Happy birthday Elder Bushman!

This and That

Dear Family, Well before I get started I just want to share a little miracle I just had as I was sitting here in the Library. As I was about to start typing I looked up and right across from me was two investigators that Elder  Z and I found over a year ago. Elder A and I later taught them and they were some of the most elect people I have ever met. They moved and we lost touch, they had baptismal dates and everything, but now they are here in this area! Wow this was just a miracle and a tender mercy of the Lord! We are going to go by and see them on Tuesday. 

Well anyway it's a blessing to hear that everything is going well, and it is strange to think that a lot of my friends will be coming home here pretty son or have already come home. But before I get into much detail about what happened this week I would like to ask for a little birthday gift and I know you already sent a package but I was wondering if you could send my red Nike running shoes. My shoes that I have right now are falling apart and are not comfortable running in. Since I have been here in this new area I have lost 10 pounds, I have been running 2 miles a day on the treadmill, I'm down to 188 right now. I haven't weighed that much since my junior year in High school haha it's kind of weird, but I would like those good running shoes if it's not too big of a hassle. 

We had a really good week this week! We have just been so busy with teaching appointments and district meetings and Trade-offs its just crazy.  I really enjoy having people to teach. I think first I want to talk about our 96 year old investigator. He is an incredible man, when we first went to his home and offered a blessing he told us afterwards that he wasn't interested in becoming a Mormon so we asked him if it would still be alright if we could at least come back and tell him more about the Book of Mormon and we left him the introduction to read. When we came back he said that he had read half of the testimonies and all of the introduction and that he felt like Joseph Smith's story was true. Well this week when we went back he had read the whole testimony and the first chapter of Nephi and he told us that he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I was blown away, so we talked about baptism and he said "Well I guess if I know it's true then I don't really have a choice do I?" Again I was blown away! I think it would make my life if this man got baptized, he is just such an amazing person. The only thing holding him back now is that his family picks him up every weekend and takes him and so he has no way of getting to church and it is the only family time that he has so he is reluctant to give it up, but I am continuing to pray for miracles. 

We have this other investigator who is also very incredible! We have taught him the restoration and the plan of salvation and he is solid for a Baptismal date on the 7th.  Then we are also teaching a very humble man who is scheduled to be baptized on the 7th but we didn't get a whole lot of chances to meet with him this week, but he did come to church and it was a great Sunday. There was a great talk on gratitude and the spirit was really strong. It just got me excited for General Conference coming up in two weeks, it's probably my favorite time of year. but those are the main people we are teaching right now.

I did get to go on a trade off in the Beach area this week. It is a like a whole other world over there on the other side of the inter-coastal. There is a lot of things that were really neat to see and a lot of things that I could have gone without seeing haha But anyway I was able to see the beach for the first time since I was here. Elder W and I ran to it in the morning and I got some really neat pictures. We weren't able to go onto the beach but it was still beautiful none the less. Well I am about to get logged off, but I will talk to you all later, have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Life is soooo good!

Dear Family,

Well this week has been a really good week. I'm glad to hear things have been going well for all of you and that Mom and Dad you got back from Georgia and South Carolina safely. It's funny to hear how you think it has been so hot, to me it feels like this summer has been much more tolerable then last, but maybe that is because I am just starting to get used to it. Or it could be that I have been in a car all summer, that always helps too. But yes working in a shirt and a tie with all this humidity is quite the experience, it is pretty warm haha

Ok so we had a great week! We have been busy with many teaching appointments and lots of things to do, so it has been fun. We had a great experience with Elder Cardon of the seventy this week. We went to Kingsland for a zone conference, but we had a zone leader council with him right before the other meeting and it was incredible! He is a very humble man and very loving as well, he sounds a lot like President Eyring when he speaks. As we were in the Zone leader council we discussed the needs of missionaries and the things we were struggling with and he was able to give us some amazing information on how to better work with ward and stake leaders. I think that has really been the hardest thing here in the South is trying to work with the Ward leaders. It is very difficult to build trust and then when you do, It’s more like, Ok now we trust you to do what you want. Which is fine but really we want to work with them and help the members find so that we can bring solid people into the church. So Elder Cardon gave us a lot of good ideas on how to solve that. Then we had an amazing Zone conference, the spirit was just so strong and I learned so much. I think that greatest thing that I learned is when Elder Cardon talked about being servants. He told us never to say "I'm sorry to Bother you" We should never say that, he said, "Who do you think I am?" "I am a servant and servants are never bothered to do the master's will" This little concept hit me really hard because that is what we are. We are here as instruments in the hands of the Lord to bring to pass his work, we should never be bothered when we are asked to do something.

We also had an amazing experience this week with a part member family that we have been working with.  The husband is a less-active member and she is the non-member. She has been working with missionaries for the last year and a half, but has never came to church. Well Elder Marquez and I made it our goal to keep this family together because they are one of the most amazing families in the world. We had dinner with them on Thursday evening and the dinner was great! We had biscuits and gravy, grits, and oatmeal. Then after that we had a powerful lesson, we read Mosiah chapter 4 with them. At the end we invited them to come to church as a family, they both looked at each other for a minute, it seemed like they were waiting for the other to say something. Finally the wife said that she was supposed to be doing something else - but that this was probably more important and then the husband said that he had no problem with it. So this Sunday for the first time since she has been taught by missionaries her and her whole family came to church! It was so incredible to see that little family sitting down in the chapel together. As I looked at them the spirit filled my heart with joy, I think for a small moment I caught a glimpse of what Ammon felt when the king and queen accepted the Gospel, it was true joy. Unfortunately our other investigator wasn't able to make it to church, a lot of people have been getting sick this week and one of her kids has pink eye, so hopefully we can meet with her soon so we can help her be prepared for her baptismal date. 

We are also working with a few other people that are looking very promising to be baptized, the Lord is truly just pouring out blessings upon us, I wish I had more time to talk about them, but I have to go in a few minutes so I will conclude this letter by saying that I know that this Gospel is true, There really is no other answer, being here in the south has really opened my eyes to the fact that this really is the true church. I know that living the Gospel to its fullest is the only way to find true joy and true freedom and peace. I love you all and am grateful for your examples, have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Zone Conference - with Elder Cardon of the 70

A day of Miracles.....

Dear Family,  Oh wow hearing about Savannah has made me so home sick for it haha Not home sick for utah but for Savannah, I loved that place so much and some of my favorite people in the world are there. It's funny hearing about the people you talked too and the places that you went and it's weird to think that I was only there about 4 months ago. I remember going to Ft. Pulaski, Elder Neville and I had a blast with all the cannons and we even got to see someone shoot a musket. We had this one guy talk to us for like 30 minutes how the Confederates were the ones that were right the whole time, what great times! It's also weird because I am talking to Ben right now on Facebook and you all were just up there, it blows my mind. And yes dad the missionaries in Hilton Head have success, they are Spanish missionaries up there and they basically just teach Spanish. I went on a few trade offs there and talked to a lot of Spanish people, it was a lot of fun. 

Well my week has been incredible! We have had a lot of amazing experiences and have had a lot of success this week to which I am truly grateful of the Lord, I will explain all about it. On Tuesday we had Zone leader council where I saw the Savannah Elders haha and it was incredible! It was a very powerful meeting where as zone leaders and assistants we set a goal to have 20 baptisms within those companionships.  There are 7 zones, so it would be almost 3 baptisms per companionship. It is a big goal but it will be a game changer for sure when it happens. We fasted and prayed for miracles this week and they happened! The next day Elder M and I had to put together a zone meeting which was stressful. President and Sister Barry came and the assistants and we only had about an hour to put it together, so we relied on the Lord a lot. It ended up being a pretty good meeting and the spirit was very strong, it helps when you have President and Sister Barry there to bear testimony. 

On Thursday we did some service for a member of the church and ended up doing a whole lot more than we expected to do. We were moving rocks from the back of her truck into her backyard to put a long the backside of her fence. As we were doing so we noticed some stumps that were in the way, so we decided to dig them up. Luckily the ground was pretty soft and we pulled out about 8 stumps. They weren't very easy though, it took about 3 hours all together and I got dirty from head to toe. Plus it was about 95 degrees and very humid so I was drenched by the end of it. She was really nice though and bought us pizza so I was grateful and it was just a lot of fun to do some manual labor. That night we were contacting some people and we contacted into this Jehova's witness. We didn't even try to share anything with her at first but were just talking to her about Jesus and then she asks us our view on war. For the next 45 minutes she preached to us about how war is against what the bible teaches and that no matter what the circumstance is, we shouldn't fight. I asked her "So if another country invaded the united states and threatened to take away our freedoms and destroy our families, you wouldn't fight for those freedoms. She told me that she would trust that God would deliver them. I wanted to say that God probably won’t deliver you from stupidity but I held my tongue. It was really frustrating, mainly because there was no purpose to her preaching, she didn't invite us to do anything and she wasn't sharing anything that was beneficial for my salvation.

Then on Friday we tracted into this 96 year old man. We asked if we could come in and bless his home and he said he was Baptist, but we persisted and told him that the blessing was for all Christians and everyone really and he let us in. so we blessed his home and invited him to read from the Book of Mormon and he accepted! It was crazy, i think he is the Oldest investigator that I have ever had. We have a return appointment with him for tonight, so we will see how that goes.

Saturday was probably the best day of the week, well Sunday was really good too, but Saturday was miracle day. We were fed two meals today which were amazing. one of the meals, one of the members daughters made the bean dip that we make all the time for sports games and like new years and stuff, I was in heaven!!! Then that night we went to another members home and had Hawaiian Hay stacks and that was incredible. But the crowning event is when we went to go teach some new investigators. They are Sisters and they have been both coming to church for about the past six weeks and this was our first meeting. We went by at 7 pm and boy are they just so humble and ready for the gospel. We taught the restoration and it was extremely powerful. At the end we invited them to be baptized and they accepted a date for my BIRTHDAY!!!! It was incredible! Although we will probably baptize them on the 29th so they can be confirmed on Sunday. We had fasted and prayed for a miracle like that and the Lord in his mercy saw fit to give us these wonderful people to teach. One sister also has 2 kids that are baptismal aged and she wants them to be baptized with her, it's going to be great! They all came to church on Sunday and we had some other investigators show up as well, so we have a lot of good things happening. 

