The Power of "One"

Dear Family,

Good Morning! How is everyone doing? It was great to hear of all the good things going on back home and extremely weird to hear about all these missionaries coming up, it all seems so surreal to me. I really don’t feel like there is even an end to missions, it has become my life I don't really know how to do anything else now haha It's weird to think that I am at the same point on my mission as was my trainer when I was trained by him (Elder P). Missions just go by way too fast, but they are the greatest things in the world.

This week we had a two day leadership conference here and so we had to make a whole bunch of arrangements with where missionaries where staying and who they would be working with, for those that would be traveling from far away areas. The Leadership conference was incredible, probably one of the most powerful ones I have been too, then again you kind of feel that way about anything that you do over and over again. But President talked a lot about the importance of humility and sustaining leaders. As we talked about it the phrase that popped into my head, well actually there are a couple so I'll share both but here is one, "The best leader is one that knows how to follow" I learned that as a leader you can't expect anyone else to follow you if you aren't willing to follow anyone else. Christ of course was the perfect example with being obedient to all of his Father's commands and giving complete submission to him. Sustaining actually means to support and uphold, so even if we don't necessarily like our leaders when we raise our hand to sustain them, that means we are going to help them. The next phrase that popped into my head was "It takes 2 to be ONE." You can't be unified with yourself haha to truly be one like God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one we need to learn how to work with each other and look for the good qualities that the other person has and serve them. And you have to work together to become one, there is no one side to it. The best companions that I have had are the ones that are humble and willing to work with me to achieve worthy goals and for me to work with them and be submissive to the things that they want to do. We have to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit as the scriptures say. But it was very uplifting and edifying conference.

Wednesday night Elder M, my former companion, worked with us in our area because he was staying overnight because of the conference. We went to go see an investigator and had an extremely powerful lesson on baptism and the Holy Ghost. The spirit was thick in the air and then Elder M invited her to be baptized on the 27th. It was silent for about 2 minutes as she thought about it, my heart was pounding, she finally spoke and said that she wants too, but that she needs to pray about it. I am confident that she will say yes. We have a lesson with her tonight at a members home and I believe tonight is the night that she will accept the invitation to be baptized on Saturday. She is an amazing lady and has such a strong desire to live the gospel. She told us that she felt like her whole world was being torn apart but in the midst of it all she has been finding incredible peace because of the Gospel. I love this gospel so much. 

On Friday during or weekly planning session Elder H and I were pondering on a goal that we should set for baptisms for this upcoming week. We had several possibilities with people that had been to church enough times but who did not have a date at the moment. As we thought about it we felt that we should set a goal of 3 baptisms for the weekend of the 27th and 28th and we felt very strongly that this was the goal that we needed to set. That night we went to go see one of our investigators. He has been taught for the last 2 months and has come to church 4 times, and at one point had a date, but then a lot of chaos with family got in the way. Well anyway we went by with the goal in mind to invite him to be baptized next week. At the beginning of that lesson I thought there was going to be no way in the world that we were ever going to invite him to be baptized. There were kids running around screaming, a baby crying, and it just seemed hopeless. We opened up to Mosiah 18 to talk about the importance of baptism and confirmation and the blessings that God gives us as we keep this commandment. Before we started reading I just bowed my head real quick and said a silent prayer that he would be able to feel the spirit even with all the chaos going around. It truly is incredible what the Lord can do, the spirit was there as we read and as we testified and we were able to invite him to be baptized and he is set solidly for the 28th of this month! It truly was a miracle.

Then yesterday on Sunday we had a tender mercy from the Lord. I don't know if I told you, but Elder H and I went to go see a member his first week here and she ended up having a little grandchild that wanted to be baptized. She had full custody and he was just turning 8 so we didn't know if that would be a child of record or a convert baptism. Well we called President Barry and he called Salt Lake and we found out it would be a convert baptism. So on Sunday _____ was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints and all we had to do was visit a member, it was a miracle. The Lord has truly blessed us with an incredible week and I pray that this next one will be as we have planned according to our faith and diligence. I am grateful for this work and for this church and gospel, I love it so much! I am grateful for all of you and what you do for me.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Let the good times roll.....

Dear Family,

Oh wow it is so weird to see those pictures! I love those Missionaries so much, they helped me out in so many ways on my mission and were always a shining example of Christlike service. I have some of my best friends in the world coming home and one of my best friends going out, what a glorious thing it is to see Tyler going on a mission! What joy feels my heart to know that he has come such a long way and is making that step, it is going to change his life forever, it has for me. I'm not going to lie it was really hard for me to see all those missionaries go, I only have a few of my companions that are left in the field now after that transfer and next transfer I will have even more of my companions leaving. I am grateful to finally have a younger companion haha Elder H. He has been out on his mission for 9 months now and this is only his second area, he was in his first area for 9 months. He was trained by the same missionary I was trained by, Elder W. So in the mission lingo we are brothers, so that is kind of cool. Right now I am kind of training him how to be a Zone Leader which I don't know if that is really effective because I don't know what I am doing half of the time haha but it will work out and it will be fun. It's weird to think that I have been a zone leader for almost a year now, It's been the fastest year of my life. I'm starting to get to that point on my mission where everyone is like "how much time do you got left? Only 4 months wow you are almost done aren't you?" It's getting really annoying. I have given all of my companions a hard time because of the amount of time that they have left and now its coming on me 10 fold haha

