Yr. 2, Week 22: I've Been Drooling Over the Cap'n Crunch all Week!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, what a week! It was filled with lots of stuff what with my birthday and everything and teaching investigators and fulfilling responsibilities. First, I want to thank my family for the wonderful package and presents that they sent me! Seriously I was very happy on my birthday!  I had a great birthday. It didn't even feel like I was turning 20 but I woke up on my birthday and was just thinking as I was getting myself some mate. Haha, my companion made me pancakes, we opened my presents! Elder Thomas and I are loving the mini basketball hoop...we've already done some 1 on 1 matches :) haha! I've been drooling over the cap'n crunch all week! I've eaten about half already and even the other gringo missionaries in the zone are jealous! :D Thanks so much for the photos, the other food and stuff, etc! :D I was very happy with it all thanks! We had district class that day so everybody celebrated a little bit! :) Elder Rice was so awesome and gave me a tie for my birthday! Haha, he's awesome, LOVE HIM! That day we didn't have lunch with anyone in the ward so Elder Thomas and I decided to go home and make the corn bread I had gotten. We cooked it and spread some melted butter on top and it was DIVINE. Seriously, we baked it to perfecction!!! Golden brown! We also ate the cookie dough...all raw! JUST HOW I LIKE IT ;) Hahah!  Later that night we taught some of our investigators (C and J) and my comp told them it was my birthday so we celebrated a little bit and had once :) It was really fun and I was really grateful!

So we decided to do zone jerseys. There were a lot of ideas but Elder Deal wanted to do a design like a shirt and tie. I was a little skeptical but to be a good sport I decided to support it and everything! THEY TURNED OUT AWESOME! We got the tag on the front, a tie, and the collar looks just like a dress shirt collar! :) Hahaha, they look awesome! 

Our investigators are doing well. We've been dropping some investigators who aren't progressing at all but those who are committed have really been stepping up. I and M are doing well. M has been wanting to be baptized for AGES! She believes the Book of Mormon is true, she loves going to church, and she loves learning. I has dropped tea and she is reading the Book of Mormon a lot! They didn't go to church on Sunday so that worries us a little bit. C and J went to church! C went in a shirt and tie so that was cool! Everything is going well well with them and I'm confident they are going to be baptized on the 7th as planned!!! :D 

Anyways, that's the update for this week! Take care everybody, love you!

Elder Bushman!!!! 

 

This was my desk that E' Thomas accidentally tiped over...haha!

These three photos are of our pension churrasco date! This is Elder Nelson with his Lomito!

Me with my Lomitos

My Birthday Cake courtesy of Hostess

Birthday Presents!

YAH!!!!!!!!

Corn Bread Models?

Our zone jerseys! :D

We played a little basketball last monday! Here's a photo of me!

Here's a photo that Elder Nelson took of me before district class on my birthday! Mom, you can use this as the photo in the front room! The tie is kinda like the colors you chose!

District class on my birthday! :D

"Who the Lord calls, the Lord will qualify. When you're on the Lord's errand, you're entitled to the Lord's blessings." - Thomas S. Monson

Yr 2, Week 21: All of them have Baptismal Dates for the 7th of September

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, this has been a good week! There's not much to report so I'll keep it simple... Here's a little update on our investigators:

I and M -- I has a baptism date for the 7th of September as does her daughter, M. I is reading the BofM, she's dropped tea (which has been a big stumbling block for her), and things are going great. We need to make sure they are both good with the lessons in preach my gospel but they are getting really ready. I told us that before when she was meeting with the missionaries, she didn't really want to give up tea or read or go to church so when she was faced with the decision, she decided not to instead. Now she has the desire and it is showing in everything she does. She's learning a lot and she's having a lot of spiritual experiences :)

J and C -- They are both doing well. We taught J the first part of the plan of salvation and he really liked it. He's had a retention difficulty, so it surprised me when he was really retaining the information we were teaching him. We taught a lot about repentance and the atonement and it was neat to hear him say that he just wants to keep making changes in his life so he can be more like Christ. He is really focused on his goal and things are doing well. Also, C is praying on his own and is also remembering everything we are teaching him. He's a really good kid and they are definitely getting baptized. C's mom and dad, P and R have a date to get married at the end of December so that's a start for them :D

All of them have baptismal dates for the 7th of September and we are really confident that they will be baptized :)

We've had a few spiritual experiences this week that have been very edifying and though I don't have time to share them right now, they will be revealed in future years as people read my missionary journals :)

Love you all, Elder Bushman

 

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

Yr. 2, Week 20: We Were Able to Accompany him to the Temple

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, what a week... 

We had the great opportunity to go to the temple with a recently returned-to-the-church member named L! We had been working on his Family History work this week and he went down to the city hall here in Puente Alto and got all the certificates of death, birth, and marriage for some of his family members. We were also able to accompany him to the temple and he did baptisms and confirmations for his dad and his grandpa. :) He also gave two names to the temple so they could do his mom and his grandma :D It was amazing! The spirit was strong there but more importantly he is starting to become converted as he does this work for his ancestors. 