This week on Thursday we have a zone conference and I will be actually traveling up into Georgia for it. We will be going to Kingsland and Elder Cardon of the 70 will be there! Also on Wednesday evening we are doing another FHE at the Barry's and Elder Cardon will be to that as well, and we are bringing a bunch of investigators, golden!!! I am just truly blessed and grateful to be a missionary. I love you all and have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

How sweet it is.....

Dear Family,

Well I am living in the same apartment complex I lived in when I served in ________ haha I'm back! The ______ ward and my ward meet at the same building so it is so great to be back where I basically started.  My new companion is Elder M. He has been out 2 transfers more than me, so once again I am with an older companion. I can't believe, Mom and Dad, that you are going to Savannah This weekend!  That is so crazy, I miss that place so much. Elder M and I have been reminiscing all the time about it. I already sent a list of people to mom that I wanted you all to see and say hello too so I hope you got it. Anyway so on with the week. We had and incredible transfer meeting on Wednesday! There were so many Elders that went home that I have truly come to love and admire and it was sad to see them go, the next few transfers are going to be even harder. All the missionaries that I know and have been companions with are going home in the next 3 transfers, so that is sad, but It's all a part of life.  Being here in _____________ has been a lot like the time that I spent in ______, just super busy and lots of appointments. Elder M and I found 9 new investigators this week in 4 days which was so incredible, it was so much fun! We also taught a ton which is what I love to do most so I am loving this area so far. It is so nice to be able to talk to everyone now.

The new ward is quite the interesting ward too because half of the ward is related to each other. There is the Grandpa _________ and he has like 6 children all of which still live in the ward. They have children that have children and it is just massive and fun. We had dinner at _________house yesterday with his whole family there and it was so much fun just chatting with him. He has such a strong testimony of the Gospel and such a great love for people, he is incredible! Also after fasting for a long time I stuffed my face with food, and it was amazing food, I was grateful. Really I am just happy and am grateful that I am in this area. I am really excited for the month of September, there are just going to be miracles that role forth. Oh one sad thing, we had an investigator that was going to be baptized this month that got way into anti and won’t even listen to us anymore. I can't tell you how sad that is…. This man went from willing to learn and to progress to being angry and contentious, Satan had completely taken control. With all the great opportunities with Mitt Romney running for president there will also be a lot of opposition with all the anti that will be thrown out. So we need to be prepared to be able to answer questions and make sure our testimonies are sure and founded and the only way to be able to do that is to make sure we are holding on to the Iron Rod and praying and keeping the commandments.

Well I got to get going, but thank you for all that you all do for me and I hope you have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Bushman 

Ramdom pictures

I wonder who he's preaching to????

How Valiant Can I Be?

Dear Family,  Well it was good to hear from all of you this week. Hunter, I finally read your letter that you sent me, one of my roommates hid it or left it somewhere so I wasn't able to read it till today, but it was really neat hearing about your experience on trek and the spirit that you felt. It brings back memories for me, from trek and also from Moroni's quest where hearts were touched and lives were changed. The youth programs that this church has and the Spirit that those conferences bring is just one more factor to the Truthfulness of this Gospel and of the church. It's insane all the sin and the temptations that youth face these days, but the Lord has provided every way and means necessary to combat it and for those that desire to come out on top and conquer Satan.

This Sunday at church, one of the Branch counselors spoke and he is incredible! Well his job out here hasn't worked out like they had planned it and so they are moving back to Utah so he gave a couple of last words for the Branch. He is such a down to earth man with an extremely powerful spirit and firm testimony of the Gospel. Every time he gets up to speak he invites everyone to take the things they have learned by the spirit and apply them in their lives and change, become better! In Elders quorum he asked everyone to think of the thing that they love most about the gospel and to ponder upon that. Then he taught about how it is the spirit that reveals those truths to us and that we should never do anything to offend that spirit. He talked about how we need to step up and become worthy Melchizedek priesthood holders. he said that he just heard a few of the priesthood holders out there talking about a Rated R movie they had watched that weekend and about how good it was and he said the spirit was offended. But he did it with such love and the spirit was so strong that I have no doubt that those that were talking about it felt ashamed. One of the greatest things I have learned out here so far is how important the Priesthood is, and how important it is to be worthy of it. We cannot be flirting with the lines, we cannot have one foot in Babylon and one foot in Zion, we need to have both feet in Zion on the trek to righteousness. My idea of what is right and wrong and what is ok and what is not ok has completely changed. It's no longer, "how far can I go before it is wrong?" but it is now "how valiant can I be?" I love the Gospel so much!

This week has been a pretty interesting week, another humbling week I would say. Elder J and I have been working really hard trying to find new investigators. Last week when we tracted that one day for 5 hours we found 1 potential. Well we went back Monday evening and had a really powerful restoration lesson with him and his girlfriend and set a return appointment for Wednesday. Well when Wednesday rolled around he called us and told us that he didn't really want to learn anymore but was grateful for the things that we shared with them. This little happenstance just reaffirmed my thoughts that we need to work through the members. So that is what we have been trying to do this week, but it is really hard since everyone lives so far apart. So we have been mainly working through our recent converts and teaching them how to do missionary work and just simply inviting people to do things. I've never had so bad of numbers on my mission, it's kind of funny but frustrating at the same time, but I still feel very confident that things are going to work out.

