September 24

Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: Heading Home to Midland!

Hey everyone!!

I'd say welcome back home but I'm not there either! Haha I'm glad you are back safe. It sounds like you and Dad had a total blast! I'm glad that you were able to do that and have such a great time together. I really loved your pictures that you sent. It looks beautiful. Dad you are a stud. You're the only one in the picture kayaking without gloves in the lake! Haha ;) I'm glad that the kids did well while they were home alone. 

Well this week was super slow. I was hard to find things to do and everyone seemed to reschedule their appointments with us for this next week. And on top of that it was Elder Carbonneau's last week on his mission. It was super hard to see him leave Monday morning. He is already home and texting on his new phone! Haha We had a blast together during the 7 and a half months that we served and lived with each other! He was a great trainer and I'm gonna miss him a lot. There isn't really a whole lot to report for this week so I'll try to share some of the high points. Monday night we had dinner with the Z__ family who moved from the ward this last week. For some reason their little 3 year old boy, C__, just really liked me and he would always come sit by me during Elder's quorum as his dad would teach the class. And after dinner C__ (who absolutely loves baseball and wants to be a catcher and me be his umpire) got one of his many baseballs and "signed" it for me and then the rest of the kids did as well. He is such a cute kid and I'm gonna miss them. The ward will too. They are a great family. Tuesday was the last District Meeting for 3 out of the 6 missionaries in my district and we actually ended up combining with another district for the meeting which meant that somehow I was able to get out of training! It was so nice to get to sit back and listen to someone else talk and train again. I'm going to start having my district members train for me during our DDMs. 

Wednesday we did a ton of unexpected service. That morning we helped a member from one of the sisters ward move and then went to the community food cupboard and helped move some stuff around for them. When we got home Carbonneau and Plotkin were asked if they could help a member of their ward take off the shingles of his roof so we tagged along and had a great time! It was a lot of fun and I felt great after we got home. Especially after I got a nice cold shower after being in the 100 degree sun all day long. Thursday night and Friday morning we deep cleaned the apartment for apartment inspections from the mission housing coordinators Friday morning and we passed! And you know who had to clean the toilet belonging four teenage boys? Yup it was me. It was the most disgusting thing ever! Mom I promise my toilet never ever was that bad! Haha I'm praying it will stay clean for a while but we will see how that goes. 

Saturday was a lot of fun. It was transfer day and so we were talking to all of our buddies around the mission seeing who got leadership calls and where everyone would be transferred to. That night I gave my fourth baptismal interview for a man who my sisters were teaching. I have never seen someone who wanted so bad, was so excited for, and had been so prepared to enter the waters of baptism! It was such a great experience interviewing him and hearing of his conversion and story. He inspired me to be so much more than I am now. It was wonderful! It was a little weird that there was a stake youth dance at the building at the same time so showing up to a dance with the sisters behind us looked a little funny Haha. And as soon as we finished we booked it over to Elder Felix and Vang's trailer for our traditional transfer Saturday Bonfire! It was a blast and yet a little solemn knowing that 3 of the elders there were going to be going home. We finally got the calls and I will be staying here to finish Elder Hoyt's training and Elder Folau is coming back to be Elder Plotkin's comp and will be living with me!!! I am SO excited! I love Elder Folau! We are going to have such a fun transfer! I'm so stoked!

Well that was my week. Sorry it wasn't the longest or most detailed email but that's kind of how I felt about the week so it's whatevs.  I hope you all have a great week. I'm looking forward to mine! Can't wait to hear from you again! 

Love,

Elder Bushman

Here is my mission family picture! 

Elder Hoyt-my boy/son and Carbonneau's grandson

Me-Carbonneau's boy and Hoyt's dad

Elder Tui'one- Hoyt's mom

Oct 6 General Conference Weekend!!

 Sent: Monday, October 6, 2014 6:48 PM
Subject: General Conference Weekend!!

Hello Everyone! 

So we are running low on time today (It was pretty busy) so I will try to write as much as I can. We had a great week that brought many lessons learned and miracles! Didn't you love Conference?! I absolutely loved it! I've started thinking that the Saturday sessions are my favorite for some reason. They were absolutely amazing! I hope you all find the time to watch them all. There was a definite theme of following the prophet and cleansing our lives of sin through not just repentance but also through serving others in every way possible. I learned so much this weekend. Those leaders are truly called of God. I know they are! I'm looking forward to getting my box of pictures! It will be a good project for me. Keep up the great work Kenzie! You are doing awesome! That's super cool Tanner that your band is doing so well! Don't forget about everything else that is important though too. Make sure you get your Eagle Project done soon! Dude Chan the Man! Way to go on scoring another goal in your game! And I don't even know what to say to you Logan. You're just a boss at everything! Keep up the hard work bro. You're going to go places. A lot more than me! ;) So Dad you finally got the car of your dreams huh? Haha That is awesome! I hope I get to see a pic soon. I'm excited for you! Keep up the running mom! I'm impressed and proud of how well you've stuck with it. You have really picked up the miles too! I wouldn't even think about doing 4 miles in one day out here. I really really like what you are doing with prayers with the kids. What are the things that I can pray for each one of you? I want to include your specific needs/wants in my prayers too. That is such a great idea!

