Year 1, Week 42: Finally Going to Massachusetts

Hello Family! This week has gone by ridiculously quickly!!

First off, transfer news. I am being transferred out of Waterbury and I'm finally going to go to Massachusetts. I'm serving in Waltham which is about an hour from Boston. My new companion is named Elder Perkes. I'm bummed to be leaving Elder Porritt but I'm excited for some change. It was fun serving in Waterbury with Elders Tirado, Neeley, and Porritt.  I've wanted to serve in Waltham my entire mission because that's the closest I can get to Boston until Spanish Elders are put back in. I'm still going to be the District Leader in Waltham but it is a District with me, my companion, Zone Leaders, and Sister Training Leaders. Elder Perkes came out with me but he went to the Mexico MTC. 

This week has been full of laughs with Elder Porritt and I. First off, Tuesday morning Elder Porritt walks over to me and says, "hey, just so you know, I stole some of your body cleanse powder and drank it." With a nervous look in my eye I asked, "how much did you take?" haha, he only took a scoop but it wrecked him pretty good! We were out knocking around 3:30 and he said he needed to go to the bathroom. We head to the church and then go back out to knock. When we get to the street we are planning on knocking, he says... "OK, we need to go home. You can do record inputs while I am in the bathroom." It reminded me of the good ole days of 1 scoop fiber, 1 scoop cleanse! 

We also made a crockpot roast! I made bróccoli while Elder Porritt had the potatoes and carrots that we cooked in the roast. It was mighty fine!! SOOO good! Best roast I've ever had!

We haven't had a whole lot of stuff happen this week. It's been a bummer. All our lessons have been getting canceled and people aren't there. 

We had Zone Conference which was awesome! President Miller gave a super cool talk on what we can do to be life long disciples. It was pretty great! I took a lot away from it!

Interviews were also super cool! President Miller is awesome! It'll be a bummer when he goes home. He is one of the wisest men I've ever met.

On exchanges with Elder Phillipsen on Saturday we had some cool things happen. We were trying to decide what we should do for dinner. All the sudden, I had this super random thought. BDUBS!!! So we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. While there, the waitress took our order and started asking all about us. We told her who we were and what we did as missionaries. She said she wanted to learn more about the church so we got her phone number. Idk if anything will come out of it, but it was still a cool experience. 

We also went to a lesson with an investigator named O. She was too busy to talk with us so we talked to her Brother. He asked us a ton of questions because he knew some about our church. He asked about polygamy, how to gain Salvation, hell and where God lives, the difference between the Bible and the Book of Mormon. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and how if he will read it, ponder it, pray about it, and come to church, we will feel happiness and peace. He committed to reading 3 Nephi 12 and compare it with Matthew 5. Elder Phillipsen doesn't speak any Spanish so I was talking the entire time. Because of that lesson, I feel a lot more confident with my Spanish.

D. got baptized yesterday. She was the one that Elder Porritt and I found and then passed to the English Elders. It was a great baptismal service. I had the opportunity to interview her for her baptism. She was SOOO ready. She was practically living everything before we found her except for drinking coffee. She stopped when they asked her to and hasn't had any for the last 3-4 weeks! Super cool and I'm so happy for the English Elders.

Elder Smith is being transferred to Newport, CT. 

Anyway, I can't think of anything else to write. Love you all!! 

Elder Bushman

Year 1, Week 41: We Have Proper Authority

Hello Fam,

Nothing much has changed since I talked to you yesterday. This week has been pretty good. I'm starting to get a little sick of being in Waterbury. I've been here for 4 transfers now and it's getting a little tiring. But, if I stay for a 5th transfer than it'll be fine. I'll work hard and get it done.

Nothing overly exciting has happened this week. We picked up an investigator named O. and she is cool. She is from Guatemala and seemed to have some real potential. We called her half way during the week to confirm that she will be coming to church like she said. She said she would be so we were looking forward to it. She didn't come though. It's a bummer but nothing new. Its been a little tough to have such flaky people all the time. But, we're working through it. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her again tonight but we haven't been able to get in contact with her. Hopefully something will come from it.

