Miracles and Blessings Pouring from Heaven.....

Dear Family,  Well first of all it is good to hear all is going well back in Utah and thank you dad for the letter that was written, it didn't come till last Tuesday so I got to read it this morning and it was fun reading about that experience you had with the hike. I remember you telling me that story many times when we would have our long talks haha and about not giving up and not quitting, so thank you for sharing that again. And I am glad now that I am in Georgia where I cannot get grounded because I wasn't the most obedient when it came to the skiing rules that you gave me either haha I was laughing so hard as I was reading that but at the same time I wish your thought process would have been the same back then as it is now, it would have relieved me of a lot of guilt haha I am pretty jealous that Hunter got to ski baldy chutes, that is something I never got to do unfortunately, however I did ski High Rustler which I don't think he has done yet, well maybe he has, but no matter that’s cool that he got to do that. 

Anyway I guess I will begin to talk about my week, however I have no idea where to begin because it was probably the most crazy week of my mission, but also the most rewarding. It started off with a trade-off in V on Tuesday which was a lot of fun, we were just able to once again just go out and help them in any way that we could with finding and teaching, and the great thing is, is that they found 7 new investigators this week. Afterwards on Wednesday we drove straight to G to go to the H district's district meeting which was another hour and a half drive, but we were able to participate in that which was really good. A miracle happened that morning however because we needed somebody to go with us that night to go see C but we couldn't find anyone and out of the blue a member called us and said that he needed to go out with us, he said that he had been feeling impressed the last couple of days that he needed to go out with the missionaries. Wow!  I am just so grateful for the work of the Lord.  Anyway basically everything we did this week, we were doing to prepare for C's baptism and it was the most stressful baptism I have ever had trying to get everything orchestrated and also having to make sure everything got done in the zone. So I'm going to talk a little about C now.

The first week we started to teach C, she lost her job, but she had faith that everything was going to work out. Well the whole time we had been teaching her that was a really big worry for her because she didn't want to get evicted. Well it's now close to the end of the month and she was really stressed out and worried, to the point that she couldn't eat and we were trying to do everything we could to help her, however it seemed like things kept falling through. Wow I have never prayed so hard in my life that something miraculous would happen and that she would find a job. Well it's now Saturday morning, the morning of her baptism and we decide to go over to her house a little early to talk with her and to talk about the Baptism.  Right as we get there the mail man pulls up and drops something off in the mailbox and drives away, I didn't really think anything of it and went to the door. Sister B was right there at the door and I kind of startled her but we said hello and she grabbed the mail. As she looked at it she began to get very excited and beckoned us into her home. She then began to break down and cry as she opened this envelope with her tax refund in it, with enough money to pay for all of her rent. She sat there on her couch and thanked God, I have never witnessed a miracle like that, I just felt overwhelmed with gratitude for the Lord and how he is willing and ready to fulfill all of his promises. We promised her at the beginning that if she kept going and obeyed the commandments that the Lord would bless her. Well she quit smoking 4 days prior to her baptism and on the day of her Baptism the Lord provided this Miracle so she wouldn't get evicted. It really humbled me and let me know that I am nothing, for as to my strength I am weak but in the strength of the Lord, all things are possible. She got confirmed on Sunday and told us that she has never been so happy in her life.

To put the icing on the cake, President and Sister B came and spoke in our ward on Sunday and it was amazing!  We were able to get 5 investigators in church and they all loved it. The great thing is that we were able to reactivate this less active member that we found contacting and his wife is not a member. Well all of them came to church on Sunday, and their two kids and they absolutely loved it! We are going to see them tonight and will invite her to be baptized. The Lord is just pouring out blessings upon us and I am not quite sure why, but I know it is nothing that we are doing, we just have to keep being obedient and diligent, I love this work, I truly do. Well I got to go, love you all have a great week! Love,  Elder Bushman

Happy Days.....

Dear family,  Well this is round two trying to type you an email, because it is presidents day the library is shut down so we are using our laptop that we get as zone leaders to do emails. I started about an hour ago to try and type an email and got a lot done when all of the sudden the computer just freak out and deletes it all. Well you know me I got pretty frustrated and just told Elder N to do his emails because I wasn't going to type again haha but here I am. Well as I was saying before, I wanted to wish Hillary a Happy Birthday, so happy birthday Hillary! thank you for putting up with my obnoxious brother haha

Well this week has been a pretty crazy week and a super busy one, I am exhausted once again, but in a good way. We had our two day trade off week with HH and B. On Tuesday we went to HH's district meeting and had a trade off with them. HH is a pretty place, it is pretty touristy and there are a lot of Spanish people. I got to go on the island this time and we pretty much contacted the whole time, but I had no Idea what was going on because it was all in Spanish, but it was still a lot of fun.

On Wednesday we went on a trade off up in B and I was able to go with Elder B who actually trained Elder A.  Elder B is amazing.  We had a fun trade off and just talked about a lot of the old people that used to be in the mission.  On Thursday we had another trade off with the assistants in S, so we were finally back in our area but we were on another trade off, which I was actually pretty thankful for because we had been gone for 2 days I was hoping to get some solid numbers that day, which we did! I went with Elder A, it was great, it felt like we just picked up where he left off, except now I was leading which was a little weird but a lot of fun. We had some good talks and both of us were just feeling the weight of being a leader. We were talking about how much the mission needs to improve if we are to reach our goals and what we were going to do to achieve it.  I don't know the gospel is just so important and it is so important that we share it, because this is the last time the gospel will be on the earth before Christ comes again, we are the ones preparing the world for his second coming. I just wonder what the prophet must feel like sometimes as he prays about all of us and just praying that we will catch the vision about how important this really is. Then I wondered how President B must feel when he gives us all these tools to do missionary work and he exhorts us to be diligent and obedient so strongly and yet missionaries choose not to heed his council.  I guess I just want to be the best instrument in God's hands that I can be, and I know I am far from perfect, but I do desire to figure out everything I must do to be as worthy as I can so I can fulfill my calling. Anyway these were just some of the things that Elder A and I talked about, it was a really good conversation.

