Saturday, May 15, 2010

my talk

well here in the talk i gave in church keep in mind i had a few visuals but you can read where i put them i hope you like it!

For some strange reason that I can’t explain the lord saw fit to instruct brother ottis to call the person in the ward with the most stage fright and biggest non-public speaker. Like a lot of people when I get nervous I tend to speak very quickly so hopefully someone from the bishopric took some time to prepare a few words to use up the rest of my time. I apologizes now if I don’t look up from my paper for fear of forgetting what to say or passing out.

My name is josh bushman, my family and I have had the great privilege of moving here in January. I like many here serve in the military and we look forward to the next few months here. I grew up all my life in Salt Lake City Utah and come from a long line of church members growing up my own grandfather was called to serve as bishop in his ward and like most bishops he had his fill of shall we say interesting encounters. He told me a story of a little girl no older than 7. It was after church as he was making his way to the bishop’s office the hallways were crowded with the usual hustle of parents trying desperately to find their children so mom can start dinner and dad can turn on the game. As he was nearing his office this girl stopped him and handed him a familiar gray envelope he gladly accepted and squatted down to get to the little ones eye level gave her a big smile and a pat on the head. Knowing she was nearing the age of baptism thought it would be a good idea to tell her how Christ like she was becoming he told her simply “thank you it’s so nice of you to be paying your tithing” the little girl looking very serious said “this isn’t my tithing” confused my grandpa looked at her and asked “well if it’s not tithing what is this for?” The little girl wasted no time in telling him “my mom says that you’re the poorest bishop she has ever seen”. But like most grandparents it’s hard to tell which stories are true and which are just a good story.

I’ve been asked to talk about “blessings through living the gospel” from the beginning of our lives in the church we are taught the gospel principles in primary we start with learning the articles of faith for example the beginning of the 13th article starts with “we believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men” as we grow older we separate into scouts for the boys and young women’s for the girls. The young women’s values state that “we will stand as witnesses of god at all times and in all thing, and in all places… as we strive to live the young women’s values which are: faith, divine nature, individual worth, knowledge, choice and accountability, good works and integrity”. In the boy scouts we are taught that” a scout is Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courtious, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent”

James chapter 2 14-26 reads. What [doth it] profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be [ye] warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what [doth it] profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent [them] out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

We can learn to show faith by our works by answering 10 simple questions and answering with always, sometimes, or never.

1. Do I forgive quickly?

2. Do I gladly help my neighbors

3. Am I honest?

4. Do I stand up for the right even when my friends mock me?

5. Do I willingly accept church callings?

6. Do I give of my time to each family member?

7. Do I pray sincerely every day?

8. Am I kind to strangers, friends, and family members?

9. Do I refrain from judging other people as being either better or worse than me?

10. And most importantly do I avoid even the appearance of evil?

Don’t be worried if you were not able to answer all of the questions how you would have liked take this opportunity to choose one of these areas to improve one by one until you can get your own perfect score. Start small Elder Heber J grant said “that which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself has changed, but that our power to do is increased” the more we practice any gospel principle the easier it will be to live it.

Living the gospel begins with our thoughts ill explain this better by telling you the story of Larry and jerry.

Larry spent much of his time daydreaming. He loved to think about what it would be like to be rich. He planned what he would buy if he had lots of money, and imagined living in luxury. Jerry spent much of his time thinking, too. He liked to think about what was really important in life. He thought about people and what truly brought them happiness. He thought about the gospel and why heavenly father gave us the commandments. Later both Larry and jerry were given an opportunity to make a great deal of money very easily. To do it, however they would need to “stretch the truth” to convince others to invest money also. Who is more likely to give in to the temptation? In proverbs chapter 23:7 we read “for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” the things we think about often end up controlling our actions st Luke chapter 6:45 reads “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh”. We can help control and direct our thoughts by seeking the right surroundings, reading scripture and good books, praying and singing hymns.

All around us in our daily lives there are prime examples of how the gospel can bless our lives. As I prepared my talk on my computer I got into a conversation with my grandmother, her mom passed away last week right before her birthday and she told me how grateful she was knowing that as she lives the gospel she preparing to meet our heavenly father and also be united once more with her parents and other family members. She told me also that was my Mom that helped them learn to say a blessing on their food, when she was only 3 years old. She wouldn’t eat until they said a prayer. She told them her primary teacher told us we should always thank heavenly father for

Our food and blessings. My grandma was not raised with prayers being said at any time. So it was hard to change a lifetime of habits when they first started getting active. She added and I agree Thank Heaven for the great examples of our children.

