A few pictures.... not in any particular order.....

Man I love this place....

Dear Family,   Well this week has been extremely amazing and extremely terrible at the same time. Extremely amazing because we saw a ton of miracles and terrible because Elder A is gone! He got called to be an assistant and they took him out of here on Saturday. President Barry called Friday night and I knew exactly what was happening because I was there when Elder R got called to be an assistant as well. It's like everyone I serve around gets called to be an assistant, I don't understand it. But oh well I am looking forward to a new transfer and a new month and a new companion to hit the streets running and baptizing.

Well I don't even know where to start for this week, it really has just been super crazy!   We found 10 new investigators this week and set 2 baptismal dates for this upcoming month, so we really just saw a lot of miracles and I am feeling extremely blessed right now. It started out with Monday when we went and saw a few potentials and taught and set return appointments and we got 3 new investigators that night. One of them, his name is T. and he is about 23, black man, with dreads, he is really cool. He had this dream about the pre-existence which was amazing and believed it thoroughly. He came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. Then on Tuesday, I can't really remember what happened much on Tuesday, I don't think it was one of our more productive days, but it was still amazing I’m sure.

On Wednesday we drove down to Zone Leader Council in Jacksonville. It was really good and I learned a lot and we talked about a lot of good things to get the mission going forward. While I was there Elder T, a missionary I served around, told me how he got an email from this lady that Elder Z and I had contacted in Atlantic and she said that she was getting baptized!  Her name was R. and we had contacted her on the street. She told us she was Jewish but she accepted a Book of Mormon and said she would read it. Well every Monday we would see her at the Library and she would ask us a lot of questions and talk about the things she had been reading. The more and more we talked she kept saying how every time she saw us or talked to us good things would happen. We would see her all the time while riding our bikes or driving and we would keep running into her. Well near the end of that transfer she was going to move up to Maine and I just told her that there was no coincidence that we kept running into her and that good things were happening every time she saw us. She sent a postcard about a month later and told us how she ran into missionaries in Maine too. Well now about 8 months later Elder Tenny gets and email from her and she said that she is going to get baptized!  How crazy is that! I was so excited to hear that!  I had a feeling that she would get baptized, it's just crazy how planting seeds like that can have such a huge impact on someone’s life.

Well the rest of the week continued to go great we were just teaching like crazy and finding like crazy. On Friday we went to go see this old media referral but she wasn't there and so we decided to knock a few doors along the way. Well the first door we knocked on this lady named C. answered the door and we talked for a little bit and then we asked if we could go in and share a brief message. She let us in and she told us how she is looking for a church to join and that she has been praying for God to lead her. Well we taught the restoration and set a baptismal date with her for the 19th. She came to church and loved it!  We have another appointment with her on Thursday. Later that night we went to go see one of our investigators named R. but she wasn't home and instead we talked to her husband. He was a really nice guy, but he said he was Muslim so we just bore testimony about Jesus Christ and then left.  Well as we were about to get into the car he came running around the corner and asked when we were gong to come back. So we set an appointment for Saturday. Saturday night we went over and taught the restoration, the spirit was really strong and we set a date for the 26th of February. He unfortunately didn't show up to church but he called us right after and apologized and said he couldn't get a ride and asked if we could get one for him next week and asked if we could come back. How amazing is that!

On Sunday at church we had 2 people show up to church for the second week in a row and I was able to set a return appointment with them for Thursday which is wonderful! But yeah that was the jist of the week. S. is just the best and I am loving it!  I hope everything continues to go well back at home, thank you for everything that you all do, I love you and have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Blessings just keep pouring on us....

Dear Family,  Well it's good to here that everything is going well back home. It finally stormed huh? Well my prediction is that it will snow all the way through June; it seems like if it starts late it will end late. I can't believe D is already getting married, that is insane! I think that is quicker than Jake and Hillary haha  How long were they even dating, couldn't have been that long. I bet J is freaking out over there in Paraguay. Anyway this week was a crazy week and I have a lot to talk about. I think, so I'll get started.

I guess first off, something that just came to my mind, in case you all are wondering why I haven't written a blog post in a while...it's because we are super busy and I have only done facebook once since I have been here, so I apologize if I have disappointed anyone with that. Well anyway this week has been super amazing, we taught so many lessons this week, it was incredible, definitely the most I've ever had, I don't even know how it happened. We were able to teach 37 lessons this week, the Lord is just blessing us so much and I don't know why haha but I love it and I am continually grateful. 

This whole week has just been leading up to the baptism of J and it almost didn't happen. Satan tried really hard to stop it from happening and it almost got postponed but luckily J stayed strong and the spirit won the battle for us. It all started off with J's boyfriend, who is in jail, he wanted to be able to listen to the baptism and confirmation over the phone but when we told him that they wouldn't be on the same day he flipped a switch. He didn't want to have the phone in the chapel because that would be disrespectful, so we compromised and told him he could hear it over the intercom from the relief society room. Well that wasn't going to work either because they were running out of minutes on their paid for phone program that they were using and wouldn't be able to listen to both the baptism and confirmation. So we ended up putting a little money into their account so that he could hear. Well in the end it all worked out and T got to hear everything from the phone. It was kind of weird carrying the phone around and just being able to hear his voice, it felt like he was the phone and we were carrying him around haha Then on Sunday we stuck him up in the ceiling in the relief society room so that he could hear the confirmation haha I don't think I will ever have an experience like that again, I think it's one of a kind. I had the opportunity to perform the  baptism which was really cool, it's been almost a year since I've gotten in my whites so it felt really good.

