow!! sounds like the wedding and everything went way way awesome and crazy and everything! thats way cool! repiola!! I really wish I could have been there for all that.. thats way awesome about austin and stuff. the byu allstar game is a lot of fun! anyone else from timpanogos play in that? and thats way awesome for cassidee too. she will definitely learn a lot from that and she will be great at it. she just needs to have faith. but remember also that faith is action. and I know for sure you will get things organized again and get some relaxation soon. I can tell you really need that haha. but yeah I'm halfway through 3 nephi now so its going good! wow thats way cool about brother reynolds. I never knew he thought that haha thats nice of him. wait what about the 3 missions? we werent ever told anything about that. I think we will just get to go to our stake center for the rededication. hmm that would be so awesome if I got to see shawn! haha thats funny about the me being the greeter in the park haha. well I guess thats it for this week. hope everything is going good with everything else. los quiero mucho!!




Con Amor, Elder Buxton