Email, Monday, July 14, 2014

Its that time of the week again! MONDAY!!! Alot has happened, so i

hope i have the patience to write it all down (and i had to ask my

companion to spell patience for me cause i couldn't remember how to

spell it...)

Okay well to start, i got a new companion, (transfer 8 companion 7,

not including MTC companion) so im praying that we stay together for a

while, his name is Elder Trujillo, he was born in Colombia, about 45

minuets away from Cali, then when he was 8 he moved to florida, so i

have a native companion! :) and im in the best area to learn spanish,

so it should skyrocket now! :) which i guess it has cause i talk to

members alot, plus i have a native companion which is helping me, so i

might also get a columbian accent! Yay! I would be okay with it!

Sadly enough the world cup is over... But its okay, every one is happy

here :) columbia had a chance but one of the refs were paid off, so he

was suspended, and brazil got what was coming to them, :) and our

heritage won the cup, so its all good here :)

We didnt have too many appointments work out this week but we set up

something like 6 dinner appointments in the next week, and we might be

getting 3 new investigators, my companion and i have done quite a bit,

we started the first district street sweep that has happened here in

more than 2'transfers, so we are on fire right now :)  and we have a

large district, 4 companionships!

So there was a fundraiser this friday and we were asked to do a skit,

but then yesterday, the lady told us that it was moved to this

tuesday! And every other companionship have appointments! So my

companion and i get to do three musical numbers, but it is okay, we

got two missionaries from the other area to help us :) so a little but

of crazyness is running around :P

I love each of you, and i think of yall often, and its weird to think

that im almost half way done... Its going too fast and i want it to

slow a little so i can learn more!

the symbol to the left is the baptism symbol in the steamed wall, yay for baptisms!

 i love NY!/ i baptize New York ;)

quote of the week :)

Email, Monday, July 7, 2014

Transfer 8, week one,
HEYYYYYYY!!
Well transfer meeting is tomorrow, and after the meeting, i will have my 7th companion and eighth transfer :P  but hey i have some questions to answer!
Question one, how is the mish going?
Answer one, amazing!  Incredible and nothing like i ever imagined! (Not because of location) new york is like serving the "Earth" mission, where i am, you can travel to india, then then the next street starts south america, in the mission their are many countries represented, and when i say that, i mean store signs, music playing on the street, the language everyone speaks, is all the the same in the areas, spanish, chinese, Arabic, russian, indian, other slavic languages, its crazy, but here is just spanish and arabic.  Its weird what the mission does to you, how it can show you the culture of other countries, other people, and the love you feel for them is just magnified, i can honestly say if there is just one thing i have learned on my mission, it is charity, to look down the street, bus, subway, and see someone you dont know, and imagine them in the temple, the happiness of their lives with the gospel, then the love for people you teach, i never thought this would be this amazing! Im learning more spanish here than flushing! I never knew what to expect from another language, but when i hear Chinese my ears almost.. Cringe (if that is possible) but with spanish it feels like home, like a natural language to me, then not hearing stuff in english, and not having to translate because its something i just know, like bautismo es solo bautismo, im not good at spanish but im to the point i understand most of it, i have come to the sad conclusion that i can translate in my head cause it takes to long, so i must think in spanish, so i am okay with that.
Question 2 what is the weirdest thing i have eaten?
Answer two.. This is a hard one that i need to think of, the first thing that comes to mind is a columbian hot dog, we didnt have the complete thing  but the adds on it are, mayo, ketchup, and strawberry jam :) super good! The full thing has bacon, cheese, pineapple, potato chips, ketchup, mustard, mayo, and jam :) sounds amazing hu? But i think that is the weirdest thing i have consumed, i have had pupusas, empanadas, we are going to have brazilian food at a members house that their son just came home from his mission from são palo, so we are buddies now XD  
So we had a sweet experience this week, i went on a half-day exchange with one of the zone leaders, and we were heading to the last appointment, hermana Aquino's bodega, and it started to storm super bad, and as soon as we got to the store, it POURED rain, with thunder and lightning, so no one came in, so we used this as a chance to share a good scripture, and commit to reading the libro de mormón.  And it was amazing, she is a non member, with a daughter on a mission, god was on our side that night, we could see she felt the spirit, 

So next time yall hear from me, i will have a new companion!
I love you all!
Keep in touch and send this to those that i dont have a address to :) 
Your missionary out in the field
Elder Daniel Buffington
A nice view of the skyline and queens, rego park! :) fourth of july! (The big tower to the left is freedom tower, and the other to the right is the empire state building!

