Year 1, Week 12: Hopefully all our investigators will want to repent

I cannot believe it is already Monday and November is already almost here. Kinda Crazy..

Elder Curzon, Elder Eaton, Elder Tebbs, and I all went to a member's house for dinner this week. The member had rice and steak which was super good! They also had a salad made out of, are you ready?? Beets, Tomatoes, and Red Onion!! HMMM!! My favorite food:( I ate all of it but it was a little tough. Other than that, all the food members have fed us has been super good:) 

On Thursday we met with Maria. She told us she wants to get baptized but she is nervous for how fast it is coming up because she needs to repent first. Wow! Hopefully all out investigators will want to repent:) Maria is a great little Puerto Rican lady. She has kept all of her commitments except for coming to church. Maria cannot drive so she relies on her daughter. Her daughter works on Sunday and Maria watches her kids. We are still trying to find a solution to that though. She is reading the Book of Mormon and knows a ton of stuff about the church. It's pretty great:) We'll be meeting with Maria again on Wednesday!!

While being out on the mission I have had several opportunities to give blessings. Elder Tebbs and I went on exchanges a little while ago and got a call from the temple saying there was a man who needed a blessing. We went over to the Hospital and it turns out the man who we were giving a blessing to was named Will Turner. Kinda crazy, but, we gave him a blessing and it was a great experience. He started having seizures while he was on a bus so the bus dropped him off at the hospital and left. Super weird but he was a nice guy.

I also gave a blessing to a member named Danny. He is 12 and fell off his bed and got a concussion. He is a super great kid who comes to church and is super nice. 

Other news here... Elder Tebbs is being Transferred to Waltham. It is the Area south of Boston. Elder Porter is going to be Elder Eaton's new comp. and he has been out 22 months. Not much other news. No real crazy stories or weird people. 

Love you all!!

Elder Bushman

 

"Isn’t it wonderful to know that we don’t have to be perfect to experience the blessings and gifts of our Heavenly Father? We don’t have to wait to cross the finish line to receive God’s blessings. In fact, the heavens begin to part and the blessings of heaven begin to distill upon us with the very first steps we take toward the light."

—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "The Hope of God's Light"

Year 1, Week 10: She Agreed to be Baptized

Hey Fam!

This week has gone by super super fast. Tons of random things have happened including some miracles and crazy stories. First the crazy story that leads to the miracle.

On Sunday, after church, Elder Curzon and I were knocking doors and not many people were answering there doors. It was about 3 O'clock and it was hot and tiring. We came up to this guys house and knocked on it. This guy came out and started asking questions like who we were, what we wanted to share with him, and how would our message bless his life. We started sharing the message of the Restoration and going to tie in the Book of Mormon and bear testimony of how the Book of Mormon has blessed our lives but he started asking questions that he wanted specific answers to like, Who is God, if God exists then why doesn't He show himself to us, etc.. Elder Curzon and I both knew that it could come to arguing so we both answered the questions with as much respect as we could. He asked if we had a picture of Christ and we gave him a pass along card with Christ's picture on it. The guy we were talking to asked if the picture we gave him was a picture of Christ or an interpretation of what Christ most likely looks like. We said that it is a painting of what Christ most likely looks like. He started asking rapid fire questions where during one answer he wouldn't let us finish and asked more questions. He then got to the point of that Christ isn't white and the reason he isn't white is because he doesn't exist. He then went on to through out this whole scientific reason of why Christ isn't real and that God is fake. He then tore Jesus's picture in half, used half a dozen cuss words, and told us he would have us arrested for soliciting if we didn't get off his porch. I wanted to just straight up tell him that he was bringing damnation upon himself but felt that I should just leave peacefully. After Elder Curzon and I left, we said a prayer asking for the Spirit to be with us as we continued on. It was super sad to see someone completely deny God because he hadn't seen signs in his life. 