The Lord is also just blessing us with referrals from members out of nowhere and we have some pretty good potential people that we are working with. JW, our recent convert, is doing amazing!  She is more than half way through preach my gospel now and is on fire!  She has given us 4 referrals in the past week for some of her friends, some of them who are really solid and want to come to church. We are also working with a couple part member families who seem to be really solid, one of them came to church on Sunday, at least the less active man did, so we are hoping to really get things started with them and get his wife baptized.

Oh on Saturday as we were about to leave, the Jehovah Witnesses knocked on our door!  Oh it was great, in fact one of them was someone that we had contacted on the street a week ago. haha Anyway they started talking to us about Armageddon and gave us a pamphlet and we listened kindly and didn't really say anything. Then the other guy talked and he started saying how his sister was a Mormon and how her husband
cheated on her and stuff but anyway he said that his brother in law asked him once how you could know if any of the books that were written were true, namely the Quran, Bible, and Book of Mormon. He said he didn't have an answer at the time and he thought about it for years but now he finally knew and then he asked us if we knew the answer. Boy did he dig himself into a hole with that question.  I said of course I know the answer!  I quoted from Moroni 10:3-5 and you should have seen the shock on his face haha it was priceless. But he gathered himself back together and started talking about prophecy being fulfilled and that's how you know things are true, I then told him how Ezekiel’s prophecy about the Book of Mormon was fulfilled and again he was shocked and started to fumble over his words. Well they soon left after that and Elder N and I just really gained a testimony of how true the gospel really is as we bore testimony to them about the gospel and the Book of Mormon and as they really did nothing, they had no direction with what they were doing, they were just trying to fill us with information.

Well anyway that was the gist of our week, I’m running out of time so I better get off, and thankfully nothing has been deleted on me, so I will talk to you all later. Have a great week. Love you all!  Elder Bushman

A few more pictures

Here come the bugs......

Dear Family, Well I'm glad you all enjoyed the pictures, I know it's been a while since I have sent them to you haha I think there are pictures on there from before Halloween, so it's been a minute. Oh and the red shirt and shoes were all things that I have found in the house we live in. Actually the shirt is from our lost investigator, she was throwing out a bunch of stuff, that shirt being one of them, so she said I could have it. However the pants are Elder A’s, He left them here because he didn't have enough room in his suit case when he got transferred. So pretty much everything I was wearing at that point was not mine haha but it is now. 

Well S is Great, that's all I really have to say, I don't think I could ask to be in a better place. The only thing right now is that the stinkin bugs are starting to come out again. It's February and it’s been 77 degrees almost every day this week, it's ridiculous. It just means summer is coming sooner, which means it’s going to be hot soon and I am not excited for that, I've been enjoying the cold weather way too much! Oh well anyway I guess I can tell you who my new companion is since you want to know so bad.....his name is Elder N. Yep that's right I am companions with someone from my same hometown! How crazy is that, I went to Junior High with him haha It's going to be so much fun!  He's been rotting away down in G for the last 7 and a half months so he is way excited to be up here in S and so am I.  We have a lot of good stuff going on right now, with people that are getting baptized this month, recent converts that are doing missionary work, really long fast and testimony meetings, its great!

I probably told you about the lady that we are teaching, well she is amazing!  We had a couple of lessons with her this week and she really is a choice daughter of our Heavenly Father, a spiritual giant. We had a lesson with her earlier in the week and watched one of the Mormon messages that you sent me and she just broke down crying and we were able to teach the word of wisdom while the spirit was strong, commit her to live it, and set a solid date. She also got up and bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting this. It was amazing and at the end she told everyone that she was going to get baptized, so at least everyone knows who she is now.

The rest of the week went really well but has been super hectic. We probably spent the last 4 driving as much as we did working in our area. On Wednesday was Transfer meeting, so we had to drive all the way down to J. and we didn't get back until 6 PM.  On Thursday we had to drive up to B. and go to their district meeting so we could drop off their supplies and then we had to go to H.H. to drop of their supplies. On Friday we had to take the hour and a half drive out to V. to drop off something for them and then drive to G. to drop off something for them, it's really been one of the most exhausting weekends of my life, but it has been great, I love being busy. We also have just been teaching a lot of people and are finding a lot of new people. Our recent convert J. is doing great missionary work. She referred us to one of her friends that wants to come to church with her, so we gave her a call and set up an appointment for tonight, she seemed really cool on the phone. We had the W. family show up to church this week, they were the ones that were going to get baptized a while back but they showed up to church this week. So we are going to baptize them this month.

But yeah that was pretty much our week. This week we are going to be out of our area for two days down in J for a leadership training, which I am really excited for because they are always good. Then next week we are going to be out of our area for two days again for trade offs, so It's like we don't even like our area or something haha but I love it. Well anyway I better get going we have a lot of work to do today as always, but I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.  Love, Elder Bushman