Email, Monday, February 16, 2015

Hello from the Frozen Apple
Yeahhhh its a little chilly up here, but we are keeping warm, it is
definitely more cold this year than last year #BlameItOnGlobalWarming
but its a adventure, i have experienced everything from the 113°
tundra of Arizona, to the blistering -5 (plus wind chill so like -20)
of New York.
So this week we had a couple sweet finding street sweeps, the first
was a photo booth that we will post on Facebook, which we have
pictures of :) and the second was to something epic! The NBA all star
game was in our area! Soo we went to the game and had games and
challenges for people to do to get the church out of obscurity and
talk about the gospel super fun!
But besides that there isnt anything super new, i have a EPIC companion,

Yup that is all i believe
Stay warm, and happy (late) valentines!
-Elder Bufí (Buffington)-

Email, Monday, February 9, 2015

What does a lazy fish do? Nothing! Haha... Ha... Ha.  Okay that wasnt
good, but its funnier in spanish...
Well transfers came and gone and my trainee is super cool! His name is
Elder Parker Roland, from Mesa AZ, he has super good spanish for just
getting out of the MTC, he is a black belt in american KinPo
(something to that effect) so he is gonna teach me a little, so yay!
Hahah we had a hard first day, but the week went amazing! We are
seeing miracles! And the lord guiding us, and helping us.  Im learning
so much, and i know that i need this, so i am ready for it! Im working
harder than before, and i am dead by 9 oclock and most nights we are
out of the pad till 9:15 with a lesson, everyone wants to have a
lesson after 6 and we fill those days by Sunday after church, super
nice, especially when they normally feed you at those appointments ;)
have i told yall how amazing spanish food is?! Its better home made,
even when comparing taquillas, (i want to go back and chat with the
homies in spanish)

We have been bold, and loving, declaring repentance to the people of
NY (sometimes it is a quite litteral declaration of  repentance) and
we see hearts begin to change,
 “We as a people have one supreme thing to do, and that is to call
upon the world to repent of sin, to come to God. And it is our duty
above all others to go forth and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the restoration again to the earth of the plan of life and
salvation."
-President Heber J. grant
None of us are perfect, but we can surly try to do our best,
Trying your hardest is the essence of faith, acting as though you have
a perfect knowledge, when you dont, and it might not be perfect, but
that isnt what god wants, i have been rejected, and i have also messed
up, but i know that the effort that i am putting in to this will not
be waisted. All i am doing is planting seeds.  I am me still, just,
well... Converted, i have changed, im a new person, i can firmly
testify that a few parts of my Patriarchal Blessing has come true, i
know that though they might not come to us exactly the way we thought,
but i do know and stand as a witness that they do come, so dont fret
if one word isnt right in your eyes, its not your will, but the will
of the father =D

Love yall much!

Picture one: on the way back from transfer meeting
(Back two from left to right elder Jensen and Elder poole (ZLs),
middle row, sister Cristensen (new to the Zone) sister Nation, sister
Urizar (from guatamala and trainee of sister nation, they are in my
district) then the amazing elder Roland, then front row is sister
Pulotu (yeah she is a Poly! They are awesome!) and me!

-Elder Bufí (Buffington)-

Email, Monday, February 2, 2015

Monday night till Tuesday it snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more, most were expecting that it would never stop snowing, we got a whopping 7 inches and the city practically shut down

Wednesday, shoveling day and we were going to a appointment when the call came, elder cottle and i both are training new missionaries, and elder cottle will be leaving the area for his second area, so i will have my tenth companion, and i am pretty nervous but i know it will all work out! Thursday came around and we traveled to Rego Park for the trainer meeting.  I learned alot and am getting excited but still nervous, lets hope everything runs smoothly, which never happens, then the longest three days ever, we spent trying to see the families, saturday night it was confirmed that im staying here,  this is a training district, sister nation from our district is training too, so alot is going down, and i love yall! It has been a great week and i now feel at peace with what will happen, have a beautiful p-Day!

Thats all for the week,

Your hipster,

-Elder Bufí (Buffington)- 

Pic 1) a AMAZING lunch for $3.00 that you cant beat#$1slice

Pic 2) a quick stop in Paris, aka Army Plaza

Pic 3) no im not in a bathroom but a subway, so i have heard that there is art all around NYC like this but this is kinda... Creepy? Its back in this weird cubbyhole but what ever floats their boat, right?

