Send any letters to the California mission home address (in previous post).
SECOND LETTER FROM THE MTC!
Subject: Re: We are in Utah!!
Sent: Fri, Jul 26, 2013 9:27:32 PM
Hello everyone!
I hope you are all doing great! I got your
package and all yours letters two days ago and I just sent you a letter in
return an hour ago. Thank you so much! I hope it didn't put too much more wieght
in my luggage. Mom can you put some extra money on my card just in case I have
to use it to pay for the luggage. I'm supposed to get reembursed by my mission
president when I get to California for luggage payments. Also I need stamps. Can
you send me like one or two pages of stamps please? That would be great! I got
the shot records and I am good to go. I don't know about attatchments. Try and
I will let you know if it works.
This week has been great. I don't
remember if I said that I was asked to coordinate sacrament for sacrament
meeting on Sunday's but I was so I got to do that Sunday. I also sang a duet
with another Elder for the intermediate hymn. It was hymn number 112. He asked
me to sing with him 20 minutes before sacrament meeting and somehow we managed
to put it together a cappella and we actually sounded pretty good! I loved
getting the chance to sing again and show off a little bit. Oh and Sunday we
watched a devotional from Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ. It was
one of the best talks I have ever heard. It made me want to repent for things I
haven't even done! It has changed my life. Monday was my first time to teach a
TRC investigator. It is a mock meeting with an investigator but we make it seem
so real. It didn't go as we wanted and actually afterwards I felt pretty
discouraged. We felt like he just wanted to argue the whole time and he wouldn't
agree to do anything we asked him to. That night when I got to my room my
roomates and I just laughed about the day and had a great night to wind down and
just enjoy each other. I don't know if I have ever laughed so hard for so long
in my life! It was awesome and just what I needed. I love my roomates and I am
so glad that they are all going to Riverside with me. These guys are so amazing.
Monday was also my first day to get to go to the gym and play ball! It was
awesome but only an hour long so it was too short. Tuesday we cleaned some dorms
for a service project. After that I took an hour long nap becausee we had time
to before our next meeting. It was one of the best naps ever! I needed it so
bad. Then we had district devotional. Wednesday We planned for our next TRC
lesson but we had no idea what to teach him because of how bad our first lesson
was with him. So we decided to teach him about the Book of Mormon and hopefully
be able to give him one. But when we talked with hime he wanted nothing to do
with it. He let us give our message but he wouldn't accept the Book of Mormon or
even a pamphlet about the Restoration. He wouldn't pray about it either. The
difference between this lesson and the last is this time it was not an arguement
and we ended up just talking with Eric about his life and I began to love him as
I got to know him. I've come to realize that that is the key to missionary work.
To have the Spirit with you at all times and to love your investigators. I came
out of that lesson not discouraged, but enlightened and happy. I felt like we
had done our job even though Eric hadn't accepted our message. It ended up being
a great day and I have learned a lot from that experience. Everything during the
day has been classroom time where we have just been learning more and more about
how to better teach. I have learned so much. We also had another gym time
Wednesday and that helped to relieve some stress and get out my energy. It was
more fun than the first time and I had a blast. Thursday, yesterday, we had an 8
hour long "infield Orientation" all day long about how to work with members in
the the field. After dinner I had my last gym time and I had a great time. It
was nice to be able to work of some of the food that we've been eating. Oh I
forgot that Wednesday we were planning for another investigator that we have
been teaching for a week now and I needed help knowing if we should ask him to
be baptized our next meeting and so I decided to just open the Book of Mormon at
random and point to a random scripture. 6 times in a row each scripture was on
repentance and baptism and I knew I had my answer. That experience strengthened
my testimony of the Book of Mormon and revelation immensely. Today I got to do
my laundry and after lunch in ten minutes we are going to the temple grounds to
study. I forgot to say that the temple is closed for like 6 weeks right now so
we don't get to go at all while we are here at the MTC. Today is one of the best
days of the week because it's PDay and I get to relax and maybe even take a nap
before or after I finish all my letters and writing in my Journal. Tomorrow we
get to practice tracting and we will meet and try to teach two new strangers.
One in the morning and one in the afternoon. It should be interesting and I am
really nervous for this more realistic practice experience. I might be singing
again in church Sunday. Hopefully I wont have to give a talk. We all are
supposed to prepare a 3 to 5 minute talk on one of two topics and at sacrament
meeting our branch president will call two people from our zone at random to
give talks so I need to prepare something for that as well. And that night we
get to see another devotional and I can't wait! Monday is packing day and some
last classroom meetings. And then we leave Tuesday morning at 4:30 to
California! The weeks feel like days and the days feel like weeks. It's crazy. I
have grown so much. I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again. This
will probably be my last email until next Monday so have a great week and I look
forward to getting to share with you what my experiences are. I've also got the
greatest district leader ever!!! His name is Elder Weinert and he just told me
he wanted me to put him in my email so here it is. He isn't going to California
with me but he has become one of my close friends and I love being around him.
He is a great guy and really funny. I'm going to miss him a lot. I miss you all
and love you so much. Until next email.
Love,
Elder Bushman
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