Earlier in the week we had a lesson with T and we took a less-active member with us to the dinner. His name is Brother D and he is just a wonderful man, just has a few struggles, but he's awesome.  But even though all of that happened Brother D really liked her haha 

We also had a hilarious experience with this big old black lady this week. She was sitting on her porch and we decided to go talk to her. She was a pretty big woman and she had the most horrendous make up on. She really looked like the joker off of batman and she had blond hair. We started talking to her and she just loves Jesus, so we started talking to her about baptism. Her son came out, and if you can picture this, She has this walker and she starts rocking back and forth and starts yelling "if you want to see God again you must be BAPTIZED!!!" and she just starts saying "holy holy holy" I wish I could write it out like the way it sounded, but it was just hilarious and we through in a couple of amens and hallelujah, it was great! Well the son was actually pretty interested, in fact Elder A had actually talked to him before so we are hoping to see some good come from him.

Yesterday we went to a member's house, the C. They live out on the Islands here in S and they have a smoker. Well brother C smoked a turkey and some sausage, and let me tell you, it was amazing! I probably ate 4 pounds worth of food. I was tasting smoked turkey for the rest of the night haha I didn't feel very good last night, in fact I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and almost threw up, but it sure did taste good and I have no regrets haha That was really all the highlights of this past week, the rest of it were just a lot of talking and teaching and not a whole lot of progressing investigators at this point. We had some solid people, but none of them showed up to church, so a few of our dates fell through, but that's alright because S is just amazing. Today we went down and toured a little bit of downtown, it was really cool, the buildings here are amazing! Well that's about all I've got and I better get going, but I love you all and hope you have a great week!  Love,  Elder Bushman

Another amazing week!

Dear Family, Well I guess since you all want more detail in the letters, I will not talk so much about what you all did but just go strait into the good stuff. Although I would like to wish Libby a Happy Birthday, I hope you had a great birthday and thank you for making my brother so happy, Happy Birthday!

Well this week has been really good, we were able to start off the week and go on a trade-off with Hinesville, Georgia and it was great because we were able to help them set 3 dates while we were there. Hinesville has the biggest army base on it east of the Mississippi. It was a lot of fun and I got to go on the trade off with an Elder G who I found out is from Utah. In fact he knew a lot of the people I knew and hung out with a lot of people from Viewmont.   He went to Bountiful High School, so we got to talk a little bit about all the kids that have gone on missions and kids that are going and just how merciful the Lord really is. We had a really good time!

On Wednesday we came back and had a lesson with our investigator J.W. It was really good we were able to teach her the Doctrine of Christ and she really liked it and thought it was a lot better than anything she had ever been taught and that it was much simpler. Something kind of cool that we learned about her is that she used to be a J dub for 7 years but didn't like the things it taught. But anyways she is getting baptized this Saturday and she is super excited. We were supposed to have a lesson her on Friday but she had a migraine. We talked to her on the phone and she told us, "I don't care if I have a migraine or a broken bone or if I am sick, I am getting baptized!" ha ha it was so amazing! She was a referral from her boyfriend that is a member who is in jail, and we have actually talked to him on the phone, but when he found out that she was getting baptized on Saturday and getting confirmed on Sunday, he was really upset because he wanted to be able to listen to the confirmation over the phone and he was wanting to postpone the whole thing just so he could listen to it! Can you believe that, the nerve! haha It's like it is his baptism or something, but we want to keep them happy so we have figured out a way for it all to work so that she can still be confirmed on Sunday in sacrament meeting and for him to hear it. We will just have him listen to it from the Relief Society room.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was amazing! I love President B, he is such an amazing man and he just has so much power. We set our goal for this upcoming year for how many baptisms as a mission we want to have and the goal is 1000 with 100 percent retention! At first I was taken back thinking that, that would be impossible but then the spirit just bore witness to me that there were 1000 souls that the Lord was preparing for this year and as we do everything in our power to reach it and trust in the Lord, it is possible. Then President B just bore powerful testimony about it and said if we are not one, ye are not mine. Oh wow it was just amazing, this truly is a special time in the history of the world, it's the dispensation of the fullness of times, the last time the gospel will be on the Earth before the second coming, and we are in a Mormon Moment where the church is more out there than it ever has been before! I am so grateful to be a missionary at this time to bring souls to Christ!

That night we were able to go on a Trade-off with President B and we went and taught D. and S. and we had President teach the first vision and re-invite them to be baptized. It was such a powerful lesson and I just couldn't believe how powerful the spirit was, but they still wouldn't accept because D. has this vision of uniting all the Christian churches and he feels like if he is apart of a certain denomination that it will make it so people wont want to listen to him. He is prideful and doesn't realize that this process has already begun, but we are still working with him and I am going to give him the talk you gave me about strengths becoming our downfall.

