mis-sion-ar-y (noun) - Someone who leaves their family for a short time, so that others may be with theirs for eternity.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Give the Missionaries Referrals! Week of March 12, 2013


Tuesday, March 12, 2013 - Today was interesting... All the trainers, Zone Leaders, and District Leaders were at Leadership Training in Fresno all day so I was stuck leading my area with two brand new missionaries. One of them, Elder Goettman, was super cool and we get along great! We have a lot of similarities. But the other one... Elder D... We could not be more opposite. He claims to love music but all he ever talks about is rap. *cough-apostate-cough* And he likes the Spurs and hates Steve Nash... HOW?! He’s the nicest! Then the final straw was when he started bashing on Newsies...*sigh* There is just no hope for some people... We did good work though. We did a Harvesting Blessing for this guy named Anthony and the spirit was super strong. We felt it, he felt it. We invited him to be baptized...he accepted! But then he said he’s always busy...dumb. Then we had dinner at the Ballard’s. Super cool family. Br. Ballard is hilarious! Pretty good day over all, but I never want to be in a car area! I definitely prefer biking. It’s a lot easier to talk to people!

Wednesday, March 13, 2013 – We had a miracle today! It was awesome! We weren’t having a particularly great day, but we were trying to make the most of it. We decided we should go get lunch. We thought about where we should go and we both said “Panda” at the same time. We ‘joked’ that it was divine inspiration and I said, “Just watch. We’re going to find someone to teach in Panda Express!” We laughed a little and Elder Swenson said, “Yeah and maybe they’ll pay for us!” We laughed more. We carried on to Panda, locked up our bikes, went in, and got in line. We were about to order when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and a lady said, “Hi Elders! Order whatever you want! It’s on me.” *Miracle #1* We asked who she was and she said that she hasn’t been to church in over 3 years and is married to a nonmember and has a kid who is baptismal age but isn’t baptized. She the bought us lunch and invited us over to teach her family! *Miracle #2* LOVE IT!!! Other than that, it was a pretty slow day.

Thursday, March 14, 2013 – Today was Zone Conference in Turlock so the North 4 zones all met together. It was nice to see some of my MTC friends! Elders Chandler and Drapeau were there and Sis. Pratte! They’re all doing great! Zone Conference was great though!! I learned a lot about how to be more effective when teaching and to always ‘teach to a commitment’ so ‘the plane has somewhere to land’. We have some great missionaries in our mission! Also, President Gelwix made the announcement that the First Presidency has stated that missionaries are now allowed to email anyone except members of the opposite sex who are living within or near our mission boundaries. And we have an hour and a half to do it!!!

Friday, March 15, 2013 – So, we taught a prostitute... Modesto is officially the strangest place I have ever been! But let me explain. Remember Aaron? The black guy who holds a Bible study at his house? Well he’s a super good guy and is letting 3 people who he didn’t even know live in his house because they didn’t have a place to live. And two of them (boy & girl) are dating/married and the girl is a prostitute... Sketchy. We’re teaching them all the Gospel though! We set a baptismal date with Aaron for April 13th! We also taught a woman named Sylvia. I think I’ve told you about her. She wants us to come over for dinner next week! She’s awesome! We had dinner tonight with Br. And Sis. McGuffin... Very funny people. They’re both in their 80’s and Br. McGuffin is SUPER gone. He has suffered from severe dementia for quite a few years (which is good because he used to be anti-mormon but when he got dementia, his wife had him baptized! Probably illegal...) He’s really funny though. Also, as we were riding our bikes, we saw a sign in front of a church (kinda like the one on Lindsay and Desert Lane) that said “Bet on the Man riding the donkey”. I died laughing!

Saturday, March 16, 2013 – Today was a rough day. A lot of people don’t like us and as I was wondering, “Why?! What have we done wrong?!” I realized that the world is just a crazy place. And at least they aren’t beating and crucifying us... Who am I to complain about people being a little rude to us?? Oh well. Their loss. We rode around and saw (at least tried to see) all 20 of our investigators to invite them out to church! Hopefully we’ll have some show up! No real lessons today. Sad day. I’m just out of it! I’m not used to getting so little sleep! I need at least 10 hrs/night! Okay maybe 9... Anyways, we had dinner with the Gagon’s... I don’t know if I told you about them... But they’re crazy... Absolutely crazy. But they love us. But yeah, this week has just been different. I don’t like it. Haha

Sunday, March 17, 2013 – The days are FLYING by! Holy cow... Today we had a missionary farewell. Her name is Alexis and she is going to Argentina, Cordova. She gave an awesome talk and it was even more perfect because Curtis was there! He really enjoyed church! After church, we had dinner with the Taylor/Whipple/Priebs family (three families in our ward that are related to each other)! It reminded me a lot of home to have so many people in one house! Also, it was my second time eating Corned beef and cabbage... The first time was yesterday! It’s not bad, but I probably wouldn’t ever make it!  (Don’t worry Mom. I didn’t tell them that!) The rest of the night was spent visiting less active members and recent converts! Getting to know them and asking (more like ‘begging’) for referrals. Which reminds me, give the missionaries referrals!! You’ll make their day! Also, I kinda count this as writing in my journal so please keep these Thanks! Love ya! Bye!!

Love, Elder Zachary Evan Bushman

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