Yr 2, Week 32: "I'm Mormon, What Up?"

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow, things are really going by at a fast pace. Maybe it's because of the great sector or such an awesome companion or sweet people we are teaching or all the responsibilities or all of the activities...IDK, but time is going by fast and we are having a blast... Forgive the unintentional rhyming! ;) 

We had a good week. We have really been progressing with M. and O. They are so great!!! This week O. was reading the BofM and she turned to the part in 3 Nephi 15 where Christ talked about going to other sheep the weren't the nephites or the jews and she likened that scripture to herself thinking that she and her family are like the sheep and through the missionaries and the church Christ is visiting them. She said that after she read that scripture and after having prayed and asked God about the BofM she knew it was true :D WHAT?!?!?! :D We were super stoked! M. is still in the process, we are going to be teaching the Plan of Salvation this week, which is one of the things she has a lot of doubts about. Also, her heart has been changed and softened a ton. The only thing stopping their overall progress is the challenge it is to teach them regularly and also the fact that because of a commitment that her son has with soccer, she has difficulty going to church!

My new phrase and theme is what J. always says, "Soy mormón, ¿Qué pasa?" Or in english, "I'm mormon, what up?" :D haha, it's awesome! Hahaha!

We had a cool experience with R. this week. She has been having some struggles with believeing that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet so last night we showed the family the video of Thomas S. Monson. Now all they want to do is get their hands on an Ensign so they can read some of his talks :) Anyways, Romanette is definitely going to be ready to be baptized in December. Also, during the video of Pres. Monson, they showed the Salt Lake Temple and talked about the sealing between Pres. Monson and his wife and in that moment P. asked R. if she would get sealed with him in that temple! They want to got to Utah to visit and get sealed one day :D THAT WOULD BE SO SICK!

Questions...and Answers:

1. I would say that Sister Wright's role is almost as big as President's... In interviews, she has a part; in zone conference, she teaches; she goes on splits with the sister missionaries; she does office work; she is majorly in charge of the missionary health; etc. 

2. We won't be getting devices down here for a LONG TIME. President says they wouldn't be coming down here until an iPad is worth just about as much as your typical nokia standard phone (translation, a LONG TIME).

3. Well, about ward council, we're still working on them actually having the meetings. It's actually kinda rare that we have meetings but we are trying to start it up as more of a regular thing with more participation and commitment... When there are meetings, we always go!

4. No, the chileans don't celebrate thanksgiving. So come the last thursday of November, it'll be just another day. We might try and do something special though...buy a pie at least :)

Well, that's pretty much it! Take care guys, love you!

Elder Bushman

 

Some of the views from our sector...

Our Subway Trip...

 

"Be friendly. You have to make a friend before you make a convert. Conversion follows friendship. The opportunity to teach follows friendship." - Gordon B. Hinckley

Yr. 2, Week 24: THEY ALL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

We are so happy for how the baptism turned out. :) THEY ALL GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was really a miracle and we were able to see many others all week long as we were preparing them. I. bore her testimony in sacrament meeting. She talked about her change of heart, her desire to endure to the end, and how happy she was to be a new person and receive blessings for her and her family. A. (the older man who was baptized) had a rough life in the past but has made a 180° turn and was really touched by her testimony. He feels the exact same way and desires even more changes in his life. M. and P. have been wanting to be baptized for a long time and they were really happy to finally be baptized and start a life in the church. All in all, great baptisms! We had a lot of participation from the ward and the presence of some stake leaders in the baptism :) President and Hermana Wright went too. It was a very emotional Sunday!

Another thing that happened this week had to do with two other investigators of ours, F. (17) and N. (14). They have been wanting to be baptized for a LONG TIME but their parents won't let them. This week during a meeting, I felt the impression to have a fast for them. I talked to Elder Thomas about it after and we decided to ask them. We asked F. and N. and they agreed. We four started a fast for the hearts of their parents to be softened so they could get baptized on Sunday! They asked...and their parents said that they couldn't ... YET. In a way it was an answer to our fast. Their hearts seem to be softening and I believe that God wants to continue to test the faith of F. and N. as well as ours! :D Anyways, I know they will be baptized soon!!!