About an hour later we met up with the Zone leaders so they could drive us to an appointment that we were already late for. We got in the car and told them the story of the guy and Elder Tebbs said, "Just keep your heads up, when opposition comes, you are close to seeing good things happen." After we got out of the car we headed up to a lady named Maria's house. We met with her and found out that she had taken missionary lessons before and that she still had the Book of Mormon that they had given her. She explained that she was really close to getting baptized but somehow, something happened and she didn't get baptized. We talked about the Book of Mormon and re-extended the baptism invite. She agreed to be baptized and then Elder Curzon felt impressed to extend a date. He asked if she would prepare to be baptized on November 18th and she said that she would if she is ready. It was a great lesson and really lifted me after our run in with the other guy. Elder Curzon and I set a return appointment and are going to invite her to church this week. If she comes to church and continues to receive the lessons than she could be baptized next month. 

Another crazy story. We were walking down the street and this guy stopped us and started talking to us. He was super drunk but he kept saying that it was a good thing what we were doing. He kept saying that he knew God didn't want him to continue to smoke crack or drink but he didn't want to. Reminder!! This Guy was drunk out of his mind. He then went on to tell me that he loved me and then gave me a hug. He told me that I was his grandson... Doesn't really make sense but it's what he said. By the time we walked away I had received about 8 hugs from this random, super drunk, SHIRTLESS, sweaty dude!!! Elder Curzon and I had some good laughs about it. 

Temple days are every 6 months. The first one I have is on Wednesday!!!! The Hartford Temple is not in my area. I'll be going to Boston.

 

Anyway, I hope everything is going well back at home:) Love you all!!

Elder Bushman

 

"Faith in Jesus Christ, when solidly anchored in our souls, brings true conversion ... and enduring righteousness."

—Neil L. Andersen, "The Book of Mormon: Strengthening Our Faith in Jesus Christ"

Year 1, Week 9: Just Like Amulek

Wow! Was General Conference Awesome or WHAT?? I'll be completely honest. General Conference was always a time of eating, lounging in PJ's, and wrestling brothers during talks. Actually paying attention to Conference was amazing. I learned tons of stuff. One of my favorite talks was by Tad R. Callister. He straight up said that the Book of Mormon is inspired of God and that Joseph Smith could not have done it alone. I wanted to hug this man. I have developed such a deep love for The Book of Mormon. I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. Thomas S. Monson is the Modern Day Prophet who receives revelation for The Church of Jesus Christ. Wow!! The Book of Mormon is Great.

I had several questions answered because of General Conference. Our Spanish Branch isn't super strong. Members fight with recent converts and recent converts swear they will never come back to church. Sister Oscerson taught that we need to serve in our families before we serve others. I believe that if we can get members serving there families, this will in turn get members serving members. 

Another question I had is, How can I recognize the Spirit more fully in my life. This answer came when a Seventy said, "Patient Covenant keeping brings the blessings of Heaven into our lives." If I keep the commandments and rules of a mission and then wait, the Lord promises these to me. "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say." Incredible how things start to make sense when you study the scriptures. We went to a chapel and watched Saturday Sessions in English. On Sunday, we watched the first session at a chapel and then went to a members house for the Second Session. It was great spending time with them. 

On Tuesday we met with Frankie again. He asked why we needed the Book of Mormon and as we were trying to explain two other guys came over and started talking in Spanish. (keep in mind we were speaking English with Frankie.) They started trashing the Book of Mormon and Elder Curzon stood up, just like Amulek, and said,"I Know the Book of Mormon is true. It was translated by the power of God." Frankie and the other guys were so impressed that he knew Spanish they had to tell like 10 other guys. It was great. We came back the next day (Wednesday) and Frankie said he wanted to keep the Book of Mormon and read it. We assigned him some chapters and we are going to follow up tonight.

Other than that, we did some service. Helped people move, carried bags to peoples cars, etc...

Love you all,

Elder Bushman

 

Other Info: Elder Eaton, my ZL, has a fantastic voice and asked if I wanted to sing with him in Zone conference coming up on the 17th of October. I agreed and we are singing an arrangement of I Know the My Redeemer Lives. I will record  it and send it to you.

 

BTW I love getting and reading Grandpa's letters. His thoughts are super deep and inspiring.

 

General conference was an answer to prayers to know how to help the people in our branch. Service. We are looking for ways to serve and get members to serve members

We also are going to start teaching English classes at a Library for community service.

 

Spanish is going better. Still struggling to understand but speaking is becoming better.

 

I don't have any photos this week but will get some next week.

