Week 42: This is our Change, This is our Change!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, what a week!!! It was full of a lot of running around and getting stuff done. Elder Kern and I did two divisions this week and boy did it tucker us out. Divisions are fun in that we do different things and it mixes things up, but I love being with my companion, not necessarily just Elder Kern, just being with my companion in general. :) Anyways, we just had changes and...... I'm staying again!!! :D Haha, Elder Kern and I are going on another change together! This will mark our 4th change together. We are both really excited! We've got a lot of plans and a lot of goals we want to fulfill. We keep telling each other, "This is our change, this is our change!!" We didn't have a baptism this last change but we know what we need to do better in order to get one. We are teaching about 5 families right now and we have about 3 more that are future investigators. :) We really want to help baptize a family this change and we know what we need to do in order to get it done!

I want to share two experiences from this week. First, this last week I was trying to figure out what I should teach about. I was looking at the results of our district from the last week and I wasn't seeing anything that I needed to address, our district was doing really well. I sat there thinking and pondering and then it occurred to me...maybe as a district we don't need to improve anything really pertinent, but maybe there are things that the individual missionaries need to improve on. And from there, I remembered my personal study on "Humility" and "Charity, Love" from a few days ago. I started basing my class on that and the class was basically centered on the fact that we have personal weaknesses that we cannot overcome on our own. We need to humble ourselves and seek the Lord's will and help in overcoming our challenges. We also need to show our love for God in doing hard things, not because we want to, but because He wants us to. Anyways, we read a lot of scriptures and studied PMG. I thought it was a really good class but I didn't think too much of it. The other night when getting the goals for the next week from the sister missionaries in our district, one of the sisters said that the class I prepared changed her life as a missionary . . . wow. I had no idea, and I was so unsure of how to respond, so I just said I was glad and thank you. Anyways, it was super cool to me that by following the spirit, I was able to help this sister missionary be the best missionary she can. Anyways, it was super cool :)

The second experience is when we were talking to a couple in our ward. They talked about how they came to the knowledge of the gospel. They said they had a lot of problems, family, economic, etc., and these problems were taking their toll. The dad would drink and the mom was fed up. Then one day the dad was walking home and the missionaries stopped him. They asked if they could share a message so he said to come the next day. So they did! When the elders showed up, the mom told her husband two missionaries wanted to see him. He said, "Show them in." The mom was so shocked that her husband was going to talk with them. The next morning she was even more shocked when her husband got up early, showered, and got dressed. She asked him, "Where are you going." He said, "I'm going to church." She was dumbfounded. Two months later he was baptized and a few months after so was she. :) Now they are sealed in the temple and are super active, super great members. It was just a testimony to me that people change and need the gospel :D

We've been following the spirit a lot this week and inviting him more and more into our lessons. We had FANTASTIC lessons with F.,  A. and A.,  G. and her family, C. and her family; and more. It's been really cool to see. We don't really have any baptismal dates and no one went to church yesterday and lots of people are leaving for vacation. Ugh, it's kinda annoying... But, we have a lot of people to visit and we are looking for more so we are SOO excited :)

That's it for this week! Take care ya'll!!!

Elder Bushman

 

This is how we do missionary work in SANTIAGO CHILE!!!

Elder Lee's last day - he's going to train!

 

"No power on earth or in hell can stop this work or thwart the purposes of the Lord to have His soul-satisfying gospel message go to His children. It may take disasters in many forms to bring it about. But the purposes of God will be achieved. His children will hear the gospel of salvation in His own due time." - Ezra Taft Benson