We went out to teach lessons with President Wright this week. At first I was nervous but it was really cool. If somebody asked me, I think this is my favorite thing about being a ZL...being close to president! We had a lot of fun! He's really funny, a good sense of humor. He told us a lot of stories and it was nice because we learned a lot about him and his life!!! We went and taught I. about the temple and family history work. It was really neat because her aunt was also there and she is Evangelical, just like I. She had lots of questions and was really interested. Having president there was perfect because when someone more mature teaches and testifies with experiences, it makes it so much more powerful! :D

Anyways, thanks for everything everyone! Til next week!

Elder Bushman

This is our line of white on Sunday...I feel slightly awkward sitting there in normal clothes next to these next to celestial beings!

This is Elder Nelson finally trying Mate...he HATED it, hahahahaha!!!!

"Gather the Saints, but do not flatter; invite, but do not urge, and by no means compel any one." - Brigham Young

Week 22: We're Working Hard

Hey family and friends! 

Things went well this week! ... All except the baptism we were going to have. That was the bummer of the week. More on that below. It's getting quite hot now with the weather changing a ton and the time change. It's 5:00 p.m. here now so when we Skype for Christmas, there will be a 4 hour time difference... But everything is good! :) We're working hard and helping lots of people so that's really good!

Congratulations to Allyson on her mission call! Independence Missouri, wow, my companion's mom went there on her mission. What a coincidence :) Mom, when does she leave? Give her my best :D Haha, yup, technically 5 months out into the mission today...the time is flying when I look at it from behind, but slightly intimidating when I look at it into the future. I try not to think about the time but it's hard sometimes. Oh well, I'm enjoying myself and I'm concentrated on the work! :) Wow, crazy about Ben P's mission! How's he doing? How is Hannah P doing? She's coming up on 9 months, halfway through her mission!!!! CRAZY :S Haha! Nope...I didn't get any mail, no letters, packages, nothing :( Hopefully this week. I did talk to Sister Wright and she told me to get some stuff from the pharmacy, so I did. I haven't seen many results yet from the stuff she told me to do but I'm just trying to be patient. (Problems with his feet) There is only one sector that uses bikes in my mission and it is where my buddy is, Elder Paxman. In my sector we walk everywhere. Often times when going to district classes or other places of that nature we use the Micro (or the bus) and the Metro (the Subway). Public transportation is very nice and updated here but the drivers are nuts and there are SOOOOO many people...it's crazy at times! I've almost fallen over in buses before :S Elder Frost is doing good! He hits one year in three days!!! He's pretty excited for that! Spanish is okay... I'm not dreaming in Spanish yet. Elder Frost says I'm getting better and that I would cruise through Spanish classes back home, but every day there is something new I didn't understand, someone new I didn't understand, and something new I messed up on and didn't know. But I'm working hard to learn it so maybe I'm just not meant to have a very expansive knowledge of Spanish... Idk... but if they have any questions, tell them to email me and I'll do my best (his siblings) :) Yeah I'm warm...too warm, haha! The shoes and clothes and everything are great! The hardest thing is to keep my white shirts clean. But I might have found a really good way to wash them... We'll see! :)

So we were all set for the baptism of J. this week but on Monday when we did a family home evening she said she didn't feel prepared, ready, or that she had received an answer to her prayer...the complete OPPOSITE of what she said the last time we went to her house. We tried to work through it with her but in the end we just told her she's going to have to make the decision. We haven't talked to her since (she hasn't been home) but we're going to try again today! Anyways, after that lesson I felt very discouraged because I was wondering what I did wrong in teaching her...what I need to work on and could've done better to help her get baptized. Then I realized that Elder Frost and I taught her everything she would have to know and do to be baptized, she just didn't put in all of the work necessary... Hopefully people will be better prepared in the future.

One funny thing that happened today was when a dog almost gobbled me up. We were walking down the sidewalk and all of the sudden a big German Shepherd stuck his head and arms through the bars of the fence and about took off my right arm. Whew, it was scary. I jumped back and mumbled, "Judas Priest!" My comp busted out laughing because the same thing happened to him about a week before, haha! The dogs down here are CRAZY! 

Well, that's about all for the week! Take care everyone, love you!

Elder Adam Bushman

 

And more personally he wrote in response to our letters:

HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! I was laughing so hard during the letter! The letter was awesome! I love reading the weekly letters :) The Jell-O story is classic, freaking John, hahaha! Ben is just soooooo hilarious! Ah, how cool, you all are doing so very well it makes me so happy that my prayers are being answered :) Love you all! Well mom, count on my help for lots of stuff when I get back. I've been getting a much clearer view of things out here and I feel very bad for some of the grief that I gave you guys about doing stuff and that I didn't help out more... I guarantee you'll see a difference in me when I come back home :) A difference for the better! Keep on trucking mom, you are soooo great!