So my week really started on Wednesday since we spent most of Tuesday in Moreno Valley and Riverside helping some other elders with truck issues. Wednesday we had a lesson with E_ and put her on date to be baptized on the 26th of this month! Then we had a lesson with and picked up J_ as a new investigator. She is a sophomore in high school and there used to be members living with her and her family. She seems pretty interested and very open to new ideas and truths. She also accepted to be baptized on the 9th of November! Thursday morning we had a lesson with A_, saw E_again and that night we taught D_. We went into the lesson ready to teach lesson 3 (Gospel of Jesus Christ) and include some of the commandments. Before we began our message we opened up the conversation for questions that he might have for us. he brought up tattoos and after we helped him understand that no one here would ever shun him for having tattoos on his body, the questions turned towards coffee. And that is when he told us that during the past week he had woken up in the middle of the night and his arm had been spazzing out. It was so bad that it kind of freaked him out and he went to the doctors for help. After examining it, the doctor told D_ that if it happened again that he needed to come back because it could be something wrong with his nerves and brain, OR it was just his caffeine intake. So you know what he did the morning before our lesson? He swore off coffee and tea because he knew that that was what had caused it all. And then for us to come and teach about the Word of Wisdom was just an additional spiritual confirmation to him and us that God truly does play a part in our lives and everything does happen for a reason! He is still looking forward to being baptized on the 19th and I pray that everything will work out! Friday right after a great Zone Meeting we drove over to Brother L_'s for lunch and a lesson with I_! We taught all of the commandments of lesson 4 and she is completely ready to be baptized. We just have to make sure that she can stay away from coffee and tea from now on. We will be working with her on that. She is so ready and during that lesson as we talked about her baptism she and Bro. L_ asked Elder Hoyt if he would baptize her and if I would confirm her! I am so excited! I have to admit I was a little jealous that he was asked to do the baptism instead of me since I've been working with her for a lot longer than him but I know it will be a great experience for him and a life changing moment for all of us involved! 

Saturday and Sunday consisted of basically General Conference. I would have to say that the three talks that spoke to me most this last weekend were from Elder Robbins (right after Packer Saturday morning), Elder Holland's, and Elder Christofferson's. I learned a lot from all of them though and it was super cool to have some of the speakers talk in their native languages too! Today we were able to combine PDay with the Lake Elsinore Zone and watch the Meet the Mormons movie at the Stake Center! President Mullen got special permission to show it to us and it was really good! I highly recommend seeing it and definitely showing it to our nonmember friends!Tonight we should be having a lesson with J_ again. I'll let you know next week how it goes! 

Well I better go. I hope you are all doing well and enjoy this next week. Remember to Pray, Study, have FHE, and go to the temple! I know that the Lord will bless us all if we return to the basics and live and learn as children, humble, meek, and submissive, willing to submit to the will of the Father. Until next week! Lots of love from California!

Love,

Elder Bushman

Sept 29, Okay It's Not Really October....Is It?

Sent: Monday, September 29, 2014 6:28 PM
Subject: Okay It's Not Really October....Is It?
 

Hello all Y'all!!!

It's great to hear from you! And way to go Lee! Good job Tanner and Logan! Due Logan way to be and get 2nd chair!That is so sick! I'm stoked for you! And Tanner if you get to take someone else's spot work hard and you can be right there with him! You guys are doing awesome! Can you send me the names and chairs of everyone that made it? That's awesome that Kenzie is getting more into the singing thing! I'm excited to see what everyone is like when I get home. It sounds like you are all changing and growing a lot. Especially Chan with his Spanish, chess, and yearbook interests. I love and miss you guys so much. I do remember us trying a little bit to memorize that. I don't have all of JSH 1:15-20 but I do have the First Vision portion down. I absolutely love quoting that in lessons! Nothing else brings the spirit more than those words recounted by the boy Prophet Joseph Smith! Good luck with that and I'll try to remember to ask you about it every now and then. I hope McKenzie is feeling better. That's too bad she had to miss the Conference. It seems like there were some great topics talked about. That's a lot of damage done at the Scout Camp! I'm sure they needed all the help they could get. Isn't it great to know Dad is such a great guy that he would go out there to help?! What a great example for the rest of us! So I can't believe October is really here already. This is my last Halloween on the mission! That blows my mind. What's even crazier is that depending on when Logan puts his papers in I might not see him for 4 years!! I don't know how much I actually like real life starting. Haha It's crazy!

