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

 

 

Year 2, Week 16: What is our River Jordan?

Hello Family!! 

This week was pretty good. We had a super cool lesson with R and A. They are the kids who are in their dad's custody on Sundays so they can't go to church. President Velez, our Branch President, was with us. He was so outgoing and just really helped teach! We talked about what happens at church and discussed things like primary, Young Men, Young Women, Priesthood, and Relief Society. We talked about how they can be blessed by going to church. We are just praying that they will be able to be with their mom on Sundays. 

We had interviews with President Mavromatis this week. He shared a scripture about Joshua leading the Israelites and they came upon the river Jordan. When the people sanctified their hearts they were able to come through on dry ground. He talked about what our river Jordan is personally, in our companionship, in our area, and in our Zone. It was cool.

We have some exciting events coming up soon. We have a District Leader Council where we will be talking about what we can do to cross our Jordan Rivers. 

We have a Zone Conference coming up where President and Sister Bennett, the area Presidency, to talk about how we can receive more miracles and sanctify ourselves further! We have some exciting things coming!! 

Not much else happened this week. Sorry for the short email. 

Love you! 

Elder Bushman 

Year 1, Week 49: We Obviously Didn't Drink any Corona

This week has flown by! Crazy fast! One of the people we are teaching is named J. He is a 6'4 Puerto Rican guy who is super super cool!! He was playing basketball a few days ago and he was about to posterize someone but on his last step before jumping he rolled his ankle and sprained it super sup bad. This was Saturday night. He wasn't able to come to church so we moved back his baptismal date to the 28th of July. He needs to attend church 2 more times and be taught a little more. We read in Alma 36 with him where Alma is telling Helaman about his rebellious youth days. Alma says that he was harrowed up by his sins. While reading this chapter I've understood it better than I ever have before. A harrow, is a farming tool that can either smooth dirt or rip and overturn the dirt. When Alma's soul was being harrowed up, he was being shredded because of his past mistakes. When a farmer harrows his field, it is being prepared for planting seeds. Alma says, "and when my mind caught hold of the name of Christ." His soul was being harrowed up so when he caught hold of the name of Jesus, a seed would be ready to be planted. It goes on to talk about the fruits of his labor and exquisite joy he felt after this event. A farmer would be joyful and enjoy the fruits of his labor and he harrowed, planted, watered, etc... So even when we as missionaries are teaching someone else, we learn so much too! We explained more what he needs to do to be baptized and he is so ready to go! I've met him once and already live him like a brother. That was just one cool lesson we had this week! 

Our district here in Worcester has been going nuts! This week we had 0 Baptisms, 3 People with Baptismal Dates, 0 People at Church, and 37 New People being taught. The people coming to church is lacking but we are killing it in every other aspect of the work!! One awesome lesson was when the English Elders tracted I to a family of 3. J, J and A! They set a time for us to come back and then moved on. Elder Warner and I went to the scheduled time and they were there! This family of 3 was home, with 5 chairs set up in a circle on there front lawn, and a Corona for each of us!! Now... We obviously didn't drink any Corona but I've never had an appointment where everyone was there, waiting, with chairs set up, and ready to listen! It was amazing! We picked them up as New people to teach and are looking forward to more lessons with them!

We had a ton of meetings this week with people. We had a welcome conference where we got to meet President and Sister Mavromatis. They are awesome! We are super excited to work with them and get to know them better. There English isn't super good but they get around it. He says he is 70% fluent in English. We also had MLC which stands for Zone Leadership Council. President Mavromatis laid out a whole new plan for the work and how it should go! He has a 10 step plan on how to do missionary work. These 10 steps are all an effort to get people to Sacrament meeting, if we do that, Baptisms will happen, wards will grow, stakes will split, and the work of God will continue!

1. Identify one family that can fellowship, come to lessons, give rides, etc.

- this will not be a official calling but an assignment from the bishop. They will be taught how do best help and in 3 months, another family will be called. Missionaries will then have 2 families to help, this will continue on and on until the families in the ward are all missionary minded. 

2. Print a list of all members of the ward. 

-visit all you do not know and report if there is any members who do not live there anymore. Try to teach the new people living there. 

3. Get a list of the last 12 months of baptized persons. Teach all people on this last the 5 lessons over again and help get them to church. 

4. Make gospel principles a powerful class. 

5. A member of the mission presidency will be at all male Baptisms 18+. This is an effort to help keep Priesthood on track so wards and stakes can split because of priesthood men. 

6. Utilize the ward mission leader. 

7. Never baptize without axillary leaders knowing those being baptized. 

8. Plan a spiritual baptismal service that has everything worked out. 

9. Set standards of excellence per area. Worcester is a bumping area and can have high standards of baptisms, baptismal dates, people at church, and new people being taught. 