 

"Oh, how we need general conference! Through conferences our faith is fortified and our testimonies deepened. And when we are converted, we strengthen each other to stand strong amid the fiery darts of these last days."

—Robert D. Hales, "General Conference: Stregthening Faith and Testimony" 

  

Year 1, Week 8: Repentance

Wow.. This week has really flown by. It is incredible how fast time can go. 

Monday: After I wrote home, a ton of Elders got together to play ball. We played basketball for 3 1/2 hours. Super super fun!! Not much else happened. Elder Curzon and I went out and knocked doors; we placed a couple Book of Mormons and that was it.

Tuesday: This was a crazy day full of crazy people. Elder Curzon and I knocked a door and it turned out to be this lady who loves to talk. We stood on her porch for 30 minutes and talked 5 out of the 30. She is a crazy lady but since she is English, we passed her off to the sisters in our district. There are a lot of spanish speaking people but because they are super religious, they aren't willing to listen to our message. The spanish people who do listen accept it well, but when we set a return appointment they are never home. We once knocked on a guys door 6-7 times and he never answered.

Wednesday: Elder Curzon and I decided to go East on a street called Park Street. It is kinda like main street in Hartford. Super busy and tons of people. While walking down this street we met a guy who talked with us for about 15 minutes and asked us if we keep the commandments of God. When we replied with a yes we do, he said," If you keep the commandments then buy me some food. Its a commandment to feed the hungry." So, Elder Curzon and I went into a McDonalds and I bought him a Double Cheeseburger and a small Shake. When we walked out of the building and handed it to him he said, "Thank you guys. After I eat this meal, I am going to jump of a bridge." Elder Curzon says, " No... Don't do that." The guy replies with, "Yeah... You're right. I won't. Do you have any money for the bus?" We said no and then quickly left. But we taught the restoration and left him with a Book of Mormon. We walked so much today it was crazy. We mapped out where we went and we had walked over 8 miles this day.

Thursday: Because of our crazy walking on Wednesday, Elder Curzon got major major blisters on his feet. He called the Medical Missionary and she told him to stay off of his feet for a few days. So Thursday was full of reading, studying, and napping. Pretty nice to have a day off but I was ready for work come Friday.

Friday: Elder Curzon's feet got worse and so again, we stayed in. I have been reading in Mosiah and have learned tons about the Savior. I also studied Jesus the Christ for a while and am gaining a deeper understanding of the Life of Christ. 

Saturday: Today was a pretty fun day. Elder Curzon and I got a call from Elder Pierce, the Senior Missionary in charge of housing, and he told us that he was going to be moving us out into another apartment. He gave us some addresses to check in on and most of them are super sketchy and weird. Elder Curzon and I really like Elder Tebbs and Elder Eaton so if we do move, it will be a pretty sad day. While walking we met a guy named Frankie. He said that he had a Book of Mormon but didn't want it anymore. He said he knew it was the word of God and he wasn't willing to throw it away. I said, "Frankie, if you know it's the word of God... Why don't you want to read it and learn?" He went silent and then quickly changed the topic onto something else. I said, "I will make you a deal. Read the first chapter before we meet, we will share a message with you, and if you still don't want it, then we will take the Book from you." He agreed so we have a meeting with him on Tuesday.

Sunday: Sunday was church at 9, lunch at 1, and out knocking doors. We went to check up on several people to try and teach return appointments but nobody was there. It was really sad. During personal study I came to the realization that every single prophet teaches one thing, repentance. Lehi taught repentance to Jerusalem. Nephi taught repentance to his brothers and people. Jacob taught that the Lord delights in the Chastity of Women and the need to repent, Enos repented and then taught repentance. Omni called people to repentance. King Benjamin gave a massive sermon on the need to repent. Abinidi taught repentance to Kind Noah. Alma Teaches repentance and Baptizes. What have I been called to do on my Mission? Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts. If I am not calling people to repentance every time I teach, than I am not fulfilling my purpose as a missionary. Pretty interesting to think about.

Boom. Just like that I am back to PDAY. I love you all and will keep you in my prayers.

Elder Bushman

 

Random Photos: Looks like he got his Charmin! He's become a great cook! And things he finds humorous...

 

 

"Each accountable child of Heavenly Father needs repentance. Consider what sins we need to repent of. What is holding us back? In what ways do we need to improve? I know, as President Packer experienced and testified, that when we sincerely repent of our sins, they are truly gone—without a trace!"