Well this week was a pretty decent week. Tuesday we had a super long service project helping a member move. Wednesday I emailed you and we had our first District Meeting of the transfer. I have three companionships besides Hoyt and me in my district. 2 sets of elders and 2 of sisters. It's weird having a bigger group but I think I'm gonna like it a lot more. I will be able to have more conversations and others involved. It'll be good. That night a member took us out to Sizzler's (a steak place) that was super good. Thursday was when the real good work started. We stopped in on E- and had a short meeting with her. She seems like there is a lot of potential for her to accept what we have to share. She's been looking a church lately and I told her this is the one she's been looking for. After dinner that night we got dropped off at the C--'s home (family in our ward) who's daughter's boyfriend, D--, has been coming to church for the past 3 weeks and finally accepted to take the lessons. So we got to teach him the first lesson. It was a rough start. Because of all the service and random things that kept poking up this week in the mornings we hadn't been able to study as effectively as we should have and we could feel the difference. And Elder Hoyt was really struggling that whole day. He has a stuttering problem that stops him from teaching as clearly as he wants to which means I usually take over the lesson once he starts having a hard time getting his point across. In this case Brother C-- was able to step in and help and get D-- to understand what we were trying to put across to him and after that point we both said a prayer in our hearts and were able to bring the Spirit in and invite him to be baptized after which he said yes! It will be the third week of October if everything goes well. I learned a lot from that lesson. No matter what, we are going to make sure we study every day. After the lesson we drove to the church and Elder Hoyt asked me to give a him a blessing to help with his stuttering. It was a very very special, spiritual moment during which I know without a doubt that God spoke to him through me and there is no way I would have known to say what I did unless I had been listening to the spirit. The Priesthood is real. I testify of it's power and authority. It is the power and authority of God given to us and I am so grateful that I have the blessing, privilege, and responsibility of holding that precious gift. I finished and with tears streaming down his face Elder Hoyt embraced me with a huge hug and said "That was beautiful." We grew a lot together that night. I will never forget that experience. And I testify that because of his faith and the words that came from God through that blessing, Elder Hoyt has already begun to be more confident and talk mush more easily. After Nana and Papa sent me a letter in which it talked about using your Priesthood instead of just holding it, I have truly started to understand just how much power and trust Heavenly Father has give me by letting me use His Holy Priesthood. We can perform miracles. We can heal those that are sick. We can make the blind see, the lame to walk, and raise the dead! We literally and truly do ALL THINGS if we but have faith in our Savior Jesus the Christ. He has given us the tools to do so! Never again will this power be taken from the Earth!

Saturday we did some more service, this time weeding the yard of an older couple in the ward.  Sunday was slow to begin with. At church D-- and I-- came to church and really enjoyed it. We will be meeting with D--  again on Thursday this week. At church Brother L-- invited us over for dinner and a lesson with I-- which we were expecting. As soon as church was over we went home and prayed and studied and role played for our lesson with I--. We knew we wanted to focus on baptism with her and help her understand it  and right before we went over we knelt down and prayed to know what day we should invite her to be baptized on. It came down to the 12, 18, or 19. After our prayer Elder Hoyt said that he felt really good about the 12 and so I said okay lets do it! Dinner was really good. Brother L-- is a great cook. We had steak! Oh by the way, this is probably important to know haha....Brother L-- proposed to I--  on Saturday!!! They are gonna get married soon! We talked with them and I think it will be this October! I'm am so excited for them and you can just see how happy they are together! It's awesome! And what's even better is about to come. So beforehand I told Hoyt that this was his time to really lead the lesson. I wasn't going to start it. It was all him. And he did a really good job! I was impressed. I had also told him that when it was time to invite her to be baptized I was going to tap his foot and he was going to be the one to invite her. Well we explained everything and she really started understanding and you could just tell she wanted to commit. So when the Spirit said to, I tapped Hoyt's foot. In my mind I expected him to do the normal thing and lead into the invite cuz it was in the middle of our discussion. Obviously that was not what was going through his head though. Instead he looked at I--  and said (with only a slight stutter, "I--....will you be baptized on October 12th?" I have to admit my heart dropped a bit and I was so scared! Haha It was so abrupt that it caught not only me but everyone else of guard and we all looked at I-- to see what her response would be. She took a moment and then said that she wanted to be baptized but couldn't on the 12th because she has work. Then she said that she would have the next weekend off. I looked at Hoyt trying to give him the look that would say "Then invite her to be baptized on the 19th!" Well he was already there and right on top of it. And as we sat there in silence waiting, I could see the Spirit change her countanence and as a smile crept onto her face she said "Yes I will be baptized on the 19th!!!" I tell you what I was so happy and so excited as was Elder Hoyt! We got into the car and the first thing he said was "Can we go to the church I need to use the bathroom." He had gotten so excited that he almost peed his pants!! Haha We were on top of the world that night and we will be meeting with them again Friday afternoon to teach the rest of the lessons to her! I love it! I feel like the Savior did with the love that I have grown for I-- and Brother L---. They are just amazing people and there is nothing like being able to be a part of the Spiritual changes in someone's life towards Jesus Christ! 

