Elder H and Elder G

Killer Thanksgiving Feast!

Dear Family,  It is good to hear that all is going well.  I don’t think I have ever been chucker hunting before but it sounds pretty fun!  We had a really good week as well, thanksgiving was a killer but I will explain more a little later, I first want to address what Dad asked me about.

There are 3 main things that a missionary needs to be a successful missionary on a mission. These three things are my own personal opinion, so obviously there are many other good things that could be presented as well, but I will present these 3 which are: Obedience, Testimony, and a Love for God.

Obedience: Obedience is the first law of heaven and all blessings are predicated on this law and if we obtain any blessing from God it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. As a missionary you are asked to do many things that you don’t necessarily understand. There are a lot of rules to live by, which can either be a blessing to a missionary or a cursing. The key to be exactly obedient is having a humble heart, being submissive, and being willing to do anything that is asked of you. You have to go into your mission with the Goal already at hand that you are going to be exactly obedient to every rule, obedience is the key to truly feeling free. When you are disobedient, it ways down upon your heart and mind and distracts you from the work which leads to none or very little success which leads to feeling miserable. God's plan of Salvation is a plan of happiness. He created this world and this plan to see if we would be obedient to all of his commandments. So in all reality you could call God's plan a plan of obedience which leads to true freedom and happiness.

Testimony: Having a testimony of this Gospel and this work is vital to being a missionary because you will have it tested many times on a mission. But when you can stand with boldness and testify that you know by the power of the Holy Ghost that this work is true, you feel a feeling of love and joy that is you can’t describe. Most importantly you need to have a testimony of the Book of Mormon, anyone preparing for a mission should read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and pray and ask God if it is true so he can receive a witness that it is and bear that witness to the world. To bring your testimony from testimony to conversion, you need to apply what you have learned in the scriptures and preach my gospel and have a mighty change of heart, when you have this change, nothing will hold you back. So gain a testimony before you leave through scripture study and prayer.

Have a Love for God: When all else fails on a mission, your love for God will motivate you and carry you through to do the hard thing. Coming to understand who you are and what kind of relationship you have with God will give you the strength to endure any trial. You have to be willing to give everything to God, give your whole soul as a sacrifice to him and let him use you as a worthy vessel to perform his work. So I would say develop a relationship with God now, come to know him now, do what he asks now, make the choice to love and serve him now, and as young men do this they will bring many souls to Christ on their missions. Also just as a last little note, they need to learn how to be hard workers, to be proactive and be anxiously engaged always in a good cause, this will help a lot. I hope these 3 points help.

Well now we will get back to my week. It went pretty good, we were able to set a date with one of our investigators on Tuesday. She is just a super elect lady. Thanksgiving was crazy! We went out to the beaches area and played in a turkey bowl with the wards over there. It was a lot of fun and made me think about little league football and I was super sore afterwards, but oh well it was worth it. Then we had 3 meals that day!  The first one we had was at 12 pm, and we didn’t eat as much there because we were trying to portion ourselves well. Then the next one was at 1 pm, and I just went all out there, I ate so much food!  It was all so good too; southern cooking is just one of a kind, not much that can beat it! Then we had another meal at 2 pm and by the time we got to that one I was shaking as I was bringing up food to my mouth haha I was so full! Although one of the ladies that cooked at that home made some lemonade pie! I haven’t seen that since I have left home and she did it with real lemons, it was really good. So yeah thanksgiving was quite the day. 

Nothing big happened the rest of the week. A lot of our investigators went out of town or just were super busy because of the Holiday so we didn’t get to see a lot of them on the weekend. So we are looking forward to this week to have all of our investigators back in town and ready to be taught. We are teaching a lot of really wonderful people.  Anyway, I Iove you all, have a great week! Love, Elder Bushman

Pure Joy!

Dear Family,  I am typing on a small computer today so excuse my grammar and any errors in it. First of all happy birthday to Heber! wow I cannot believe that he is already 2 years old, that is just so crazy, last time I saw him he was basically a newborn baby and now he is running around mooning people, what has this world come too haha Well I will be spending at least the next 6 weeks in this area!  Thank goodness I am not getting transferred, there are so many good things going on in this area and I am very excited about it, plus I have been transferred 7 times on my mission and I was really hoping to stay here. Good thing God knows me the best and knows that I still have much work to accomplish here in this area. Also I will be keeping my same companion Elder H for another transfer. It’s going to be crazy because this upcoming transfer we will have thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years’ all in the same transfer. So it’s going to be an eventful transfer with hopefully many baptisms, we have a strong possibility for about 3 or 4 for the upcoming month. My last transfer will be kind of uneventful though, it’s just crazy to think about, time is going so fast. I won’t lie, I am a little nervous to come home soon, I have no idea what I am going to do, all I know is I need to be busy fast but I won’t worry about that right now, it will come. I am just loving my mission and it is sad to see it coming to an end, although it really isn’t the end, I will still be a missionary at home too. I am really excited to do home teaching because now I can actually give good thoughts haha!  I have really come to enjoy talking to people too. I was telling Elder H this week that I think I am going to be one of those old people that just won’t ever stop talking someday, I know that is probably kind of weird coming from me, but I just really enjoy talking to people now it’s crazy!

Anyway we had another incredible week!  Unfortunately J is not going to be baptized this weekend but she is going to be baptized in December for sure. We had a lesson with her last night and she committed to set her own date for December. She is incredible!  She came to all 3 hours of church on Sunday and loved it!  She had been really nervous to do it for a long time but finally did it and got a lot out of it. Her kids loved primary too, so it was really good all around. I have just come to love that family so much and they feel more like family then someone we are teaching, you really do gain friends for eternity while on a mission. The Gospel of Jesus Christ binds friendships and creates feelings of love and unity more than any other force on earth, it truly is the uniting power of eternities. 

