Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Photos Galore!

L. doing the game in our FHE

The photos that C. drew of E Muzante and I

Me and my comp with our photos

MATE :)

Me and my mate! (Mate? It's herbs, with hot water and sugar that you drink through a special straw... :) It's a brazil, chile, argentina, uruguay thing)

I finally convinced E Vorwaller to drink mate with me! :) These are our mate faces

Me with the mountain range in the backgroud...this was right after a rain storm!

STEPHEN'S :) E' Vorwaller gave it to me

A taste of home

PIZZA...the bishop gave us pizza for lunch the other day

E' V with our pizza


Here's my new agenda for this change... WORLD CUP

Muzante and I on our way up to Cajon de Maipo

Vorwaller and Capuñay on our way up to cajon de maipo

Vorwaller, Muzante, Capuñay, Hermano L, and I

Here I am "on the road again" :)

Elder Muzante and Elder Capuñay in the car

Elder Vorwaller and I in the car

We walked up a skii resort that hadn't opened yet...this is the lift that i'm standing next to

Me, Capuñay, and Muzante

The snow up to my waist!!!



Vorwaller and I

Hermano L. in an old truck we found up there

The climb to the summit

This was the dog that followed us for like 3 hours!

Me at the summit

The View

The View

Elder Muzante and I at the summit

Us jumpíng

Vorwaller and Capuñay jumping

My companion and I at the END OF THE WOR...MISSION! :)

My companion and I at the END OF THE WOR...MISSION! :)

Monday, June 23, 2014

Yr 2 - Week 13: So we Found a New Family!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a really good one, it went fast! :) We're already half way through the change, it's gone by SUPER FAST! :D

So I went on divisions this week with an elder in my district, Elder Lourentino, from Fortaleza, Brazil! :) It was so cool being on divisions with him. We had a lot of success and we had a lot of sweet experiences. One of the experiences was when we went to a part member family's home. We sat down with the sister and started talking but then we invited her brother (who never really listened to the missionaries) to come join us. His name is M. We decided to talk about church. We asked him what he expected to happen at church, why he didn't go the last time, etc. We pulled out some scriptures and explained why we go to church and how it is a commandment. Then we pulled out the lesson one pamphlet and read about church. We showed him the hymn book, we showed him some photos, and we explained everything he would be doing. He finally said, "Man, now I really want to go, I'm more excited!" We invited him to go and he said he would set his alarm and do everything possible. As we were leaving he gave me a hug and said, "Thank you, I promise, I'll do everything I can to go." I just talked with Elder Lourentino on the phone and he said that M. went, loved it, and is a progressing investigator :D I felt really good, knowing that my little effort and help in the teaching influenced him so much :D

So we found a new family! We got a reference from the mission about a week and a half ago and we finally set an appointment. We went by with F., our ward mission leader. We had a really awesome lesson centered around Christ, the temple, families, and some other principles of the Restoration. We sang "Families Can Be Together Forever" and talked about the spirit. We also gave them a Book of Mormon, the pamphlet of Lesson 1, and a photo of the Santiago Chile Temple. It is S. (dad), C. (mom), and A. (son, 11) / D. (son, 3). :) They are a super cool family and they would be perfect for the church. F. helped us out a lot!!! He's amazing! They had some commitments yesterday so they didn't go to church, but we're hoping that they go next week and that we can teach them about two times this week :D

Package... Here are some things I want!
     A box of Captain Crunch
     Reese's 
     A bunch of Christmas music (Vocal point, michael ball, whatev)ç
     
The biggest thing I want for my birthday...and you don't have to send it to me, is the  U.S.A. World Cup soccer selection jersey. I'm not sure how much it is or anything so if it's gonna make you guys mortgage the house, don't do it. But I've become obsessed with soccer and I'd like to have our country's jersey, especially since they are doing pretty well.

Anyways, thanks mom for everything! I love you all, thanks for everything!!!

Elder Bushman


This is a street in our sector....nuts...

This was the fog from the other day


Me and the fog

Hey mom, here's a photo of me that Elder Vorwaller took when we went up to Cajón de Maipo! :)

"Quite simply Our One Hope for spiritual safety during these turbulent times is to turn our minds and our hearts to Jesus Christ."
. . . . . . . . . .~ M. Russell Ballard

Monday, June 16, 2014

Yr. 2 - Week 12: The Greatest University on Earth...the Mission

Dear Family and Friends,

This was a really busy week in terms of meetings but in terms of the work it was still pretty slow. We had a WHOLE BUNCH of meetings, first we had district class on Tuesday, then we had a meeting with Elder Robbins of the Seventy, and then on Friday we had zone conference. We've been trying to find new investigators since some of them have dropped us and others got baptized. Anyways, we have lots of future investigators, a lot of people who say they are interested but we haven't been able to contact hardly any of them. We have lots of names and phone numbers and addresses but not much is happening with them. Oh well.

Zone Conference was really cool! President talked a lot about the Restoration. He talked about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and several different events surrounding it. It was super cool. I learned a lot and I really have lots to work on as a missionary and a member!!! :) Elder Robbins talked a lot about the Holy Ghost. He taught a lot about how we can learn by the spirit. He also talked about the greatest university on earth...the mission. He talked about how we are put through different classes like clean up 100, personal hygene, 101, patience 505, diligence 325, etc. He gave me a bigger lift to continue working hard and to have more patience. 