On Friday we had a trade off with the assistants and I was able to go with Elder R. We had a dinner at a sister's house and she had a friend that is living with her that’s not a member and we taught her the restoration and set a date with her for the 29th! It was such a sweet miracle and she was able to come to church on Sunday, so it was really good. We are just being blessed and I am loving every minute of it, the only bad thing is that the end of the transfer is coming up quick and I just wish it would slow down a bit, but what can you do. Well unfortunately I have run out of time again. Dad if you could start writing me again I could make these longer, but I have people waiting on me right now so I better get going. I love you all and have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

So many blessings flowing.....

Dear Family,  Well I have 30 minutes from right now so I'll do my best to put in as many details as I can haha It  sounds like this last week was quite the interesting week back home and that's good it finally snowed I guess. Like you said mom I haven't really thought about it, ever since I have been here in S I've had no time or reason to think about it. Elder A and I are just working super hard and I'm sad because it's already 3 weeks into the transfer, and it will be likely that Elder A will be transferred at the end of this one because that will have been 6 months here, but I hope he stays. We are so unified as a companionship, it is so great! We are even going on a slim fast diet this week because we have been eating kind of crappy throughout this holiday season. I've gained about 4 pounds since I have been here and the weird thing is, is that I exercise more here than I have anywhere else I've been! We go running almost every morning and do the abb ripper about every morning so I just don't get it haha

Well I guess I'll just start from the beginning of the week and work onward. First of all, no we haven't been able to talk to that family that was getting baptized yet, they seem to be avoiding us or they have just dropped off the face of the earth, one of the two. But On Monday we had a lesson with and unbaptized child and set a date for the 21st of January so it was kind of just a tender mercy of the Lord, which he seems to be poring out on us quite regularly so far. On Tuesday we went on a trade off to Hilton Head South Carolina, I was with Elder M the whole time and he is a Spanish missionary, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time, but we did find a lot of new investigators and I think set a couple of dates, so it was great! Then on Wednesday we went up to Beaufort South Carolina and we power traded in their area as well and we had a great time there too. I was with Elder B and in fact at one point we got chased by some dogs on our bikes and I think I was going about 40 mile per our on my bike and I booked it across this field, my adrenaline was pumping pretty good. Also one of the Elders in Beaufort, Elder H, played football for Bingham and I played against him all throughout little league and in high school, so kind of a small world. He remembers the day that I broke my leg haha

So Elder A and I were out of our area for 2 days but came back and ended up having a great week. On Friday we had the baptism of Brother S.C.! It was such a sweet experience. Elder A has been teaching him since September but because he has had a lot of health problems he hasn't been able to come to church a lot. But we finally got him out to church 3 times and through the Lord's grace and mercy he was able to be baptized this last Friday and confirmed on Sunday! He really is such a sweet humble man and just has so much faith.

Also Elder A and I have just hit the streets really hard the last couple of days and have found some really elect people. Two days ago we found this lady named M. who has been searching for a church for a long time but has never been able to find one that she likes. Then that night we found another guy named L. who said that he had just made a change in his life for the better, he was a really happy guy and really excited to hear about the Book of Mormon. Then last night we were knocking for about 2 and a half hours and we found this way sweet lady named Sister G. It was the second time missionaries had found her and this time we were just led by the spirit to ask the right questions and she was in tears because the spirit was so strong and she promised to come out to church and bring her sister with her this Week! The Lord is just so rich in mercy and ever willing to answer the consistent prayer of the humble.

We are also teaching this lady named T, and she has gone from about 0 faith to, in her words, 95 percent faith. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and chatting with online missionaries, she is incredible! She wants to get baptized but she knows she has to stop smoking first, so she is working on that. Her dad died a couple of days ago though and she told us that if it weren't for the gospel being brought into her life that she wouldn't be able to push through this. Her story is just incredible but unfortunately I won't go into much detail.

Also one of our investigators has disappeared on us. An older lady named P.K. who we have been teaching we seem to have lost contact with. Last time we talked to her was last Monday and then we have gone by her house and called her and she is nowhere to be found. There are lights on in her house still too, and we are really hoping that nothing has happened to her because every time we go by we get this really eerie feeling, so keep her in your prayers please.

Well I don't really have much else to say besides that I am loving the work!  My testimony is getting stronger and stronger each day and I love teaching the gospel. I'm glad things are going well back home, it's crazy to think that a month from today I will have been out a year but it's been a really good year and I look forward to this next one as well! I love you all and thank you for all your prayers, have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Happy New Year everyone!

Dear Family,

Well sorry you didn't hear from me last week but I figured since I had just talked to you on the phone that it would be a little pointless, but I guess there were still a lot of people who would have liked a letter and to them I apologize. I have never been so busy in my life and I am loving every minute of it. I kind of got a little depressed just a minute ago reading dad's letter about making preparations to come home as the realization hit me that I nearly only have a year left on my mission. I never realized how much I loved it and how much happiness and satisfaction it brings me until I realized that I don't get to do this forever. Well I kind of do because I will always be a missionary but just not a full time missionary. And Dad I believe that I still do have a desire to play baseball, I guess I just haven't thought about it that much but yes I would. But I will make sure that it is the Lord's will not mine and that it will be in the best interests to his work and my spiritual progression and learning in this life.

                        

Well I am absolutely loving S! I am so grateful to be with Elder A again, he and I just go out and run the screets talking to people and thrashing the nations, its so much fun! Black people don't pronounce their T's that's why I called it screets haha Black people are definitely the majority here and it's a blast talking to them. We were looking for a person yesterday and across the street there was a church in session and we could hear the preacher just yelling and going to town, it was so funny, it's just like the movies. The only unfortunate thing is that our baptisms didn't go through. We called them an hour before and they said they were good to go and that they were on their way to the church, they just had to stop at the store first. Well we went to the church, got in our whites and waited and waited and waited and they never showed up. In fact they never even called us back and we couldn't get a hold of them, so we are hoping nothing happened to them.

The rest of the week went really well, on Wednesday we drove all the way down to J for a zone leader council. It was a great experience, I just love being with President and Sister B and the other leaders of the mission. We had a really powerful meeting and talked about the upcoming year and what we are going to do to change and improve. We didn't get back to S till about 7 pm so we were out of our area most of the day. Then on Thursday we went to V which is another hour long drive and we went to their district meeting. Afterwards Elder A and I just stayed in their area and blew it up. The week before V didn't find any new investigators but on that day between the both of us we found two new investigators for them and set 3 baptismal dates, it was a great day! Since our zone is so big we just stay in missionaries areas and split with the both of them. This upcoming week we are going to be out of our area for 2 days strait because we will be going on two trade offs in S C.

On Friday we came back home and had a miracle day, it seems like the Lord is just blessing us for helping out the other missionaries. We were able to have 5 lessons with members present and in two of those lessons we set dates with out investigators. One is being baptized this upcoming week on Saturday, His name is S.C. He is an older gentlemen that has a lot of health issues but has a sincere desire to be baptized. The other one was with a woman named J she is progressing oh so very well and has read much of the Book of Mormon, a lot of Gospel Principles, and even teachings of the Prophet George Albert Smith! We are also teaching this older lady named P. who talks more than anybody on earth. She had a stroke recently and is just all over the place and she wants to get baptized as well and will be getting baptized probably on the 15th.

So like I said the Lord is just blessing us with and abundance of people to teach and we really are so grateful and we are working harder than I have ever worked before. I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time to go into a lot of detail because there is quite a bit more to talk about haha I'll leave you all hanging.  But anyway I also gave a talk in church on Sunday about new beginnings and I actually really enjoyed giving the talk. I was the closing speaker so I had to take up the remainder of the time, which was whatever was left. There were two college girls that spoke before me, one I actually went to Junior high with which was kind of weird. They each gave about 5 minute talks and I was left with about 25 minutes. I ended up giving a twenty minute talk which worked out just right and I had a lot of people that seemed to enjoy it so it was good. But that's all that really happened this week, we have another busy week before us and everything is going by way too fast. I thank you for all of your prayers and for everything that everyone has done for me. I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

And a few more pictures.....

 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!

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!  

He's sure excited about that candy cane!

Florida Jacksonville Mission - Dec. 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

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 before. So our whole fence blew down huh? So what kind of fence are you going to get now? I hope the house doesn't blow down but then again I bet mom would be happy with that haha Dad wants a new fence and Mom wants a new house, maybe God will be able to provide for both. Well anyway mom asked a lot of questions so I guess I better get to answering those and sorry if I miss any. 

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 and he really liked it, he thought it was really powerful. They promised to come to church, but didn't show up and they sent us a hilarious text in the morning, I'll tell you what it said and this is from Sister K by the way, it said: "We slept instead, we stayed at home, only have 2 days together, just married, in love with each other, have a nice day." hahaha Sorry if that was a little to much for you all but I just had to share it because it was absolutely hilarious!

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, I haven't heard anything in a while.  But anyway I hope you all have a wonderful week, and remember the true spirit of Christmas that we received last night from the Devotional.  Love, Elder Bushman 

Giving Thanks......

Bald is a beautiful????

Dear Family,  Well it is good to hear that all is going well and you are staying busy. That is pretty crazy that you all are all ready starting to go skiing, I remember last year at this time when I came back from Iowa over Thanksgiving break and Hunter, Dad, Steven, and I went up skiing and it was 15 below, man was that cold and boy was that fun!  Dad, I had no Idea that you had bought some twin tipped skis, that's insane and yeah I'm glad I wasn't there to witness the fall, not because I would have been embarrassed, but because I would have felt bad because I would have been laughing too hard haha It's good to hear that you all had a good Thanksgiving, it's so weird to me that it has already been a year since last Thanksgiving. 

Well we had a really good week and it started off really well with getting a new investigator named S. He was a media referral from church headquarters and he wanted to learn more about the church. When I called him last week I asked him if he had anything in particular that he wanted to learn about and he just said "start from the beginning." Well that was easy enough haha I guess his mother was LDS and she just recently passed away and so he wants to know what she believed and he also wants to make a change in his life and also his sons. When we went over he was just super sincere and humble and he just talked for the longest time telling us his story. Well we decided to teach him the importance of the Book of Mormon and by the end he was really excited to read it and was ready to set up a return appointment as well. So we went back to see him on Friday and taught part of the Plan of Salvation, he is really talkative so it's hard to get anywhere, but it went really well and it all mad sense to him and he told us he would come to church not this past Sunday but this upcoming one.

