August 15, 2018

Please insert your name:

"Behold, thou art _______, and I have spoken unto thee because of thy desires; therefore treasure up these words in thy heart. Be faithful and diligent in keeping the commandments of God, and I will encircle thee in the arms of my love." (D+C 6:20) 

If I have learned anything this week (and i have learned A LOT) it would be that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are so willing and ready to reveal things to us and encircle us in the arms of their love. I have learned this because I have been in need of revelation and love this week. and as soon as I reached out to them, they reached out to me. Realizing how much they love me has given me extra strength this week. Love is a powerful thing!

So please remember this one thing from my email today: You are loved. I know i have a lot of people on my email list, and this might not feel personal but i hope it does. because today i actually took the time to go through my email list, think about, pray for and feel Gods love for each name. each of you individually. So as a representative of Jesus Christ, I can testify that He really does loves YOU. 

I dont have much else to say. This week has been a blessing as ive met inspiring people, stood up to argumentative guests, joked with little kids, learned the stories of senior missionaries, shared the Book of Mormon with someone who has not yet read it, comforted a wounded soul, pushed myself a little harder, dove a little deeper and sung a little louder. 

Have a wonderful week and remember you are loved! 

yours truly,

Sister Bush

email to family

Here we go! good luck interpreting my word vomit, you might need the gift of tongues haha

but yeah This is gonna be a really random email so I apologize:

Sunset is over. Sadness. We watched it for the last time on our last pday. Good thing I can see it next year! 

And now the ypms are gone :( so that stinks. Nauvoo and Carthage seems awfully quiet now. Their singing and dancing is definitely missed. We got to say goodbye to them at the mission dinner on Monday night. 

So on Thursday was mission training and let me tell you! Wow! President Lusvardi is literally the coolest. He has so many connections haha. We got a sneak peek at the new master the tempest is raging video, which is like a bible video, except people who have been in stormy waters are telling their stories too and how the Savior calmed their seas. So that is way cool. ALSO ALSO ALSO we got to see Christmas videos for this year! Haha I'm so lucky! They are doing light the world again, except instead of a new one every day it is four weeks of light. 

4 weeks of light the world: 

Light your Family 

Light your Faith

Light your Community 

Light the World 

So I'm really excited about that. I'm sure you will come up with something cute and matchy matchy around Christmas time for the family mom! So I hope I get to hear about that. 

Random question! What are you guys doing for halloween?? I want to know so I can figure out what I should do haha. I don't know if I'll be on outbound by then or not but we shall see! If not they usually do this thing called Boo-tiful Nauvoo and that would be fun (: 

yes i will probably still go to BYU-Idaho when i get back. i still feel like it is the right place to be. who knows, maybe that will change over the course of my mission but right now i still feel that byu-i is right for me. don't worry, i plan on visiting utah quite often! like once a month probably. 

"I bet he said a lot of prayers in here" this is a quote from a little girl when we were taking a tour of the jail. I thought it was very sweet and true. I'm sure Joseph smith did say a lot of prayers in there and I know his prayers were answered. 

"That man really loved Jesus didn't he." Another quote from a little kid. A boy talking to his dad about Joseph smith at the end of a tour. So cute!! And so simple. I love it. 

also there was another little girl that kept winking at me during the tour and it was so cute!! man i love kids. 

So in case i didn't tell you when i was comps with sister Moss, she doesn't have toenails. She got them taken out before the mission because of how often she gets ingrown toenails. So haha when we told sister Yamamoto that sis Moss doesn't have toenails, she was confused. So we started pranking her and telling her that in America if your feet stink, the doctors will rip your toenails out. She was so shocked and scared hahaha I think I sent the video! We eventually told her the truth and she was so relieved!!

we gave a tour to a lady named Millie Garcia this week from tempe AZ, and she was so sweet. we got talking in the martyrdom room and discovered that 3 of her kids are atheists and go against the church they were raised in. it is really heart-breaking for her but she talked about how she is doing her best to love them, strengthen her own testimony and be a good example. man i love meeting faithful saints who cling to the gospel in hard times. amazing. 

i've been doing yoga this week with sister Jones! at first i was like meh, sure. i could be more flexible so ill do it. but now i love the way i feel energized at the end! its become more of a physical and spiritual exercise in the mornings (or evenings before bed) and i love it. it helps me refocus on whats important while stretching and strengthening my core. yeah!

okay so the doctrine and covenants!! i think i underestimated its power before but now that i am studying it and pretty much living in church history haha it has been so amazing. i love the d and c and i think members of the church should take advantage of it more often! 

