Elder Bushman and Elder Fergus
Don't know who the first 3 Elders are - but then we have E. Wadsworth (dad) and E. Green (son)
Couldn't pass up a picture with Elder Bass!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Merry Christmas - part 2
Dear Family, Wow! It was so good to hear from all of you. This week we had our Mission Christmas Devotional and we got the package with all the letters in it. It was so wonderful to finally hear from everyone! haha I laughed so hard at some of the things that were in there. It sounds like Lane and Heber are quite the show to behold. I loved all the stories Hillary so don't feel like you wrote too much and the video was hilarious as well but I couldn't hear it so hopefully I will get a way to hear it next week. Thank you as well for all the comments on the blog, I didn't know so many people actually read it, but I guess it's not too bad. Well this last six weeks has gone by crazy fast, I can't believe that it is already almost Christmas and I'll be talking to you all next week. However, I am getting transferred....I guess I didn't do a good enough job as President expected so he is shipping me somewhere else, hopefully not too far away. I also got called to be a zone leader this morning, so that probably has something to do with it. I'm not quite as nervous as I was when I got called a district leader for some reason, in fact I’m kind of excited, it should be a great experience and I know I’ll learn a lot as well.
This week was a little slower because all of the stuff that was going on, we basically only got to teach S this week, and he is going to get baptized! We don't know when yet because he is still praying about a day, he also wants his sister to come down and see it. It was kind of funny because on Wednesday he told us how his sister had asked him if we had set a date with him yet and he asked her what that meant. She told him a baptismal day....well he told his sister how he wanted to take things slow, but of course we were prepared because we were teaching the doctrine of Christ that day, you know: Faith, repentance, BAPTISM, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. Well by the end of the lesson he told us that he wasn't so sure if he wanted to take it slow anymore, in fact he wanted to get baptized sooner haha so all we are waiting for basically is a good time for his sister to come down. So I'm hoping I don't get transferred too far away so I can come back for the baptism.
Like I said, on Thursday we had our Mission Christmas Devotional and it was amazing! There was a talent show and let me tell you there was a ton of talent in our mission. I didn't do anything because the only talents I have are throwing a baseball a long ways and I couldn't really do that in a gym so I elected to not participate but there was a lot of cool stuff and I'm going to send you a lot of pictures and videos with this email.
I really don't have a whole lot else to talk about since I'll be talking to you all on Sunday so I'll just let the pictures and the movies do the rest of the typing for me, I think you'll like those better anyway. Have a Merry Merry Christmas and I love you all! Love, Elder Bushman
Merry Christmas everyone......
I found these pictures on Facebook today...... Garrett's comment: "No matter where I go, tradition follows". I'm assuming he's talking about the tradition of sitting on Santa's lap on Christmas eve!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
I'm ready for the Tabernacle Choir......
Dear Family, Well it sure sounds like you all had a crazy week, I can't believe all the storms and stuff that are going on, it blows my mind. I wish I could see all the damage, that would be pretty cool but oh well. I love hearing that the ward was really working together and that there was a lot of involvement with other people in the neighborhood, I think that's something I'm going to do better on when I get home is getting myself out there to other people, it really is so important. I remember when we would try to go fellowship W.P. every week after church and how I never wanted to do it, but now I think I would jump for the opportunity. Anyway to answer your question Mom, yes we can do skype and yes I think I would like to do that, I think it would be fun and we already have someone set up that will let us do it, so I'll inform you more later. And before I start talking about my week I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY dad, another year older and hopefully a little bit wiser too haha Love you!
Well a lot of interesting stuff has gone on this week and it's been a pretty interesting one. Just like you all, Elder F and I have been doing a lot of service. This week we did some service for K, our investigator. We went over there on Wednesday and Thursday and helped paint his house for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun and it felt good to do something that required some physical exertion other than biking. K was very grateful as well and we have really won his heart over this past week with all that we have done for him and Sister G so hopefully we can just get to really teaching him soon, we have an appointment with them tonight so that should be good. Oh something else that was funny is that we didn't have a ride over to there house on Thursday so we had to ride our bikes for 4 miles with just regular clothes on and that was really weird, we weren't getting weird looks at us or nobody yelling at us, I didn't like it haha
On Tuesday we had zone meeting and it went really good, we learned a lot and I got to give a training as well. I gave my training on becoming more powerful as a missionary and my training was very similar to my last post on my blog so I don't have to tell you much about it. There was also a great training on mormon.org, oh by the way have any of you created your profile yet? I'm just curious because you know it is your duty as a member to do it haha I'm must messin but I would like to see your profiles up soon, anyone over 13 years old can make one and it is really easy. If you already have an lds.org account then you just sign in with that and away you go. Then when you create them post it on your wall on Facebook so everyone can see, media truly is a wonderful tool that God has given us if we use it correctly.
Alright since I already told you about Wednesday and Thursday I guess I'll jump to Friday. On Friday we did some more service for a member, we helped move some things out of his house and then right after that we went to a lesson with S. He wasn't able to meet with us earlier in the week because he has been passing out, so he wanted us to come over and give him a blessing. Before we gave him the blessing, we taught him about the priesthood and told him why it’s important and he agreed with all of it. Then we gave him a blessing and it was so powerful! The spirit was so strong, and afterwards he just sat there and looked at the ground with tears in his eyes. He told us that as soon as we touched him he could feel the spirit and he almost cried, it was such a wonderful experience. That was basically the highlight of our day on Friday, nothing really happened after that.