We celebrated that night by playing mini pool at our apartment and just having a great time! I am so looking forward to this week! It's going to be great! I hope that you all have a wonderful week and really try to make the difference in someone else's life each day wherever you are. Keep up the great work! Practice Practice Practice Logan, Tanner, and Kenzie. Good Luck! I love you guys!

Love,

Elder Bushman

Sept. 15 - Great Week!

Sent: Monday, September 15, 2014 5:19 PM
Subject: Great Week!!!

Hey everyone!!

I can't believe you are probably in Alaska right now on a cruise! That is so cool! I'm not sure if you'll be able to receive this email or not but I guess just in case I'll send it anyway. ;) haha Can you send some of that rain and cooler weather over this way? It's 105 degrees today and will be the rest of the week! I walk outside and start sweating! Congrats Kenzie on getting first place with your team in your run! that's awesome! . . .  Congrats Logan on being Choir Beau! That is way cool! I'm a little jealous cuz you actually got to do the parade. ;) Way to go Tanner on getting the cheerleader float! Haha Are you gonna take the Rockhounds offer!? That's a pretty sweet deal man! Sounds like piano practice is still going normal.  That's really cool that you got to go out with the sisters again. And I'm glad that you got to follow up with Mrs . . .! Keep up the work! :) 

Well my week was pretty great! A lot of things happened so I will try to get them all into this email as much as I can. Starting with Monday, Z-- (the 19 year old that comes out with us all the time) set up an appointment for us with one of his friends! Her name is S-- and she is pretty cool. We had a really good first lesson with her and invited her to be baptized. She is super open and accepted the invitation. Her only hold up will be getting her to church because she works only on the weekends all the way through church. But other than that S-- seems very sincere and interested to learn! Pretty cool experience for Z-- to invite his friend and have her start taking lessons. The reason he invited S-- was one day at the P--'s there was a party and she was there and we told him to go ask her if she would be interested and without hesitation Z-- went right over there and had a good long chat with her and another friend and shared his testimony and after that she said she would like to learn! Awesome experience! After our lesson with her she actually fed us! It was a pleasant surprise. Although I was a little apprehensive due to the fact that as soon as we left we had to go to the Bishop's for our real dinner appointment! During which we challenged him and his family to share the Book of Mormon we had given them a few weeks ago. And then we went over some names with Bishop that we had on our list that we didn't recognize. During the prayer for dinner his little boy T-- said something I thought was very interesting and inspiring (and he didn't do it on purpose but I noticed it) and I'll just quote him..."Please bless the food that we are thankful for" Rather than blessing all the food he only blessed the food that we were thankfull for. I told Elder Hoyt afterwards that I hoped he was thankfull for it all otherwise it wasn't all blessed! 

Tuesday was another District Meeting, afterwhich we went to the Olds home again. I don't remember if I told you before about them but Brother O-- is actually 92 years old and his wife is not a member. Brother Cromar from the Bishopric asked us to stop by and helped G-- (bro o--) put up some curtains. When we got there Mamason (sister olds) would not let us put them up and said it was too much work. G-- being the typical old stubborn man wouldn't give in and devised a plan with us and their caretakers to get Mamason out of the house on Thursday and when she was gone we came in with G--, found where she had hid the curtains, put them up, and rearranged the front room to G--'s liking. It really looks a lot better, but I can gaurantee is shocked his wife when she got back! Haha None the less Mamason surprised us and took our invitation and came to church for the first time this last Sunday! It was amazing to see her walk inside the building! Wednesday we went to Riverside for another Trainer/trainee meeting which was a lot of fun to catch up with Elder Tui'one and others I've served around. That afternoon we taught V-- and her two kids B-- and A--  half of the first lesson. It's going to be a slow process because unlike what they made it seem like to us, they don't really have a good knowledge of religion so we will be teaching them small and simple things. But they have a lot of questions which is good and there can be a lot of potential with them. That night we got to teach another one of Z--'s friends and played ball with him and some other guys in the stake at the church. It was a lot of fun! I wish we could do that every week but I don't think we will. he wasn't too interested but there is definitely a seed planted there.

