10 months down, 14 months left to go!

Currently just cruising on the beach (not on the sand) on North Shore. It's a vibe. I've determined that I need 4 things in life: a camping chair, raspberries, an ukulele, & the Book of Mormon. Elder Gordon (my companion) and I do a lot of cruising in our camping chairs. We'll go to a local park to do companion study and whip out our camping chairs. Fellow missionaries in the field, I highly recommend it. 

Last night we had another "cook for yourself" dinner with the Asato's. Brother Asato is the Elders Quorum President & Sister Asato is the Relief Society 1st counselor, but practically the Relief Society President. They have portable camping stoves and we cooked ribs and steak on them for dinner. By the end of it, I was stuffed. Unfortunately Brother Asato had other ideas in mind. He served me up a bowl of probably about 4-5 scoops of ice cream. Tt is an absolute miracle I finished and didn't vomit. Needless to say, I feel that my gut is rapidly expanding. I used to wonder why people are out of shape, but I genuinely get it now. Exercising is hard. Eating good food is easy. 

Wednesday afternoon we saw some homies hooping and I was eager to join so we did and we played some full court 5 on 5 with these homies. I quickly realized the deadly combination of Hawaii's humidity and my proselyting clothes. I was absolutely SWEATING & i wasn't even trying my hardest. Elder Gordon doesn't have the strongest liking for basketball so he wasn't too happy about all of this. He's also a laundry enthusiast so he was incredibly infuriated that he was sweating so much in his proselyting clothes. 

Too bad we weren't wearing these!!

This past week we also decided to spoil the sister missionaries in our zone simply becaue they deserve it. I've always admired sister missionaries' enthusiam, cheerfulness, optimism, friendliness, etc. So first we bought a 23 dollar order of McDonalds ice cream, McFlurry's, & fries. Then the next morning we bought 2 smoothies from Jamba Juice for about 17 dollars, then we bought a 29 dollar order from Raising Canes, & then another 14 dollar McDonalds order. I'm no mathematician, but I think that comes out to around 85 dollars. You know it was funny at first, but now that I'm writing this, that just kinda seems excessive. Oh well. Just preparing to spoil my future wife🏼

Last Monday a church member named Lau took us on the Airfield in our area. It's called Wheeler and he works there. He showed us a bunch of sick helicopters & drones. It was lit. Lau is the sickest guy. He's a massive Chiefs fan & he has a super nice truck, a Corvette, & a Mercedes. He also plays PUBG a lot at work. Elder Gordon tells me that he wants to be like Lau when he grows up - hahaha. 

Many other good times in the past couple of weeks. I'm enjoying my time here in the Hawaiian Islands. I know Jesus Christ lives and loves all of God's children. i hope everybody has some great holidays!!

Offering some free carwashes. 

Missionaries love to find service opportunities

aloha

elder buckwalter

🤙🏽

Baptisms from my first area!

What's up everybody!! 

I had the amazing opportunity to go back to Kapolei to see 2 people I taught over there get baptized & confirmed!! My former companion, Elder Orme baptized Randon and then I actually got to confirm him and it was super amazing!!  Then a member in the ward baptized Roderick and Elder Orme confirmed him. 

Randon is a gamer with dope long hair! We would give him Book of Mormon reading assignments and then we'd come back and ask him about it and he would give literally spot on summaries of the whole chapter. It was insane! 

Then Roderick is from a isle of the sea in the middle of the ocean! The language he speaks is only spoken on his island, nowhere else in the world. He is soooo sickkk. Also has some sick long hair and wears this sick necklace with some teeth on it. He told us he's the "designated diver" for his island and has to dive for fish for everybody to eat. I'm so happy I was able to witness both of these dudes' baptisms. 

Yesterday Elder Gordon and I found out we're both staying here in Wahiawa. We then proceeded to have a 2 hour mental breakdown / brainstorming session in an effort to cope with this heart wrenching news. We both agreed that we just don't really know what we're doing and how to best use our time. We just wanna bring others to the fold but aren't quite sure how to do that. 

Ah, almost forgot about Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving was awesome. We had lunch with our ward's Elder's quorum president and his wife. They had little portable camping grills and a bunch of different meat and they had us cook our own food. So that was fun! Elder Gordon even brought his apron - haha! 

Then for dinner we ate a member's house living on the army base in our area. Anyone who really knows me, knows I like ham more than turkey...to my surprise this family had ham!! I was so happy and absolutely feasted! That was pretty much our day on Thanksgiving. It was a great time. Our fridge is absolutely stacked with left overs.

I could write more about my week, but its all good. Just grateful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. What so many people don't understand is that our church is the same church Jesus Christ established while he was on the earth. When he was killed, the church and the truth was lost from the earth. but then in the 1800's, my guy Joseph Smith helped God & Jesus Christ bring the Church of Jesus Christ back to the earth. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is so much more than a religion or denomination. It's quite literally the designated way to return to live with God, Jesus Christ, and our families together forever in a state of never ending happiness. You tell me what other church/religion can do that...

