5-8-2012
Howdy, (The Brazilians think that is the funniest phrase)
This week was...long. I'm just so ready to go to the
mission field. I am beginning to feel very claustrophobic, but I suppose
that is part of being trapped in 3 hallways, a gym, an auditorium, and a
cafeteria 95% of my time.
Today after the temple we went to a Brazilian
all-you-can-eat barbecue. It was amazing. And the best part, it
only cost 11 American Dollars (20 Reais). Our teachers met us and came
along. It was so much fun to have our whole district just hanging out,
chatting, and having fun. It will be a while before I have an experience
like that again, because as it has been said by prophets "The most
important part of missionary work is work." I truly love my
district. I know that they are exactly the people that I needed to be
with at this time to help me to achieve my potential as a missionary. I
love this gospel and know that it is absolutely true. That God lives,
that He is our Father, and that we came to Earth to make choices, to learn
right from wrong, to be cleansed by the Atonement of His son Jesus Christ, and
then to return to Him.
I know that without the help of Heavenly Father I would be
totally and completely unable to learn Portuguese as quickly as I have. I
know that He answers prayers and that He is looking out for me and guiding
me. One missionary put it really well in Fast and Testimony Meeting on
Sunday, he said "Just take the wheel, I'll do the work, but just guide me
through it."
I do want to talk a little bit about my adventure from
yesterday. All of the missionaries in my district went proselyting
yesterday. Each companionship was given 4 copies of the Book of Mormon
and told to go out and find people to give them to. That was really
scary, but even more exciting. My language skills were tested to their
very max. We worked for 2.25 hours talking to everyone who passed
by. Standing on corners, following people, walking into shops, everywhere
we could think of going. We walked all of the streets in the area we were
allowed to go to at least twice. And yet the whole time my companion and
I did not feel like we were disappointed. And then all the sudden we were
able to give two copies of the Book of Mormon to 2 women in the park with a
message of the Gospel blessing families. And then we gave another copy to
a man begging for cans after we brought him one. We shared a message of
service. And then we gave out one more copy right away. We went
from having given out none to giving out 3 to the next 3 people we talked
to. We knew that the Lord had not let us feel discouraged because He knew
that there were people that we needed to talk to after working for a while.
This brings me to the quote of the week. There are
actually two because they have a similar message. The first is by William
James. He said "Beyond the very depths of fatigue and distress, we
may find amounts of ease and power we never dreamed ourselves to own; sources
of strength never taxed at all, because we never pushed through that
obstruction."
The second is by Elder Cordier, an Elder that I am friends
with. He repeats this to himself everyday "I will walk and talk with
everybody that I meet and tell them about the church. And when I no
longer have the strength to walk, I will crawl on my hands and knees and speak
with a louder voice so that the people can still hear me expressing my love for
the gospel. And when I no longer have the strength to crawl, I will lie
on the flat of my back and shout to the heavens proclaiming this gospel to be
true."
I hope that you all got as much from that as I did.
Love,
Elder Tyler Andrew Bushman
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