Thursday we spent most of the morning at the O-- doing their curtains and after lunch we saw A-- and did a little weekly planning. Friday morning we did some yard work for a sister in the Lake Perris ward and came back to finish up our weekly planning we hadn't gotten done. Saturday was a super good day.We switched things up a little and went on exchanges with Elder Felix and Elder Vang. Elder Felix came with me and Elder Vang (who came out with Elder Hoyt) took Hoyt into his area for the day. We wanted to give our trainees a chance to do things on their own. It turned out to be really good. We did some service that morning and then had a little lesson with A__. Afterwhich we drove to Menifee so I could give two baptismal interviews! It was a really good experience for me and exciting to see this mom and her daughter making the step to be baptized! They were baptized yesterday after many years of waiting! Felix and I picked up a new investigator named C who we will be seeing tomorrow, and stopped by E--'s and had a good little lesson with her about the Book of Mormon. She seems super interested and committed to read! That night we finished the exchange and found that our companions had found some new people to teach and had a pretty successful day together! Sunday was church which was really good and at 5 I got to see Bill again! Guess why!?! Cuz he was my ride to A__'s baptism!!!!!!! It was an amazing baptism and absolutely amazing to see her finally be able to get baptized and see the difference in her when she came up out of the water! I am so happy and proud of her! Now the missionaries just have to work on her dad R__! On the way back Bill and I stopped at his house and had some soup and a slice of pie! It was so great! It brought me back to Pie Night a year ago! I loved it!

We ended the week with 26 lessons! the most I've had so far! It was a really good week and I am looking forward to this upcoming week! I hope you all have a great week and stay safe! Can't wait to hear from you again. I hope you got the flash drive. Let me know if you did. Love you all!

Love,

Elder Bushman

Aug 8th August Here We Come!

Sent: Monday, September 8, 2014 5:09 PM
Subject: August Here We Come!

Hello Midland!!!

 It sounds like you guys have had a great first week back to school and I'm impressed with all the literal running around you have all been doing. I'd better start or I'll never catch up! ;) Congrats to Kenzie, Tanner, and Logan. Did Logan and Tanner run in the same race? There is no way that this is your 6th annual Fall Party! Holy Moly you started that forever ago! Haha That's awesome! I'm glad that the camaro is finally starting to get a little attention. That's going to be a fun project and I hope Tanner gets to work and helps Dad out. Way to go Chan the Man on scoring the teams goal! Keep up the hard work dude! There are so many new babies! What does that make the total come out to on both sides? I'm sure Papa is beside himself knowing that there are so many new grandchildren! Haha Soon he'll be like Abraham with his posterity being numbered as the stars in the heavens! I don't know what I would prefer right now on the Cali trip right now. There are definite pros and cons to either way we do it. So I'll stick on the back burner and let it sit for a while and let you know sometime. Can you believe that it's only next summer and then I'm home? That is the weirdest thought I've ever had. Keep up the good work! I miss and love you all so much!

 
Well this week was super good. We were able to get a lot done and found some promising new investigators! Monday morning we went to the Hardman and Burk's neighborhood Labor Day breakfast and met some of their neighbors who might be interested in the Gospel. That night we went over to Mama Munton's and had a really good talk with her and got to give her a blessing. It was super spiritual and I know without a doubt that the words that came out of my mouth weren't mine but the Lord's. The power of the Priesthood is real and I love it! Tuesday we had a lesson in the morning with A_ and continued going through 1 Nephi with her. The rest of the day we tried to contact all of our referrals and potential investigators. That's about the only thing we did this week. So it was about the same kind of work as last week, accept this week we made some good head way and found some good success as well. Wednesday we went by J_'s house and had an amazing lesson with him and put him on date again to be baptized at the end of the month. I had a really good feeling about him. When I was with Elder Tui'one we found J_ and after a lot of him flaking out we decided to move on. So this was his second chance for me. During the day we were able to clear out a lot of our lists of people to see and at one point we stopped by a potential named E__ who told us she had come to church last week and we didn't even know! Well before we could jump on that opportunity she told us she would be at church the next week as well! We are starting to teach her this week and hope to put her on date to be baptized for the end of this month as well! Thursday we taught Julio again and he promised that he would be at church so we had high hopes for him. After that we weekly planned and went back to contacting potentials. We came by one lady named C__. We had come to see someone named D_ and when we knocked on the door C_ answered and said that she was D__'s cousin and was watching her kids for her while she was gone for a while. As we talked she told us that she wants us to come and teach her and pray for her and so we set up an appointment to come back the next day. I love how the Lord uses others to lead us to those that he has prepared to hear to message of the Gospel! 

