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

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)

Year 1, Week 29: So Enlightening

This week has been good. We started out with visiting Less Actives. We have done a lot with Less Actives recently. We have decided that by visiting LA people, we will find more people ready to hear the Gospel. We figure that a lot of people in our area are willing to go to church, but just have some  concern that is keeping them back from it all. We have met some super cool families that we are going to hopefully get back in contact with and set up appointments. Lots of the LA families have children who aren't baptized and since their parents are, its super easy to teach kids. We have been working a lot on that this week.

We had exchanges with Elder Davis and Elder Smith this week. I took over the Waterbury Spanish area with Elder Davis and Elder Tirado went English. I learned a ton from Elder Davis. We talked a lot about how to most effectively plan to get the most out of every day! It was awesome.

Yesterday we went to the temple and had an awesome Endowment Session! Literally, so enlightening! Also, didn't fall asleep which probably helped!

Other than that nothing else really happened this week. We had lots of time to be out knocking doors and such with no real success. I hope that the 25 minute of audio recording makes up a little for the lack of awesome letter.

Also, I have a crazy recording for pops next week! It's honestly not important to Salvation or anything, so I won't take time to write about it, but it's a very interesting thought on before the flood and after the flood. I will be using time at night to discuss it so it's not hindering my actual study time!! It's pretty cool:) Anyway,

Love ya!
Elder Bushman

Year 1, Week 28: I Love Teaching the Restoration

The week started with some media referrals and some New Investigators! We met a woman from Jamaica who wanted a free Bible. When we met her she said she has been meeting with all kinds of missionaries and pastors. She has met with the JWS, Protestants, Mormons, Catholics, and Baptists to see which Church she wants to join. We gave her a Book of Mormon and the Bible and shared how they work together. She is super interested in finding out more, but we haven't had the chance to go back.

On Friday we had our all Spanish Missionary meeting. President basically roasted all of us saying we aren't good enough and how we need to do better. He obviously did this in a kind, loving, positive way, but that's pretty much a sentence summary. We talked a lot about how and where the Spanish program is going and what we need to do to become better missionaries. He shared the statistic that in the last 4 months, there has only been 8 baptisms in the Spanish group. That is very sad.. But it has given a lot of direction that will be very good! I am super excited for where we are heading!

Saturday was exchanges with the ZL. I went on an Exchange with Elder Warner who has been out for 18 months. We did a lot of knocking and taught some awesome Restorations. I love teaching the Restoration! I feel like it has the most power with the story of Joseph Smith.
One of the biggest things I learned from him is how to be super Bold. I am always a little nervous to be bold. If someone rejects me or my message I usually just say, alright, have a nice day. Elder Warner says, "What we are telling you is that Christs church is literally on the Earth today and you need to become a part of it." I also realized that if they reject us, they have now completely put not joining on there heads and not on ours. I have really enjoyed going out with older, experienced missionaries!!

On Thursday its service day!! We volunteer at a soup kitchen in Waterbury. We make bags that consist of soup, canned beans or corn, rice, pasta, meat, etc. to hand out to people who get on a list. We usually spend about 2 hours at service and have had some awesome conversations with people. We have met people who took lessons back in Puerto Rico and are interested in lessons again. We have conversations about the Gospel with the people who volunteer with us. 

Mom, you asked about what we do for church services.  Elder Tirado and I lead the music and do the piano. We have a piano that plays by itself. Last week we passed the Sacrament, Blessed the Sacrament, Gave the Talks, led the music and played the piano!

 

This week I have been reading Preach my Gospel and marking all the principles and promises! Most of the promises I have noticed are about gaining eternal life. Do these things and you can either help yourself or others reach eternal life! Very interesting. Preach my Gospel is not just a guide for full time missionaries but for EVERYONE!!! Its awesome. Definitely recommended reading

We went over to a members house on Tuesday for dinner. Because the members here are SOO nice they usually make something Keto for me. I was made, Tuna Salad!

This tuna salad was, tuna, raw onion, and green bell peppers!! Literally SOOO GOOD. I love onions and I am also a BIG fan of peppers now! I know dad is going to literally be so excited!! There is now only 1 thing I cannot handle.

Tomato.

Tomatoes literally make me sick. I HATE tomato.. Anyway,

Love you all!!

Elder Bushman