God loves you. Jesus Christ loves you. I love you. God Bless America. God Bless Hawaii & 

God Bless Mozambique (my companion's original assignment)

pics below!!

email me back to chat (nicolas.buckwalter@missionary.org)

aloooooooha

elder buckwalter

🤙🏽

Zoom in on what word my finger is pointing to...

Unable to write this week...

good evening. Its 5pm right now & we're hiking. we started the hike at 10am...

to make matters worse, we still have 3 miles left. to make matters EVEN worse I'm doing this in sandals. That's all for today folks. I'm in immense pain right now & have gained an extreme appreciation for the Pioneers. please wish me a swift recovery from this excruciating 8 HOUR hike. 

god bless you all

elder buckwalter

Robyn is inserting this for his poor exhausted self ;)

John is dead*

Hello my people! 

Correct me if I'm wrong but, its been a while! Time just flies and I get so caught up in things that I often forget or minify the tradition of sending a weekly email. but I assure you that I am doing just mighty fine. 

One of the many highlights of this week was an actual sports highlight coincidentally. We stopped by a couple's house, who told us they were interested about a month ago but have been stand off-ish every since. Yesterday, they were watching the final seconds of the Arizona Cardinals and Buffalo Bills football game & we got to see DeAndre Hopkins game winning TD catch. It was so sick. In the mission we call those little glimpses of the real world "tender mercies" - haha. And they said they were interested in us coming back to talk more about the gospel!

For "Trunk or Treat" - we dressed up...these cool shirts were popular 

that night, lots of compliments.

(throw back to Halloween, by Nick's mom)

*Alright, but let me explain the subject line of this email. We stopped by this family's house looking for John because we had record that he was actually on baptismal date!! We get to the house and they're a Chuukese speaking family. There was a little girl there that spoke English, luckily. so we asked if John was home; her immediate 3 word response was, "John is dead."  Now don't get me wrong, this is super sad and unfortunate, but the overall bluntness of the reply was just slightly comical for Elder Gordon and I.  

So many great missionaries here with NICK!

We still do lots of service, food banks/drives at other churches and in the community

So half of my area is a military base and we haven't been able to go on it because of COVID-19 and just a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. BUTTT it recently opened up and we went on for the first time on Saturday night for a member dinner with the Honea family! The Honea family has a hilarious 8 year old son named Evan we got to know really well! We bonded over our mutual love for Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Marvel! His parents asked us to talk a little bit about baptism. After giving him an amazing speech, he simply said, "I think I already knew all that since I was about 2 years old." Hahaha. Such a funny kid!

These sweet girls love us and wanted to wear our name tags. Life is good!

Those are just few highlights of my splendid week this week. It's such a blessing to serve in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. My simple invitation for all of you is to tune into God's prophet on the earth today share a brief message with the world on November 20th. You DO NOT have to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to watch this. If you're looking for more happiness & peace in your life (which you all are, don't try to deny that) then TUNE IN!

pictures below!! here's a few notable ones!

-some seals we saw today on our hike

-me with Sister Brower (our moms were college roommates, in the same mission and MTC teachers together)

and these from my mom, with her notes:

Sister Gutierrez (later Brower; she married one of our fellow Spanish MTC teachers)

Robyn and Carla (Hermana Machan and Hermana Gutierrez) roomed together at BYU in 1991-1992 and got hired to teach at the MTC the same day--and were assigned to the same district, twice. 

COOL signs:

Nick sends us these random pics each month; no caption. 

Love the BRIGHT colors and his reading hangouts...

-somebody selling some LeBron James🤧(iykyk)

aloooooha!

elder buckwalter

🤙🏽

P-day (day off) Hike 

Meeting up with former companion, Elder Orme

who hiked from his area half way to meet us in our area, half way

1/3 of the way down!

aloha! 

whatta time to be alive ladies and gentlemen. Been a great couple of weeks here in Wahiawa. Although Wahiawa is pretty much a Hawaiian Compton, it's got pretty much everything I could ask for. a goodwill and L&L Hawaiian food. that's all I need. And yes on Wednesday I will hit 8 months meaning I'm 1/3 of the way done w my mission!! Exciting stuff. Let me give u the recap. 

Soooo the dole pineapple plantation is in my area if you didn't know. So Tuesday night we visited a member who had extra pineapples and insisted that we take 5 of them. We then delivered some to other missionaries in the zone b/c 5 pineapples is quite unnecessary. 

Wednesday mornin we helped an aunty pack her stuff in a moving pod & then she fed us after. bless her heart. 

Thursday we taught seminary!! bright and early at 6:30am but we wake up at 6:30am everyday anyways so it was fine. 

Friday we helped some members build an enclosure for their pet ducks! we were kinda nervous beforehand b/c we thought it was gonna be like hammer and nail but we just used bamboo and some netting. they fed us after as well & that was a major blessing. Friday I also did my FIRST baptismal interview. it was outside actually and it was raining. given the circumstances, I think I did pretty alright. and the dude was baptized yesterday so we can't complain. 