"Missionary activity is the responsibility of all members. My brothers and sisters, I call upon you to organize yourselves and your families and bring the gospel to your neighbors and your friends."  - Spencer W. Kimball

Week 20: She Felt the Spirit so Strong!

Dear Family and Friends,

Thanks so much for everything you all sent me for my birthday!!! :) I had a fantastic birthday; honestly one of the most different but fun birthdays of my life! I'll relate a little bit of what we did for the rest of my birthday:

We went out and worked later that day and had a good lesson with our long time investigator Jacquelin. She has been off coffee for almost 2 weeks right now, so we are way, way stoked about that! It's really been cool to see how much better she looks and how much help she is receiving for her studies. Anyways, we talked about a September 1st baptismal date with her and she said she would pray about it. Later that week she told us she couldn't come to church and that she didn't receive an answer to her prayer so she doesn't want to be baptized on the 1st. Ugh...that was really frustrating...and unfortunately it set the tone for our week. After that, we dropped by David Tani's house. We were going to drop by and see if our investigator José was home but David said he had to grab a jacket. Anyways, we went inside, they flipped on the lights, and they had a surprise birthday party waiting for me! :) It was really fun!!! We had Inca Cola (a Peruvian soda drink, kinda like Cream Soda) and a good dish that I don't remember the name of! Haha, they had a cake and everything, really, really fun! David and his brother Christian have tons of photos that they're going to get me so that I can send them to you! Anyways, later that night Elder Pineda (an elder from our district) from the ward Tobalaba (a ward in our Zone) called me up to wish me a happy birthday! It was really cool, a really good guy :) So all in all, an amazing birthday!!!

Sounds like Ammon is doing really, really well! What a good guy, I love him! :D Can't wait to get his package, that'll be really cool!!! Hahaha, I love him! :) Thanks for going down to see him Mom and Dad and family! Way to go Evan, glad he is getting prepared and everything! Congrats to Christopher Holmstead also, he'll be a really good missionary, I'm really excited for him :D I'm glad you are all getting involved in the missionary work! It's really an important work and everybody talks about how much responsibility the members have in addition to the full time missionaries! It makes me really proud to know that my family is doing their part :)

The rest of my week was really up and down... We didn't have a single investigator come to the chapel yesterday. Boy it was frustrating! Several of them have baptismal dates and it is horrible when they don't come to church because we then have to move back their baptismal date... Ugh!! The hardest thing was not seeing our investigator, Marta, come to church. We went to her house on Wednesday and we felt impressed to talk about baptism with her. She said that she had been thinking about that all week long and that she knew she had to be baptized and start this path. She accepted a September 8th baptismal date and we were really excited! We also took her to the temple last Saturday and did a temple tour with the sister missionaries over there! She felt the spirit so strong! After the tour she said she was prepared and excited to be baptized. She commented that her experience during the tour was "more than beautiful." :) We were STOKED, we thought for sure that we'd have a baptism on the 8th of September. But...she didn't come to church and it broke our hearts, honestly. Anyways, hopefully this week will be better and we can work closer with Jacquelin, Marta, and our 10 year old investigator, Osvaldo.

Well, today I got a call from the mission president's wife. She asked me if I would sing a solo for our Zone Conference coming up on the 18th of September! CRAZY!!! :S I have to sing a solo and sing in Spanish...in front of a member of the Quorum of Seventy. Elder Ceballos, a member of the 70 is going to be there for our Zone Conference...no pressure :S It's a song from like this Joseph Smith cantada or something ... IDK. I get the music tomorrow! Haha, hopefully everything will go well! I'm excited but also really nervous.

Right now the mail strike is still going on :( They have been on strike now for more than a month!!! My feet are doing okay! The other day while we were walking they were hurting me quite a bit. Thankfully I was able to just ignore it and keep walking!

So that was pretty much my week, everything has been going fairly well. I'm over 5 months out now! Whoot! :D Time is going pretty quickly, I cannot believe that almost a fourth of my mission time is complete. That is just nuts... I'm going to be home before I know it :S

Love you all, take care!