Oh so one day this week as we were at the Library we had this Jewish guy come and talk to us for a while. He was a rabbi at one point and he knew a lot about the church. He was asking us about our seminary program, church programs, garments, missions, standards, and all sorts of stuff, it was really cool! He was really nice and was just really interested on how the church worked. He asked us how Jewish people react when we talk to them and what we say to them. We told him that they are generally really nice and that we usually just talk about the book of Mormon or about Christ. He told us a story of when some Jehovah’s Witnesses knocked on his door and told him that 6 million of his people were killed because they rejected Christ. He said that is the only time he has slammed the door in someone’s face and I was just amazed at some of the things that people would say. Another great witness of the reality of the Great Apostasy. In fact that is one thing I have gained a massive testimony of since I have been here is the Great Apostasy, it is everywhere! Everything the scriptures talk about, with churches taking advantage of the poor and priest craft, and no consequences for sin is everywhere! So yeah I have learned a lot haha

I don't know, nothing else really glorious has happened this week because of our lack of investigators so I don't have much else to say. But I am grateful for all that you all do for me, for all of your prayers, and I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

The things you learn....

Dear Family,  Well I was laughing pretty hard today as I was reading about how Hunter thinks he is maturing and the little incident in church where he sang the high notes haha Hunter's attitude towards maturing seems a lot like Jake's was. I'm also pretty jealous that everyone hiked the subway without me since I have never done it before, that will be on my to-do-list sometime but next is the Wind Rivers!

Well anyway this week has been a pretty good week, life as a missionary is always good. I think this week I have really learned the attributes of patience and humility. This week has been a very humbling week for Elder J and me. With the recent baptisms we have been left with very little investigators and are actually currently sitting at 0 haha yep a big ol goose egg. The one investigator that we did have, kind of dropped us yesterday. We feel that we really need to work through the active and less-active members to find solid investigators. It seems like the youth that they get anti-d very quickly from friends or family and so we don't have much chance after we have found them, but when you have a member friend who introduces you, then you have a support line and someone there that can answer the questions. So that is what we are going to start. 

So yeah I believe this is where the Lord is testing me with the humility and patience. For the longest time now I have been doing so well with having people to teach and having things to do and now it is really weird when I have nothing. It brings me back to where I was when I was in _______ and we were in a similar situation, but it feels so much different this time. I have so much more hope this time than I did last time and I know that things will come up and we will have people to teach, I just have to have patience and faith. I have just been so grateful lately for all the things that the Lord has taught me thus far on my mission and I have been exactly everywhere I have needed to be and have had the companions that I needed to have. 

I don't know if I have really much else to talk about since I have so little of things to talk about. We mostly just did a lot of tracting this week trying to find where the YSA's are at. The other day we probably tracted for 5 hours of our day and couldn't even find a potential investigator.  We did tract into this one girl that thought she knew more about our religion than us haha She kept trying to state things that she had no idea about, but wouldn't be quite long enough for us to answer back, so that was frustrating, but what can you do? But it's all great! I love it all, it's all the greatest experience ever!  But yeah that is about it for what happened this week, so I will conclude this letter by thanking you all for your love and support and I hope you have a great week!  Love, Elder Bushman

The Gospel will go forth to every Nation!

Dear Family, How ya'll doing? haha I thought I would start off by giving you a little bit of the south. It's good to hear that a lot of fun stuff is happening and first of all I want to Wish Hunter a happy Birthday!!! I can't believe you are already 14 that is insane but just like the rest of us you still look like you are 12 haha It's alright you will grow up eventually just give it a little time. And that is good that you get to go to scout camp, I remember missing so many of them because of sports, not that I regret it but there is nothing more fun than camping and being outdoors. Also I want to wish Austin and Libby a happy 1 year anniversary on Thursday, did you remember Austin? The only reason why I remember is because you got married on the day that I hit my six month mark and yep that was a year ago which means on Thursday I will have been out 18 months on my mission, I can't believe where the time has gone. I remember when Devin was his 18th month mark and how he wrote that he was going to give it all his last 6 months, but the thing is - I feel like I have forever left, so my plan is to drag it out as long as I can. Being on a mission has just been such a great experience and I have loved every minute of it!

Well this week was a really good week, it has been such a blessing to have 2 baptisms right in a row. E's baptism went extremely well. Now Elder J and I are looking for people to teach! It's what usually happens when you baptize all your progressing investigators, you run out of people to teach. We have been working extremely hard to find more progressing investigators and we have a couple of solid potentials to be progressing but it's just getting past that spectator stage to actually being an investigator. So after the baptisms now we are running slim on investigators so we are praying for miracles. 

We had an amazing experience this week where we got to go to one of our investigators bible studies at the church he goes to at the moment. It was really interesting, the pastor was talking all about being moral and having high standards, and basically living an lds lifestyle. I was really impressed with him...  At the end he gave time for people to say anything they felt, so I stood up and thanked everyone for letting us come and thanked him for what he was teaching because not to many teach those things these days. Then I bore testimony about the work of the Lord that it will never cease and that the Gospel will go forth to every nation, I quoted The Standard of Truth. I was getting a lot of amens - it was great! Afterwards we talked to the pastor and he wants us to go on his radio show and talk to the youth about being good moral kids. I gave him a little For Strength of Youth pamphlet that I had and showed him everything that was in it and gave him our phone number, so we might be able to go speak on a radio show soon!