—Linda S. Reeves, "The Great Plan of Redemption"

Year 1, Week 7: The Area is Great; My Comp is Awesome

Dear Mom and Family,

Well... It has been a long, tiring, full, and busy week.

Sunday: Sunday was a great day. I woke up, went to church, had zone meeting, departure devotional, dinner, devotional, and sunday night movie. Chad Lewis was the speaker and he gave a great devotional on how trusting in the Lord is the best thing we can do. When we went to see our movie, it was all full so we chose to go see the Testaments. In Spanish. First, the Testaments is a super awkward and cheesy movie by itself, so when paired in Spanish.... Super awkward. But, I did feel the Spirit and understood a lot of the movie. After that we gathered as a district to say goodbye to the Hermanas in our District. I grew really close to our District so it was really hard to say goodbye. After that, we headed back to our residence and went to sleep.

Monday: All the Elders woke up at 3 in the morning to send off Elder Bird. He was a close friend and example. It was tough to say goodbye but walking him out gave me another chance to say goodbye to the Hermanas. All the rest of Monday was super weird because of the three people leaving. It felt somewhat empty and awkward. But, I still went to class and did everything else. Monday was a little boring.

Tuesday: I woke up, again at 3 to send off Elder Bybee and Elder Collins. I finished packing (my bags weighed 46 lbs, 46 lbs, and 15 lbs, so I still had tons of space) and headed out to the bus stop. I said goodbye to the rest of the Elders and hopped on the bus. We traveled from the bus to frontrunner, from frontrunner to trax, and trax into the airport. Everything went well and we got to our gate. I called home which was super fun. I have missed being able to talk with my family over the phone so it was a great experience. When we got on the plane I was seated next to a guy who was LDS. He was from Finland and served a mission in Utah. He had just gotten sealed and was headed to Boston for his honeymoon. He was a cool guy who spoke fluently French, Finnish, Swedish, German, English, Polish and was working on mastering Spanish. He was a little quirky but overall super chill.

After the plane we landed, grabbed out bags and met the Mission President and his Wife. President and Sister Miller are awesome people! They were super kind and really energetic. We met the AP's who were also super nice and fun. Elder Xiao is from California and Elder Ferreira is from Brazil. The AP's took all the Elder's to the mission home and dropped us off there with our bags. We went inside, had dinner, did some training, and were sent to bed. The Mission home bed was the BEST. In the MTC I didn't sleep through the night with out waking up once so when I woke up Wednesday morning and hadn't woken up during the night, it was amazing.

Wednesday: Wednesday was great. We had breakfast, did more training with Senior Missionaries and President and his wife and were sent out to do some street contacting. Elder Tirado and I were put together as comps for street contacting. We met this man on the street named Clyde. He was a JW who started Bible Bashing with us. We were patient and didn't bash back and tried to give him a Book of Mormon but he wasn't interested. We went back to the Mission home were we had lunch and I met with President Miller. When it came time to meet our trainers we all sat in seats with an open chair next to us and the trainers came in and sat by us. At this time we still didn't know who our trainers were going to be. I met Elder Curzon and we talked for a little bit but then President Miller started reading off names of people who were getting trainers. When he read my name, I walked to the front of the room and stood next to President Miller, President than read off my trainers name and he came to the front as well. We got some pictures together and than sat down next to each other. After that we were told where we would be laboring. Elder Curzon and I had been assigned to Hartford 2, a brand new area. I was informed we would be shotgunning the area, which means that neither companions had ever been there. So, we have NO investigators, we don't know where anything is, we know 0 members and so we are building completely from the ground up. We met the ZL's who we share a room with and drove from the mission home in Natick to Hartford. Wednesday night we unpacked and went to bed.

Thursday: Elder Curzon and I woke up on Thursday morning and went right to work planning, personal study, comp study and language study. After studies were done we went tracking for 6 hours trying to pick up new investigators to teach. We met a couple people and placed 18 Book of Mormons. The people of Hartford are interesting... Not much else happened on Thursday.