We met with a less active woman this passed week. When we first got in contact with her she said that the reason she wasn't coming to church was because her mom was super sick and she took care of her. When we went over for dinner we talked a bit more and she said the real reason she wasn't coming to church was because the members are 2 faced. During church all the members are so nice but during the week members ignore her... Super dumb but we are trying to help her get over that and come to church for the right reasons. She made us Salmon and Salad so that was sweet!

This week was a little slow. This next week will be pretty busy. On Wednesday we have Zone Conference, Thursday we have interviews, Friday we have T-Texts, Saturday we have exchanges, Sunday is Sunday, Monday is PDAY, Tuesday is Normal, and Wednesday is transfers. We have 3 normal days this week... Crazy! 

We did meet with an investigator named V. He says he has a testimony of Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. He just doesn't understand the apostasy. We've been going slowly and helping him understand the apostasy more and more. He needs to understand that we have proper authority. So he's cool. 

Lots of appointments got canceled but we have follow ups for next week. That's about it! 

Love you all. Mom, Happy Mothers day!

Elder Bushman

Year 1, Week 40: Down 'n Derby

Hello Fam! This week has been crazy!

First off. Our AC broke. We called the building manager on Thursday to have someone come and fix it. John, the building maintenance dude, came and looked at it and said he would be back and left. He never came back. Friday morning we called the building manager again and asked about it. 12 o'clock. He said an HVAC guy was coming and that it would be fixed by mid afternoon. 2 o'clock. HVAC guy came and said that he needed a part to fix it and would be back later that afternoon. 5 o'clock. No guy... 6 o'clock. No guy. We called the building manager again and he said that it wouldn't be fixed until Monday afternoon. It is still 86° Degrees in our apartment. It hasn't been below 80 in our place for 6 days! Friday night we called Elder Pierce, the apartment coordinator, and asked what our options were. He said we could buy fans or go stay at the English Elder's Apartment. Since it was already 8:30 and we are supposed to be inside at 9, we just went to the other Elder's apartment and stayed the night. Saturday we bought a fan, which doesn't do much when it's 86, and were planning on staying the night in our apartment but it was too hot. So we stayed at the Elders Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Ive slept on hardwood floor now for 3 days straight. But, it's supposed to be fixed today so life is still good!

On Wednesday Elder Porritt and I went to the Library and we were going to post an ad on Facebook for free Bibles. In doing so, Elder Porritt got a notification from Facebook that someone had stolen his password, posted it on the web, and so he needed to change it. While trying to change it, Facebook completely locked him out. He had two options to get back in, either sign in from a recently used machine, the computer that just locked him out, or send in a picture of his ID. Sending in ID seems rather sketchy so we tried to find some way around it. But, Facebook has no customer service or tech line. We couldn't call anyone or chat anyone. I looked it up and found out that it is actually a legit Facebook thing to send in ID. So he did, marked out personal info, and Facebook unlocked it. So it wasn't too bad but annoying and crazy nonetheless.

So that's the crazy stuff. This week has gone by super quickly but also very slow. We haven't had much success with the people we are working with and haven't found anyone who is super solid.

We did, however, pick up a new investigator named A. She just moved her from the Dominican Republic and doesn't speak any English. She didn't come to church but we are trying to change that;) . Nothing too exciting happened with investigators this week.

The English Elders did have a baptism yesterday. His name is C. and he is probably 45ish. He's super cool, used to be Pentacostal. It took him several months to finally understand why our church is different. The word Authority to him means that someone has the Legal right to do something. When he was baptized in a Pentacostal church he felt that they had the Authority or legal right to do it. The Word Power means in our language Authority. The Pentacostal church doesn't have the Power to baptize because they don't have Authority. It's rather confusing but I'm just glad they helped him understand!

Down in Derby, (haha remember that pinewood derby movie?), CT there is a senior couple whose mission is to teach people about family History. He is a high council man for the Stake. His name is Elder Lopez and his wife is Sister Lopez. They are from Mexico and have been assigned to the Waterbury group to help build it into a ward. There is a ward in Bridgeport, CT that he helped make a branch and then a ward. He is super cool! Anyway, they invited us over for dinner!! I haven't had real Mexican food for over 9 months and I stuck to Keto! Yeah! Salsa Verde, Carne Asada, broccoli salad, so good!