I believe that a universal blessing we all must learn is the blessings that come when we pay our tithing. In Malachi chapter 3:10 we read “bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it” when my wife and I first married we had the usual struggle with money. On our budget sheet there seemed to be no room for tithing. We felt that the lord would understand if we were not able to pay our tithing less we be cast into the streets. Still we struggled; it seemed that no matter how hard we tried we were never able to make ends meet. My wife being the great example to me that she is suggested that we pay our tithing and see what happens. It took time I suppose god needs to truly test us. If blessings came to quickly would we truly have learned the lessons needed? In time though to my surprise new jobs opened up and we were not only able to make ends meet but soon were able to rebuild our old savings. To this day we have never missed a tithing check. This is a lesson that we must all learn I’m sure many people share the same kind of story but it is one we are all grateful for.

For my next story I need 4 volunteers.

I’m going to tell you a story about a boy named David. David belonged to the church, and he said he believed it was true. He went to church every Sunday; but he thought that most of the time it was boring, he didn’t pay much attention. He thought it was more fun to talk and joke with his friends. (Hold up the sign “irreverence”) he liked family home evenings because his father told such great stories and his mother made such good treats. (Hold up sign “selfishness”) but even during the lessons he enjoyed teasing his sisters. (Hold up sign “unkindness”) during the week, David’s life was filled with problems. He played instead of doing his homework (hold sign “laziness”) and then copied his friends work (hold sign “dishonesty”) he didn’t obey his parents (hold sign “disobedience”) and wondered why they picked on him when he got into trouble. He had a terrible temper (hold sign “anger”) and figured that other people deserved to be treated unkindly because he didn’t have many friends. He forgot about his prayers most nights (hold sign “lack of prayer”) he didn’t think he had time. One day in primary, David heard his teacher say “the gospel brings us so much happiness” David thought “the gospel doesn’t bring me happiness”

Ask someone on the stand to the mic and ask “why douse David not find happiness in the gospel” dismiss the volunteers.

What could David’s parents do to help David live the gospel? Although they could teach him, and pray for him and try to remind him, only David can make the decision that he is going to make the gospel work in his life. He is the only one who can live for the blessings that heavenly father is waiting to give him.

Applying the gospel means living it every day and learning to do the things that heavenly father has commanded us to do. Living the commandments, however does not guarantee that we will never have other kinds of problems. Knowing who we are, why we are here on earth, and where we are going can help us endure and cope with these other problems. The lord will give us whatever support we need to live our lives successfully if only we will look to him and the gospel for aid to meet our own personal challenges.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

catch up!

yes i AM this cool!

Ok so i would seem when i'm not stuck in a place doing nothing all day i'm really bad about writing on the web. you know how it is, you work all day then get to come home to a loving wife with the rest of the night planned and 2 year old who wants to play. well so far this has been a great year. I'm finally living with my family again! my work schedule is pretty goos as of right now, we are expecting our second child and are about half way threw the pregnancy. but the biggest change for me has been Hayden when i left a little over a year ago he could barley walk now i see him run, clime, talking more and more, trying to learn how to play different sports among all of his other daily discoveries. right now at work i am training and training and training! if i'm not in a class i am at the office working on computer lessons. most of the classes have been pretty fun each one has its own twist. like fixing pipes that are bursting with 40 degree watter right in your face, or running up and down ladders in a smoke filled room trying to find and put out a fire, not to mention trying to read my first piping schematics (lets just say i hope nothing breaks that i would need a schematics to fix...) but by far the most interesting was the 3 week SRF-B class (basically a self-defense kinda class) the first week i was pared up with a guy who probably showered maybe once that week. the final test for that week was getting sprayed in the face with OC spray, By far the worst pain i have ever felt in my life. in comparison i have spoken to several people that have been shot and or stabbed before and they would rather take the knife or bullet before they ever took the spray again. the second week went by fast as we got to shoot guns which for me is easy and something i love to do. finally week three we are put threw the test of standing watch and guarding a ship from our instructors. In the end i passed and thats all that matters right? well thats the fast description of the last few months i have my birthday coming up along with a visit from my best friend then a trip back home to Utah so May should be a great month. I hope its great for you also.

Evil shall always triumph because good is dumb! - Dark helmet (spaceballs)

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Geek out #1

I found some information online and most people know that i strongly promote zombie awareness so i thought i would share my findings so that we all can be better prepared in the case of a zombie outbreak.



This is your very basic zombie emergency station. In it contains a pump action shot gun that can hold 7 rounds at a time 1 in the chamber 6 in the feed. Always have the shot gun loaded in the event that the zombies are attacking your home you don't want to get eaten while trying to load the gun... zombies wont wait for you to be ready. It also has 10 additional rounds that can either be combat loaded or loaded into the feed as you use them. Also included in this in a 10 inch machete you need a weapon for close quarters but you have to have something that is big enuff to cut threw the zombies spine to help you get away. Also the case of the kit can be used as a shield to help push back any attackers. make sure you keep additional ammo in the house in a safe room 17 rounds will go fast and if you want to survive you will need them. for any additional info please refer to this helpful instruction sheet.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Hurray for planing!