Email & Pics, Monday, June 30, 2014

Okay so from the last letter, alot has happened, from what you can see

from picture one, i am making skinny hoffles! Hope i made you proud

mom, and i am not sure if it is noticeable, but i do have a haircut,

okay pictures two and three is what happens when columbia goes farther

in the world cup than ever before :) and im getting darker too!

So my spanish is drastically changing, and progressing, it was super

slow in flushing cause we only taught two, maybe three people in

spanish, but now i can understand so much more, im loving the area, i

think i will be here for a while :)

Well, hope to have more pictures soon! And other funny things that happens,

I love yall!

Se cuidan!

Pictures, Monday, June 23, 2014

The flags, Puerto Rico, Columbia, and the D.R.

Beautiful view of the skyline of Manhattan with the sunset

Our temple trip, we are working with two of the boys that went, #FutureMissionaries

My country 

(So we choose countrys where we are claiming as our own, where we learn slang, phrases, customs, from, so i am from Bogotá Columbia (sebastian, the one i taught in flushing approves :) )  which has spanish people that are as white as me, so it is believable.)

 Albert and i, face timing about two feet from each other :)

I love yall!

-From Elder Buffington from the iPad-

Email, Monday, June 16, 2014

Hey family!
Long time right? Well not much going on, so i will tell yall a little
about the area, so i am in rego park, and a little ways north is where
we normally proselyte in a area called corona (kinda like the beer
company, oddly enough) and the ratio of spanish people to anyone else
is about the same ratio of the world to me :) it is crazy, especially
now during the world cup, every day people are out in there countries
jersey supporting, we did some service for a member here friday
evening, and she gave us free jerseys so i am supporting columbia,
which is my adopted country, the team won the first game, and there
next one is thursday, im sooo excited, and hope they win, them or
brazil! (Between us, i hope columbia is the victor) sebastian, the
recent convert in my old area officially called me a columbian, (that
is where his family comes from) so i am happy of that! But that is
really the only area im in, cause it is awesome and chucked full of
spanish people!

I am doing well and my spanish is picking up, it should be really good
by the time i leave this area.
Hope everyone is doing superb!
Well i love yall!

Elder Buffington

Email, Thursday, June 12, 2014

Hey!
Well this week I'm going to start by saying sorry for this coming
today and not monday.
We had a mission tour going on and our conference was on tuesday...
way cool, Elder Nelson from the quorum of the seventy (the
"exclamation point" guy the one i have a picture with on facebook)  i
found him a scripture he was looking for but couldn't locate it! So i
felt good :)  so we deep cleaned the church, was supposed to take
three hours, so we changed our p day to today :), and somehow three
hours shifted to all day! Yeah we didn't finish till 845, but at lease
it is supper clean, i cleaned the girls bathroom, took 5 hours...
Girls bathrooms are gross, the grout was black... Now white :) Ya
know... The mission makes the world really small... In my first area,
i met a very close friend with the martinez, in fact he was my ward
coordinator, uber cool! And now i am in the ward that Sister Martinez
was in, :) now im gonna ask people if they remember her! (And everyone
from utah lives near each other, but dosnt know anyone, even from the
same stake..) missions are amazing! I love mine! I am sooooo glad i am
here! I never wanna leave...

So this past sunday we had a cool experience, so we were walking to
give a member a homemade birthday card (cardboard folded in half and
then sharpied) and we turn down a street, when we are flagged down by
the YSA sister missionaries, who had talked to a less active that is
supposed to go to our ward! She has been wanting to return to
activity... Sooo awesome! I have been wanting to follow the spirit
more, and i guess i got my answer :)

Sorry again for the belated letter
I love you all so much,
Elder buffington

Email, Monday, June 2, 2014

Its elder buffington from week one, transfer 7!!!
Well i am in my third area, rego park, NY, near elmhurst in queens,
and i have a new awesome companion, i hope we can be in a
companionship for more than one, his name is Elder Spencer, he has
been out a little more on the mission than i, super cool, he is the
district leader, so i am happy of that, and im in the same house as
two other companionships, one of which has a missionary from my first
area, elder ligman! Super excited, we have jam sessions with two
guitars, a ukulele, a keyboard and my mandolin, soon to be another
guitar and a banjo :) im loving it hahaha

I am now in a ward, the largest in the mission, 162 people came to
church! And the high last transfer was 185!!! Im gonna struggle to
remember the names of everyone, we are in the central hub of the
mission so its gonna be awesome!

Well dont know too much about the area or my investigators, will tell
you more next email!

Love yall,
Your missionary here in new york!
Elder Buffington