So we have a lot of investigators but they switch off progressing. One investigator will progress for like a week, then it's another investigator family's turn, then someone else, etc. HOWEVER, our investigators C and J are doing really well. We were able to have a few lessons with them this week and though they aren't retaining all of the information, they have the desire, they are repenting, and they enjoy it. They recognize the importance of the church and the gospel in what they are doing. J has had a problem with drinking tea and coffee but when we visited them the other day it was really neat because he said that he's stopped drinking them. He also said that the other day he was with some friends and they offered him tea but he said, "No thank you, my religion doesn't allow me to drink tea." 'What religion are you from?' "I'm from the mormon church and I can't drink tea or coffee." 'Why not?' "I don't know... One day I'll know but for now, I can't!" :D HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! AWESOME!

We visited the G. family the other day, an investigator family. The daughter, C, is the most interested but the dad is as well. The mom and the oldest son are just kinda there when we go by. However, when we went by this week we asked them what we shared last week... The dad and C didn't know... Then finally the mom told us almost word for word what we had taught. She always is doing things when we teach but we finally realized she's been paying a lot of attention the whole time! We helped them understand the RESTORATION better. We invited them to church but didn't end up going :S ERRR.... Oh well, at least C and J and their family went! 

Our other investigator I is doing fairly well. She really wants a testimony and said that she'll be baptized right off the bat when she feels more sure of her answer. She has had some experiences that are helping her and we invited her to read 2 Nephi 31 and to study it with her new desire. 

Answers to questions:

1. I enjoy teaching about repentance and the atonement the most I think

2. Our goals are to have 5 investigators with a baptismal date, 8 invest. in the chapel, have 8 lessons with invest. with members present, and have 2 new invest. (those are our basic goals)! 

3. Elder Thomas is hard working, CRAZY, really hyper, very loving, way fun, super funny, a great teacher. His first name is Markus but he goes by his middle name, Connor. He plays Lacrosse for Utah State Univ. He is a big music fan!}

4. We take the numbers every week, give the DLs the announcements, teach a zone class every month, do divisions with the DLs and those that are being trained

5. There are 12 zones in our mission!

6. I´M DEFINITELY COMING BACK TO CHILE ONE DAY....I think I may live here long term actually, a few years...NAH just kidding ;) 

Anyways, that's the week! Take care everybody, love you!

Elder Bushman

LUNCH...

MEXICAN...

San Cristobal...

  Family History, Temple Work, Investigators...

"Is it not time that we sent out a great army, not of uniformed men, but an army of missionaries to preach repentance to a world that is dying?" - Spencer W. Kimball

Yr 2, Week 19: They Both have Baptismal Dates for the 31st of August

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has been a good one! Elder Thomas and I have been working really hard and we've had quite a bit of success as well as disappointments. However, one of the things that I love about being with Elder Thomas is how light-hearted we can still be during discouraging moments. Even when an investigator drops us and we're feeling down, we are still joking around and helping each other stay excited and happy! :) It's really fun!

One of the really lame things that happened this week was when I went on divisions. Elder Milla and I, along with a youth from the ward, were out contacting and as we passed a little shop a man said hi and asked us how we were. We quickly began to talk to him and I was asking him some questions to find out a little bit about his beliefs when all of the sudden he began to chastise me for not treating him with respect. He asked me how old I was and when I told him he old me his age and told me that I need to be more respectful because he knows more than I do. I tried to explain myself a little bit and try to mend the misunderstanding but then he began to say that we are wrong, that we don't know what we're talking about, etc. It was really surprising. I finished up by sharing my testimony but as I started he just began to shake his head in disagreement and quote scriptures to tell me why we needed to study more and then we would see how foolish we were in believing that stuff. We walked away with a pretty bitter taste in our mouths but we knew what we were trying to do and what we were saying was true, so it didn't matter much. 

However, divisions was really fun because I got to know Elder Milla better. He is from Lima, Peru and we got along great. We also made a queque for the FHE we had and it was really fun. We've never made one before but the first try turned out really well. All of the less-actives in the FHE couldn't believe that we made it...good thing we took photos so that we had physical evidence, huh? :)

So we had some really good experiences this week with some investigators. Our investigator J.A. was doing really well. We explained a lot about the BofM and he committed to reading every night before bed. It was awesome and we set a baptismal date with him for the 31st of August. However, he didn't gt to church on Sunday and later that evening he gave us a call saying he wasn't going to be able to receive us in his home anymore. He said he had work obligations. We don't know too much but we are going to talk with him later on and find out more. We worked a little bit with J. this week and C. They both have baptismal dates for the 31st of August and they are progressing nicely. C. really wants to be baptized and hopefully everything works out so that he'll be prepared enough to make that day! Our other investigator family, J and I are doing well. They are still unsure about if the church is true. J is pretty sure, he wants to be more sure, but he believes the church is true. I. however is really hard. She wants to be 100% sure and it's hurting her progress a bit. Anyways, we're still figuring it out a little bit so we'll see. They are doing good, however. 

Last night I tried to teach Elder Thomas how to do the Rubiks cube...hahaha! He was so tired so everything I told him to do he did the opposite, haha! It was really, really funny! :D He's a really good companion!

Well that's all folks; I'll write more about my companion and his weird habits next week ;)

Love you all, Elder Bushman

 

(You'd think he never made a cake before...)

 

 

"A missionary's spiritual preparation will be strengthened by better family home evenings, by improved teaching in the Aaronic Priesthood and auxiliary organizations, by attendance at seminary and institute, by going to the temple to be baptized in behalf of the dead, by encouragement to read the Book of Mormon." - Gordon B. Hinckley