Well anyway I will start off talking about this week. Well all the amazing people that I told you about that we found on Monday pretty much dropped off the face of the earth now. They weren't as solid as I thought they were going to be, but that is alright there are plenty more out there. We did find a sweet little miracle this week the second day that Elder H was here. We went to go see this active member that has like 6 Grandchildren that live with her. She is a convert of about 4 years and all of her grandchildren have fallen in behind. Well she has one that is turning 8 today actually and since he isn't her kid technically he will be a convert baptism! So we are going to teach him and baptize him! It is going to be incredible, so I hope the ward will go along with it, we told President Barry and he called Salt Lake and they said it would be a convert baptism so hurrah for us haha 

I think the next day we were tracting and we contacted into this guy. We talked with him for about 30 minutes about all sorts of different things, and eventually I asked him if we could come in and bless his home. He let us right in, he really liked us by this point. His wife was inside and so was his 19 year old son and we sat down in their family room and offered a blessing upon their home and family. The spirit entered into the room and really softened all of their hearts. Afterwards we sat and talked for a little bit longer and we found out that his Grandmother was a member of the church and that he had her copy of the Book of Mormon and we went searching for it all excitedly. He came back out and showed us the Book and it was super old but really neat. I asked him if we could come back and talk more about the book and he looked at me for a second and then said "yeah, that would be fine, I would like that." he then asked his wife if we could do so and she agreed and we are going to go back over this Friday!

I have really just come to love these people on my mission.  Every day I am learning more and more about our Identity. The statement "I am a Child of God" is becoming real to me not just a statement. I really do know that I am a child of God. That I have a Father in Heaven who loves me and knows me individually and what an incredible thought that is, that there is a perfect being in this universe that cares about someone as small and insignificant as me, it really blows my mind. I know that he feels the same way about each person that we see every day and it is my desire and my hope that they can come to know the same thing I do, and I hope we all can. It's when we come to understand our identity that every aspect of our life changes. I am so grateful for this gospel and for this church, I don't know where I would be without it. I love you all and thank you for all that you do, have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

P.S. Mom I think that the change of the missionary age is a brilliant idea by the way. I think there are going to be many more missionaries out in the field and more missionaries means more hearts will be changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sacrafice, Fleas and Rolling Along....

Dear Family,  So first off, yes I did get the shoes and oh they are incredible, it makes running so much easier! But, wow what an incredible week this has been! I was absolutely just blown away during General Conference! It was interesting to see how many of the Apostles actually talked about how ridiculous anti is and the importance of not leaving the church. But more than that I was spiritually filled and I had questions answered. I love going into General Conference with questions and every time getting them answered, I think about 5 different speakers answered my question this time and so it really helped and I have a lot to work on. My favorite talk by far was Elder Holland's the spirit was so incredible! I remember looking into his eyes and you could just see how much love he had for the savior burning within, I hope too to one day have the same love for him as he does. The whole time I just felt like I needed to repent haha It was incredible! Oh and thank you for the pictures, it’s crazy to see how much those boys have changed, I didn't even recognize them, hopefully they will recognize me, I'm going to have to win them over from Hunter when I get back haha

Anyway well it looks like I will be getting another companion tomorrow. Elder M is getting transferred which I am pretty bummed about because he and I got along really well and worked really well together. It's going to be hard starting from scratch with a new companion when you have worked so well with one. Also he has been in this area for 9 months so there are a lot of people that are pretty attached to him so we are going to have a lot of work to do to win the members and longtime investigators hearts, but I have no doubt that with the help of the Lord it is all possible. But I have incredible news......It's getting cooler!!!!! Oh it was so incredible waking up this morning and it was like 70 degrees outside! It has been blazing hot for the last about 4 weeks and all of a sudden the temperature just dropped and it is beautiful.

Well we did have a good week this week. I am trying to think of the stuff that happens but I am kind of having a little bit of a brain fart right now. Oh I remember now. We had zone leader council on Tuesday and it was a really powerful meeting. We are going to be focusing on getting people to church this month, and it is always good to be around President B. I always feel so uplifted and strengthened after listening to him speak, I think he is going to be a General Authority someday. But we were told that we needed to duplicate what we learned in Zone Leader Council into our zone meeting two days later. Our last zone meeting we had wasn't very powerful, so we were a little worried, but we had an extra day to prepare this week so it gave us a lot more time to seek revelation. On Thursday when we had our zone meeting both Elder M and I trained on how God loves us and the importance of coming to know God and how we as members and missionaries know something that other people don't. It was a powerful meeting as we discussed these different topics and the spirit was really strong. 

