Yr. 2, Week 40: 3 Baptisms and 11 Investigators at Church!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a really awesome, hectic, spiritual, draining week :) Haha! Here's a play by play!

Monday went really quick, almost like it was p-day! We did our studies in the morning, went to the grocery story, and then we headed out for the Christmas Devotional that President was holding. It was awesome. He talked about the condescension of Christ and I have begun to understand a little more like Nephi did after the angel began to show him what Christ gave up to be our savior. Anyways, I've been having fantastic studies about the subject and I've been feeling God's love more and more as I understand more and more what He does for me :) The rest of the day was writing the family and visiting some people. 

Tuesday we had some of the baptismal interviews (all went well) and we were able to visit lots of people and show them and teach them about Christ and his sacrifice. We were able to share a great message with Hermana Ivonne from Philippines about the things Christ gave up :D It was so cool!

Wednesday my companion and I decided to use the very brilliant idea of writing Christmas cards and delievering them. IT WAS AWESOME! We were able to visit with lots of people, gain their trust, and help spread the joy of Christmas while in turn granting ourselves lots of joy! :D We were able to make the nativity with the G. family and also have dinner with the W. family! :D It was a whole lot of fun and I was really, really grateful for all that they did for us. We got home and opened the wonderful gifts from my family (my comp DIED over the BYU shirt, haha, he was so grateful :)... We prepared everything for the BBQ on Thursday as well...

Thursday was the awesome BBQ that we were waiting for. We went to the church, played lots of soccer and basketball, had a sick BBQ, and played a home made version of SETTLERS OF CATAN that Elder Neher in our zone made!!! :) It was way cool...bad thing, we got our cell phone robbed...UGH! Lame!... However, it was so amazing talking with my family and laughing and having a good time with them. It was fun talking to each and every one of my siblings and I hope they had just as good of a time as I had! That night we also visited with some members and investigators and really just had a great time! It was an amazing Christmas, one I will never forget!! :D

Friday was filled with lots of cleaning and baptismal interviews. Everything went well and they all passed and we got everything in order for them to be baptized :D WE WERE STOKED! We also found out that Elder Laurentino was going to be the new assistant to the president and that I was going to have a new companion, Elder Deal... We were both pretty sad but I'm excited for the new opportunities that I have! 

Saturday we were able to visit with lots of people (W. family, D., etc.) and get them ready to go to church :) R. and P. were married by the state and are officially keeping all the commandments :D Haha, P. likes to mention that his marriage certificate is his ticket to the temple (in a way it is :D Haha). 

Sunday was the big day. R, O, and M were baptized by P. (husband to R.) and J. (recent convert and friend to O. and M.). It was a really special service because the whole ward put a lot into it and you could also see the hard work and preparation by those being baptized. D, A, F, C, B, O, R, B, M, and two of C's friends were the investigators we had at church: 11 :D We also were able to set a few more baptismal dates and things are just going GREAT!!!! :D

So a little bit about my companion: Elder Lucas Deal is from Salt Lake City, Utah, is the second of four children, is going to be a music major at BYU. He was companions of Elder Frost and Elder Muzante as well as being my companion :D hahaha!!! It's a fun mix. He has one change less than I do! So it's going to be fun, seeing as we'll be seeing a lot of each other!! :D

Thanks for everything guys! Love you so much!

Elder Bushman

 

Our visit to the G's house on Christmas Eve... Me and Elder Laurentino with our santa masks:

 

 Making the Nativity:

 The Finished Product:

Christmas Eve Dinner:

Our 3 Baptisms: R, O and M

Saying Farewell to Elder Laurentino:

Hello to Elder Deal:

My new soccer ball:

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ELDER BUSHMAN

What a wonderful Christmas present - one hour with our Elder Bushman! We had the opportunity to meet Elder Laurentino and hear a cool song from them. We ended with Family Prayer and a photo of all Mom's kids together. Blessings!

Enjoy the video below...

Yr. 2, Week 39: They are 100% Ready for Their Baptism

Dear Family and Friends,

Today isn't p-day, rather, they just gave us a little while to write our families and do some other things for the mission. Things are going great. We had awesome lessons with R, O, M and they are 100% ready for their baptism. P., R's husband, is going to baptize her and J, the recent convert who actually gave the referral to the missionaries to visit O, is going to baptize O and M. They are all really excited and they have great testimonies and experiences. 