On Saturday we had a super long day until about 5 o’clock when we finally just decided to go to a members house because we had been riding our bikes for about 4 hours straight basically because nobody would let us in or talk to us. We went to a member family called the M and they fed us dinner, which was really good because we were starving. Afterwards they referred us over to one of their friends’ homes to go visit and gave us a whole lot of information about them. Missionaries had visited them before and they had let them in so when we went over there, they were so excited to see us and let us in right away. They're names are the P and they have a son with muscular dystrophy and they had been wondering where the missionaries had been. So we set up an appointment to see them next Monday because they were going out of town for this week. We are excited about them; I think they have a lot of potential. After that we rode our bikes over to see the G and unfortunately K was drunk but we helped them again by moving some stuff in their garage. Afterwards, Sister G and I started singing Christmas carols haha it was a lot of fun and she liked it a lot. She is less-active and she is French but anyway it was a great way to get her excited about church again because she loves the music. So she sang in French and I sang in English, it sounded terrible, but it was a lot of fun and she came to church on Sunday!
On Sunday, of course we went to church and only S showed up, so that was good. Elder F and I gave talks and for the first time in my life I felt comfortable giving a talk, it was great! I've found that it is a whole lot easier when you actually know what you are talking about. The rest of the day went well, we had dinner at a member’s home and he fed us deer meat. It was really good, I really enjoyed it and I think that was the first time I had ever eaten deer before. Then we went on a power trade with the zone leaders and Elder C and I went to go see this less active named Brother W. We had, had a great lesson with him on Monday and committed him to read the Book of Mormon again and he said he would. Brother W went less-active like 30 years ago or something and he had been a bishop and everything. He has a few doctrinal issues and he's a mason so he has a hard time believing Joseph was a prophet. But we just bore powerful testimony and I think kind of spiritually rebuked him a little bit for even getting into all of that anti stuff and he agreed to reading the Book of Mormon again. So last night we just asked him how the reading was going and he said he had read some but he hadn't prayed yet, but at least he is reading! I feel confident that we will get him back to church. But anyway that was my week.
By the way I had some ideas for Lane's hunting expeditions. What you got to do is film it and make it like a hunting video and after he tracks down the deer and kills it, have him go grab Jake by the ears or something and then interview him afterwards and ask him how the hunt went. hahaha That would be hilarious! But anyway I have to go but I hope you all have a wonderful week and talk to you later! Love, Elder Bushman
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Winds....the Gift of Tongues.... or not....
Dear Family, Well it sounds like you all had a crazy week with the wind and everything, I can't believe there are so strong of winds I've never even heard of something like that happening in Farmington
So the guy that was a referral from my old ward hasn't been able to contact him yet and neither have we so it's kind of up in the air at the moment. But S.J. the referral from the middleburg Sisters is doing wonderful! We were able to teach him once this week on Friday and the lesson went really well. We finished the Plan of Salvation and it made a lot of sense to him and we invited him to pray about it. He also showed up to church on Sunday, we had a member pick him up and he absolutely loved it! Even though it was a fast and testimony meeting...luckily nobody said anything too off the wall and so it ended up really good. He really liked the Family aspect of it because that's what he really wants for his family, and he wants to set that example for them. Throughout his whole life he's been helping people financially and by other means and so it's weird for him to finally be helping himself, but what we helped him realize is that by helping himself spiritually he really is helping others. In fact he is helping his family better this way, by learning the Gospel and being an example to them, then by any other way basically and he really liked that.
No we haven't been able to meet with R.A. He has kind of fallen off the map, we don't know what happened. Maybe he didn't approve of one of my posts on my blog or something, who knows. We did find someone new this week, his name is D, and yes he is a man. He has visited with missionaries in the past but they never really taught him anything, so we went over there and taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon and he told us that he was going to read it everyday. Well we called him today and asked if we could come by soon and he said that he was leaving town for two weeks and that we will have to meet with him when he gets back, so that kind of stinks, but oh well.
Well I think I answered all of your questions so I guess now onto the things that happened throughout the week. Well we are still teaching K and he is actually progressing a lot better than we originally thought, it miraculous what the Lord can do. K and Sister K got married on Monday and then we went over on Tuesday with a member and we explained the Book of Mormon more in depth. He had thought church was kind of weird on Sunday because he felt like all we talked about was the Book of Mormon, so we explained why we refer to it so much and that we do actually use the Bible. By the end of the lesson he was really excited to read the Book of Mormon. Later in the week we came back and read the first chapter of Nephi with him and then the next day read the last chapter of Moroni
We also got yelled at by a bunch of high school kids this week. They were in a truck and they drove into this neighborhood that we were coming out of and asked us what we were doing there in a sarcastic way and then swore at us and told us to leave, and they eventually drove by us several more times as we were biking along and did similar antics, it was really annoying. I don't know why teenagers think that it's cool to swear and make themselves look like idiots it makes no sense to me. The Nerve! haha But I know I was immature too and still am a little bit… but I don't know that stuff just irritates me. Let's see what else happened this week?? Well I went on a trade off with one of the Spanish Elders this week and that was really interesting because the whole time I had no idea what was going on. I was trying to have enough faith the whole time so that I could acquire the gift of tongues or at least the interpretation of tongues, but it wasn't working.
Oh by the way wasn't the Christmas Devotional just amazing last night?! I loved it, that movie was so wonderful I couldn't believe it and the talks were fantastic and the music was great, Oh man I just have a whole new perspective on Christmas than I have before. I love listening to the Prophet and the Apostles and just having them bring it all back to Christ. Sometimes even as a missionary it's crazy how the world can get to you and pull you down but with the inspired words of the prophets, it just lifts you up and keeps you going, I love it!
Well that's about all I have for this week, but mom could you let me know how Jordan is doing in Paraguay
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)