Also this week I had a pretty embarrassing experience as well. So I think it was Tuesday night I decided that my hair was getting too long and I wanted to cut it short, really short.  Well I get to cutting it with my trimmers and I start off with a 3 on the top which I thought was just perfect. Then I did a 2 on the sides and after I got done I looked at it and thought well it could probably go just a little shorter and how much shorter could a 1 be then a two. I look at the one clip and think to myself, well that looks kind of short but I’m going to go for it anyway. So I start with the sideburns and just chopped them off what seemed like completely, there was nothing but white underneath! I freaked out! I had just totally buzzed the side of my head and there was no going back now, so I had to finish it, so my hair is extremely short now haha I actually kind of like it though, I was sick of the long hair, you all will see a picture it's not too bad.

Anyway so we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It started off with football in the morning, we went and played in a turkey bowl in the morning with the wards and boy was that fun! I love football, the only problem is that I didn't have any cleats so I was slipping and sliding all over the place but I was still able to move pretty quick. We played for about 2 and a half hours and by the end I don't think I have ever been so sore in my life, we ran so much, in fact I’m still sore from the experience. After that we went back and got cleaned up and then went to dinner over at the M's, a member. It was amazing food and I ate way too much, which wasn't very good because we had a second meal lined up as well. So right after the M's we went to the B's and had dinner over there as well. The dinner over there was nice because his Granddaughter was there and she is a non-member and we actually got to teach her a little bit because she was asking a lot of questions, we even gave her a Book of Mormon. It was kind of scary though because Brother B has just recently been reactivated and so he was throwing a lot of non-important doctrine at her which we had to try and clean up haha So I'm telling you all now, first of all don't go less-active in the first place, and second of all when you share the gospel only share the things that are simple and that pertain to our salvation because that's all they need to know. In other words, read Preach my Gospel.  Later in the evening we went over to the D's and had more dessert.  We had sweet potato pie, which I never have had before, and it was amazing! Ten times better than pumpkin, in my opinion anyway. 

Oh so another funny experience, we had Sister K call us this week, she is the one that is getting married to our investigator K, the panties on the head guy. Anyway well she called us and asked me if I could marry them haha well I told her that I couldn't but the Stake President could and so we have been trying to get that all set up, in fact K even came to church this week which was really cool and they both love Elder F and I, so we are hoping we can get her reactivated and him baptized. In case you are wondering we don't have a bishop at the moment that's why I said the stake president.

On Sunday we had the baptism and it went really well. I was able to give a talk on baptism which was wonderful, I don't really mind giving talks anymore. Then we got to witness the baptism and Brother D did such a wonderful job at baptizing his wife, it was a beautiful scene. I love baptisms, they are so powerful and so spiritual hopefully we will have another one coming up soon. 

Well I don't know if there is really anything else that I can think of, but I did think of one for thing for Christmas. The Mormon messages DVD, you can probably get it online or at Deseret Book or something. But anyway I love you all and thank you for your prayers and all that you have done for me and that you still do. Have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Dear Family,  Well first off I would just like to say HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! I hope this weekend will be one of thanks and gratitude as we remember the wonderful things that God has done for us in giving us our families, this world and nation to live in, our friends, our homes, our jobs, the gospel, the scriptures, and most Importantly our Savior Jesus Christ. There are so many wonderful things to be grateful for even in these trying times because we truly are blessed in every aspect. I know I am so grateful for all that the Lord has provided for me, I can't ask for a better family, I have wonderful friends, and I'm serving the Lord, can it get any better than that?! It all reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon, It is part of King Benjamin's address and I can't think of a better scripture that makes me feel grateful. 

18 Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?

19 And behold also, if I, whom ye call your king, who has spent his days in your service, and yet has been in the service of God, do merit any thanks from you, O how you ought to  thank your heavenly King!

 20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the thanks and  praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

 21 I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

 22 And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and he has promised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth vary from that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

 23 And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him.

 24 And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast. Mosiah 2:18-24

I love this scripture so much, because it not only says how we need to be grateful, but we also need to be humbles because with out being humble and realizing that the Lord has already given us everything, we cannot be grateful. So anyway I'll talk about my week now. Well I think first off I'll address Dad's letter pertaining to the sister missionaries. I'd like to say that no I do not have the same point of view on sister missionaries as Austin and Jake, in fact I very much enjoy having them in my district. They are very hard workers and have a lot of success and they can sing which is very nice because none of the Elders can. So far I haven't ever had any drama with Sisters except for in a zone meeting a long time ago. One of the Sisters in my district was actually in my district in the MTC as well so it's nice kind of already having the loyalty of her and they are doing a fabulous job in Middleburg. 

Mom, it is true that we are in a "Mormon Moment." We had a leadership training meeting this past week and that was something we talked a lot about. It's incredible the kind of publicity the church is getting at this time, there has been no better time for missionary work in the United States as at this time now. With the two members of the church running for the Republican candidacy and also the Book of Mormon Broadway musical, which is the number one play on Broadway at this time, more people are wanting to know about the church than ever! Right now the Church is making a big push for their media campaign, Mormon.org. There are more and more commercials that are being made and by the end of the month there should be over 100 video profiles on mormon.org.  It is such a wonderful tool, absolutely incredible! So if anybody that receives this letter doesn't have a profile yet on mormon.org well I would strongly encourage you to make one. 80% of people that go to mormon.org and chat with online missionaries are baptized!  It truly is inspired and one of the best missionary resources that we have.