The rest of the week went pretty good but there isn't much to talk about, so I want to talk about yesterday instead because a lot happened yesterday. Yesterday started off with one of the things I could not ever see myself doing. We got called by a former investigator to come do some service for her, well she asked us to bathe her dog. I can't stand dogs let alone how they smell or anything (my mission has kind of turned me off to dogs and cats).  So we get asked to clean this dog and what I didn't know is that we were bathing this dog because he was covered in fleas. I did feel a little bad for the dog because blood started pouring off his back as we cleaned him, but it just all out grossed me out.  Sacrifice brings force the blessings of heaven! Then we started out to work and we went to go see a former and as we approached the door we could hear the wife saying "oh my gosh tell them to go away" (She had told us to come back a few days earlier) The husband comes out and tells us that we are really getting on his nerves and that he would read the book and call us when he wanted us to come by and then walked inside and slammed the door. I was pretty frustrated, and I really hoped that it wouldn't be how the rest of the day went.  About 30 minutes later we were tracting and we tracted into this really humble lady. She told us that she hasn't been happy for 20 years, so we asked her if she would like to be happy and she said yes, so we taught her right there. We taught her about the plan of salvation and of some of the commandments and how we can receive happiness. By the end of it she felt a lot better and she had committed to live the word of wisdom, it was great! After that we went to go see this couple that we had found. They are the funniest old black couple I have ever met. They were flirting with each other like the whole time, it was hilarious. Then when we were telling him where the church was, we told them that it was on ______ and there were 2 churches a white and a brown one and he said "What?!" a white and a brown one? His wife then said that we were talking about the painting and he burst out laughing. he thought we were talking about the race of the church hahaha Well then later we found another really neat family and so things are really starting to roll along, but I am about to get logged off the computer, so I got to get going, Love you all have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Zone Leader Counsel

Never Doubt!

Dear Family,

First off, thank you so much for the package, I definitely got all of my favorite candies, so it was great. Also thank you for the gift card thing haha I was able to take 4 of us missionaries to Olive Garden and we got the Endless soup, salad, and breadsticks, and yes I killed myself basically haha I am really full right now. I must admit however that the news of Brother __________ really hit me hard, that was hard to swallow. It makes me really sad. Out here in the field I run into people like that all the time who have turned away because of Anti or whatever it is and its sad to see, but this was much different. I really loved Brother ________, he was a great example to me and i looked up to him a lot. I prayed really hard after getting that news that he would someday come back around. Anti is a deadly drug and poison, it really is, it turns people who were once loving and kind into people that are angry and hateful. There is a recent convert here in this area that got addicted to heroin because he wanted to prove to one of his friends that it would be easy to give up after trying it. Well obviously that didn't work out very well and he became addicted to it. Anti can do the same thing, even to those with the strongest testimonies. Elder Holland said "Even in the last days the very elect will be deceived." It's interesting that one of the things that I have faced the most out here on my mission is anti, it has shaken me a couple of times, but I always turn back to the Basics, is the Book of Mormon True? Do I feel the spirit when I read it? and the answer is always yes? I cannot deny the spirit and the power that I have felt from that book, and not just that but all the many witnesses that I have received throughout my youth growing up and throughout my mission especially! God Lives! I know he does. He is our father. Jesus Christ truly is our Savior, the Plan of Salvation is real and this is Jesus Christ's church. It has to be true, nothing else makes sense and there seems to be no other way. No matter what is thrown at me I will stand stubborn in that fact that this is Jesus Christ's church and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, I know it and I know that God knows it and I cannot deny it. I just want to say that if anyone reading this has any doubts or has looked at anything that they have questions about, I invite you to read the Book of Mormon and then Kneel down and ask God the Eternal Father in the name of Christ if the Book is true and then you will know by the Power of the Holy Ghost that it is true. If you feel that you have already gained a witness, then do it again, never stop asking always seek out the truth. We need to be in the scriptures every single day and be praying every single day.  Holding steadfastly to the Iron rod which is the word of God is what is going to keep us strong through these tumultuous times. This is what Nephi says about it.

"And I said unto them that it was the word of God; and whoso would hearken unto the word of God, and would hold fast unto it, they would never perish; neither could the temptations and the fiery darts of the adversary overpower them unto blindness, to lead them away to destruction.

 Wherefore, I, Nephi, did exhort them to give heed unto the word of the Lord; yea, I did exhort them with all the energies of my soul, and with all the faculty which I possessed, that they would give heed to the word of God and remember to keep his commandments always in all things."

Well enough of me preaching but this is something I feel really strongly about. Anyway I had a really good week and a really good birthday. The people here are so good to us and its been a great blessing. Nothing really spectacular happened this week. The baptismal dates that we have for this coming weekend have to be pushed back because they didn't come to church. Umm...I saw dolphins yesterday as we were at a members house eating dinner. They live right a long the river and we were out on the dock and there were dolphins swimming 10 feet in front of us, so that was really neat. We had the great opportunity of blessing an amazing families home yesterday and the spirit was really strong. It's a family of 6 and they are a stable loving family and so we are hoping to be working with them soon. But other than that there isn't a whole lot to talk about. I am just ready to go out there to bring souls to Christ. I love this Gospel, I love this Church and I am grateful to be a servant of the Lord. I love all of you and always stand for what is right and stay strong, have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman