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

Year 1, Week 34: Jaw Drop

This week has been super good. First, update on our investigator named G. We visited her and her brothers again. 4 children over the age of 8 are listening to our message. Her parents however, are not interested. We now have written consent to teach and baptize them but we are wanting to get the parents involved so they have support at home. We taught them twice this week. We first went over the Restoration again and are working on helping them build a testimony of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, and the Book of a Mormon. G. and her brothers have been reading and their comprehension is amazing. We were talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we were talking about the Holy Ghost. We asked if any of them knew who or what the Holy Ghost was. G's answer was, "when the guy was praying to see what his dad saw, wasn't the Holy Ghost the guy who showed him a vision?" jaw drop!! She has told us about Zoram and Laman and Lemuel. It's awesome! She has been able to tell us all about the Book of Mormon. She also was very hesitant to pray in front to of us, but we finally got her to. She texted us out of the blue and said, "thank you for you both, if it wasn't for you I never would have prayed." Just random and out of the blue. It was awesome! We committed G.s and her brothers to all be baptized on the 22nd of April. 4 dates for then. We are hoping to get her parents involved and just make it a family event:) They didn't make it to church because their parents wouldn't take them but we are working on that. They came last week and it was awesome! 

We also reactivated a less active and some of her kids. We had knocked and knocked and knocked to try and get into their house so we could talk with them but they would never let us in. Elder Neeley and I finally were able to talk with them and we had a great lesson. She texted us out of the blue a little while ago and said that she was so grateful for our persistence. It was awesome. 

We have been working with a member of the church whose records were lost so she isn't a member. We went through all the steps necessary to find her records and now we have permission from our mission president to re-baptize her. So that will be happening very soon.

We had Zone Conference this last week. It is crazy how we only have one more Zone Conference with President Miller. I will miss him a lot. I have so much respect for him because of his wisdom and gospel knowledge. He is awesome! 

That was pretty much it. Love ya!

Elder Bushman

Year 1, Week 33: Why are you Changing in the Bathroom?

This week has been great. We have continued our efforts in working with Less Actives and have seen more progress. 

Last week, we went to stop by the house by a less active member. He wasn't there, so we knocked the rest of the apartments near his, and we found the grandson of the less active member! The grandson gave us his grandfather's number and invited us back for a lesson on the 17th. We picked him up as an investigator and he came to church with his little brother yesterday! Also we stopped by the grandparents house and they said that they haven't gone to church in 6 years because they didn't think anybody spoke Spanish here. Needless to say, we invited them to church and they should come to church next week. Hopefully the whole family can accept the gospel now!

Also, we had a lesson with one of our investigators on Saturday that went super well. We had committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon after our first lesson with her last week. And not only did she read 5 chapters of Nephi and was able to actually tell us what happened, she read it with her family! She and her 2 brothers came to church yesterday and are excited to keep coming. Now our goal is to talk with the mom and dad too! While teaching the last lesson with them about the plan of salvation, the spirit was super strong so I invited them to be baptized in April, and 2 said yes! I'm so excited for them and to help them progress. They are awesome people and have already exercised so much faith.

When we were stopping by a less active, we had a dual lesson with the English elders because the family is half Hispanic half English. Before we got there the elders were waiting so they decided to street contact. They started talking to two people who spoke Spanish and were trying to give them our number right as we pulled up. We came and taught the restoration and picked both of them up as new investigators. It was super awesome. We have an appointment with them tomorrow. 

We got smartphones on Friday and have been setting them up all week. They are super helpful, but sometimes I wish we had the paper again. Pros and cons to both. We've enjoyed the easiness of LDS tools and the super quick texting and calling. Also, way better sound quality. 

We were knocking a house this week and the woman who answered said that she was changing in the bathroom. Elder Neeley thought she was saying she didn't want to change religions so he asked why? Why are you changing in the bathroom. She kinda just didn't reply for a couple seconds and then repeated herself. Super funny! 

We have exchanges, interviews, zone conference, this week so we are going to be super busy. Love y'all.

Elder Bushman

 

 

Year 1, Week 32: 2 People Came!

This week has been great! We have spent a lot of time working with less actives and trying to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. O and M went ghost this whole last week and when we finally talked to them again she said, "I am too busy, I'm catholic, and I do not want to change. Please do not come back. Door slam." It was kind of sad. We were bummed on how they totally accepted the message and then didn't actually care. This is the first actual person who dropped us. We get rejected all the time just knocking doors but this is the first time I've been rejected after picking someone up as a New Investigator. The other people we picked up last week haven't made any progress. We are still trying to set up return appointments with the people we have already met.

