Email, Monday, August 25, 2014

Hellllo! Its beginning of week two! Been a sweet week, and i have lots
of things to write (hopefully)
It seems like alot, to me at least!
Okay so first story to tell, my companion and i were sitting at the
subway station, waiting for the 7 train (estamos esperando siempre)
and there is a lady looking at the station map with a pretty guitar,
so i go and chat with her, she has been playing for close to 20 years,
and so it was a good talk and she got on the same car as us and
started playing "have you ever seen he rain" by Credence Clearwater
Revival, which took me back :) after that she was walking around
collecting donations and in stead gave me a guitar pick, which i did
in return still really cool! And i also gave her my Facebook sticker.
Then i had a answer to my prayers (part one) a guy was trying to bash
my faith on the church, which he didnt make sense, but still my faith
was stronger than his hatred towards churches in general.  But it all
was worth it with a dinner appt, we had Bandeja Paisa, arepas, aqua
panela (water and brown sugar) a columbian dish (pic One) the next day
we were weekly planning and the zone leaders came in and chatted for a
second and then told us that someone supposedly saw us at 9:30 at the
church with the lights off, and also they supposedly saw us downstairs
in separate rooms away from sight and sound! And we said what on earth
are you talking about?! We were in lessons every day, we dont need to
be at the church past 9:00! We are here trying to be strictly obedient
which the blessings of which are obvious in two new investigators with
baptism dates, so they now know it wasn't us... Then we had three
appts all of which had to last 30 minuets haha besides the final one
for the evening, which we got a new referral from :) but they were
sweet lessons, we moved a baptism date closer than originally planned,
now is September 7, and had Peruvian food (picture 2 yes im getting
the sause recipe   for you mom) :) then the following day we had a
street sweep in which a guy started talking to my companion and
cursing me out for the fact i had a bag that has a columbian flag and
im not columbian, and then started cursing at others because they were
talking with us, we asked him to leave but he refused, so he stood
there for a minuet and realized we were not leaving so he walked
away... It has been a hard week, but yesterday Olga our investigator
came to church! It was here first time, but she could only stay for
the first hour. It was awesome!
So as you can see, i had a interesting and trying week, but im still
kicking, and i got a haircut ! I will get a good picture to show yall
soon,
I love yall, i know the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to
the earth, i know the reality of the atonement, i have used it and
felt the impact and comfort in my life, i know we have a living
prophet on the earth today, the gospel is real people, this is why im
in New York, cause i came to my mission wanting to help people, gor my
entire life i have found my personal spiritual gift of listening and
empathizing with people, listening to there problems, getting them to
smile, helping them with their burdens, how better than share the
gospel of the restoration of Christ's teachings in completeness? I
want to be the friend that people can trust, that they can come to
when they have had a poor week, and they need a 'dani hug' cause i
give the best hugs, (unfortunately im out of practice here on the
mission) hahah but i cant wait to hear from you all!

Elder Daniel Buffington

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Email, Monday, August 18, 2014

Helllllooooo! Its been a while no?
Its been a crazy awesome week filled with mini miracles :)
And it really all started on Friday :) so Thursday during weekly
planning during companion inventory we decided to try speaking spanish
solely thru Friday from the time we woke up till the night, it was so
much fun, trying to speak my mind in spanish is harder than excepted,
but i am getting better which i was told by hermana casteñeda (member
whose two sons are less active) which she makes the best drinks ever,
we have awesome horchata and a smoothie haha. We also had a lesson
with Olga which she committed to coming to church, even if she needs
to close her tienda  for three hours.  Super exciting! Then that night
we get a call from another set of missionaries in the mission, in the
adjacent zone, that they have a guy that just came into the church and
told them he wanted to be taught, so we taught him Saturday and he
agreed to being baptized on my birthday! So exciting! And he is so
solid that he goes to the english ward there in the other building,
and our spanish one! This is the most successful week i have seen
sense i have been in the area!  And then Saturday night transfer calls
:/ so we got our calls and the verdict is that elder trujillo and i
will be staying together! Supper exciting, this is my second companion
for more than one transfer! :) Sunday we had a child of record
baptism, and goooooodddd food after, im telling yall, spanish people
know how to cook awesome stuff and A LOT of it :) kinda reminds me of
mom, they take great care of us!  Then we did train hopping hoping to
find new friends and i met three Russian speakers that spoke english
(the first from Russia, she is now a sophomore in college she has been
in the states for a year now, second was a family that is from a
little country near Russia, been here for seven years, and the last
one was from the Ukraine has been here for 3 months or so, she works
as a cashier, good english for how little of time she has been here. )
which makes me wish i studied more Russian when i had the chance, man,
i just want to learn so many languages right now, :P spanish
portuguese and russian what is this haha its just a blessing, to know
languages cause you can always help someone, make them smile after a
bad day, or make a new friend :) i endorse learning new languages ,
Well i believe that is all for this week, i love each and every one of
you! Yall better take care and be safe,

The only picture this week is a meal we made (cause we missionaries
learn how to cook) and for both plates its just about 5$ :)

But that be all now, the hastening of the work of salvation is real!
Go be a missionary, or a strangers friend this week!
Elder Buffington!

Email, Monday, August 11, 2014

Another week has passed by and its already week 6¡! Crazy stuff... In this past week i hit a milestone on my mission, unfortunately it wasn't a wednesday but thursday i hit my year mark! It was "hump day" haha so we went to this restaurant, pio pio, (wasn't impressive, just spanish food :P I've had better, much better) then right after that, we had a lesson with a recently returning less active :) went really
well, talked with her about temples, (quick background, she hadn't been to church in a few years, and she came back, has only missed one sunday, second sunday she gave a prayer, missed third, fourth received a calling!) so she has also started the temple prep classes on her own, and after a beautiful meal, we shared our message and she also agreed to going to the temple to do baptisms! Yayyy! We have been also teaching Olga in her tienda twice weekly now, teaching the lessons, this last time she couldn't make it, cause she was prepping for a
event that happened saturday, and it didnt go well sadly, she ended up losing out of money, triste.   Okay and probably the most exciting thing this week for me is a 'less-active' he is only less active cause he has not been to the temple in a year, but his wife is extremely less active (cause she got offended) and his younger sister isnt a member but attends weekly, but this isnt all! Hermano Ortega was good friends with none other than the familia Martinez! How crazy is that?! I knew this guy when i went to the flushing branch, we would play soccer every thursday night! And he hasnt been to the temple in six years! Cause he just hasnt got his recommend! So we are going to try and take him this next transfer, and i better still be here! Hahah i love this area with a burning passion, New York has truly become my home, i love everything about it! Especially the people! I know this
church is true by the way it effects lifes, Matthew 7:16-17 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

Im in love with the gospel, this is the real deal! Well mom is going to send questions for me to answer And i had Mori Soñando (english translation of this heavenly drink is 'I died dreaming') ill have to see if i can get the video we took and send it to yall, it was AMAZING HAHAA, I also got to go to the temple, needless to say, it was well needed and i learned alot, it was another extreme high light of the week, i didnt want to leave,

Well ill send pictures too! Love yall! Thanks for all your support, and love yall have shown me,

Elder Daniel Buffington