D, A, F, & A. are also doing very well. They have fantastic questions, lots of faith, and they are having spiritual experiences. This week we are going to invite them to be baptized on a specific date so we'll see how that goes. :D I'm pretty sure that they will accept. Also, F and A came to church yesterday and they loved it. They were well received by the members and things are great with them. 

Y and C are doing well and they are changing and becoming more converted but they didn't come to church yesterday so that's the big difficulty with them. We're still trying to help them all get with the program so that they can be coming REGULARLY :) Hopefully they can go to church and stay for the baptism next week!!! 

Anyways, anything else you guys wanna know just save the questions until the 25th...or THREE DAYS :) I'm really excited to talk to you guys and I hope to be able to see you all :) haha!!! Thanks for everything, you guys are the best! Thanks for all of your support!

Elder Bushman

 

Oh, PS, I ran into a sister missionary at the temple...she just barely got to the MTC, she is from Cedar Hills, and said, "Elder Bushman, before I came here, I was reading your blog!" Haha, it was nuts, she said when she got her call she looked up Santiago Chile and found my blog and has been reading it for a few months, CRAZY :) FYI because I don't know if you know HOW many people read :) haha!

 

Chile Santiago East Mission Conference:

Elder Bushman is third from the right, bottom row of Elders

 

 

This is Elder Rhees and I drinking Mate out of a Piña! It was pretty darn good :D

This is mate out of an orange...EVEN BETTER!

This is the precision driving of the chilean people. You can BARELY see daylight there, it's crazy! 

This is Elder Hokanson and I on divs. We bought Chinese food...not bad chinese food here in chile!

 

Yr. 2, Week 38: The Spirit was Outstanding

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was a really cool week. We had a lot of sweet stuff happen. I'm just gonna dive right in:

We had a sweet experience with the new family we found, D, F, A & A. They are really really awesome because they are soo willing to pray and ask God if what we are saying is true!!! They are so receptive and we have had amazing conversations and lessons. They are reading what we leave and they discuss it :D They also went to stake conference yesterday. It was so amazing because so many people said hi and introduced themselves, the talks were just amazing, and the spirit was OUTSTANDING!!! Anyways, they had some questions and things but we had a great lesson with them yesterday after conference. I think they are going to be baptized pretty soon. I'm sending a photo of them! 

We had some other good experiences this week with O and M and R.  They decided to all get baptized on the same day, the 28th of December. It'll be good because we are going to be able to teach them EVERYTHING. It's going to be nice! Anyways, we had a great FHE with them in which they shared their testimonies and some of their experiences and it was neat. 

C & Y. Ya know, I think they are making progress. Y more than anything, but C is getting there I think. Ya know, I think he has trouble recognizing the spirit because it's really difficult for him to understand the concept of testimony! That's what we are going to be talking about tonight!!! Anyways, things are going well. Their baby got out of the hospital safe and sound, photo attached...

I'm excited for the chance to skype you all. Just 10 days, haha!!! 

Answers to questions:

Christmas Skype call: 3.00 your time, could you send me the info again?

About changes, I think that I'm going to stay with Elder Laurentino until the end...I hope so, he's helping me a lot and we can really see some long term progress if we say together :D

I loved the digital photo book you guys sent me! It's definitely been a highlight, thank you so much. I appreciate all the people who helped :) TELL THEM MUCHAS GRACIAS!!!

Thank you so much for the letters and cards and scripture studies...They are amazing! I'm learning a ton and I appreciate the love you express to me through those!!! 

Our plans for Christmas include hanging out with our zone, having Christmas dinner with the G. family, and visiting a few people after the skype call :D 

Thanks so much for everything guys! I really appreciate it!!

Elder Bushman

Photos at Cajon del Maipo:

A Christmas tree in our sector:

This is a stand we put in the street market in our sector...we did it with a few other elders, it was SOOO FUN :D

My comp's haircut:

A Sweet Lunch:

 M&O!

This was the Christmas Concert at the temple!!! :D

During the Week:

 Mate!