First Baptism

Well this last Saturday was the coolest day everrrrr! We have been working with our investigator Alejandra very hard, and finally we got her into the waters of Baptism! I was lucky enough to be able to perform the baptism! haha I was pretty nervous needless to say, but oh wow how cool it was! It was a feeling I cant really describe but I know it was right! I am so happy right now.. well I am so sorry for the weak letter but I wanted to send some pictures because I thought that would be a nice change. it took a while to upload them but they are fun. if you have any questions about them ask me.. haha I love you all..

Feeling Great!!!

Alright I'm just gonna start this email off with how I'm feeling. I'M FETCHING FEELING GREAT!!! hahah this has been one of the most fun weeks I have had in a long time! I don't know what it is but I'm constantly in a good mood! I walk down the street singing songs and have a little hop in my step. Ive learned it does no good complaining about my problems and difficulties.. let alone think about the hard stuff. So I just take it as it is.. the hard stuff isn't hard when your happy. I honestly don't know why.. but this week I've had a permanent smile on my face. (thanks for all the prayers)!

So this week I hit my 1 month mark in Chile and wow how quick it went. This next week is transfer week and I'm hoping and praying none of us get transferred!

So I was talking with an Elder this last week that has been hospitalized for migraines among other stuff.. but as we were talking I asked him how he is feeling about his Spanish (he has been here for 4 months) and he said terrible. It scared me. We kept on talking about the language in our native language and came to the conclusion together that most missionaries have the misconception that once you put the 6 months or what ever the "predicted" amount of time to learn the language is.. That you fall asleep the 5 month 30 day not speaking Spanish and wake up the next day (6 months) and are completely fluent in the language. But that's not the case.. its a battle everyday to get a little bit better. Kinda like everything else in life, it takes effort and time.. (except prison, time is the only factor there).

Well Wednesday night at 4 A.M. someone was tried to break into our apartment. He was trying to pick the lock, one of our neighbors was leaving for work and caught him. they yelled and the man booked it.. we live on the 3 floor of these apartments and no joke the guy jumped off the bridge all the way to the ground. 30 feet and got away. So a little bit more time passed by and apparently he walked to the other side where the balconies are. and he was trying to climb up the windows  to get to our apartment. CRAZY LOCO! this man is determined! The thing is, I have nothing of worth to a Chilean thief.. unless he wants to steal 100 phamplets about the Restoration and a few copies of the book of Mormon. In that case be my guest strange determined man.

right now for service we are building a house of a less active member. its actually pretty fun! its deff one of the most sketch buildings but its a blast. Oh and I don't think its really smart having missionaries building this house.( I should have taken that home building class with Elder Matt Driggs) We have no clue what we are doing!

Well the Last 2 meals combined I have eaten..... 40 Inches of completo! It is incredibly unhealthily but oh so heavenly! I will upload a picture of one of them... but I ate 3 others. One of the other elders did the same, pulsipher, and his body crashed! he had to stay home and rest because his stomach was going through inferno!

OH way cool thing! there was a new paper writer that came to church with us last Sunday and actually is a member of the church.. he took pictures of us and everything so us 4 elders in the branch were all in the news paper. pretty cool stuff if you ask me. Oh they had a little mess up.. the name of the church is "La Iglesia de Jesucristo De Los Santos De Los Ultimos Dias" but in the paper they put " La Iglesia MORMONICA de los...." We all laughed so hard! haha no where does it say that. sad thing is he is a member haha.

So I read this really cool story. Its about a mom who had a wonderful family. She had a loving husband and a young daughter. one day she found out that her husband had been sneaking behind her back for the past few years. she was heartbroken! she didn't know what to do! she was lost.. she carried guilt, anger, sadness and all types of emotion. after a while it was really getting to her. she needed a release. but one day with her daughter, after just finishing up shopping at the grocery store they were bringing the things from the car to the house. the daughter was carrying some bread and was doing just fine. Then the daughter decided to grab the gallon of Milk. she lifted it.. then quickly fell. She tried again and again.. but the little girl just didn't have the strength to lift the heavy milk. so the mother offered to help, and the daughter snapped! stubbornly she said she could do it on her own! the girls started to cry. She felt like a failure. all she wanted to do was help her mom carry a carton of milk. as the mom was watching the girl struggle, she started to cry too. She looked at her hopeless daughter as herself. overcome with difficulties, challenges, wanting to be able to do conquer them on her own.. but the mom knew that she herself couldn't overcome the  problems she had alone.She knew she needed help. only help from the lord would suffice with the problems that she had. Then it become even more profound and meaningful when the daughter asked "mom will you carry me while I carry the milk". This is how the Lord helps us with our problems. Sometimes (most of the time) he doesn't take away our problems.. but if we are humble enough, trust in the Lord.. and SINCERELY ASK him. He will pick US up, he will pick OUR problems up and he will carry us through the hard time! I have a testimony of this. God loves his children.. he wants us to be happy. he will bless our lives and does oh so much more than we truly realize! I'm grateful to be able to bring this message to the people of Chile.

