Year 2, Week 24: He Got Baptized!

Hello Family! 

This week has been fabulous! 

To start off with the best news, S got baptized! It was a wonderful experience! Everything went super well and according to plan. Hermano Jimenez, the member who accompanied us to all his lessons, baptized him into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! S. was super happy and it was amazing to see the light he has! The members were very welcoming to him. After his baptism, he asked Elder Fragoso and I where he could get one of the Elder plaques. We explained that he couldn't until he goes on a mission with his wife if he wants to. We mentioned how he could go out with the Missionaries in the Dominican Republic just like Hermano Jimenez did and he got super excited! He was given the Holy Ghost by our Branch Mission Leader the following Sunday and was interviewed for the Aaronic Priesthood after. He will be receiving the Priesthood next Sunday so he can go to the temple and bless the Sacrament before he goes back to the DR. I will miss him when he leaves but it's all good! We have Facebook! Several of the members got his number so they can call him when they go back to visit the Dominican Republic. It was awesome!! Fabulous experience! 

The English Elders in Worcester cover 2 wards and also had a baptism in each ward on Saturday. Elder Fragoso and I were able to do the Baptismal interviews because Elder Aure is the District Leader. Those were fun! They are both 9 year old boys who know so much about the church! It was awesome. 

I don't know if you remember J. from way back in September. We stopped by her house this week and followed up with her to see if she would be interested in learning again and coming to church. We came back the next day and had a lesson with them. It went well! We talked a lot about the blessings she saw in her life when she was coming to church and how she feels now. She said that she saw a lot of blessings and those blessing aren't there anymore. She didn't come to church this week so we will see where that ends up going. 

That's pretty much it that happened this week. Some other lessons with people but nothing too out of the ordinary. 

We have some awesome things coming up! Exchanges with the English Elders, exchanges with the Assistants, Zone Conference next week, and then transfer texts next week too. There is only 2 more weeks in the transfer! That's crazy haha! Time is going by quicker and quicker. 

I love you! 

Elder Bushman 

 

 

Year 2, Week 23: I Love Him

This week has been wonderful! We had some super great experiences which were awesome!! Let's start with S!

The lesson went really well and the spirit was present! It was so great. S began by telling us how church was for him 2 weeks ago, because of the time he had to attend the one in Natick by his work, he loved the sacrament, "body and blood of Christ", the music, he sang along with the chorus, and how many children there were. He said he had to wait in the foyer while the Sacrament happened so we knew he was there! Haha! 

We talked about how he would share the gospel with his wife in the DR. We then role-played. It went so great! He bore such great testimony. He knows this is the true church, he has felt the spirit in the lessons while we teach him about the commandments, heaven and God. He specifically knew that eternal marriage was true when we first taught it to him. O also shared his testimony on how he knew it was true. He kept saying he felt "joy".

After the role play, we discussed how him teaching his wife would go, we invited him to share a scripture with his wife to get it started! He said his wife needs a message of hope. Together we went to the topical guide and read 4 scriptures on hope.

He chose Ether 12:4 to send her, saying it teaches about anchoring our souls. We then practiced them writing down their testimonies. They both wrote amazing testimonies. We should help them learn the real name of the church though. O wrote his testimony in a Book of Mormon and committed to share it with his friend, D, from work! 

The spirit was very strong, they both love the gospel and how they feel. S said he would be at church and he still wants to get baptized! 

Starting Jan. 9-22 S will be at home from Thursday to Sunday taking care of his dad. So he will never have any commitments to attend to on Sundays! This all happened on Tuesday! We kept in touch with him and he came to church yesterday! Because he was there, he said he wanted to be baptized and we announced his baptism in Sacrament Meeting. So he will be getting baptized on the 12th! We are so excited for him!! We have it all planned so he can still go to the temple and get the Priesthood.

We had exchanges this week with the Spanish Elders in Framingham! I was able to go with an Elder named Elder Johnson! He knows a bunch about Spanish so I asked him some questions that I've been thinking about! We had a great exchange and worked to find some members who we could work with! Elder Fragoso has been companions with Elder Johnson so we talked a lot about what we've learned from him and things like that!

We went to interviews this week and were there from 9:30-5. We sat in all the District Councils to see how we could best help our DLs. After everything, we had our interviews at the end. President asked us if we had eaten and we said no. We were planning on going to get Brazilian food and President said he would join us! It was awesome!! I love him! And I finally got the picture that mom asked me for 3 months ago!

I and M said that they were coming to church with their mom. We talked with their mom and she said she wasn't going because of things she had to do. We got a ride for the kids, but morning of she took them to the doctors...  We aren't exactly sure what we are going to do to help them. To be continued...

Anyway! That was about the entire week! It was a good one. We are looking forward to this week! 

Love you all! 

Elder Bushman