Other than that, there wasn't much that happened this week, everything is just going great! Thank you for giving me Steven's address, I am excited to hear from him, it is always interesting to see how people you have known really well have changed from the experiences they have had. It was really funny hearing from Jordan he seems to be doing really good. Well I got to get going, love you all and have a great week! Love, Elder Bushman

Another day of miracles....

Dear Family, Well it has been quite the week, that is for sure! I'm glad Hunter had a good experience at trek and that he felt bad for the girls. I would have felt bad too if they had actually done anything but all they had to do was pull the carts for a quarter of a mile on flat terrain on our trek, even the girls complained that it wasn't hard enough, maybe Hunter's experience was different.

 

Anyway so this week was transfers and I did get a new companion, His name is Elder J and he is from SF Utah. He was a district leader when I was in my last area so we went on one trade off before. He only has 2 transfers left though, so I will probably kill him off too, which means I will be with the YSA's for 6 months, so it should be fun.

Wednesday night after transfer meeting we had a really good lesson with one of our investigators. She came to institute on Tuesday and absolutely loved it and we had a lesson with her the next evening. We brought our branch mission leader with us and taught the restoration. It was a really powerful lesson and she is an amazing girl, she is very attentive to the lessons and is very open and honest with us which is really neat. She went out of town for the weekend but we are going to see her this week and she is coming to institute tomorrow, so we are excited about that.

Anyway so the week went on and it went pretty well, we had an amazing miracle yesterday. We were tracting in apartment complexes trying to find young single adults and just having no luck at all, until finally we knocked on this man's door! He had said that missionaries had just contacted him a little earlier and gave him a Book of Mormon and that he had asked them a few questions. Well I asked him if we could come in and share more and he accepted, so we went in and started talking to him about religion and about God, did a few How to Begin Teaching points and then went strait into the Restoration. We taught a powerful Restoration and there was a great spirit in the room and he asked us a lot of good questions. The Lord is truly in this work and leads us to where we need to be. I really don't even know how we find people, it just happens, it really is the hardest thing in the world to find young single adults, but every week we somehow find 3 or more investigators. The scripture that says "that we are saved by grace after all we can do", comes to mind. The Lord provides the way after all we can do, I have gained a firm testimony of that.

So we have a baptism coming up this weekend which I am super excited about! She is doing great and just soaking everything in and then the very next weekend we have another baptism with another investigator, so the Lord is just blessing us and now we just need to keep finding people to teach because if we run out it's going to be a sad day for us, that's for sure haha.

By the way I would really like to get Elder Sears address if that is possible, I would like to write him. I got a letter from KL and it seems like he is doing great. I love hearing from her and hearing about the things that are going on with their family. I was always was so grateful for their family and what they would do for me. I'm glad Hunter is having an opportunity to home teach them, so Hunter take full advantage of it. Well I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman!

P.S. I am still wanting to do the kings peak trip next summer, so I hope everyone is getting ready and in shape !) 

Leadership training - Elder Bushman - 3rd row back.

Transfer day - I love that Elder Bushman is front and center - big as life!

Handsome group of Missionaries.....
One final pose with Elder G before he goes home....

Life......

Dear Family,   Well sorry this letter is finally just getting to you today, I forgot to tell you all that once again because of transfers our P-Day is on Tuesday, so no worries I didn't forget about you! Thank you so much for the letters, it's good to hear that all is going well back home. Dad I am impressed you are still keeping up with all those young guys, I'm glad you are staying young haha And that was so weird hearing from Elder Sears, he seems like he has changed a lot since I last talked to him, actually I was wondering if you could get his address for me, I would like to write him. So yesterday we got some sad news that a missionary that served in my mission passed away from a motorcycle accident. He was companions with Elder A at one point. I was saddened by the news, but I am so grateful for the understanding of the plan of salvation. Also his family are going to donate his organs so that others might live, it's just incredible how many ways this young man has been used to save lives, whether spiritually or physically and he will yet be doing a great work beyond the veil in the spirit world. 

Well this week has been a great week! There is a real fire burning in the mission right now and many miracles are unfolding.  I'm really just beginning to understand the consequences of decisions and actions, I was reading Alma 5 the other day and it hit me really strong at how accountable we are as members of the church. Alma the whole time was just listing question after question like Have you had this mighty change of heart, have you spiritually been born of God, Have you had him image engraven upon your countenance, do you put your faith in the Redemption of him who created all things and so on? The whole time he is just asking if we have done all these things to help us become more like our Savior and the whole time I'm thinking, "I need to shape up!" But that is the great thing I love about this life, that no matter who we are or who we have been we can change and become better. So I am grateful for the enabling power of the Atonement.

