Flying in to PARADISE !

Here's the good lookin' bunch who flew in to Oahu's Honolulu airport on THURS July 30th. 4 months to the day from Nick's 19th birthday, and almost 5 months from the start of his volunteer service as a missionary. They wore masks in the airport and on the plane. They all received these black 'nut necklaces' that are so traditional in Hawaii.

This is who will be his leaders, mentors, allies and surrogate parents while he is in Hawaii for the next 1.5 years: Robert and Joni Walker of Bountiful, Utah. Nick felt such a warm welcome and is so excited to volunteer with them and have their leadership.

An hour after getting to his new apartment (with phenomenal views from the large balcony), he called us and looked like this...

SO DEEPLY HAPPY!!

Adios Las Vegas West Mission

Elder Bucky saying "Farewell" to his wonderful Mission Presidents, President and Sister Reese. They call their missionaries, "Reece's Pieces" and have been such positive mentors, leaders and inspiring, loving leaders.

Signing the Mission quilt! (What a cool idea - the mission president and wife will take this home and have it forever)

He spent the night at the Mission home Wednesday, July 29th and takes off on a 7am flight to Seattle then to HONOLULU today (7/30/2020) !

ALOHA!!!

Going to HAWAII this week!

Ladies and ladies, i was in a deep stupor of thought last Tuesday morning when i received this text,

"Elder Buckwalter,  enjoy your last week in Vegas. You will be traveling to Hawaii on July 30th. I don't have the itinerary yet but it will be coming. Thanks for all your efforts here in Las Vegas. Finish strong!" 

So there you have it!

 After 4 months here in the Las Vegas West Mission, I'm heading to da islands!! The real question now is who is gonna get there first, me or the hurricane!! 

A lesson I've learned from my time here is to be realistic in your expectations and realize that we're all human. Everybody has their agency and when a companion chooses to scroll facebook all day everyday, there's almost nothing you can do about it other than set a good example and maybe kindly invite them to refocus on the task at hand. Coming into the mission, I think I expected just robots following every rule and leaving everything from home behind. That's not the case and it's really, really frustrating to me, but hey, what can you do? We all have our weaknesses, we all choose to serve for different reasons, we all have our different perspectives of the rules and standards we're expected to follow. Anyways enough of that rant!! 

My mom is not gonna like this, but I genuinely think I need all new pants; my gut is just growing way too rapidly. Shoutout to Men's Warehouse for not listening when we said almost 5 times, "please make everything big and loose b/c I'm going to gain weight!" Gotta love Men's Warehouse. 

My pants are excruciatingly tight: last night we had dinner at a very cool members house and they literally grilled pineapple like the stuff you get at Tucanos; then they also smoked ribs. so you already know i was feasting. And then immediately I paid the price. For the rest of the evening at their lovely home, my stomach felt like a negative 5/10. so mom, looks like we're gonna have to spend another $2000 getting all new clothes. Love that for us!! 

This always happens and I'm not sure how, but this email is longer than a Harry Potter book! Going on another hike right now so that should be fun. Hope you all are doing well. I want you all to know that I live and breathe the gospel of Jesus Christ and I've never been happier!

Please text me, email, facebook messenger, google hangouts or whatever and I'd love to chat with you today and discuss the doctrine of the kingdom, the NBA, or whatever!! 

Me & Elder Kellogg (zone leader) having our last P-day feast on Hawaiian food before I go!

~Elder Buckwalter

Vegas mission life: bball, hiking & good meals

Another great week here in the Nevada Las Vegas West Mission. b/c I know people are gonna ask, no I'm not sure when I'm going to my original mission, the beautiful Hawaiian Islands, but the latest word on the street is September. Me being one of the most pessimistic people you will ever meet, I'm planning for a Christmas in Vegas.

 

I've been companions with Elder Johnson for the past 3 weeks who if I didn't mention served 17 months in the Philippines and then 3 at home. He's awesome and him and I make quite the team in basketball so that's also magnificent.

Let me tell you, This ward is amazing. This past week we had a member dinner every night and have one planned every night for this week as well. The members even ask us what we want. So part of me is like "a delicious bass" (Napoleon Dynamite reference) and the other part of me just doesn't care and will eat whatever. Moral of the story is that I truly don't know what's growing more rapidly: my testimony or my gut. 

Earlier this morning we went on a sick hike with our Zone Leaders. We went at the early hour of 8 so the weather was actually beautiful, I kid you not, felt like 70 degrees. Elder Johnson and one of the Zone Leaders went to high school together so we are always hanging with them. We lived with them for our first week in the area too, but eventually they had to move out b/c our mission is just booming with new missionaries coming in. We now live with Elder Aston and Elder Bybee who aren't even in our district or zone so that's kinda weird! They're awesome though! 

Taking a load off!

Not sure what else to say but here's some of the music I've been missing:

LANY, journey, ac/dc, guns'n'roses, one direction, justin bieber, high school musical, jeremy zucker, michael jackson, a star is born; maybe some others I can't remember at the moment. 

I wanna leave y'all w my testimony of God's love for each of y'all. past few weeks have been ruff partly b/c I have such high standards and expectations. Just yesterday during our mission zoom sacrament meeting, not 1 but 2 elders gave talks on that exact struggle I had been going through. Thru those 2 elders talks, God let me know that He loves me and is aware of my feelings and He also let me know that maybe I do need to lower my standards and expectations a little bit. This truly was a tender mercy to me and I know that each of us can have similar experiences as we pray and let God know of our problems. 

quick shoutouts/people I want to hear from:

Josh and Kal Woods serving the Lord!!, My cousin Sammy (somebody update me on him, I miss that kid), Eli and Ezra Garcia who apparently can't wait to hang with me when I get home (love that so much), T-pug (need an update on him as well), Payjo (need an update on him), Daxton Owens an absolute unit serving in the San Jose Cali mission bless his heart, & many more that I also cannot think of at the moment. 

Will likely include pics of my gut, Elder Johnson, and our hike.          Thanks for reading! Peace out!

Electric bikes, trench coats & Crumbl cookies

Hey! Nick's mom here. He sent us these pics today (his day off) but no letter. I will post these with a little explanation. He sounds SO good, enthusiastic and is with some fantastic young men.

They found this "dope trenchcoat" 

in an old missionary apartment

(formerly lived in by one of his bffs, Elder Moser!)

Thank you, Las Vegas church members for hooking our sons
up with these most delicious cookies!

He has a motorized bike and said,

"It's insane, I don't even break a sweat!"

(and it's over 100 degrees)

(but it's the desert as opposed to the humid southeastern USA)