Pic 4) at a train transfer waiting for a q train at coney island, and a amusement park.

Email, Monday, January 26, 2015

Well, i know i am blessed
I have amazing friends,
I have a amazing family, both there at home and here on the mission,
I have a amazing and merciful father in heaven,
I have a testimony of this,

Yesterday (Sunday morning) we had a sweet experience, we had a
potential lesson to go to, and when we got there, he wasn't home, so
we called him up, he wasn't home but at the park two seconds away, so
we sat with him for a hour before church and just talked to him, found
out more about him, and how pure in heart he is! The only road block,
his wife, she is catholic and doesn't want to change, yet, he is
trying his hardest to convince her to try the church, but she isn't
wanting to budge, (might teach her the Ten Commandments and pointing
out to not worship any graven image, or do not put any god before the
father :) hahah it worked before, with Olga! He didn't go to church,
he had to take care of his twin three year old daughters, they are so
adorable!

So i got the treats! Thank you! The moon pies brought back sweet
memories ( haha pun) :) and the orange, we are enjoying it :) got
jasmines letter, a's and b's?! Wooohoooo! And Spanish CP?! These might
be grounds for una Dádiva! But when i will give it to you I'm not
sure, maybe in my next package, but i will let you know, any
preferences? Mom? You have any ideas? Haha

Every week is a new adventure! I love y'all! So excited to see y'all!
Less than 6 months left, I'm excited but I'm scared, i don't want to
come home cause i love New York, i love the people here, i love
Spanish people, i am thinking about attending the Spanish branch when
i get home, we will see,

Your bestest best missionary in the whole wide world! (That is serving
during "The hastening of His work"
-Elder Bufí (Buffington)-

Email, Monday, January 19, 2015

Hello!

This has been a awesome week! We had two exchanges, one with the district leader and one with the zone leaders, both went well,  had super cool moments and good food, :) 

Ya know, i wish i had faith like alma and amulek and the ability to follow the spirit so perfectly like chapter 14 of Alma, one of my top favorite scriptures, they go teach the people, they start to believe, and then the villains bind alma and amulek and force them to watch as the wives and children of the believers are burned by fire, here is the prophet he has the power of god, and yet he does nothing, but gives a sweet promise to amulek, that they will be recieved by their loving father in heaven in glory, which reminds me of a scripture, in Matthew chapter 10 verse 39, it says (something to the effect of) whosoever shall lose his live for my sake, the same shall find it.  

Oh! Did i tell yall i am finally doing my studies in Spanish now? Its funny, i never expected knowing Spanish to feel like this, like its like a home like feeling, to be able to understand Spanish is crazy, i have been blessed with the change, but yeah! Did yall hear about google translate? You can use the camera option and point it at a Spanish word or sentence, anything of the sort really, and it translates it right there on the screen! Pretty crazy! It isnt perfect but its progress! How was yalls week? I got a letter from Jeff and Lindsay and their family, and all i have to say is STOP GROWWINGGGGGGGG and thank you so much! :) how old is everyone now? 

Oh and my secret santa is not finished yet, but it will be definitely worth the wait! I had som new ideas to add to it :) so random recipient prepare yourself :)

I love yall! Stay classy, stay yourselfs, god made you to be you! 

Elder Daniel Buffington ;)

Pic 1) they new google translate feature! (Not perfect but definitely progress!

Pic 2) we have a attention issue haha weekly planning for the win!

Pic 3) some Po-Tay-Toes ya know, boil em mash em stick em in a stew? And pork :)

Email, Monday, January 12, 2015

Week four completed and i cant believe its already week five now, the
days are hard and long, but crazy fast weeks, we are already in the
middle of the month, but last week seems like FOREVER ago,
This week was crazy too! We are defiantly blessed! We have been bold
with even more love than before, and we are seeing the blessings from
it! The walls of a very long time less active committed to coming to
church, peoples hearts softening to accept a challenge to be baptized
by someone who holds the authority of God! And speaking of authority,
we found out the name of the new mission president, Gary Reynolds, and
he enters 21 days before i see y'all again ;) the lord has blessed me
with the spirit of comfort because i was worried about the fact that
he wouldn't know me and would know my struggles and strengths, but im
confident that he is a called servant of our loving Heavenly Father.
It will be sad to see President Calderwood leave, but he has done so
much for us, and we have been the cause of his grey hairs xD (little
joke of ours)

I am doing well! My spanish is doing well :) surprisingly, (looking at
my spanish beofre the mission, i was hopeless to say the least) (gift
of toungs is real) im blessed everyday!