This is from last year when we were showing Hayden snow for the first time we decided to lean against a statue and fell... i don't think he likes snow very much, And don't get mad we rushed him inside cleaned him up and got him warm again very fast.

well not much to report from yesterday a lot o cleaning and playing on the Internet. Today though has started with all sorts or adventure. Reveille was at 0400 so that we could be ready to march over to a gym on base for the H1N1 flu vaccine. Rather then simply taking muster (roll call) in side the barracks where it was warm and sheltered from the wind we all waited outside in the freezing cold and wind for ruffly 25 min so they could call off every 200+ people that live in the building... I'm not sure what the exact temperature was at 0500 i do however know that at 0700 2 hours later with wind chill it was -17 degrees Fahrenheit. IT WAS COLD! after the "accurate" muster we marched... loosely about 1/2 a mile to the gym to sit on the dirty floor and be talked to like 3 year olds on how to give our self the vaccine (don't worry it was in a noes spray we didn't give our own shots ha ha) i don't know what your opinion is on the vaccine and its up to you how you feel about the whole deal i personally am not a big fan yes I'm a "hate mongering" conservative and i do believe that the media has blown this WAY out of proportion but being in the NAVY the choice about getting the shot or not has been made for me... i hope i don't die! Anyway so after that we again formed up into a loose formation went another 1/2 mile to the medical building and waited another 10 min in the cold to scan our ID's and make sure that our records are up to date. only thing left was to walk (RUN, ARE YOU KIDDING ME ITS FREEZING OF COARSE I'M GOING TO RUN!!!) back to the barracks and try to get warm. needless to say my fingers (that were in cloves btw) are still sore but at least now i can feel and move them... my head hurts though just one of the wonderful side affect from the vaccine :D so with that crazy of a morning i cant wait to see what the rest of the day has in store for me!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

New

Since this is my first random post how about a random picture sorry all you Utah fans but this year the better team won ;)

Ok so as you can all tell I'm new to all this blogging stuff. needless to say i have decided to be a little more relaxed about my post's rather than these big extravagant story ever 2 weeks or so ill try to make the majority of my writing on the simpler thoughts and day to day activities. However for those of you that might enjoy the "story time" with Joshie do not fret ill try to post a big story ever few weeks or so. they are just to hard to think of on the spot and then i stress over them for days... like my last one i know it was cute and whatnot but as i read back i don't think it turned out how i wanted it to oh well it just leaves me room for more stories!

so just a thought... i have made now 4 posts and yet i keep getting prompts from blog spot that they think this is a spam blog! Ive cleared it 3 times already people!!! Oh well sorry if it makes getting into my blog to hard i thank you for sticking it threw for me ;) and i promise a lot more random activity from me. Speaking of which let me know what you have to think, ask questions and if you are curious about anything or want me to wright about something let me know and i will be happy to tell you all about it! well almost bed time. I hope you all have a good night!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Pincess in the tower

My beautiful wife


Who ever would think that "True love" was possible. Especially to a guy like me! ha ha. This as you can guess is the story of how my wife and i came to be. Our story first begins in High school during Marching band my Jr. year. (it starts in marching bad? you KNOW its going to be good!) During one of our afternoon practices in he middle of running threw the show my best friend who was right next to me got hit in the head with one of the color guards flags in th middle of a movement, and trust me that hurts! Unfortunately most of the guards attitudes were "if you get in our way and we hit you it your own fault!" - nagging voice. But my friend being the flirt that he is decided not to make a big deal out of the situation and started to talk to this girl her name was Marissa but she (forcefully) liked to go by Missy. they became friends and started hanging out together i became more or less a friend of a friend. She would sit with us during lunch and before school like a lot of people did. during my senior year her Jr. she got sick and had to take her school work home and do packets from there kind of like a mix between home school and normal school. During Christmas while i was trying to figure out who i was going to buy gifts for and what to get she came to mind i'm not sure why we were never that good of friends and she had not been to school for a few months non the less i knew she should be on my list. Her gift from me was simple it was a bag of Hershey's Kisses with a note saying " i know you wanted your first kiss to be from your future husband... sorry its just me" i thought it was just a joke on a gift. (if you ask her she will tell you thats when she knew she would marry me) she returned to school shortly after Christmas break and we started talking more and on "B" days we had classes right next to each other so we would walk together on our way and give a hug as we parted. That year during the "Memorial day" weekend all of my friends left with there family's and so i went over to her house every day. shortly after i graduated we went on a trip to Manti Utah, to help me look into a college the and we watched a movie and i rubbed her head and played with her hair for at least 4 hours! On the way back form the weekend trip i asked if i could hold her hand and she didn't know why but she let me and the next day we were a couple.
We held hands a lot and we held hands all the time but she had never been kissed and i had a reputation as being a "lip slut" so i didn't want to kiss her to soon. After a week of being together we rubbed our noeses together for about 2 hours (Eskimo kisses) and that night before i went home i kissed her on the forehead and i thought it was a good small step. A week later we shared our first kiss... i admit i messed up i help a bit to long and needless to say it was kinda awkward esspecialy when she started to talk out of the side of her mouth and asked "now what?" ok ok my bad i had been out of practice for a while. we had our first official date a week later. i worked graveyard shift at Walmart so it was hard to find a night off to go out. we had a nice dinner at olive garden. she gets sick in the summer and cant keep a lot of food down so the waiter thought i was making her starve and kept shooting me dirty looks telling her it was ok she can order more the a salad... she thought it was funny. hen we went to a park and i pulled out a boom box and we danced in the park and i kissed her for the second time this one was much better! we laid down to look at the stars and she rubbed my head and told me it was ok to close my eye's. I started to tell her i wasn't sleepy but by the time i finished the sentence apparently an hour had passed... again not my fault i worked the graveyard shift lay off. We saw each other everyday even if it was only for 10 min to say hi and wish each other a good day. about 8 or so months later we started talking about Marriage, we both knew thats what we wanted the only guideline she gave me was to make it something you don't see everyday... so after a play the cast invited her on stage and i proposed in front of all those strangers. She graduated and we got married in the Manti Temple Aug 5th 2006.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