so this week we met a man named Barry, and he was interested in learning more! we talked to him about the book of mormon and he said he wants to read it. we also got his email so we can follow up with him. i'm so excited about that! 

so a couple days ago sister Yamamoto was having a hard time. we were doing a district study meeting and she got frustrated and started to cry. well i did my best to help! we have gotten pretty close over the past couple weeks so i knew what might help. she loves sloths so i got my sloth card that says hang in there on it and then used google translate to write i love you in japanese. i gave it to her and i could tell it meant so much. she said i wrote it good too! so thats a plus. well anyways she also said this about reading it: "by this it says to me that Jesus Christ loves me." i felt so good to know that my love for her helped remind her that the Savior loves her. kinda like what you were talking about mom! which by the way i appreciate all of the love you send me because it gives me strength throughout the week(: and mom your re-written primary song is so cute. i never knew you did that! made me feel all fuzzy and warm inside haha i'm so grateful to have a mom like you!! you are my best friend and i miss you a ton but for now i will just try to love you from afar. 

ive been thinking about jonas and his mission this week too! first off, this week i friended elder tippets and elder coleman on facebook. and also! i met president Davies from the fort collins colorado mission presidency. it was so funny. he said they were from a part of Wyoming that jonas served in and i asked if he knew elder Bush. he was like oh yea! i love that guy! and i showed him my badge and said "well i'm his sister!" it was really cool that we got to talk a little bit and i got to give him a tour. i love being called Elder Bush's sister. makes me happy. so that was neat. 

one of the days this week sister Swaney got like 2 hours of sleep and so she took some time to rest and i got a lot of studying done. it was way nice to have some time to relax and focus on the scriptures. 

we had mission dinner/testimony meeting this week! we not only are loosing the ypms, but a bunch of the senior couples are leaving this month. so we had to say goodbye to a bunch and that was sad. the hughes leave this week and i might cry when they leave cuz i love them so much. they kinda remind me of you guys so i will miss them. 

soooo we had an interesting, not so good tour the other day. there were non-members with us, two RMs and another man. this man was questioning and arguing with almost everything we said. especially in the room where we talk about what lead Joseph to carthage and was asking all sorts of questions about the legal stuff and laws and getting into the dirty details and stuff he'd read online. it was pretty frustrating, it made sister Swaney cry. but in the martyrdom room i had the chance to bear my testimony. i told him that i hadn't had time yet to research everything about the laws back then, but i had had time to research the book of mormon. i've read it over and over, spent time studying it, pondering it, applying its teachings in my life and praying about it. and that i know its true. i know Joseph smith was called of God to be a prophet and that he restored Christs church on the earth. i know that Jesus is the Christ.  i know those things for a fact. it was a good way to finish the tour strong. pure testimony trumps all!!! later, elder hughes asked if he was a member of the church and the man said "loosely." what the flip does that mean? sadly there are a lot of loose members out there. so don't be loose! hold tightly to the iron rod and don't fall away into mists of darkness!! the book of Mormon will always keep you on the path. 

hmmm not a lot of patients. that seems rough im sure its easy to wonder what is going on. but just keep having faith! you are good at that. its kind of like how the saints left nauvoo and they didnt know how it all would work out, but they just had faith that it would. and thats how you are. you are a hero to me! keep pressing on, and God will bless you tremendously. he will pour out patients that you wont have enough room to receive them(; try reading the account when Christ tells them to re-dip their nets on the other side of the boat. that just popped into my mind and it might be helpful. 

also keep sending me your scripture studies! i love it so much its always a highlight for me!! i get so excited to learn what you are learning. i wish i had time to respond to all of them with my thoughts but alas. pday is short. 

also mom thank you for your thoughts on obedience. very helpful. i will try to put them into practice. 

also that quote about education is bomb. i love it. new favorite. 

today for pday we cleaned like the whole house. so that was nice. also we got to pick up a bunch of free food that the ypms left. i don't even really have to go shopping! i just need a few things so that is nice!! 

plus i got my package today! the boots you sent are super cute. and they fit pretty good too! so i'm impressed with your skills. 

i am doing well. i'm learning and growing a lot, i wish i could find a way to express that through this email enough. one of the ways i'm growing is also in my love for you guys. you two mean so much to me. i don't know how to explain it! but the closer i come to my heavenly father, the closer i feel to you guys too. the more grateful i feel for Him, i realize my gratitude for you is also growing. man oh man i love the gospel. and i love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is everything to me. 

keep being amazing. hey next email can you update me on all the kids? or have them each say something to me? i miss those guys! i was planning to address each of them personally this week but idk if i'll have time. 

love you all!!!

yours truly

Sister Bush