Talking about Keto, I've been on Keto now for a full month! Oh yeah;) anyway! I'm doing very well. Transfers are coming so fast! 2 weeks from Wednesday. 

Anyway, not much else happened. Love you all! 

Elder Bushman 

 

 

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

Year 1, Week 37: I Just Go to My Nerd Side

So the first week with my new companion was great!! He is different than Elder Neeley, but we still get along great. Elder Neeley loved talking sports, music, etc. So that was a lot of my conversations with him. My new companion loves Magic, Star Wars, StarCraft, Magic, Magic, Raquetball, Snowboarding, Poker,etc. I just go to my nerd side and we have tons to talk about! I actually am pretty nerdy so it works out great! We get lots done. Also, I took my Brown Shoes into a shoe repair shop and it'll cost 15 dollars to fix!!! Elder Porritt is from Alaska. His family moves pretty frequently so they are now in Kansas which is cool! He spent most of his life in Alaska so that's where he says he is from. 

DL isn't much responsibility. It definitely is more but isn't hard. I plan exchanges, conduct and plan District Meetings, do weekly call in and get their numbers. Nothing too fancy or hard. There isn't really anything different about my schedule or service. So, it's all good. Nothing too hard. It's fun though. I feel like I contribute more to the growth of other missionaries. Except all the missionaries but one is "older" in mission age than me. 

District Leader is pretty easy so I didn't really need "training" but I do think Elder David taught me a lot. More in just how to teach better, be more obedient, etc. 

We went over to Hermana Peraltas house, who is my recent convert. Her daughter was there and referred her friend to us and her friend actually asked us to come over. She is also the cousin of a less active which basically means she is going to be super solid. 

I try to serve my companions a lot. Elder Porritt's last companion never talked/played Magic with him so I am playing with him. One, I think it's fun, but two, he is super excited to teach someone so I guess that's how I served. 

Most people on the streets/neighborhoods just don't want to talk. Some are super friendly, some are hostile. Most are right in between. However, I probably know 20 people's name who I see randomly on the street frequently. I knew more in Hartford because we walked. 

Most people here in Waterbury work in a factory, restaurant, or warehouse. 

Yes we log miles. We can drive up to 1250 miles a month. Including trips to Boston, etc 

Yes, I still drive all the time. Elder Porritt doesn't like driving. Yes, he stands and backs me:) 

Hope that answers all your questions!

 

Love you,

Elder Bushman

 

 

Year 1, Week 36: You've Got Yourself a Mormon

This week has been super good!

We went over to see G. and teach a lesson. When we got there her boyfriend William was over. We started asking him what he believed in. He said he was a Serbian Orthodox. We asked a few questions to understand his background and what he believed. Then, we started teaching the Restoration. As we taught he kept having his mind blown. We told him about our welfare program and his response was classic! "well... That's better than the catholics." as we continued to tell him about our church he kept responding with, "well.. That's way better than the Catholics!" when we told him that we love people who are gay, but do not condone what they do, again. "well that's better than the Catholics." haha! It was awesome. By the end our our lesson I said, "well W. ... You've been pretty impressed with our church." he said, "oh yeah! Your church is very impressive." I said, "that's because it's not our church. It's Jesus Christ's church, and the reason it is so awesome and has no flaws is because it is directed by Christ himself." W. looked at us, hugs me and Elder Neeley and says, "CONGRATS, you've got yourself a Mormon." haha! He literally just converted right in front of us. For true conversion he needs to pray about it and read the Book of Mormon, but it was just so funny! Because of W. "being a Mormon now" G. will go to the English ward with him so we are passing her and her siblings over to the English Elders. 

E. came to church again and we taught him the Restoration. He is such a good investigator. He does what we ask and he never breaks his promises. If he promises to do something, he actually will! It's awesome! He asks the greatest questions! One of his questions was, what is God's name? Anyway, he just has awesome questions! 