Saturday we stopped by the Souza's. we had never met them before but I felt right at home. It was a foster mom and she usually cares for no less than 10 kids. We listened to Frank Sinatra and ate a great meal. I got so comfortable there that I forgot they weren't members of our church and we didn't even talk about the gospel!! Let's just say we'll be back!! Saturday we also ran into the main man of a local church named Dru. He gave us his contact card and invited us to meet w him and learn. Honestly was a super pleasant conversation. I was expecting to get bashed. I then invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. We ended the conversation and turned the corner and then promptly threw his card into the trash

So since Saturday was Halloween, we were given a 6pm curfew, but President and Sister Walker had activities on zoom from 7-9 and they were super fun!! (Got to wear our p-day/day off clothes that day).

Yesterday we bore our testimonies at church. We had a great dinner with the Akhay family who has the cutest dog named Country. I believe it was a boxer. all week long I was looking forward to going over to their house and playing with their dog!! 

andddd today we just found out that an Elder we live with is actually gonna join our companionship. TRIO TIME! His name is Elder Arobati and he's from Kiribati. It will be a good time. 

Well this is where our time ends, friends and family. Kinda feel like this was a boring email, but hopefully you don't feel the same way. I hope you thoroughly enjoy this epistle & if you're ever feeling like a narrow-minded sea lion or a rambunctious tarantula this week, please know that God loves you. Jesus Christ loves you. They want you to be happy and successful here on earth and the way to do that is to keep their commandments. If you would like to live with God, Jesus Christ, and your family together forever, even after death, then the gospel and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the place for you. 

shootz & go cougs baby

elder buckwalter

🤙🏽

WAHIAWA: WEEK 2

"Good Morning!" That's a President Reese quote for all my Vegas (mission) homies 

what a week its been! 

Monday: met sister Alatini & her 3 daughters. Teaching little kids is always interesting-- haha. You really have to simplify things. The oldest (age 9) was baptized this summer and her middle child turns 8 in January and is wanting to be baptized so that's exciting. Her husband is not a member, so they're a family that we'll be working with a lot. 

Tuesday: a man yelled at us thru his window and told us he doesn't like Mormonism b/c we worship "that one dude George Johnson" or some random name like that -- nowhere even close to Joseph Smith. I was like, "bruh, 1st of all: get the name right & 2nd of all: don't you dare trash on my manz Jo Smith." I let my emotions get the best of me & probably didn't handle the situation the best way. I tried explaining Joseph Smith's role in the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but my manz wasn't having it. You live and you learn though. I'll do better next time. 

My area and favorite street: Royal Palm

Wednesday: helped out at a food drive at a local church. The city I live in has probably about 30 churches, no joke. Too bad none of them have the power and authority to seal families together forever even after death. kidding but kinda not kidding... I also found out on Wednesday that someone my trainer (Elder Fullmer) and I taught back in Vegas was baptized!! That was very happy news! 

Thursday: texted 26 members about church on Sunday. We went over to an Aunty's house and she told us her whole life story. She's a lonely widow and she really enjoyed our company. It's situations like that where I learn the most about Jesus Christ b/c these are the individuals Jesus Christ would be ministering to. Also, had a lesson with a recent convert in the ward named Daniel and heard his INCREDIBLE conversion story. This man was suicidal, but ended up being baptized and has not dealt with any major depression ever since!!! 

Friday: helped out at the local church again with their food drive. It was supposed to be from 9-3 but b/c of the abundance of volunteers, it only took an hour!!  We went to contact a member family (the Adams Ohana) that night just to say hi, but they ended up feeding us dinner and we stayed and chatted for 2 hours!! It was my 1st time eating Poke & I loved it!! 

Saturday: each zone in the mission did a food drive at their stake centers from 10-12. We had a moderate turn out, but filled 5-6 tables with food & we're distributing it this Saturday I believe. 

That afternoon we found a new person to teach named Kim! It musta been Elder Gordon and I's matching checkered fanny packs that did the trick! We're exciting to finally start teaching someone! Then that night we had dinner with the Vickers! They fed us like kings, of course. Sister Vickers insisted that my companion, Elder Gordon, eat 8 TACOS!!! & he did it like a champ. We walked outta there feeling like bloated gophers. 

Sunday: then yesterday, I went to church for the first time in 8 months!! My companion and I spoke and brought the house down of course. Teaching with power & authority. It was the wards 1st time back at church & there was probably about 15 people there-- so that was slightly depressing, but its all good! That afternoon we found another new person to teach named Jacquie!! She,s a single mom of 4, working 2 jobs so I think she might need the gospel. just a guess tho ;) Then we went to a less active family's house and met them and pretty much reactivated them. They're converts, but have just been very on and off in terms of activity level in the church, so we told em about church next Sunday and bore our testimonies and they were pretty much sold! 

That's a very rough summary of my week! It was great! 

I love God. I love Jesus Christ. I love Hawaii. 

Go check out Jacob 3:1 &2 in the Book of Mormon to be spiritually uplifted!! 

But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart. Look unto God with firmness of mind, and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction.

2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever.

AMEN. 

tofa (shoutout elder burgess)

elder buckwalter

🤙🏽

PICS:

- sunrise

- my comp with some Seltzer drinks a volunteer at the local church gave to us

- halloween 2018 (yes, I'm Spidey)