Proper Prior Preparation Proceeds Powerful Performance! Jan 11, 2013

Hello Everybody!! 

This week has been kinda crazy.. But we're starting to get everything under control. Our district is continuing to grow closer to one another and closer to God! I love these guys (and girls)!! I mean "Elders" and "Sisters".... That's still a hard transition. Oh well. I love the Spirit! It helps so much! 

We started the TRC this week! For those of you who don't know, that's the Teaching Resource Center. Basically we get assigned an investigator who could be a member, non-member, or inactive person who we are just supposed to teach as if they were a real investigator!! Our investigator's name is Jorge Delgado. He is a super nice guy but he was really mad at God for "taking his son away with cancer" at such a young age. We have been trying to help him feel God's love and we gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon! On our next visit with him he said that he read the Introduction page and the testimonies of the witnesses and he had some questions. We answered his questions and testified that God can answer WAY more questions than we can!! We invited him to pray with us at the end of the lesson and asked if he would say the prayer and he did!! It was such a sincere prayer!! He promised us that he would continue to read and to pray! We have another appointment with him on Monday! I'm really excited to see how he felt about the things he read! Also, I don't know if I've told you guys about my Mexican roommate, Elder Garcia, but he's been helping me (and our whole district) brush up on Spanish. I think that has definitely helped me establish a solid connection with Jorge and I KNOW it will help me in the field. Maybe Elder Garcia and I will be companions! 

Around 5 pm yesterday, we started getting some more snow, AND IT'S STILL SNOWING!!!! I'm not built for this!! Everything looks the same!! There is one other Sister in our district who is from Georgia and so she can sympathize with me on the whole, "I prefer the heat" thing! Haha She's pretty cool, her name is Sis. Gregerson. We call her "Mom" sometimes... Hahaha

Well, I think I'm starting to have withdrawals, I had a dream last night that Dad felt bad for me so he sent me his phone and then Mom flew over here to scratch my back. It was the greatest. I woke up with tears of joy streaming down my face. The back scratcher has helped a lot, but it's not quite the same. You know, the whole... "having to actually put in effort" thing? Yeah, not my style. 

We're trying to get a musical number together with our district (because we walk around the MTC singing four-part harmonies anyways). But it's proving to be quite difficult... I asked the group if I could be in charge of the number and they all agreed but then I started plunking out parts and my comp started saying something about how the "tenor, bass, alto, and soprano are all supposed to be in different keys. Trust me. I've sung this before." (That's exactly what he said.) What song was it, you ask? Come Thou Fount arranged by Craig Petrie. Yeah, that one arrangement we literally sing ALL THE TIME. Ugh. Stressful. I don't even know how to respond to that! Oh well. Doctrine and Covenants Section 122. It's a bit more extreme than what I've been experiencing but it helps a lot! 

Thank you so much for the package!! I got it last night and the cake mix cookies are already gone! Hahaha I love you guys so much!! :) Thank you for all the letters and prayers! I'm praying for you all!! :)

With love and undying gratitude,

Elder Zachary Evan Bushman