A couple weeks ago we met a random member of the church who moved from Hartford. He knows a bunch of the families that I know! Anyway, we went over to his house and had an hour and a half long conversation about the church and his life. He committed to coming to church and to come to the Spanish branch! 

We had exchanges this week. I was in the English area with Elder Davis. Exchanges are really fun because you get to learn tons of stuff from other missionaries! We had some pretty cool experiences happen. Because of Facebook we were able to see that a LA members mother passed away. We were able to go over and talk with her. It was super cool! 

 

Transfer News: Elder Neeley is gone to Lawrence. I'm staying in Waterbury. A Elder named Elder Porritt (from Alaska) is coming to Waterbury. He has been out a transfer longer than I have. I'm DL. 

That's about it! Love you all

Elder Bushman

 

 

 

Year 1, Week 35: Minister Like a Baller

Hello Family, 

First, this week has been crazy! Tons of stuff happening!

Tuesday was pretty uneventful. We did however have a super cool lesson with a woman. We met her knocking doors and she speaks English which is also disappointing but it was awesome. She basically told us that she was already saved and had Jesus and she didn't need any more Jesus in her life. We started asking her what she believed and asked her to share her church's beliefs so we could understand what she actually took as truth. She reads the Bible a lot and is interested in the Church now because we talked all about how our church's belief was similar but we had the correct authority. If somebody came to me and told me that the Church of Jesus Christ didn't have the proper authority and that their church did, I would die laughing! That would be so funny! But, when we yell this to people, it's super interesting how easily they accept that as truth. They say, "oh, wow... That makes sense." There is the difference between a true testimony and a fake one.

Tuesday night I decided to skip dinner just because I wasn't hungry. 

On Wednesday we had return and report in Boston. We got permission to drive up with the Southbury Sisters so that was interesting. We talked a lot about the challenges that new missionaries may have. Elder Neeley and I haven't had any problems so it was interesting to hear all the other things people say. We had lunch, but I still wasn't really hungry so I skipped lunch there. We went to the temple and did an Endowment session. Everytime I do an Endowment session my level of understanding and knowledge go up. The drive back from Boston was uneventful. I didn't eat dinner that night either so I completed a 48 hour water fast on Thursday Morning. 

We are still actively teaching G and A. We met with her on Thursday and Saturday and she watched ALL 4 sessions of General Conference. She even told us her thoughts about it. It was awesome! And, she is only 16. Isn't that crazy? 

After the first session of conference on Sunday, we had a lesson with a guy named E. We taught the Plan of Salvation and it was super awesome!! We talked a lot about why Resurrection is better than Reincarnation. It was awesome! We had 4 investigators who watched conference. It was great! 

Conference was FANTASTIC! I was literally blown away by it. Russell M. Nelson is a prophet! It's incredible. So many cool things happening in the Church. I committed to myself that I was going to be such a strong and active participant in Home Teaching when I returned but... Looks like I'll have to minister like a baller. It was also a super awesome experience to sustain the prophet and all the other General Authorities. I am a little bummed that Tad R. Callister isn't an Apostle.

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 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

Year 1, Week 31: They Literally Yelled, Yes!

This week was pretty long. With Elder Tirado moving to a new area, he basically had to pack up 6 months of stuff and move it. Most of the week from Friday when we found out he was leaving to Wednesday when he left was him packing, visiting members, and stuff like that. We saw so many members and had soooo much food. We had such a long week.

Once Elder Tirado left, we drove to Boston with Elder Porter and Elder Perkes. I came in with Elder Perkes and Elder Porter was with Elder Eaton when I was in Hartford. That was a fun time! I went to the mission home and picked up Elder Neeley. We drove the 2 hours and 15 minutes back to Waterbury and got there around 8. We had dinner and just went to bed.