Your missionary,
Elder Buffington

Ps
I have two more pictures for yall so stay tuned ;)

Mira! Mira! Mira! Fotos!
Ok, foto uno! We found my dream car :))))))))) mmmmmmmmm

Foto dos! It was MAD BRICK (super cold in the New York language) in
our pad, so, studies in warmth :)

Foto tres! Using the ketchup! :) i had to "crissen" the bottle :)

Ladies and gentlemen,
I introduce you to the best challenge ever! Its the nugget challenge,
50 nuggets, large drink, 20 minutes

Email, Monday, January 5, 2015

Well its a whole new year! And it feels like it was last year that i
wrote! Whewww! Thats forever ago! (Dry humor?) this week has been a
roller coster! But so awesome! So for new years elder cottle and i got
two pizzas and two martinellies! And then we played monopoly over
FaceTime... Fun stuff, we never "won" but we quite the game, and my
companion and i were very comfortable, and the zone leaders were
catching the struggle bus, but anywho! Saturday was a día milagrísimo!
We started out day early with a lesson at 10 am, with a guy they have
only had doorstep lessons with, we got in and taught about the
restoration of the gosple of Jesus Christ i bore my testimony about
how our father in heaven loves us, and immediately i saw the spirit
touch him, in a way i could see it in his eyes, then we showed him the
restoration video, then my companion and i testified of the validity
of joseph smith, and then committed him to be baptized on the 1st of
February, he stood there shaking his head up and down, slightly dazed,
and agreed, agreed more quickly and with more confidence than i have
ever heard of before, #MiraclesForDays!

I can happily share that i know we have a loving heavenly father, and
that because he loves us, he called another prophet to usher in the
final dispensation, and that we have a prophet on the earth today! I
know Jesus Christ came to the earth to teach his gospel and to preform
the atonement, i also know and firmly believe that the only chance we
have to live together as a family, is to follow his gospel, through
faith in him, repenting of the big things as well as the small things,
being baptized by someone that holds the authority of god, then weekly
partaking of the sacrament, to renew the covenants we make at baptism,
to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to Endure to the end, this
cycle is a way of life that helps us to be truly happy, its like a
upward spiral, with every full rotation of this cycle, our hearts
begin to change and we are elevated closer to God, and Jesus Christ.
This change of heart, or true conversion is essential to returning to
Him. This is the gospel restored in its fullness and glory, along with
many other important things pertaining to the kingdom of God, was
revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith, people try their hardest to
bash, and to find fault, and to discredit his name, but we have
evidence of this, the Book of Mormon, the inspired writings of
revelations and the histories of the ancient inhabitants of the
americas, written by prophets then, it isnt written by Joseph Smith,
but he in fact translated this book of scripture from golden plates by
the power of God, and if any of you have doubts in this, i plead with
you, just to pray to know wether this is true, or a well made lie, i
have done it, over and over, i have seen this gospel change lives.
This is the one true church on the earth today, this is the same
church Christ established when he lived upon the earth! I soberly and
solemnly bare my witness of this in the name of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, amen.

For those who have tried to tear at my faith, thank you, because of
those attacks, i have an even more firm of a testimony of what i do, i
am a servant of The Most High, a fellow vineyard worker, a messenger
of light and hope, i am blessed in my calling as a missionary, that is
why i can speak comfortably in another language that i had little to
no experience in before, in less than a year, for those that have
strived and worked so hard to bring my testimony closer to christ, i
thank you all also, i love each and every one of you, i am who i am
because of you!

Your friend, brother, and son,
Elder Daniel Buffington


Okay picture one! Hahahahaha get it? Tennis ct? Hhahahaha

Picture two and three :) we have a sleeper! Hahaha i love these guys!