Week 45: When we put our Faith into Action, we get Results

Dear Family and Friends,

Sounds like many fantastic things are happening back home and out here! Congrats to the b-ball players for the championship :) That's really awesome! This week has been an interesting week...I would say that this change has been an interesting change. Elder Kern and I are learning many lessons out here that are coming from many different sources. It has been really interesting seeing a different purpose this change.

Workwise, this has been the toughest week of my whole mission. We only taught four lessons to investigators this week. From the start of the week we saw appointment after appointment fall through. We had previously invited members to these lessons so we brought them anyways. Unfortunately, we didn't receive much success on these attempts. We were able to meet with a lot of less-active members and two of them came back to church for the first time yesturday for Stake Conference... The batteries in my camera were dead so I wasn't able to take any photos. Anyways, despite the poor numbers and the lack of work, we did see several miracles this week that I want to share :)

I would say the first miracle for us happened this wednesday. For a few weeks now we have been teaching a woman named V. (she was taught many times by missionaries before hand). She has been hesitant to commit to a date for baptism for a variety of reasons. (chastity is probably the biggest problem we face out here). Anyways, we decided to invite her to be baptized so we planned out a good lesson, prayed for the spirit, and pleaded that if it be God's will, that we could set a baptismal date. We went and invited her...she declined and expressed her worries again. FORTUNATELY, we had planned for this and knew EXACLTY what we wanted to do. We followed our plan and by the end she accepted the invitation and we are all working together to get her baptized on March 9, the day before changes. :) Anyways, this was a miracle because she had rejected every other invitation we or the other missionaries had extended. Truly it was a testimony to me of when we put our faith into action, we get results :)

Another experience was yesterday. We were walking and walking and walking...we didn't have a single appointment so we just went by our plans, which quickly ran out. We kept on walking, visiting anybody we could think of. Finally, at 9:00, an hour before going home, we had no idea of what to do. So we sat down on a bench, said a prayer as a companionship asking for guidance, and then pondered for a bit. We were pondering for about 5 minutes and when we started to talk about where we should go, there were a LOT of different ideas. We felt as though we had a "stupor of thought." So we thought some more. Finally, I said, "Well, maybe if we act we will be guided." So we set out to visit a couple that aren't really investigators of ours, but they aren't members. Anyways, when we passed by and the husband came out, he said, "Come on in." WOW, we hadn't heard that in a long time. We went in and had a great conversation about what we do and why we do it. We invited them to hear our message about eternal marriage (this couple has been married for 39 years, quite rare here). They were really interested so we are going to show them "Together Forever." We left them with a pass along card with the temple on it and a brief description of what goes on inside. We weren't sure if we should do a prayer so we thought "Next time," but then the wife blurted out as we all stood up, "BUT WAIT, what about the prayer!" (angels sang)! Haha, it was a cool experience. Anyways, we are excited to visit them again soon :) Their names are L and L, a really nice couple; they'd be good for the church!!!

Another experience is that an investigator family of ours got back from vacation. We met with the mom (member) and she commented to us about how much her three boys (non-members) love us and love what we have shared so far. We talked with her about the temple and shared with her how baptism and preparation afterwards helps us qualify for the blessings that lie in the temple. We told her that one year after baptism, her family can go to the temple. She is really excited and we are going to present the plan to the rest of her family, the boys and her husband (non-member). We have been planning an amazing lesson for them and we plan to invite the boys and the husband to be baptized and set a date for them. :) We are really excited and we feel that it is the will of God that this happens. We'll let you know how it goes!!!!! :)

Elder Kern and I watched a video this week about Zion's Camp. We talked about how most of the participants had a different view of what their mission or purpose was in Zion's Camp. As we all know, their mission wasn't to reclaim their land and liberate the saints again, it was to prepare the future leaders of the church. I applied this principle to my missionary service. I don't know exactly what the purpose is or when I have done enough. What I do need to do is not complain, keep working hard, and prepare myself to be the best servant and leader in the mission and afterwards that I can. :)

That's all for this week; take care everyone!!!!

Love, Elder Adam Bushman

"We are all in this together. With fellow ward members and missionaries, we plan and pray and help one another. Please keep the full-time missionaries in your thoughts and prayers. Trust them with your family and friends. The Lord trusts them and has called them to teach and bless those who seek Him."

Elder Neil L. Andersen