 Friday we had our Zone Meeting which was really really good. It helped a lot and I think our zone is going to do great this month. Especially since 6 out of the 20 missionaries in the zone are going home on the 23rd and they all want to baptize at least one more time before they go home. One of the sets of sisters in my district had 8 people come to church and they picked them all up this week and put them all on date to be baptized! There is a lot of work going on here right now and I love it! We picked up two more potentials Friday afternoon. D__ and later V__ and her family. We are skeptical of D__'s intentions on meeting with us (he might be wanting to just bash with us) but V__ and her family seems very sincere and interested and expressed their desire to find a church now that they are settled down here in Perris! We saw C__ that night but had to move the actual lesson to Sunday. Saturday we finished 1 nephi with A__ did some service moving a shed for a part member family and then had the slowest day of the week. Sunday we had 4 people come to church. At first it seemed like we had no one. But halfway through Bro L__ told us that I__ had come, and at the end Sister Hardman told us that one of the ladies we talked to at the breakfast last Monday morning had come too! And then E__ surprised us and came up to us and told us she had come and then introduced to her mom whom she had brought along also!!! What a great surprise! Well after church we still needed to get 6 more member present lessons to get standard since we had had 4 at church and were going to reach our 20 lessons for the week. So we grabbed Z__and went to everyone we could think of and ended up having 7 lessons with him that night! We barely did it but it was a great way to end the night and week! Sadly J__ did not come to church and I have a feeling that he is just as flaky as he used to be. So if he doesn't come to church this next Sunday we will probably have to drop him again if he wont keep his commitments. I really hope he comes though. We will see what happens. 

Well that was my week! Hopefully this next week we will have some bomb lessons that I can tell you about next Monday. I'm super excited! Oh and I found out last night that A__ (from my last area in Corona in the Prado View ward) can finally get baptized! So I'm gonna get to go back for her baptism this month as long as everything goes well!!! It's going to be a great month!

 Well I gotta go. I hope you have a great week and things start to calm down and you can get back into the swing of things. Please keep the people we are teaching in your prayers. And even the ones we haven't found yet. And don't forget to do your own missionary work at home! I can't wait to hear from you again! Talk to you soon! Love you all!

 Love,

Elder Kendell Bushman

Okay Does Anyone Know What Happened to August!?! August 25

Sent: Monday, August 25, 2014 5:32 PM
Subject: Okay Does Anyone Know What Happened to August!?!

Hello Midland Texans!!!!

So as I sat down to write you I looked at the date and realized that today is August 25th! I'm pretty sure I just hit a year mark last week, but I guess when you're on a mission you go through some kind of time warp and "yesterday" becomes "a month ago" after a good nights sleep! Haha Well I guess I better take advantage of it while I'm here right? And that's exactly what I'm going to do. 

It sounds like you had a great week. I hope that although you didn't get the chance last week, you can find someone the Lord has prepared to hear the missionaries message. . . .That would be a great invite! Taylor Williams is back?! What?! That's crazy! Good to hear he is doing well and that the mission treated him well also. I'm glad that you are all getting into the swing of things and everyone is getting back into sports and all the fun activities of school! That's going to be a small seminary class. It'll be good though. You'll definitely be able to impact each one of them individually. I really wish that I had paid more attention in seminary when I was there. I would have been so much more prepared to go on a mission if I had. That knowledge of the scriptures is so important. It is so much easier if you gain it during seminary than during your mission when you are put in situations everyday where you need to know the scriptures. Get on those Utahn's. I hope everything goes well with Kenzie's tryouts and I'm sure Chanler will end up being okay with Carver once he gets back into it. Congrats to Logan and Tanner on their races! That's awesome! I'll admit my crossfit workouts have been slim to none. BUT I have been doing better at working out in the mornings. I'm excited to see McKenzie's new haircut next week! And yes I did read the Giver. It was a super good book and you are so right about it relating to the Plan of Salvation! I never thought of that before! It makes so much sense! You are a genius mom! I'm glad that they did a good job on the movie too. That's always nice. Well my week was pretty good as well. Nothing too crazy but overall a good week. This will probably be a shorter email because not a lot happened that I need to really report.

Monday night we ended up going to see M and C again to ask why they didn't come to church. we had a decent conversation with C and she accepted our invitation to teach M (even if it was very hesitant). Hopefully it goes somewhere soon. Tuesday was another District Meeting. This time it went a lot smoother and I felt like there was progress. We saw A that day as well and she is doing amazing still! We saw her Wednesday as well and she wants us to start studying with her the Book of Mormon! I'm super excited for that! It's going to help me a lot! We started doing that Friday morning and it has become part of our morning studies. We are going through each chapter and breaking it down verse by verse. A has already gotten a great understanding of it already! I'm super excited for her and E. After seeing A we had Free Food Friday (there were Twinkies!). Haven't seen those in a while. (that's important to know by the way...that we got Twinkies) And then the Grossman's took us out for lunch to Texas Roadhouse!!! It was SO GOOD! I love that place! It was so good to see them again. It's been such a long time. I really miss that ward. I'm really hoping that I go back at the end of my mission. 