Friday: was a lot like Thursday. We woke up, planned, studied, and went out knocking doors. Again, same thing happened. We placed 12 Book of Mormons and got rejected a bunch. That night we had a district meeting. We met the sisters in our district (Our district contains 6 people. Elder Tebbs and Eaton, who are the ZL's and also our roommates. Sister Morris and Sister Klipinger who are the STL's, and Elder Curzon, who is the DL, and myself) and had a training given by Elder Curzon. 

Saturday: Because we have no investigators and new investigators are not there for our return appointments we haven't been able to have a progressing investigator so we continued knocking doors on Saturday. We placed 22 Book of Mormons and talked with lots of nice people. Each day, we are walking anywhere from 4-7 miles. 

Sunday: Sunday was great. We went to church where I met a lot of the members. They all speak Spanish so I understood nothing but it was still good. We went knocking more doors and placed 12 Book of Mormons. In the 4 days Elder Curzon and I have been together we have placed 60 Book of Mormons. Pretty good. We knocked more doors and picked up another new investigator and set a return appointment. 

Monday (Today): So far the day has been good. Woke up, did some personal study, did laundry, went to the store, and now emailing.

Love you all,

Elder Bushman  

Other Info: 

 Yes... I am pretty tired. The area is great, my comp is awesome!! Hartford is a super weird place though. We have talked to crazy drunk people who say we look like Matthew and John, We have talked to guys who are drinking beer, smoking weed, and popping drugs right in front of us. I actually really like talking to drunk people:) We have had some awesome experiences where people are super interested. Those people are usually English speakers so we pass them off to the English Sisters so we haven't had an opportunity to see anyone progress. It has been great though.

About Elder Curzon, I was super super happy that he is my trainer. I was hoping that I would get him. Since none of my district came to Boston, I felt quite alone the first couple days, but when I was put with him I felt like I had someone to hangout with even though I didn't really know him. I wasn't very surprised. President heard that someone knew Elder Curzon and when he asked if anyone knew him I said I did and he smiled a little. So I was hoping that meant I would be with him. I do think it is awesome!! We have talked to each other about the craziness of it all. One of my best friends at home has a cousin who lives in Nebraska, came on his mission 7 months before me and is now my trainer?? Coincidence? I think not:)

Questions: 

What kind of access/time do you have to correspond with people?

I have 2 hours every week to email home. Unless there is some random reason that conflicts, but 2 hours a week.

Is it really a walking mission? And what does that mean? How much will you be walking?

Kind of. I was given a bike by the Branch Mission Leader. His name is Lois Gonsalez and is super super nice and sarcastic. He is moving to Mexico in the next couple of months so he is getting rid of tons of stuff. He gave me 3 pairs of heavy winter gloves, a scarf, beanie, a bike, dinner, and a pair of Sunday shoes. He is super nice and I thanked him like 1000 times. He is great. I havent ridden the bike yet, because Hartford is a place notorious for bikes getting jacked so we'll see how much I use it. We walk anywhere from 4-7 miles a day. Its pretty crazy.

Tell me more about Elder Curzon as a person and how your companionship is going...

Elder Curzon is super awesome!! He is really nice and fun to work with. He is only 5 months older than I am and came out on his mission in February. We work super well together and have a lot of the same personality. He went to a semester of college before the mission and wants to become a doctor. Everything is great. It is still a crazy adjustment from the MTC but so far its been good.

How was your time at the mission home? Did you have a personal interview with the Mission President? What do you think of him?

The mission home was great. Very comfortable and nice. I love President Miller. He is a fantastic guy. Sister Miller is amazing as well.  

Oh, and I forgot my camera so I'll send photos next week.

"Our Heavenly Father can appreciate our love for Him by how well we serve Him and how well we serve our fellowmen."

—Thomas S. Monson, "Four Words to Guide You"

Fist Companion/First Area

We received the below photos from Sister Miller on Friday morning. What a miracle that Elder Bushman will be serving with Elder Curzon (the cousin of one of his best friends)!! They will be serving together in Hartford, CT - opening up a new area together. We are anxious to hear all the details of their first week together! And super happy and grateful for technology (gaining lots of information about the mission from Elder Curzon's Mama!)

"This is our high and holy calling—to be agents of Jesus Christ, to love as He loved, to serve as He served."

—Dieter F. Uchtdorf, "On Being Genuine"