Ok so we had a wonderful week, we were able to teach a lot of lessons, especially with our baptismal date, J. She is so solid and such a wonderful person. We watched prophet of the Restoration on Wednesday with her and afterwards she was like "you could have told me that I was going to cry" haha the spirit was so strong and we were able to answer a lot of her questions that she had that night and she just soaked it all up. We also have this man R.who I think I told you about, well we never got to see him this week, but I added him on Facebook and I guess he has been looking at my blog and he told me he has a lot of questions. How exciting is that?! We have an appointment tonight with him and I'm thinking that he is going to be really solid and his family as well.

We also had a couple of lessons with this guy named K.this week. He was a referral from a member and he is actually dating a less-active member. Well we set up a time last week to go see them on Friday and when we went to the less-actives house, she wasn't home yet, but he was there so we went and knocked on the door. Well he came to the door with no shirt on and what looked like a shower cap on his head. Well we soon found out that it was a pair of this less-active ladies panties on his head and he thought that we were her. Talk about awkward hilarious situations....yeah that was one of them! hahaha Well he was a little tipsy, but by the end he said he wanted to come to church with her. Well they didn't show up at church and we went and saw them last night, luckily there were no panties on his head and he was more sober haha We watched the restoration with him and it was really powerful, the spirit was working with him and we gave him a lot to think about. We committed him and the less-active to read together but we'll see how well that goes.

I also went on a trade-off this week with Elder G, one of our zone-leaders, we had a great time and worked really well together, it was a blast! It's kind of ironic because Elder C is one of the other zone leaders and he was actually my first district leader in B, so it's fun working with him again. Oh and Elder B is in my zone again haha I love Elder B, he is the best, I really hope I get to serve with him sometime. This week is going to be crazy though because of everything going on. My district alone has 4 baptisms coming up this weekend, so I get to do 3 interviews tomorrow which is exciting. So there is a lot of work to be done and a lot to be accomplished, and that's what I love about the Gospel is that it continues to roll onward. 

Well I don't think I really have much else to talk about, so thank you for all that you all do, I love you, I'm grateful for you and I hope you all remember what the Lord has done for you this week. Have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

p.s. Mom thank you for the sweatshirt and I think that should be good enough for the cold times lying ahead, I have gloves. 

Leadership training....

Notice how Elder Bushman always manages to find and sit by Elder Bass.....

Here in the OP.....

Dear Family,  Well I guess I'll start by answering all the questions since supposedly I still have a few to answer. By the way dad I never got your letter until the Monday after I had done email so I wasn't able to answer but don't worry I will do so now.  President B came out with us just because he has been trying to go on trade offs with all of the missionaries or just the leadership, one of the two. So no I wasn't in trouble or disobedient, it was just because President B is the best and he wants to get to know his missionaries better. Yes I am still a District Leader, I am now over the OP district which has 4 sets of missionaries: Us, Middleburg, and then 3 sets of Missionaries in OP.  Two sets are sisters and one set is Elders and also I have the zone leaders in my district. I can't seem to get rid of the zone leaders haha No I don't have any bed bugs which is oh so very nice, I'm so glad that we don't have anymore. 

My new area is very small, we can cover it pretty easily, that's why we are on bike some of the time, we are in a car share with the other Elders that live with us. My ward is called the FI 2nd ward and it is like half the size of my last ward so it was very weird on Sunday going from so big to so small. The area is much the same as my last one, it's pretty rich but we also have part of the area that isn't so rich, which is so nice, we have been getting a lot of work done in there and finding a lot of people this week. 

Well Wednesday was my first day in the area and it went really well, I came in and we already have a baptismal date for the 27th, so I am so excited! Her name is J and she is a part member, I didn't get to meet her till Sunday but she is super solid. I also told you about the miracle we had with J and L, they were the two ladies that we started talking to in their garage, wow that was an incredible experience! We have just been seeing miracles ever since I got here. We really don't have a lot of investigators so we've been doing a lot of finding and boy has the Lord been blessing us. As of right now we have 4 appointments for this upcoming week for people that we have found and we probably gave out 8 Books of Mormon this week! Oh I love it! It's so much fun when you are seeing so much success and I know it’s all the Lord just blessing us, so I hope He continues to do so in this upcoming week. 

What's really cool as well is that I got a referral from Brother F. in my last ward to send to the Elders in FI a week ago, so when I got here on Wednesday I was looking at a paper that said "Call brother F." I just thought wow that is amazing! It's pretty much like I sent the referral to myself haha.  So I called Brother F. and he is going to set something up with his friend so that we can meet him at church this Sunday and from what Brother F. has told me about him, is that he gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he felt something as he read it, how cool is that?! Along with that there are a few part members in the ward that are so close to being taught and getting baptized its insane, I am just so excited to be here!  However I know I can't get complacent because as soon as I do things will start to go down hill, so I need to keep working hard and being obedient. 