So Saturday was probably the most effective day. We started off the morning with a service project helping one of the members build a wooden fence in his back yard! It was a lot of fun. Then we came back to shower and study. So almost everyday this week we have taken an hour or so to just sit down and call all of our referrals, PMFs, and potential investigators. And on Saturday we did that before another awesome lesson with A. We had to have called 20 or 30 people. We found a bunch that were not interested. Others were no longer living there or the phone number was bad. And on two occasions I actually had a lesson with the people I called. One in particular was E B. When she answered and I told her who we were and that her name had been on our records, she told me that she had requested missionaries to come by over 9 months ago! And they never came! I couldn't believe it. As I talked with her I found that she has been struggling with life and work and she told me that she was happy that we had called at that time and she wanted us to come over and teach her. We invited her to church (unfortunately she wasn't able to make it) and set up an appointment for tonight at 7:30! I am really excited to meet and teach her. It seems like Elder Hoyt and I were meant to be here and call her at this time and we both have a great feeling about E! Keep her in your prayers please. Sunday we were expecting to see I- there but she never came. Bro L informed us that there have been some issues with her work and she just couldn't make it today and so she is planning on trying to meet with us during the week instead and is probably going to look for a new job. We dinner with the H's that night and afterwards we stayed and went through our PMF list with Sister H (Relief Society President) and Brother H (former bishop in the ward) and the were able to give us a lot of information on the people on our lists. It helped out a lot and I'm hoping this week we can see some results from our work. This morning we played basketball!!! It was so great! I loved it! It's been so long. WE had a lot of fun and that's been my day. Oh and when we went to do laundry at Mama Munton's house she made us pancakes! They were super good! 

Well that's about it for this past week. I hope you all have a great week and are able to really take my challenge from last week and invite someone this week to church and to hear from the missionaries. It will bless you more than you can imagine. I look forward to hearing from you again soon! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Bushman

A New Beginning Aug 18

So I have been neglectful in sending Kendell's letters out.  I will do better. 

Please note that this one has a challenge in it, and I hope that we all still accept his challenge even if it was made a couple of weeks ago.  We are working on it and I hope we all can report to him our success as we try it!

Love you all!

April

 Sent: Monday, August 18, 2014 5:24 PM
Subject: A New Beginning

Hey everyone!!!

Well this week brought a whole lot of changes and what not and it was hectic as all get out. But hey that's normal on a mission right? You'd think I'd be used to it by now. Now that I've hit my 13th month mark especially! Can you believe I've been gone for a whole 13 months now?!?!?! It really hit me yesterday when Elder Felix (him and his greenie split the ward with us and he came out with me) reminded me that it was the day. Time has gone by so fast and I don't know where it has gone. I think I am starting to really understand the reason why every adult tells their kids not to grow anymore. Time is just too fast. 

 Well to start off my week I spent PDay with Elder Felix cuz we didn't pick up our trainees until Tuesday. Boy I have never had such a crazy, hectic, chaotic PDay in my life! It was full of all of us trying to get rides to take us to our new areas and trying to find elders that were staying to be our companions for the day until our real ones got here. I'll tell you what happens when you put a bunch of 19 year old guys in charge of getting each other place to place....chaos. Haha Oh well. We finally got it all sorted out and were able to have dinner around 9:30 that night with Mama Munton. Tuesday was a little less stressful but it still had it's tense points. Tuesday morning I picked up my suit pants from one of the members who was re hemming them. At about 1 Elder Felix and I left for Riverside to meet for the Trainer/trainee Meeting where we were trained on how to be good trainers and met our new companions who were all looking exhausted,excited, and scared. I loved getting to see all of my good friends and fellow missionaries at the meeting as well! It definitely brought back memories and reminded me of when I came into the mission. So I'm sure you are all wondering who my new companion is. Like I said last week I am staying in the Perris ward as a district leader and will probably stay the same for the next three months as I train my new comp, Elder Hoyt. Elder Hoyt is from Smithfield, Utah which is close to Logan and he is 18 and just graduated high school. He is an awesome guy and we already are getting along pretty well. He has no fear of talking to people already which is amazing and so I know that I don't have to worry about him on that point. I just hope that I can be the trainer that he needs to become successful in his mission. I'm stoked to work with him and help him on his way as he helps me on mine. We have a lot of work to get done. Wednesday was District Meeting. The zone got together first and we did some introductions which thankfully took up some of the time so I wouldn't have to talk too much during my meeting. It's really weird being a "Relief Society" District Leader. It's gonna have to take some time getting used to. It will be good for me though. That night we had dinner with M and C which went very well actually. We didn't really even get into a deep gospel conversation until Bishop showed up and invited them to come to church and they said YES! It was awesome! I was totally surprised. Was I surprised when they didn't show up for church yesterday? Not really. But at the time when they said yes it was awesome. We are going to continue to visit them because there is so much potential with them. M is so ready to be baptized. We've just gotta get through to C first. I introduced Elder Hoyt to B and her family that night as well. I really don't know what we can do for them to help her get baptized. She just doesn't have a desire to do it really right now. We'll see. Hopefully something clicks with her soon. 