We are teaching another incredible woman. We started talking to her and asking how her day was going and then just started talking about God and her relationship with him. Eventually I shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon and she was blown away. She was told before that she should never read that book but when I read that scripture which talked about Christ she felt the spirit really strong and started asking us questions. She asked us why there were so many churches on the earth, it was something she had always wondered, we answered her question and told her that we could answer more of her questions if she would allow us to come back. She accepted a return appointment for Saturday and also accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon. We went back on Saturday and taught her the restoration and watched the Restoration DVD, and again she felt the spirit very strong but was worried about how in the bible that is says beware of false prophets. We explained that, that is why the Book of Mormon is important because it is the evidence and the fruits of the prophet Joseph Smith. She just kept saying "wow" all the time and we answered all of her questions. Yesterday we taught her the Plan of Salvation which answered many of her questions that she has had for all of her life. It was such an incredible experience to see the light and understanding enter into her heart and mind and she was so happy and grateful that she was finally getting her questions answered. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted. She is one of the most elect people I have ever taught, it is incredible!

There are about 3 other people that are progressing at the same rate as her. The Lord is truly blessing us at this time and I am so grateful! I just pray that I can continue to be worthy of such blessings, I don’t want to do anything that would make me lose trust with God. I know when I was younger I did a lot of dumb things to lose trust with Dad and I definitely don’t want to do that with God, that would be a bad idea haha But I really do love this Gospel and I know that it is true, I have had so many witnesses that it is and I am too stubborn to reject it....in a good way. I love my Savior Jesus Christ, I know he lives and I love my Father in Heaven and am so grateful to him for this wonderful plan that he has put for us, so that we can become like him. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Surrounded by greatness - Elder H and President and Sister Barry

Life is GOOD!

Dear Family,  Good Morning! How ya'll doing?! Oh I just got to tell you that I love the south. Things are going really good here in this area of Jacksonville Florida and it's good to hear that things are going well back home as well. I'm glad I've stayed away from the sickness that has been occurring  I've been really blessed on my mission thus far and have only gotten sick once with a cold for only a day. The Lord truly watches over and protects us out here while we are on our missions. It was also great to hear that incredible story from Elder Hager, I wish I could have been there! Elder Holland was supposed to come to our mission in August of 2011 but never did show up and it was really unfortunate. Well it is extremely weird to think that I only have 3 months left now on my mission and it feels like I just got here, I don't know what to think, all I'm going to do is work hard and hope the day never comes haha 

Well Like I said we had a great week! Things have been super crazy down here in Florida with the election going on and everything. All the members down here talk about is Mitt Romney and I feel super frustrated because I forgot to get an absentee ballet so that I could vote. I wish there was some way that I could vote but it is probably far too late to do anything about it at this point. With all the preparations that the church is making with more missionaries and more everything really, I feel like something big is going to happen. Either he is going to lose and this nation is going to go down the tube really fast and the second coming is going to happen or he is going to win and the church is going to be highlighted more than ever and many people are going to join because of it. I can't make up my mind which one it is but I guess we will know by tomorrow. I hope and pray that he wins though, we need a man of faith and someone that will rely on God to be in the office. I don't know a whole lot about politics but I do know about the spirit of the Lord and what happens when people have it with them. You see it time and time again in The Book of Mormon with the kings and judges. When the people were righteous it was usually because they had a righteous king or judge but when they were wicked they were ripe for destruction and it was the leader that was always at the head of it. 

In 3 Nephi 3:19 it says, "19 Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge."

We need someone like this in the Presidency as well, someone that has the Spirit of the Lord with him so he can receive guidance and revelation to bless and help this country come out of the darkness that it is in right now. This is why I feel that more missionaries are being prepared, because now is the time and it is getting close to the end, what a great time that we live in! 

Well anyway things are going well with our investigators as well. We had a powerful lesson on Monday with our investigator  and pretty much set a date for the 18th of this month, but satan is really combining against her. She told her family that she wanted to be baptized and they are very opposed and think that she is only doing it to save her marriage and so it is really hard on it because she loves her family very much. However, she has seen the miracles that the gospel has provided in her life thus far and knows it is the right thing to do, so please pray for her. The other family that we found ended up not working out, the wife wasn't having any of it, she is pretty staunch catholic but the husband really liked us and we committed him to pray about reading the Book of Mormon which he sincerely said he would, so we plan on following up with him at some point, but are just waiting for the right time. 

We also had our zone meeting this week and it went really well. You know before coming on a mission I never thought in my dreams that I would be able to put together a 3 hour meeting and stand up in front of a large group of people and train on important information and do it without being nervous or scared. It is just incredible how the Lord gives you strength where you are weak, if you just rely on him. I've really gained a testimony on that scripture in Ether 12:27. I am weak, I really am, but in the strength of the Lord I can do all things which are required of me. I was able to train on the importance of repentance and exact obedience, I feel it went well and I hope the missionaries got something out of it. 

Oh Halloween was really interesting this year as well. It was a lot different from last year since last year it was on a P-Day so we really didn't do anything. But this year we had all day to work and we were on a trade off with the Assistants, and believe it or not we actually got a lot of good work done and nobody got mad at us. It didn't even feel like it was Halloween. Then again, Holidays on a mission never really feel like Holidays, they just feel like another day haha But anyway that's all I can really think about at the moment, things are going really well and of course I'm loving every minute. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! Love, Elder Bushman