Year 1, Week 25: We had 39 People!

Not much happened this week. The only SUPER exciting thing was Tania getting baptized! That was so awesome!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday was full of preparing for her baptism. We got to the Chapel at 3:30 to start filling the font for the baptism at 7. We starting filling it and had the other Elders watch it while we went to Chesire, a 20 minute drive from our chapel to pick up the programs that a member printed for us. We got them, drove back, and checked on the font. It was almost done! 6/7 of the way, but the water was super hot! We decided to turn the cold water on for the last little bit to cool it down for the baptism. We turned the cold water on, then left for about 5 minutes to prep some of the other things. When we came back down, all the water was brown. We immediately shut the water off, started draining, and turned the water back on to hopefully add some clean water to lessen the disgusting brown color. We realized that the water coming out of the faucet was also brown so we immediately plugged the font and started making calls. Tania showed up and we showed her the font and apologized. We said that she could either get baptized next week, or get baptized in the gross water. She was like, "I'm down. I'll get baptized in the gross water!" The rest of the evening went well. Nice talks and testimonies, etc.. When she got baptized, by her husband who was ordained to the office of Priest 2 weeks ago, she was crying and just hugged her husband for like 20 seconds. So.. It was a good experience. I have been super tired this week because of all the planning and such. I definitely am not good at planning so even attempting to plan is exhausting.

Yesterday at church was one of the best experiences I've ever had! One, Tania received the gift of the Holy Ghost and  Elder Tirado and I stood in the circle. When we all said amen she was again crying! It was a great experience. Also, usually at church there is like 10 people. This week we had 39 people at church! If this happens for a multiple weeks and shows growth, we could become a branch pretty soon!

Ashley was at church this week. We haven't seen her in 2 weeks and haven't given her a lesson in 2 1/2. She has tons of member support though so we aren't worried. Also at church, a random guy pulled up in a Ford F350, Super Duty, with two HUGE Smoke stacks coming out the back! Like, biggest truck I have ever seen in my life other than Semi's. The guy gets out, jeans, cowboy boots, and a foot long beard!! When I talked to him he said that he promised his grandma he would attend church before she died. He had never been to church in his life and had no idea where to go. He asked his cousin, who is a Mormon, and he referred him to us. We talked with him, got him in priesthood meetings etc. Basically, this guy lives in CT but loves Country Music! His favorite is Hank Williams Jr. Anyway, the reason I share this is because I haven't been able to talk country music with someone who ACTUALLY appreciates it in like 4 months!

Other than that, not much else happened. Spanish is going well. Working hard.

Love you all,

Elder Bushman