Elder Adam Bushman

Completos

"The first convert you want to  make in this church is yourself. When you are sure you have him/her converted, then you start on somebody else."  - Harold B. Lee

Week 7: Instant Friends

(Photos Below)

Hey Family,

So I am almost out of time...sorry. But basically here's the most important things:

1. We're teaching a mom and son the lessons. They are Patricia and Vicente. We extended a baptismal invitation last night and they accepted. We got a date with them in the middle of June. Hopefully all goes well and we'll get them baptized!!! :)

2. Our area is big and ghetto. But cool! There's lots of really amazing people here and tons of work to be done. I'm excited to get down to business and begin to work and change some lives man.

3. I am so tired. This 16 hrs. everyday is wiping me out. But I am getting used to it and getting past the blisters and sore legs and fatigue. What doesn't kill ya makes you stronger...that's kinda been true out here on my mission, ahah! :)=

4. Elder Frost is awesome. He is helping me get adjusted, he is giving me opportunities, helping me with Spanish, and is just a great companion. We are supposed to work together and get work done. I am glad he wants to work and wants to make a difference and be the best missionary he can. That's my goal too! Whoot!

5. So the days before I left the MTC: I lead all of the meetings, sacrament meeting, priesthood, and devotional. Those were some of my duties as a zone leader. It was all in Spanish and kinda tough but it worked out okay. Also, Elder McGary and I did a duet, Nearer My God to Thee. We did a duet on the piano and sang together, switching off melody and tenor harmony. We killed it, it was awesome! Sister Allred, MTC president's wife, LOVED it...McGary is awesome. I have a feeling we could be comps later!

6. We have a good ward here, lots of good members...there is a bit more than 1100 members here! But on a good day, our sacrament meeting is about 80 people...shows how much work there is to be done. Elder Frost and I are gonna be busy!!! :)

7. Right now it is raining in Santiago, it's kinda cool. Different, because normally you wouldn't think of it raining in a Latin American country.

8. Elder Frost said that it is likely, very likely that we could be companions for three or more changes. So as in, companions until like September or October. He was with his trainer that long and President Wright is extending the time of companions with trainers and time with the same companion in general. I would be totally fine with that! :)

9. Here are some photos!!!! One is our whole group, the whole group and President and Sister Wright. These are the people that came into the mission. LOTS OF PEOPLE! The other one is me on the day into the mission field going to get my trainer. The other is me and Elder Frost... I don't know why it doesn't look good ... We'll get some better ones later.

Some Addendums (separate emails):

I did get the package, AMAZING! Thank you for the calendar, the hoodie, the goodies, photos, and the sweet letters! 


So about the letters. I have an hour in a half to email out here in the mission field. So I can get to pretty much everything. Send longer updates through the pouch, preferably typed letters and sent yourself because Dear Elder takes FOREVER :S Anyways, keep sending stuff through the pouch, longer updates and spiritual insights everyone has.
The new companionship is awesome! Elder Frost and I are so much alike and we became instant friends. He's teaching me a lot and he says I am teaching him which doesn't make any sense but whatever. We've already planned some stuff to do when we get back from the mission. He'll get home about October of 2014 which is about 5 months before I get back. He's awesome and we're kicking butt down here ... spiritually speaking of course ;) Our area is north east of Santiago, about 15  minutes away from down town in a ward called Consistorial. It's nice, pretty ghetto if that makes sense, haha! The first week has been a hard adjustment but very very rewarding. I really am enjoying the work here! We've been having some success and some disappointing things happen. But overall, we're doing really well. President and Sister Wright are awesome, really cool people and I like how they do things. REally cool people!!!
I'll send a bigger letter in a sec! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Elder A.B. 

Entering the Mission Field

Companions! They look more like TWINS!

Here are some photos of me and Elder Frost... This is a grafiti wall here in Santiago Chile. One of the soccer teams, Colo Colo is really big here. They are the "Crazy Indians"...both me and Elder Frost are "Colo Colinos", meaning we are big fans!!!! :)= So here is a wall for Colo Colo, our team!!!

Elder Frost

Elder Bushman

From Mom: We found out so much information this week! It is so nice that I can "talk" to him each week as I'm usually working on my computer in the morning or afternoon when he checks in. And finally, he got the package we sent! It's exciting to hear about the work and that his companion is such a blessing to him. He had to go 6000 miles away to meet the guy that lives a mile away in AF. With only 80 in Sacrament meeting out of 1500, they really have a lot of work ahead of them. I think these two Elders are going to ROCK!
 

"Get on your knees and pray, then get on your feet and work." - Gordon B. Hinckley