Ok one more cool story. So this week we went to a members home and were talking to him and he told us about his friend who he had invited to come to church several times but kept making excuses, so I asked him if we could go knock on his door. He said we could and he pointed us in the right direction. Ironically as soon as we started to walk over he pulled up and so did a less-active sister right behind them. I guess he had been helping her out with some stuff at her house. Anyway we started talking to them and they both want to come to church with each other this Sunday and we have an appointment with them on Friday!  Hopefully this will re-activate her and we will be able to baptize him, its a double bonus. 

Oh also it's starting to get cold here believe it or not. On Thursday night Elder F. and I were riding our bikes and it was like 50 degrees which normally would be heaven for me but for some odd reason it was super cold!  My hands were frozen and we couldn't get into anybody's home, so we started belting out hymns while we road and we started to get warmer haha it was so much fun! But anyway that's about all I've got and sorry it was all over the place, but that's how my memory is. Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Here we go again.....

Dear Family,  Well....I'm getting transferred. After 4 and a half months of being in J.C. I'm going somewhere new, and to be honest, I'm quite sad about it. However, now it’s on to a new area with new people and a new companion to start over. So far as I know I am staying a District Leader, I haven't gotten a call from President yet to release me or anything, dang it, haha just kidding but that's as much as I know at this time. Thank you for the pictures you sent me, I can't believe how much bigger Lane and Heber are its crazy, and Heber is walking?? What? Last time I saw him he couldn't even crawl, that is so weird!  That's so amazing that Jeff and Jenny had another girl! I wrote them a letter this week and I haven't sent it off yet, so if you see them tell them I apologize and that I will get it to them soon.

 Alright now I'll tell you about my week even though it wasn't very eventful and right now my mind is just contemplating on the last few months here. As I've thought about these last months I keep thinking to myself that I could have done something more that some how I didn't do enough, but then I just get this peaceful feeling that I did do a lot of good. If anything else I've grown so much since I have been here, I've grown to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I've learned how to handle hardship. How I've learned to handle hardship is by understanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ and applying it in my life. I know I'm not perfect, that's why it takes faith, repentance, renewing baptismal covenants, having the Holy Ghost as my guide, and enduring to the end. Without that process right there life would be miserable, it would have no direction and it would be depressing. The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it all possible, this process only works because of him, the plan of salvation only works because of him, EVERYTHING only works because of him, without him we are nothing. Just those thoughts make me feel so good in knowing that I can't do it all on my own, in fact it's impossible to do it all on my own, I need him and I need his spirit. And I love being able to change, the Atonement makes that possible for that to happen, because trust me I've had to make a lot of changes while I've been here and I still have a lot to go, but I know that I can do it. If anything I am just grateful that the Lord put me in this area to grow, I needed it, and I know that I left it better then when I got here, so I am well pleased with that.

But anyway on Monday we didn't really do much, we weren't able to tract so we went to Sister B’s house and sat out in her driveway with her as she passed out candy, The funny thing is, is that we gave her pass-a-long cards so that when the kids came by she would give them a handful of candy and a couple of pass-along-cards as well hahaha Sister B is Amazing!  After that we went and saw another member for a little bit and then went home, so it was a pretty uneventful night.  On Tuesday we had, well I don’t know really, I can't think strait oh wait, nope I remember we had zone meeting and it went really well!  Elder R and Elder T gave some really good training.  After that I can't really remember much else.

On Wednesday we did some service for Brother and Sister C. It took so long though, we put up some shelves for their food storage and cleaned a lot of the mess that they had. It's amazing how much food they have, they probably have enough food to literally last them 4 years; it’s incredible!  So you can imagine the kind of work that this project entailed.  So that actually occupied the bulk of our day and then we were supposed to have a few appointments which I think fell through, but I think a few of them did work out if I remember correctly. haha Thursday was wonderful though!  We took C. B., who is a priest in the ward, out with us and we were able to see a lot of people and most importantly this guy named W.  He is so amazing; he is really spiritual and really humble. He has had some things happen in his life that have truly humbled him and he said that he wanted to come to church with us because so far he hadn't been able to find a church that was right for him. He wasn't able to come to church this Sunday but he said he wanted to come to our Wednesday night class and that he would come this upcoming week, however I won’t be here. 

On Friday Elder R got called to be an assistant to the President, which is so crazy. Elder R is probably one of my favorite missionaries and it has been such a wonderful blessing to be serving around him for the last 4 and a half months. So the current Assistants came and picked him up on Saturday and so from then on we have had Elder T with us. Sunday was a wonderful day to behold.  We didn't have anyone come to church but we did get to witness a baptism that the St. Johns Elders had. It was one of the most powerful baptisms I have ever witnessed; actually it is probably the most powerful baptism I have ever witnessed.  Her husband had been less active for a long time and I guess one day she had prayed for an understanding of which church they needed to be apart of when Elder R and Elder D knocked at her door. They were on a trade off.  Ever since then they have been teaching her and she had no belief in Jesus Christ or any understanding of why He is important, but now she does and she was able to be baptized by her husband.  It was absolutely beautiful, and the spirit was absolutely amazing!