My first passion

Me being silly with my Trumpet

Music has always been one of my passions, and has been in my family for many generations. at least on my step-dad's side of the family anyhow. My mom i don't think ever tried to play an instrument in her life and my biological father lets just say was more of a jock. Non the less he is where i got my love for rock! I have been listening to rock music of all kinds since i was born and it still is one of my favorite styles to listen to. But threw my step-dad i learned to branch out and learn to appreciate all kinds of music. the power it has to move people and take them away to what ever world there mind can make even if at first we don't like what we hear listen to what the artist is trying to make us feel. That's what music is one of the greatest forms of art in this world it has so much power and can create so many different emotions and is (in my opinion) the earliest form of art that we as humans created. We can see this in the simplest of people there is music, it might not be to the level that we can but every culture has its own style even if we cant understand each other threw language we can understand the emotions of music. Is it so hard to imagine our ancestors hitting sticks together in a steady beat. This is the first forms of music how would it be to go back in time and listen to the first song ever made! what would it sound like? what would the song tell us about the people? and what kind of emotion would they try to stir in us?
I started my own music journey by playing my dad's Clarinet passed down for many generations. I played it for about 4 years and i did fairly well i was one of the first chairs in the band but i didn't feel the passion for it like my dad told me i should feel when i really get into it i felt that there was something missing something ells waiting for me. Then late in my 7th grade year my best friend at the time invited me over to his house like he always did but this time rather then play video games or sneak onto the golf coarse by his house he wants to practice our songs from school. we had a concert coming up in a few weeks so he thought it would be fun. of coarse i had heard the trumpet played many times but always in a group or in a band. never had i heard it by itself. i remember how beautiful it was and i knew that instant that the trumpet was right for me! I went home and bashfully asked my parents if in the following school year i could make the change at first they were skeptical i don't think my dad was happy at all. he told me how hard it would be to start all over again and i would be about 4-5 years behind most trumpet players my age. i didn't care this was my calling.
The next year i started in beginning band...again! taking it one step at a time yet trying to progress as fast as i could to play catch up. that year i met my best friend also a beginning trumpet player. time passed and i made it to the concert band (the highest one) the next year most people didn't think i could get that far in one year but i made it happen.
In high school a friend of mine asked me to go to marching band with him just to try it out. it was an after school program and at first i had no desire to join but being the push over i am i got sucked into it and am i glad i did! For my birthday my sophomore year i got the best gift my parents ever gave me, it was a professional model Yamaha silver trumpet! (My first love) the shine was amazing the silver finish perfectly reflecting my face, the keys so smooth like a hot knife threw butter it was perfect! to give it my own personal feel i added a leather strap around the keys this was MINE. It sounds stupid i know but when you find YOUR instrument you can feel like there is a soul in it, like another person waiting and wanting and when we play together the heavens open and she made the most beautiful sound. I don't feel like i ever played her no i think more and more that threw me she sang!
In the end we made it to first chair in the concert band, 3 years of marching band (senior year trumpet section leader), jazz band 1, early morning symphony, the high school musical pit orchestra, and vice president of the band. in all i think my senior year i was in 5 band classes. but we grow up try to go to college, go to work, and start a family and i haven't played her since. At time i want to more then anything but fear gets the best of me. After so long part of me if afraid that ill never get the sound and music i want ever again. Am i better off starting again and trying to working my way up again or to remember the glory days and remember how great we used to be?

Music is what feelings sound like
-author unknown