Year 1, Week 39: Spanish Branch?

This week has been great so far! One of the coolest things that happened was this Sunday. First, some background. Elder Neeley and I were thinking that if we keep the Waterbury Spanish group the way it is going, it will never grow into a branch. We started thinking of what could be an immediate change to that. Our idea was to combine the Southington(next town over) and the Waterbury Group in two and make it a branch. We then heard that President Miller has been meeting with our Stake President, President Martin. We called up President Miller and asked him what happened in there meeting and he just said they were talking about Missionaries in another part of the Zone. Anyway, Elder Neeley left and Elder Porritt came but I've still been thinking about this idea.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had Ward Conference with the Leaders of the Stake present. At the end, the Stake Presidency wanted to have a Spanish meeting. In the meeting they said that their plans are to make us a Spanish Branch in the year of 2018. We will be combining with the Southington Group when that happens. I won't be here for it, but I'm hoping to come back to Waterbury in 2019 and serve here in a branch. Also, kinda cool that my plans fell right in with the Stakes plans! Haha! The members were told that they need to bring the Less Active members back or we won't have enough people to do it. Elder Porritt and I have several people we are working with who have potential to come back.

While tracting, we met a young family named J. and M. (most generic Hispanic names ever). We talked to them a bunch about the Restoration but M. believes that Angels wrote the Bible and we weren't sure how to tell her that men wrote it under the direction from God and then it was changed. We had already been in there for about 45 minutes and didn't have the time to work over all of that. We are hopefully going back this Thursday. They were super nice and could have real potential!

The English Elders have 5 baptismal dates for the month of May. 4 of them used to be our investigators who we then passed of to them. It's pretty cool that even though our numbers are crazy, we still play a major role in the progress of others. I used to feel that if my numbers for the week or month didn't increase I was "failing in missionary work". Not true!

Another day, we were knocking doors and a girl named K. answered. She didn't have time at the moment but gave us her Facebook and said we could contact her and come back. Even though we've had the Technology for about a month, this was the first time I've ever actually used Facebook while proselyting. It was pretty cool. We'll see if she turns out to be anything. 

There is a lady named S. who is a less active. When I was serving with Elder Tirado she would always call and insult us half the time for not making time to talk with her. I talked to President Miller about her. He said to send her home teachers. Yesterday, she left a message for us that she had a friend who is interested in the Gospel and she needs us to teach her. So after 3 months of not answering we finally called her. She was actually super nice and kind. So maybe the 3 months made her do some thinking;) haha!

Not much else happened this week! I will be sending audio as well! Love ya

Elder Bushman

Year 1, Week 38: Hard Work and Tons of Laughs

Hello all! This week has been a good one. It went by CRAZY fast. Elder Porritt and I get along very well so it's been filled with hard work and tons of laughs.

With passing most of our investigators to the English Elders, we have been doing tons of finding things. Finding means tracing door after door and street after street. We got tons done.

While tracting on a street, we saw a man, his wife, and their baby on a second floor deck. We crossed the street and started talking with them. We explained how we are missionaries and share messages about the family and Christ. We then asked if we could come up to the deck to teach them a message about these things. They said yes so we went and taught the restoration of the Gospel. They were super cool but didn't say much other than, wow, oh, interesante... Stuff like that. They said we could come back a different day and share more of our message. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and come to church. They didn't come to church yesterday which was a bummer but hopefully we can meet again and share a larger, more in depth lesson.

Since we have smartphones we have been inputting our teaching records into the church's app. While doing this, we found two former investigators who had been taught many lessons but didn't have any drop reason. We went over to one of them and he received us and we had a short conversation. We think that his wife is against us. We believe that he is very interested but won't go against the will of his wife. Which is good but kinda sad. Hopefully we can meet again with them and have her feel the Spirit.

The other guy wasn't home when we knocked so we stuck a card in the door with a note saying to call us and then we put our number. Later that night, we actually got a call from him. It was super cool, we then met with him a couple days later and taught the Restoration. By the end of the lesson. He said, "so the church on the earth that is the same church as Jesus Christ's in the Catholic Church right?" Elder Porritt shut him down. He just kinda sat there. During the silence he seemed to get it! It was super cool. Again, he didn't come to church but hopefully next week. 

A couple weeks ago, Elder Neeley and I reactivated a less active named B. Her daughter introduced us to D. She had received lessons from the missionaries years ago but she did not ever do anything about it. She approached us and asked us to come over and teach her about the Gospel. When we were teaching the Restoration, I was reciting the First Vision in the own words of Joseph Smith. During this, I felt the Spirit so strongly. It was incredible! I definitely cherish that moment. The lesson was very successful. She didn't make it to church because of work but she said she will get it off next week for sure.

We were tracting at 8:30 one night in one of the most ghetto parts of Waterbury (SO MUCH FUN) and we knocked this guys house. After he finished swearing and calling us names, he said, "don't you guys mess around. You in the hood now." and slams the door. We walked down the street and a house caught my attention. As I looked at it Elder Porritt says, we should knock there. It's cool when both companions feel the same prompting. We knocked the door and a woman answered. She said to come back Friday night. We gave her some cards, left, and sent her record over to the English Elders. At church, this woman walked in with the Elders. Later, I found out that they had a super spiritual lesson with her where she cried, accepted baptism, and said that these things were true and she has been looking for them. It was cool to know that the spirit used us to find her and the English Elders to teach the lesson.

We have had a great week! Love you all! 

Elder Bushman