So that was my week in a nutshell, not much else to say. Oh but do tell Nick congratulations for me, that is so amazing that he is basically going to the same mission as Jake!  Oh and I remember what else, I guess I can tell you what I would like for Christmas. Well I would like a CD by the Nashville Tribute Band called "Work" it’s a tribute to the missionaries. And if you could send me out one of my sweatshirts, preferably not a nice one, but I will probably need it soon when it gets a little colder. Other than that I can't think of much else, I'll tell you if I do. Well you all have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

P.S. Don't write to me this week because I'll be in a new area, just send emails. I'll let you know my address next week

Elders G and B hard at work - carving those pumpkins!

Happy Halloween.....

Dear Family and Friends,  Hello there! Well today was a great week and I'm excited to talk all about it. So that is great that it was the deer hunt this week and that you all actually got something, I didn't think that was possible haha Thanks for the stories and the experiences dad, it was hilarious as I pictured Hunter getting all mad and then both Jake and Hunter just going to town on that deer hahaha Oh man, I wish I could have seen it, I don't think I could have even shot because I think I would have been laughing too hard! Good thing I'm not there either, I'm glad I don't have to eat any of it. Now Hunter has to eat the ducks and the deer haha And Mom I hope you had a wonderful Birthday, it sounds like it was a good one with all the family there. So I think this happens to all of us as soon as we go on missions, the family all of a sudden starts doing fun things together haha  But anyway I'll tell you all how my week went.

Well it actually started off really slow, but Elder G and I worked out tails off, that's why I think our week felt so good, it wasn't necessarily the best week in productivity but it felt really good. On Monday I got to throw a baseball for the first time in 8 months, it was amazing! It doesn't feel like I've missed a beat, I could still throw it, I felt like, as hard as I could before I left, the only difference now is that my arm was sore the next day. We also had a home run derby with tennis balls on the field. The fence was only 200 ft so it was really fun. C E (a kid from the ward) and I were having a challenge and he almost beat me but then he tried to throw one fast on me and I cranked that thing out of the park, it was great! Then that night we went and carved pumpkins at a member’s house and I have some sweet pictures I will forward to you all. 

On Tuesday we went out and worked hard and talked to a lot of people, we didn't ever teach a lesson but we got quite a few potential investigators to see. One of them being a man named J. We were walking down the street and he was just getting out of his car so we went over and started talking to him and he didn't belong to any certain religion and he said he had a lot of questions. Well we asked him what his questions were and we were able to answer a few of them with the message of the restoration. We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon and setting up a return appointment for this Friday, so we are really excited to go see him. Oh by the way we are at Brother and Sister C's right now and Brother C told me to tell you hi.

Anyway so on Wednesday we had district meeting and I was able to train on being more effective teachers through, listening, asking inspired questions, and teaching simply - which is what I need to do better at, so it was a good topic for me. Then I went on a trade off with Elder C and it went pretty well, but again we weren't able to see to many people and didn't have a ton of success but I did get to interview on of the St. Johns Elder's baptismal candidates and that was really good. I love interviewing people and see the light in their eyes and the testimonies that they have gained as they have studied the Gospel and prayed, it’s such a miraculous thing. 

I can't remember much of Thursday for some reason at the moment so I'll just go to Friday. Well on Friday we had a lesson without investigator named L. He's an old guy that really likes to talk and in this lesson he basically confessed to us all of his sins and they were pretty bad haha…. I looked at Elder G as he was telling us all of this stuff and the look on his face was priceless.  I started busting up laughing inside myself; I think Elder G's innocence was shattered that day. After that crazy lesson we had we went and saw some potential investigators and were able to teach on of them.  Her name is K, she is a 16 year old girl that is agnostic and she had a lot of questions. Her dad is the first one that we contacted but his daughter seems to be the one that is more interested. We answered her questions for about an hour and basically taught the Plan of Salvation to her. She really liked it and even asked Elder G for the little diagram that he drew of the plan of salvation.  She then asked us if we were going to come back and we said of course and so we set up a return appointment for this upcoming Friday. 

Then on Saturday we had the Fall Festival for the ward and it was so much fun! They had a chili cook off and hayrides, trunk or treat, turkey shoot, and other fun games. The turkey shoot was hilarious; a bunch of the priests dressed up as turkeys and ran around as the younger kids shot paint ball guns at them. We were also able to talk to a ton of people in the ward so that was really good. I absolutely love this ward, if anything I've gained from being here is a love for the people here. They are so wonderful and do so much.  I actually kind of want to stay; but I guess we will see.

On Sunday we had the wonderful Primary Program. I couldn't believe how strong the spirit was as those little primary children got up and bore their testimonies and sang the songs, it was amazing! There were a lot of non-members there as well; however none of them were our investigators.  That's something we are still struggling with. That was basically our week.  We taught one other guy named S on Sunday who became a new investigator. He's basically one of those guys that feels like he is as happy as he can get and that being happy will get him into heaven, but he said he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Well this could be my last week in JC, I'll find out on Saturday but if it is, it has been a wonderful 4 and a half months. I have learned so much and have been extremely humbled.  I've learned that the success we have as missionaries isn't so much in the numbers we have but the growth that we have within ourselves and how we have helped others come unto Christ. Obviously numbers is still important, I mean that is our ultimate purpose is to baptize, but we can only do so much and the rest we have to leave up to the Lord. I love this gospel, I am proud to be a member of this church and I know it is true. I hope you all have a wonderful week and God Bless.  Love,  Elder Bushman