Anyway enough of my little shpeil about the world, I'll get back to my week. I don't really know what to talk about, there has been a lot of really good stuff that has happened this week, it's hard to know where to start. Preparing for Zone conference this month President Barry has had all the missionaries do a study on the Doctrine of Christ. On Saturday we were studying the Principle of Faith and that day we were supposed to go out and find 2 new investigators. Elder G and I were determined to find 2, so we prayed mightily for the opportunity and then went out to work. We worked hard all stinkin day without any success, we tracted and tracted and contacted and contacted but we continued to pray. Near the end of the night at 8 pm we were in this apartment complex and heard this girl crying uncontrollably. At first we weren't going to talk to her but we decided to go over anyway. We were able to teach her a lesson and get a new investigator, it was incredible! Then we got a phone call from the elders in K and they gave us this way sweet referral that had just been to her sister’s baptism and felt the spirit extremely strong and now she wants to get baptized and she lives down here!   Anyway it was a pretty miraculous night! Then we went and had an amazing lesson with this lady. We had an amazing lesson where we read from Alma 32 and she felt the spirit super strong so we invited her to church but she didn't really want to go, but then we told her how amazing church was and she said she would come. She came to church the next day and absolutely loved it! She is way neat and I am excited to teach her more.

But anyway that was basically our week, I will be getting a new companion tomorrow so I am excited about that. Elder G and I had a blast this transfer, and no he didn't get trunky at all which was really nice. But it's always exciting to start over and get someone new to work with. Well I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Elders G, A, H and Bushman

Field trip

A YSA  posted this for Elders Bushman and G.  Go forth stripling warriors!

Dear family,

Well it is good to hear that everything is going well back on the Home Front. So JR wants me to walk onto Snow with him huh? That's interesting, I'll have to think about that. I think I told you how one of my new roommates played for the Bingham A team all growing up and so we played against each other throughout all of little league, it has been a blast talking about all of our experiences, oh also he played for the Mud Cats. So despite all the fun talk about football, I think baseball will be my better choice in the end, although I would love to play football again, I’m just not sure that will happen. Anyway we had a great week this week, I wish I had a lot of time to tell you all about it but we are going down to St. Augustine today with some recent converts, so we are in a hurry, but I will do my best!

Right now I am just super excited because our mission is doing really well! This week was a blow out week numbers wise and we should be seeing many baptisms rolling forth in the next few months!  Right now Elder G and I are teaching 2 people with solid baptismal dates, one for August and one for the end of July, so they will be back to back.

And right now I am sitting next to a guy who is talking to me about religion, he is pretty nice but he is talking a lot about Gay's and being Christian. Well at least I shared a little bit of the gospel with him and invited him to go to mormon.org and he said he wants to come to church, so maybe something good will come out of it. 

Well anyway my week has been good...... We had an amazing experience this week when we got a referral from Sister Barry. She had met this girl named A at the Olive Garden and she asked her if she was Mormon and she said yes, are you? She said no and then Sister Barry asked if she wanted to be a Mormon, and she said maybe. So she got her information and we gave her a call and actually had a lesson with her at President and Sister Barry's home! How amazing is that? I don't think to many missionaries get to teach in their mission Presidents home, it was incredible and the spirit was extremely strong. We invited her to be baptized and she said she would if she came to know it were true, so we set a tentative date for the 29th. Unfortunately she is moving at the end of the month so maybe I’ll send the referral to Elder Payne.  Well I am about to get logged off, sorry got to go!  Have a great week!  Love you all! Elder Bushman

Raindrops keep falling on my head....

Dear Family,  First I want to say that yes, I have been getting all the letters and I have enjoyed them very much, especially this week’s letters. I am just so grateful to hear of all these people that I have loved growing up doing well and succeeding and excelling in life. Secondly, I apologize that my letters have been shorter than usual, I guess that is just what happens when the mission gets longer, it seems like my mind is so congested with thoughts throughout the week that when Monday comes around I just relax my brain for a bit, so a lot of the time I just can't think of anything to write, but I promise to do better. Oh and mom thank you so much for telling me about Viliam!  I was actually thinking about him the other week or so and was wondering if he ever did get off on his mission, so it is so good to hear that, I hope I get to see him again someday. 

Well this week has been a really good week. Our recent convert B is just an amazing guy! Ever since he has been baptized he just wants to go out and do missionary work with us. He is always asking us if we have appointments and who he can share the Gospel with. The other day he set up an appointment with his sister and we drove out to see her and had a really weird lesson in a Gas Station parking lot, yeah I know first a gym now a parking lot, well anyway it went really well and he was asking all these questions, really good ones too, so it's been a lot of fun.

 We have been really limited on miles this week since it was the end of the month, so we did a lot of work around where we live so we didn't have to travel that far. In fact on Thursday evening we had 3 people drive to us at the church so we could teach them there haha it's brilliant, I wish we could just do that every day, just have an all-day teaching session at the church!  But anyway the first lesson went really well. A recent-convert, invited her friend to come with her who has been asking questions about the church and we went on a church tour with her. We showed her around the church and talked about Christ and then we went into the chapel where we talked about the Sacrament and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love this part of the church tour because the spirit is really so strong in the Chapel, it's incredible. She told us that she has been trying to find a church that she feels comfortable in and that she thinks that she found it. We taught her again on Saturday and she accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of July, but it will probably happen earlier because she told C after Church on Sunday that she wanted Elder G to baptize her and he is leaving in 3 weeks so it will have to happen sooner! 