This week, we planned in a full day of lessons with people and other meetings and appointments. Except, nobody was there. So we literally just started visiting less actives. We went over to one family and talked to them for about 40 minutes. We talked to them about why they weren't coming and how we wanted to help them get to the temple. We committed all of them to come to church. Their son has a girlfriend who is also a LA.

We went over to her house to visit and he was with her. We talked to them for a while and figured out that they want to get married in the temple. We quickly explained that for them to get hitched in the temple, they will need to attend church. They both said they were going to come. While at her house, her uncle, who moved from the DR 6 months ago was there. He is a member with a current temple recommend just had "No way" to get to church. As of right now, we now have a total of 7 LA who have committed to come to church.

We then went to go knock on a street. While walking, we saw a man and went to go talk with him. We started the whole missionary thing, “Hey, we are missionaries from our church, and…” He cut us off and said, “Yeah, I know… I’m a member. I moved here from the Hartford ward about a year ago.” We kept talking and I found out that he knows a bunch of the members from the Spanish Branch. We committed him to come to church and said we would get him a ride.

We kept going throughout the day meeting various people who weren’t very interested in the gospel. When I realized we were on another street with a less active. We stopped by their house for the like 14^th time in the space of 2 weeks. They did the same routine. Come to the door, yell through the door, “Who is it?” We reply, “The missionaries.” No one ever opens the door again. This time we just said who we were looking for instead of saying who we were. The guy, L., who we were looking for opened the door and we started talking with him. Just then, his mom, who is also a member, pulled up and let us come into their house. We started talking about the Temple and how they can be together for forever. They showed us how they randomly found a card in a book of the Salt Lake Temple and how they said they wanted to go. We committed their whole family, of 6, to come to church. We now have invited and committed 14 people to attend church. Another one of her sons is going into the army. He asked this question, “Will I go to Hell if I kill people while I am in the army.” We pointed him to Moroni in the Book of Alma and told him that he should pray about his decision. We also said that it depends on his intentions and reasons for going to war. Another one of his questions was, “If I die while I am in the Army, will I be able to see my family again?” We told him about how they could all be sealed together in the temple and that he can and will see his family again. They were all super interested!! It was awesome.

The next day at church. Only 2 out of the 14 people came. But, 2 came!!! They ditched right out of Sacrament meeting and we haven’t been able to get in contact with them since then, but they still came.

Later after church, we went with Jay Halterman, the Priest 1^st Assistant, and Brother Taylor, a guy who served his mission in Guatemala and is in the Young men group, to all those LA houses and invited them to a youth retreat. Basically, mini ward youth conference. All of them said they would come so we are hoping that they actually do and that they will have their interest in the gospel sparked!

We picked up 3 NI this week, but 2 of them were English speakers so we passed them off to the other Elders. The other girl is named G. She was outside when we started talking with her. We found out in a matter of minutes that she was sad because her Grandma had passed away recently. We shared part of the Plan of Salvation and both testified that she would be able to see her family again. She just started crying and it took a couple of minutes for her to gain her composure. She didn’t come to church like she had said but we are hoping to stop by soon and speak with her again.

When the storm came on Wednesday afternoon, our car wasn’t doing too hot, so we had to come in, 15 minutes after we came inside, the mission told us that the Governor of CT had asked all the citizens to stay in if they could. So we got inside around 5. We got some good things done while inside. The next day, we did some shoveling for people. We were driving past a house and saw a guy just staring at the snow he had to shovel. The big plows just plow the streets and leave the huge piles of snow in front of people’s houses. We asked him if he needed any help and he said that it would be great. Turns out he was 12 and his mom had asked him to go out. It reminded me of all the times mom and dad woke me up in the morning to go shovel, but now, I shovel like a beast;) We literally cleared this pile of snow and the whole driveway in a matter of minutes. We started talking to this 12 year old about religion and he said that his family was looking to go to a church. Good thing the Waterbury chapel is just up the street! We told him who we were and what our church believed and he told us to hang on while he told his mom to come out and talk to us. We talked with her for a couple minutes and set up a time to come back to talk with her and the rest of her family. It was awesome!! Shoveling literally brings so many cool people to talk to!

Other than that, not much is happening!! Love you all.

Elder Bushman