 

Being a trainer? I literally don't even feel like I am training someone. I think that is just because he is so ready to go. I literally don't even have to tell him that he needs to talk or say, "Alright, its your turn to knock this door." he just does it! So that's super nice! He went to a year of college first so he is pretty adjusted to everything so far. Wednesday was good. I was pretty nervous. Basically, President Miller was like, "So, you are all their first companions. Don't mess them up." Obviously, it was was nicer and he said he trusts us and everything, but I was a little nervous. My comp is Elder Neeley. He is from Washington St. He went to BYU for a year. Works hard and ready to get things done!!

 

We started and just got straight to work. We picked up 2 investigators by the name of M. and O. We taught them the Restoration in Spanish. When we invited them to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true, they literally yelled yes. I am not even joking. There voices raised and they were like, Claro! That was a super cool experience. We will be going over in the next couple of days to follow up with them. We also met a woman named J. She was talking on the phone and smoking at the same time. We went up to her and just started talking to her and basically made her hang up her phone call so she could talk to us. We started telling her of our unique message and she asked this question. "Literally, there is one God. Why is there so many churches?" we quickly explained the apostasy and why there are tons of churches. She said that it made a lot of sense. She said, "My next question is, what is the purpose of this life?" We quickly flipped open in the Book of Mormon to Alma 34:32 and explained that the purpose of our life is to meet God and that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ she will be able to become clean so she can live in the presence of God again. She said that she had never heard an actual answer to her question. We told her that we can literally answer any question she has and set up another time to pass by. That was a super cool experience.

We met another woman named Eliza. We taught her about the Book of Mormon and what our church is. We set up a time to come back and talk with her. We have met so many people the last couple of days who have been ready and willing go hear about the Gospel. We basically have tons of people scheduled all throughout next week. 

Like Dad asked me, I will record an audio recording about how the mission uses technology different than most people use it at home. 

Love you all!! I will record some more Audio for next week

Elder Bushman

 

Saying Farewell to Elder Tirado

Welcome, Elder Neeley

Writing Home in the Library with the DL's

 

 

Year 1, Week 30: 12 Potential Investigators in 30 Minutes

Some awesome miracles have happened this week!

When Elder Davis and I went on exchanges, we were trying to visit a Potential Investigator. She wasn't home but we knocked the guy next to her door. His name is Richie and he is from Jamaica. We spent some time talking with him. As we left and were leaving to go to a dinner appointment, we decided to knock more doors. We met a girl named Ashley who speaks only Spanish. I took over and talked with her, got her info, introduced our church, gave her some materials and scheduled an appointment for later. We were leaving again but felt that some other doors would be good to knock. We knocked two doors at the same time and both Hispanic people answered at both doors. I spent time talking with one of them and did the same thing, took information down and scheduled appointments for later. Then I moved to the other door and did the same thing. This happened literally for 30 minutes. We moved from door to door and everybody we talked with was interested and gave us their info. We met 12 Potential Investigators in the space of 30 minutes and were only 15 minutes late to our dinner appointment with Sister Vogel. Literally so awesome!!

We went to take our car into Firestone to get an oil change. While there, a member of the Church was working his shift. He talked to us about one of his Co-Workers whose baby was born 17 weeks early. He asked if we could get in contact with Elders in the mission to have them go to the Hospital with the family. Unfortunately, the baby passed away, but we were able to help this family come in contact with the church and hopefully something may come out of it.

T-Texts came this week. Elder Tirado is being transferred to Quaker Hill Spanish. Elder Smith and Elder Davis are both staying here which I am pumped about! I am Training a missionary. We will see how that goes...

We had some of the LA members we visited come to church which is awesome! It's been great to see some of these people come back to church.

Because we are getting Smart Phones we are doing a lot of training and stuff. We have been listening to a lot of things about Technology. One of the thing they have been talking about is how we need to unlearn all of the ways we used Tech at home and learn the ways of the mission. If we can do this successfully, then going home to Tech will be so easy because we have established these habits! Super interesting!

Alright, we are about outta time! Love you all

Elder Bushman

Knocking Doors
PB&J Burgers
Holy Land, USA (Look it up)
Nob Hill (A Little Piece of Home) 
Bowling! (And a new hair cut, self-cut)

Dinner at the Vogel's
Angels Round About...  (Photo from the MTC, circling around Facebook)