This week it rained extremely hard for the first few days, it was incredible to see the amount of water that got built up.  I've never seen anything like it. At one point Elder G and I drove through probably a foot of water, it was a lot of fun. But here  the flooding wasn't too bad, but it was really bad in Gainsville and other places closer to the Gulf. 

Oh and by the way Mom, we actually do a lot of tracting because we don't get that many referrals. We just go to all the apartment complexes and start knocking and hoping we find young non married people haha So one day that is exactly what we were doing. We were driving  on the way to an appointment, still had some time to wait however, and Elder G decides to make a turn. I am really confused of course and ask where he is going and he tells me we are tracting, so I said ok and we went to these apartment complexes where missionaries used to live. Elder G said he wanted to knock on their old door and so we went up there but that guy was not interested one bit, so we went to the next door. This guy answers and we start to talk to him. He remembered the missionaries living next to him when they were there a year ago and he started telling us about an experience he had with missionaries when he was in Gainsville going to college. He said that his roommate had invited them in one night, that he didn't get a whole lot out of what they were saying because his roommate was arguing the whole time and he really wanted to know more, so he invited us in. We went in and taught him in his wife about the Book of Mormon and even watched a Mormon message off the internet, technology can be incredible! Afterwards they both asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and wanted to know when we would be back by. It was a tremendous miracle, eventually once they come to church we will have to turn them over to the other Elders but they are an amazing couple.

So Sunday was an interesting day for us, a very good one though. We were just tired from the long week but we had an incredible fast and testimony meeting! I love the young single adults for that reason, because most of them are returned missionaries or recent converts and they all have such real testimonies and share good experiences that are good for everyone to hear. I was also able to confirm B a member of the church which was a really neat experience for me, he is only the second person that I have confirmed my whole mission, so I always get nervous haha but I got over it.

Yesterday Elder G and I were talking about the challenges that the YSA are facing in their life's  and about how life is just at the doors for us and it's scary. I mean we see these people in all these situations and we just keep telling them how the gospel will help and the blessings will come, which I know they will, but then again we aren't in their situation and it's so easy to be positive when it isn't happening to you. It just made me grateful for the life that I have had growing up and all the things that I have been blessed with and it also opened my eyes to the fact that I still have a lot of things I will have to face in my life and I just pray that I will continue to have the faith and the confidence to push through them, which I believe I do. I am so grateful for the Gospel!

Oh and also this week as I was lying in bed thinking about my mission this far and life in the future, I started thinking about what I am going to do with my life. I thought about how I still want to work hard and not get lazy, and that I want to be diligent in my studies of the gospel and with that I knew I needed something hard for me to do so I could have goals and plans to achieve those things and then it struck me really hard how I can't give up on Baseball. I felt very strongly that I needed to continue in that and that it will keep me focused and on task in my life. I believe that it will be the right path for me and that I still have much to learn from it, so I just thought I would let you all know that.

Anyway so I hope this letter was better than the previous ones and I am grateful for all that you all do. I hope you have a wonderful week and that many blessings will come your way. Remember to always read and pray and trust in the Lord. I read in preach my gospel this week that Faith is confidence in the mission and power of the Holy Ghost. That really hit me hard, I hope we can all have more faith and confidence in the spirit, love ya have a great day!  Love, Elder Bushman

Miracles and such....

Dear Family,  We had a great week this week with a miracle Baptism! I told you about BW last week, one of our baptismal dates that was supposed to get baptized this weekend, well he didn't come to church last week so we weren't planning on having his baptism this week. We went by on Tuesday to go and tell him that we had to hold it, but when we got there we were completely surprised as his attitude. He seemed a lot more mature and apologized for missing church. Elder G and I were very impressed at his determination to get baptized, he was willing to do whatever it took to do it, even sleep out in a tent if necessary so that he could live the law of chastity. So we went over to his house earlier in the week to help him get this RV that he was going to move into working. We got into our regular clothes and went over to fix this piece of junk up. This RV was like a 1970 model and hadn't been driven in over a year. It was in someone's backyard and the wheels were partially sunk into the ground. We needed to replace the battery and get it out of this person’s yard. Well we tried replacing the battery but for some reason it just wasn't working so then he and Elder G got underneath the thing to look at the starter. I felt completely useless since I knew nothing about engines or starters or anything. So for 3 hours we try to get this thing working and they even rewired the starter, it was quite the epic thing to watch. In the end we weren't able to get the thing working.  So on Sunday he came to church dressed in his Sunday best and was baptized after church. It was a beautiful service with many people there, one thing that the YSA are good at is fellowship, and we had a musical number and lots of food afterwards. On Saturday before the baptism one of the members came by and dropped off a ton of treats: cakes, cupcakes, ice cream, cookies and one 3 foot long subway sandwich. We were able to take that to the baptism and have plenty of refreshments, it was perfect!

That was the highlight of our week but there was other good stuff that happened as well. On Thursday we had the wonderful opportunity to take President B out with us. We first went to see B and President Interviewed him, then we went to go see two more of our investigators named K and S. We had one of the most interesting lessons I have ever had. They were on their way to the gym to go to a work out class that their room mate who is a member held, so we went in there and taught them at the gym, with President Barry haha it was very interesting but the lesson went very well. Then we went to see E, another one of our investigators who is getting baptized on August 4th. We had a really good lesson and she basically set her own baptismal date, since August was the earliest time that her parents would be in town, so yeah it was a great night. 