There was a baptism in our ward yesterday for the other elders, Elder Vorwaller and Elder Capuñay. They baptized an older guy named J. He's a really great guy and he's really become converted over the last two months or so. :) Anyways, it was a super cool service and we had fun.

I went on divisions with Elder Skousen, my zone leader, the other day. He is from Lehi and lives just 5 minutes away from Jack and Frances. He is way cool and I had a really fun time with him. There are so many cool people that I want to chill with after the mission. He's also going to BYU so I'm stoked for that!!! 

Man, I'm so tired. I've been really tired of late but it's going to be nice just chilling here on p-day :D We're going to be playing Monopoly in the pension and eating and cooking!!! Anyways, thanks for everything, I love you all so much and I'm happy to be out here! :)

I love you all!

Elder Bushman

Monday, June 9, 2014

Yr. 2 - Week 11: It Rained like a Mother Load

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, this week was wet and very cold. BUT IT WAS GOOD WEEK :) I was really strengthened this week through prayer and study and things are going well as a whole. FIRST, the rain...

This week it rained like a mother load. We had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday full of rain and Tuesday was also rainy. There were many days when we got back soaking, despite the umbrellas we had. When we got soaked, we put our things out to dry but the pension is so cold at night it wasn't even close to dry by the time we woke up!...ugh, it was tough! Haha! It has also been a bit tough this week to contact seeing as there wasn't a whole lot of people in the street and all but we are working hard and that is the most important thing!

L. and C. got confirmed yesterday... J. wanted my companion and I to confirm the kids so that was a really neat experience. We both felt impressed to bless them to be good examples and leaders in the church :) It was super cool! They are doing really well!!! :)

So today we went to a place called Cajón de Maipo! It's up in the mountains over Santiago, in the Andes :) We went as a group with a member in our ward, Hermano L.! We had such a good time, there was so much snow, we ran up the big snow slope to look out over the view. We got up there and some guy told us we couldn't make it up without chains...and he wanted us to rent chains for 30 bucks... Hermano L. was like, NOPE! He went up in his little Suzuki and got all the way to the top with no chains. We even passed jeeps that got stuck with chains :D We were rooting him on the whole way. We ate lunch up there and really just had a blast! Right now I'm quite tired but it was worth it, definitely worth it!!! I sent you guys almost all of the photos I took up there!!! :) It's really beautiful, it reminded me a whole lot of the ROCKY MOUNTAINS!!!

Love you all,

Elder Bushman

"The course of our lives is not determined by great, awesome decisions. Our direction is set by little day-to-day choices which chart the track on which we run."
. . . . . . . . ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Yr. 2 - Week 10: They Invited 40 Friends and it was PACKED

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, the baptism and Sunday was the biggest thing that happened this week. The week was so calm and I wasn't stressed about the baptism at all. Our ward mission leader was awesome, he took care of the font, the program, etc. The ward had a lot of support, especially the primary who did a special FHE at the G. house on Monday about baptism. Anyways, Sunday was awesome. There was a great turn out at church and one of the members in the ward brought her friend and so we sat with them. It was fast and testimony meeting and the member bore her testimony which was awesome. Also, J.L. (C. and L's older brother) bore his testimony and lots of the primary and youth did the same. It was SOOO AWESOME, probably the best testimony meeting I've been in!!! The spirit was strong. 

For the baptism, the G's invited about 40 friends and it was PACKED. Most of them weren't members so it was even cooler. President and Hermana Wright came and just loved talking with the members and the G. family. They asked us all about our story and it was really neat. The actual ordinance was fantastic. Afterwards, L's friend said, "Man I wanna get baptized like that!!!" Then he asked me, "Is the water warm?" I said yes. "WOW," he said. We are going to start teaching him and his mom. Also, while waiting in the foyer. I saw a mom and her son walk in look around a big outside and then start to leave. I had never seen them before so I stopped to talk and she and her son M. were so interested that they said we could share a short message with them another day :) It was sweet, we'll see how that goes. L. and C. are so happy, it was great. We were talking to J. and he said to us, "Well Elders we did it... Now let's start to work!" :D YEAH BABY!!!! 

In the next few weeks we are going to be doing a play for missionary work as a ward. The youth are helping us do a play about the Plan of Salvation. It's pretty sweet so far but we'll see how it goes. We're applying a lot of cool ideas :) 

Elder Muzante and I are looking for more investigators. We are contacting, asking for references, and doing anything/everything possible to get some new investigators. Hopefully some of the G's friends and some other possibilities that we have will turn out so that we can get the ball rolling :D

So I got the package! THANKS SO MUCH! I love the calendar, I already hung it up! I'm learning to do the Rubiks Cube with one hand ;) We've been enjoying all the treats and thanks so much for the letters! I appreciate it so much family, for the sacrifice it is to send me stuff like this!!! You are the best, LOVE YOU ALL!

Anyways, that's pretty much our week! Things went well :) We're stoked for this upcoming change now that today is changes and we are staying...obviously! :D

Love you all, BYE!"!!

Elder Bushman
 
The Package Finally Made it!

Easter - Six Weeks Late

FYI - The yellow stuff is mayo (Ughhh)

Dinner is Served


Baptism Day!

The G. Family

My Pension
 "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day. It is an effort of Once And For All."
. . . . . . . .~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf