Hello everyone!
Just for your information I am now in a trio in Sidney Nebraska! It's a great place to go if you want to live far from a walmart, smell cow poop every morning when you walk outside, have Nicholas Cage as your bishop and see miracles every day! That about sums up my missionary experience here haha. I've been working hard and seen so many blessings. Also with Christmas, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about light....
Even during the holiday seasons, sometimes life can get dark and dreary. In a spiritual sense, gloom settles in and clouds cover the skies. But I want to tell you that there is hope smiling brightly before us.
When times have gotten dark for me, He has always been a light in my life. Jesus Christ is a light that never darkens, fades or flickers. I know that we can always rely on Him.
There's a quote by C S Lewis that I've always liked: "I believe in Jesus Christ like I believe in the sun at noon day. Not because I can see it, but because by it I can see everything else."
I agree. He is my light. Brighter than the Christmas lights on temple square. More brilliant than the stars that stretch across the sky. Even more glorious than the sun at noon day.
Winter can be a hard season, sometimes cold, dark and lonely. But I have learned that no matter what season of life you are in, you are never too far from the light of His love. I know that He is our Savior. I know that He lives. And I know that He loves you.
I leave this simple testimony with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Plus also, I know some of you wanted to give me something for Christmas. If you do, please send me an email or letter with your testimony of Jesus Christ along with one of your favorite artwork selections of Him.
Sincerely,
Sister Bush
Email to Family:
So! Sidney Nebraska! It isn't nearly as windy here as it was in casper, but it sure is different. We cover a huuuuuge area. (We are teaching a lady who lives an hour away who is still reasonably in our area.) All the way across I think our area is up to 3 hours. Idk but its crazy. We are an outcast area so we don't actually really see other missionaries lol. For district council we FaceTime in. Even our interviews with president will be over facetime. (We are the only district who gets that haha) we just live so far from everyone else. Another thing! Is that every morning when I walk outside I am greeted by the lovely smell of cow crap. Sometimes it's stronger than others haha but that's just part of living over here! The locals call it the smell of money hahahaha
We have a little ward. It might actually be a branch. It's super small. In a minute I'll tell you some of the people we work with. Missionary work is a little different here, tracting isn't as effective cuz there's just not as many people. So we focus mainly on service and helping returning members and stuff like that.
Being in a trio again is good. A different dynamic than me and sis jones and sis moss or me and sis fuge and sis van camp. Haha always different.
Sister Carrasco is from Argentina but has lived in the us for like 6 years. She is super smart and has many talents. She also takes pictures of EVERYTHING. Haha I like her willing attitude about things (:
Sister Walker has been out for quite a while but is still working hard. We are trying to figure out how to train together. Neither of my companions have been in a trio before and this is my third haha. So we are all figuring it out together. She is from Springfield Oregon and likes to have fun with missionary work. I love how easy going she is and her ability to connect with people.
On Transfer day.... It was quite a day. I spent most of it I spent in a van squeezed between missionaries driving haha. But! Highlights include that I had chic fil a for the first time in over 8 months! That was awesome! Plus that night we had dinner with the bishops family, and one of their little girls was so funny. We were talking about puberty at one point (for some reason I don't know) and our topic for our dinner message was light the world. So later I said "hey you do a good job to light the world with humor!" And the little girl was like "um I haven't hit humor yet...." It was super funny! I told her she definitely had 
We served at Table of grace this week, and got to help a lot of people get food. It was so cool. I love working at food banks and stuff.
Since serving here I've made a change in my prayers. I used to pray as soon as I got up or right before I went to bed. But when I pray then I'm super exhausted and already sleepy so my prayers are either super short or I drift off or whatever. Now I pray in the morning after I've woken up a little bit (worked out, or ate ect.) And I pray at night right when I get home (before I change or brush teeth or anything.) It really helps me stay focused during my prayers and not rush them like I used to. I love it.
Also! Alma 8:27. This scripture applies to this area. A few transfers back this ward had disobedient missionaries and so the members are still learning to trust us. So we are spending more time with members than normal trying to help them learn to trust us!
Random side note: I fell off the last two rungs of the bunkbed this week haha I hate the top bunk but so does sis Carrasco so I let her have the bottom!
We spent about an hour the other day ringing bells for salvation army at the front of a store! I thought it would be miserable but we actually had so much fun!!! We rang the bells and danced and complimented people and oh plus also we made a parody to Rudolf the red nosed reindeer. Except it's about the restoration. Haha I'll sing it and add it to the share it's pretty funny.
Okay people we are working with:
Bradley!!!! We went to visit a possible person with interest who met with missionaries in the past. Her name is carol. She got offended by the disobedient missionaries I think. Not sure. We went to visit her and her friend Bradley came in to check on her. (She's super sick.) So we introduced ourselves and I felt prompted to tell him that we not only serve people but we teach them about Jesus christ. He was about to leave but he literally closed the door, walked back in and started asking us questions! I can remember 4 questions of the soul that he asked during that conversation. So right then and there we gave him a book of mormon and set up a return appointment to teach him on saturday! At carols house! So she will hear the lessons again! So excited. Miracles every day 
Grandma! She doesn't let us call her anything else haha. She is an older lady in the ward who's husband passed away. We visit with her and help her wrap her chocolates and candies that she makes! She sells them to keep busy.
Judy has cancer and is at a nursing home. We visit to read the book of mormon with her every once and awhile. She can't read with us right now but she just asks us to come and read to her. What a fighter! I want to be like her when I grow up.
Sara is a single mom who is trying to come back to church. She has a goal to read the book of mormon so we try to go over almost every day to read with her and spend time with her kids.
Bryan and Chesley. These two teens are recent refugees and converts from Honduras. So sis Carrasco is teaching them the new member lessons in spanish! I got to bear my testimony in Spanish and that was the first time I've ever done that. It was so neat.
Velma! I haven't met Velma yet. She lives an hour away (but still in our area) she came to church the Sunday before I got here and also has been reading the book of mormon. This week she will probably commit to baptism!!
Herb is a recent convert who is going to get the priesthood soon (:
Sister Pierette is a lady who just moved in and her husband is deployed in Afghanistan. She is so solid I love her faith.
The Jones family is super cool but brother Jones is coming back to church. They fed us deer! My first time eating deer haha. He was like stirring the meat in the sauce and was like "yesterday this baby deer was alive! How crazy is that! Shot him around noon." I was like uhhhhh crazy. People weird me out haha.
We are going to decorate cookies and Christmas Carol with them on christmas eve which makes me happy.
The bishop! Also. If you want to know what my bishop is like, just imagine Nicholas cage. NO JOKE. HE IS NICHOLAS CAGE. Plus also he gave us "the talk" this week on sunday for like 3 hours on how we need to work together to help the work progress and establish zion. He's pretty cool. He's like santa cuz he says he will help us with anything haha.
This week I was also reminded of the hard part of taking care of doggos! We do service at adopt a dog and we spent like almost 2 hours cleaning up their poo. So nasty.
Anyways that's just about my week! Things are going well here and I'm a happy missionary!
I love you both SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!
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