I love you all.. Elder Buck William Howard

ps. my full address is

Elder Buck Howard

Sucre 220 Oficina 504 Casilla de correo 70

Antofagasta, 2 Region

Chile

124000

my Email is

Buck.Howard@myldsmail.net

Shake, Rattle, & Roll

   So this week in the mission, we had the rookie reunion! All of the new missionaries and our trainers from the past 2 months were all sent to Antofagasta to have a reunion with President Bruce. So last Monday night we got all of our stuff ready to make the trek to Antofagasta. Its was about 12 45 am which is scary enough walking outside with sketch people giving you the stare down. We had to find and take a taxi into Iquique which is aways away. Finally we find one, but we didn't just find one, we probably found the craziest taxi driver in the world. We were cruzin! I'm pretty sure there is not a speed limit here. We were practically drifting around corners and crazy stuff like that. We were like 30 seconds away from the bus terminal and we have one more turn to go, he takes this one sharp and quick, out of nowhere a hooker(I am about 50% sure it was a man) jumps right in front of the taxi, we scream, the taxi driver swerves just enough to miss it.. and male female or whatever it was let out this horrible noise, pointed and winked at me in the front seat. EVERYONE is the taxi started laughing sooo hard, the taxi driver even was peeing his pants! (keep in mind this happened at 1 am and were normally aren't awake this late so everything is funny). Then we made it onto the bus.. its is a 6 1/2 hour bus ride from Iquique to Antofa. Half way into the ride, 4 am ish we got pulled over. they made everyone on the bus take all our stuff out and had to line up to be searched for drugs.. that's always fun :) long story short.. one missionary got caught and... nah kidding. We made it to Antofa and met with President Bruce. Man he is a Champ! I wanna be like him someday. He just inspires you. He told us his vision for the missionary work and where he wants it to go. its incredible how inspired that man is! I'm so lucky to be able to be one of his missionaries. We were there for like 6 hours and were sent back home. well worth the time though! I learned a lot in those few hours. and also it was nice to see the other Elders from the MTC. And to know that it wasn't only me that struggled the 1st little bit. That's just part of the mission. You just had to stuck it up and deal with it.. work hard and your problems fade away!

I was standing in our apartment the other day getting ready to leave, and we had an earthquake that shook me off my feet. It was pretty cool.. its the 1st one I've ever been in in my life. and then 3 days later we had another good little tremor. If we had a big earthquake here, this place would get wrecked like the movie 2012( oh no, I will be here for 2012) hehe.

Its pretty loco how the lord sometimes works. like the other day Elder Deck and I were visiting a less active member living it this apartment complex. as we were walking we saw a 14 year old kid in our branch and said to us to go visit his family.. he said they lived in block 6 apartment 11. So continue on our way, we knock on the door of the less active member (living in block 5 apartment 22) they dont answer. We walk down the stairs and see apartment 11.. so Elder deck knocks on the door. I look at him with big eyes and say "this is block 5.. the kid said they lived in block 6" ooops. but right then a 16 year old kid answers the door, we are completely awkward and dont know what to say because we were caught off guard.. but after about 10 good long awkward seconds we turn it around like a normal contact. We ended up getting invited into the house to give a pray on behalf of the people. They felt incredible.. they said they wanted us to come back for more. I dont know about you, but I think that is the Lord working through strange ways. It was a mistake on our part.. we were supposed to go to a completely different building but accidentally knocked on the wrong door and we ended up finding 3 more people waiting/wanting to hear the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So we have been teaching this young couple that we found knocking doors, their names are Obaldo and Juana. They are probably 22 years old not a day more. They have a baby on the way (like 8 months along) and they have no money. They live in a tiny house. They only own 2 chairs so we teach them while we stand. His job is picking lettuce. They dont have the confidence to look you in the eyes ever. okay so that is this family... so the other day we went to visit them. We knocked on the door and Obaldo answered. He said Juana was sick and she was sleeping so they couldn't visit. but then we said just let us come in and say a prayer even just with him. He accepted. We started talking with Obaldo and we knew something was wrong.. we started to ask questions about what was up and he started telling us all the problems that he has going on. I.E. having no money and a baby within the next month (if that alone isn't more than enough of a tough time). then he said his dad was really really sick, living in Bolivia and he can do anything about it because of his wife's condition with the baby. So his dad is dying, he has no money, family difficulties and that's just a few. So after pouring out his sole of all his life's problems to us ( He wasn't complaining, just telling us as friends whats going on) Then we decided to have him say a prayer to his Heavenly Father. We taught him about the love that God has for him.. and that God wants to talk to him. God wants to bless his life and only through prayer can he do that. So he began to pray. Never in my life have I heard such a sincere prayer. Tears started shedding, his voice was cracking because he felt that love that God has for him. He knew God was listening and that he is there for him! The spirit overcame me and I shed a few tears of happiness for myself. It is so flippin awesome to know that at anytime at any place I can talk with my Father in Heaven who loves me unconditionally. who will bless me with my needs. I can testify that the power of prayer is real. That we have a father in heaven that is eager to talk to us, just as our parents on the earth feel towards us. This simple knowledge has eternal consequences, consequences for the better. For people like Obaldo, they just need to feel the love of God in their lives and we all can through sincere prayer to him.

Love Elder Buck William Howard