 Thursday President Mullen had all of the District Leaders come to Riverside for a training on how to be good DLs. It took most of the day. But again it was awesome to get to see a lot of my buddies there at the meeting. After the meeting a lot of us went to lunch and then we headed back home. Once I got home I took Elder Hoyt to visit A and E so we could see how they were doing since their baptism last Sunday. They are absolutely awesome and I don't have to worry about them at all. Friday we had weekly planning session which was probably the best weekly planning I've had since I was in Elsinore with Carbonneau. It was super long though and so we weren't able to get out of the house until later than we planned. We found out on Saturday that we are starting to run out of things to do and ways to find people out here now. We are just about done with going through the entire ward lists part member families and as soon as we finish with that and all of our past referrals and potentials, we aren't going to have anything to do but tract. I really really don't want it to have to come to that so we are going to really work with our ward members to start inviting friends to hear the missionary lessons. It's really really tough without the ward on our side. Our ward is great don't get me wrong. We just need a lot more help right now. 

So I ask you back home to make sure you are doing your part to invite everyone you know to hear the message of the gospel from the missionaries. It doesn't even matter if you know them. Just invite them. The worst they can say is no. And you can still be their friend. And if they say yes then just think about how much better friends you'll be when they come to know it was because of you that they now have salvation and eternal happiness! Because right now none of them have that. Everyone needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their life and we all know someone and probably multiple someones that don't have that in their life right now. I encourage and invite everyone that reads this to invite someone they know this week to hear from the missionaries. I promise that you, your friend, and the missionaries that teach and create a relationship with them and you will be eternally grateful you did. Try it out. And the key is to not stop trying it out. Even if you get a hundred no's or even a hundred yes's. There is still someone else out there that you just walked by or talked to that is secretly waiting for you to just ask them to learn more. The missionaries need your help. Your friends need your help. God needs your help. None of us can do it without you.

 

So I'm off of my little spill and back to my week. Sunday was a good day. A and E were confirmed which went well other than the fact that the guy confirming A thought she was the daughter and in the blessing started telling her to remember to "go to seminary when she comes of age and take a worthy young man to the temple one day". But it's whatever. Thankfully A was "covered" by the Spirit (her words) and didn't really catch his mistake. They are amazing and I really hope that when they get sealed in the temple a year from now, I can come back for that. After church we went straight over to C's house. Remember C? Well we ended up having a really long but good conversation with him and he accepted our invitation to listen to the lessons with his family and we will begin teaching them at the P's home as soon as C chooses the next day that he has time. School just started so it will probably be next weekend so I'll update you on him and his family as soon as we teach them. I'm pretty excited and we were able to already find out some of his concerns I didn't know of before and his interest seemed sincere. he told us he has been slacking on reading, praying, and going to church and he wants that for his family so what better place to go to and start than our church. The true church of Christ. After we saw C we stopped in on Brother L to see how he was doing and if he had any news on I cuz we were starting to get worried she wasn't too interested anymore since we hadn't really heard from either of them for the past two weeks. I'm really glad we stopped in. Brother L told us that I is actually super interested, even more so now than when we taught her the first lesson, and hasn't been able to come to church or meet with us due to work, but (wait for it) her supervisor is LDS and today she should be meeting with him to ask for the weekends off! I'm stoked to find out what happens! Please keep her in your prayers. She does have work off this Sunday already so she will be at church again and we will be meeting with her for our next lesson then! I'm super excited not just to teach her but I'm excited for Brother L too. He is so happy. It's awesome! We finished the night off with the Ps for dinner and a good nights sleep. So overall it was a pretty good week. I'm excited for this week as it will be Elder Hoyt's first normal week in the mission and I'm looking forward to see more of his greenie fire! 

 

Today has been good so far. This morning we met with our half of the mission to do President Mullens challenge of a crossfit workout. It was super intense and I realized just truly how out of shape I am. I'm thinking about using that workout to model my  own in the mornings from now on. Afterwards I had a nice breath of fresh air when we got to play basketball! It's been so long since I've balled this long and this hard with other good players. We've been playing soccer too much lately. I've missed playing basketball and I hope we can start it back up again. 

 

Well that's about all I can think of right now. I hope you all have a great week and enjoy (is it really) your last week of summer. I can't wait to hear from you all soon. Stay safe and invite someone this week. I love you all!

 

Love from Perris, California,

Elder Blaine Kendell Bushman