10. Get involved in community service. 

All these steps will help find people to teach and will increase convert baptism and retention! It's a super awesome plan that we are excited about. More will follow when things start getting put into place.. 

This week, I was hugged unexpectedly by another drunk girl!! ;) she had gages, nose rings, vaping, drinking, tats!! It was pretty crazy. Liv and Mom got all the Asian boys in high school... I get the drunk women from MA and CT. 

Love you all! 

Elder Bushman

 

 

Year 1, Week 4: The Prophets in the Book of Mormon are AWESOME

Dear Family,
 

First, shout out to MaKayla. Happy Birthday in 4 days!! Love ya:) 

Today is PDAY!! The Elders in our district woke up at 4:15 to bust out some laundry and get it out of the way for naps later in the day. I actually really enjoy waking up so early. Its ridiculous how much time is in a day when you wake up at 6:30 every day. I didn't believe good ol' paps, but, its easy to wake up at 6:30. Just get up:) Haha, love you all.

This week has been great. The time is starting to really run together and I'm not exactly sure what has happened. Let's start with Sunday.

Sunday was good. It's been hard to stay awake during sacrament meeting. During the Sacrament, I really try to focus on what the Savior has done for me, sometimes though, I fall asleep by accident. So, Branch President Rogers called me out for sleeping and told me I need to stay awake. President Rogers is one of the best men I have ever met in my life. He is Bold, but not overbearing. He will call you out if you aren't obeying rules, but then will tell you of his love for you. He is a great man and I look up to him greatly. During the Sunday night devotional, Kenneth Cope came and performed a musical fireside. It was fantastic. He is a little awkward though:) One of the things he said is very true, but a little weird. He says, "We are children of God. We have the same Papa. I believe God is very affectionate and loves to kiss. You are His boys. You are His girls." Once again, very true, but a little awkward wording... Anyway, we have been joking about that recently. 

Monday was good. We got some service done, exercise is great, and then back to class. I have really started to like the MTC but I am ready to get out into the field. 

Tuesday was great. Same stuff, class, lunch, exercise, but then Devotional. Weatherford T. Clayton and his wife came and spoke. He taught that We, as the Lord's missionaries, partner with the Father and the Son in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I really have thought of this deeply. We are not assisting the Father and the Son. We are PARTNERING with the Father and the Son. Its a deeper meaning than assist. He also taught that repentance is glorious. So many times in life, we get caught up with the feelings of repentance is hard and painful, which it can be. But, It is glorious. If our investigators can understand this, they will be changed forever. After the Devotional on Tuesday, we meet with our district and a member of the branch presidency to discuss it. One Elder brought up a quote he saw before the mission. "When we are drowning Spiritually, Physically, Mentally, or Emotionally, Remember, our LifeGuard walks on Water."

Wednesday was great. Meeting new missionaries is always fun and great! Nothing else has really happened. Just working on getting deeper into the righteous routines that Zak wisely suggested. 

Thursday was a pretty good day. On Thursdays, we have class from 8:30-11:30, then from 1:30-4:30. Its kinda intense but then, we have the rest of the night to exercise and study and hang out. 

Fridays are kinda the same. Nothing really happened.

I have really grown to love study the scriptures. I never was into it very much, but the prophets in the Book of Mormon are AWESOME! When I got to the MTC, I started the Book of Mormon over again just like the family. Right now, I am in 2nd Nephi 3. One of the things I really have studied is when Nephi is tied to the mast of the ship. 1st Nephi 18:16 say, "Nevertheless, I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions." 

When Nephi was in one of his lowest points he says, " I did not murmur and I did praise him all the day long." Wow, what a Man...

Anyway, sorry for the shorter letter. I'll send pics later. Love ya.

Elder Bushman

 

Extra Nuggets:

Spanish, I am learning a lot of Spanish but it is hard. There are 12 different tenses in the spanish language and crazy ways of conjugating them. But Ill get it.

 

Haha!! Spencer and his Heartland. Funny STORY READY!? Its Sunday night DEVOTIONAL TIME, and I'm chillin with my comp. and Elder Broschart and his Comp. Elder Broschart looks at me and says, "Hey Elder Bushman, have you ever heard of HEARTLAND?" I respond, "HECK YEAH!!" Elder Broschart says, "Holy cow, Heartland is the only TV show I've ever watched all the way through. I even got my mom to watch it!!" HAHA, Elder Broschart and I are so similar its so funny.

Grandpas letters are awesome!!! Thank you for those:)

 

 

 

"To know Heavenly Father and to understand our relationship to Him as our Father and our God is to find meaning in this life and hope in the life to come."

—M. Russell Ballard, "Like a Flame Unquenchable"