Right now we are really struggling to find though because like I said before, finding the YSA's here is like finding a needle in a haystack, it's incredibly hard. But we are hoping to get some referrals from the assistants with some YSA aged people that came to one of their baptisms on Sunday, so we are excited about that. other than that there isn't much going on. I am having a terrible time at getting to know the area, since it is all of Jacksonville! None-the-less I am loving every minute of it and it is going by way to fast right now. It's already been 3 weeks since transfer meeting which means we only have 3 weeks left and I do not like that one bit! However I am looking forward to the cooler weather in the fall already as well since it is starting to get a lot warmer. Well I love you all, thank you for all you do, and have a wonderful week!  Love, Elder Bushman

Back to Florida.....

Dear Family,  Well I am glad all is going well and it is really weird to be looking
at the pictures of Elder Bass being home, it really feels like
yesterday that I met him my first day in the mission and got a picture
with all the Farmington Elders. Well I'm sure glad it's him and not
me! Haha.   Well like you know I have been transferred back to
Jacksonville, my companions name is Elder G and we are over the
YSA branch here in Jacksonville. I don't know what President Barry was
thinking to put me over the Young Single Adults but I guess there is a
purpose. Because we are over the YSA's our area covers all 3
Jacksonville zones or stakes, which I've served in all 3 so I know a
lot of the areas. It is Elder G’s last transfer so he will be the
second missionary that I have killed off, thank goodness he's not
trunky at all, he is a really good missionary and we are getting a
long great!  Elder N actually served with him for 3 months before
he served with me so, we are basically switching companions.

I wanted to answer Dad's questions before I get into any thing else so
I don't forget. So I believe you asked me to share 3 things that
happened before my mission that really influenced me and maintained me
on my mission.

1. I would say one of the things for sure would be the sport I played
growing up. Sports really taught me to work hard and be strong.
Especially when everyone was outgrowing me and I wasn't as good as I
had been, it taught me a lot of patience and perseverance. I remember
those many times that I wanted to quit playing baseball because I
wasn't playing that well anymore or all those long gasers that we used
to have at football practice and my breathing was terrible. So many
times I wanted to give up and just quit but I couldn't ever let myself
do it and I believe that has been a great strength to me on my
mission.

2. I believe the way you raised me to be honest and obedient in all
that I do. Back home I was mostly obedient and honest out of fear
rather than love, but now I understand the purpose and why it is so
important. All the little rules you gave me growing up really prepared
me for a mission because we have so many rules out here, but to me
they seem like nothing because I am used to it, and I understand the
principle of obedience and integrity since you always pounded it into
my head. So thank you for that.

3. Then obviously the 3rd experience would be Iowa. In Iowa I learned
the importance of a lot of things. I learned to rely on the Lord. I
gained a strong testimony about the importance of church and the
Sacrament. I learned the importance of patience and endurance. I truly
believe that, that was the culminating experience that I needed to
prepare for my mission. It taught me many things that I have needed
while I have been out here and it’s been something I have been able to
share with others when they are having a hard time or feel like they
are alone. I still look back often on that experience and wonder how I
ever got through it and I know it was only because of the strength of
the Lord, there was nothing else that could have pulled me through. It
was the worst, best thing that could have happened to me, if that
makes sense at all.

So yeah there are the 3 biggest things that first popped into my head,
I hope it satisfies. Oh and Mom you taught me to love others and look
for their good qualities, and you taught me how to listen. So don't
feel left out I learned more from you than you could ever imagine.
Anyway so we had a really good week this week. We had this kid named
C that we have been working with. We didn't have the chance to
meet with him all week until Sunday when he came to church for the
first time. He called us Sunday morning in tears because of some
trials that he has been facing in his life and we told him to just
come to church and he said he would. So he showed up to church and all
the YSA's welcomed him in so amazingly. I was blown away, we never had
that kind of welcoming in Savannah. Afterwards he told me how he
planned to stay and that he wants to be involved in a lot of the
activities. So tonight we are having FHE at President and Sister
Barry's house and we are bringing him and a lot of other
investigators. Every month they hold a FHE at their home and I've
never been able to go to it because I am always so far away but now I
get to go, I am so excited!!!! Being in the YSA is really weird though
because there are a lot of the kids that were in the Julington Creek
ward that come to the YSA now and so it's like I never left, it's
interesting.

Oh Also I got to go on a power trade with the Fort Caroline Elders
this week. That is where I served a year ago by the way, and we went
and saw one of my favorite Families in the world. I don't know if you
remember me telling you about the M family, but they are amazing
and we almost baptized her son I. They are Hawaiian. But anyway I
got to see them and they all remembered me, it was such an amazing
thing, I love that family so much! Anyway that was really the jest of
our week since it was so short because of transfers, so.......yeah
that's all I got. Oh tell Jake happy birthday for me, I would have
made him a card but I will when he writes me haha I'm just kidding I
just forgot to do it. So happy Birthday Jake even though it was 4 days
ago. Ok I think that's it, well I love you all and have a wonderful
week,  Love,  Elder Bushman