January 29, 2019

Hello everyone! I feel like it's been ages since I wrote an email out to all of you.... probably cuz it has been! Yes i am still alive haha 

A quick little Sister Bush update:

1) I'm still helplessly in love with missionary work! 

2) I'm still serving in Sidney Nebraska! I get to teach the faithful people who drive 2 hours just to come to church, serve others by helping blanket their horses when it gets too cold, be told my religion is satanic, play bingo with the hilarious people in the old folks home, try lots of delicious Ecuadorian food, study come follow me with the families in our ward and talk to literally everyone I see about Jesus Christ! The list of crazy and awesome things i get to experience every day could go on and on. See why I'm so in love with my life right now?

3) Plus also, I am now training a new missionary, her name is Hermana Escobar. That's right, she's a spanish sister! She is from Ecuador and is super sweet, cool and hardworking!! We started teaching a spanish family and so my mission president sent her out here so that they can keep learning and growing in the gospel. I will miss my two companions but am happy for the difference they will keep making in people's lives!! 

And 4) I found a new favorite scripture this week! 

Sometimes we feel like we need to know everything about the gospel to follow Christ. That just isn't true. The gospel is simple. The scripture I found this week only has 24 words in it and I think it perfectly sums up His whole entire gospel. 

"Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon his holy name." (Helaman 3:27) 

His gospel is simple, and it is simple to live. We don't have to know everything, understand all the fancy words, interpret all the parables or be able to explain the words of Isaiah. The Lord is merciful to all who sincerely call upon His holy name. I've come to know that is true! Especially this week. His gospel is a gospel of LOVE. It is that simple. I know that no matter what is going on in your life, you can turn to Him. It is simple. He is merciful unto all who sincerely come to Him. I know that in my heart to be true. He loves you

Thanks for listening/reading! I hope you are doing well and I hope you have the greatest of great weeks (: 

Sister Bush 

January 22, 2019

Mom I love your thoughts on all the ways those people showed faith! So cool. 

Dad I'm glad you are back home and enjoying being with family again. 

That is so cool to me that Jan got to go!!!!!! It probably helped that the endowment is shorter now. That is amazing. Man that made me so happy. 

We had district council and our trio had the training. 

It was a good training! We did a missionary escape room- so the missionaries had to try to get certain tasks (that relate to the scriptures and helping people they are teaching and creating good relationships with the members) as well as undo locks and get through barriers. It was so cool!!!! I was really happy about it and everyone loved it. 

Then we had a lesson with Velma and talked about her baptism experience(: 

Also we got to meet with the marquez family!! They are a Hispanic family in Oshkosh that were dropped because of the language barrier and so we taught them the Restoration and they loved it! The young teen girl was asking us like how we each came to know the truth ourselves and other amazing questions. It was my first time teaching a whole family instead of just an individual and it was the coolest thing in my life. They are so golden!! I love them so much, I got to bear my testimony in Spanish to them .

Then, because we were so far out late at night we spent the night at the peters again. They are my favorite favorite peoples. 

Friday was my halfway mark how crazy weird is that!!!!! We didn't do anything special but it was a day of reflection for me. I'm more than halfway done with my mission. The time goes by way too fast. 

I tried to re-arrange the furniture in our apartment (thanks mom for instilling that in me haha) but our apartment is so small everything I tried I didn't like. So we only changed one little thing and put it back the way it was hahaha 

We had dinner with the holcombes and boy do they need prayers. They are such good people it's just hard for them to come to church because of sicknesses. 

So on Saturday we had apartment inspections and like right after we got a phone call from president to tell us about transfers! 

**********So I'm staying in sidney nebraska. I'm training here! She's an hermana. So she is Spanish speaking which is so good for the marquez cuz I was worried about them.  Her name is Hermana Escobar, she is from Ecuador and has only been out for one transfer. So I'm second transfer training again, this time tho, she won't really know any english. I will be working on my spanish too. Im not a spanish missionary, but i may be in many situations introducing myself as hermana bush(:(:(:(:(: So please pray for me to have the gift of tongues haha. Cuz I have to help her be the missionary she needs to be but i don't even speak Spanish. 

Haha. Plus also, just for fun dad can you tell me the areas you served in Ecuador on your mission? I don't even know! What cities did you serve in? Who did you work with? It would be pretty cool if there was a connection there haha. I'm excited to help the work progress in Sidney and help the Spanish work get started! Any tips on how to teach English and learn some Spanish at the same time????

Also with transfers sister walker is going to be an STL and in trio. One of the sisters she's with she has been companions with her before! 

On Sunday church was flippin awesome. We had a researcher come to our ward who is writing a paper about our religion so that was cool. We got to help answer her questions, help her feel welcome and at the end she asked for a book of mormon! So that is awesome! 

Plus also, we met Danielle Alberts at church. She just showed up with the frankens. It's a crazy story. So the frankens met her at a gas station this past week and she found out they were members and she has an aunt who is a member and she has been wanting to find the church in this area so they invited her over to get to know her and then brought her to Church on sunday! How wacko is that! Miracles happen every day. 

We had dinner with the hayleys I love those guys. It was a little spicy so we joked about that but I survived lol. Their family is lots of fun. 

Then we spent time at the silers saying goodbye. Sister Siler is so amazing and she reminds me of you mom so I'm glad to be able to know her. 

On Monday we went to adopt a dog again, this time one of the dogs almost bit sister walker and I sprayed it with a hose haha. Good times good times. 

Then we had lunch at the frankens and taught Danielle the restoration. It went so good. She is super promising and wants her mom to take the lessons too! Oh yeah!! 

Plus we got to go help her blanket her horses! That's a new adventure haha and so fun too. 

We had dinner at the bishops place so that was cool. 

Then we read with Sara. She was upset about something and the spirit told me we needed to each pray about a question we have a read looking for the answer. I was skeptical because it was Mosiah 11. That was the next chapter. About king Noah and his wickedness. I was like oh boy I hope this works. But I had faith that the spirit wasn't just pranking me so we did it. I've never had such a spiritual experience with a weird chapter! We finished reading and it was just silent. Everyone was pondering and thinking about how it could answer their questions. And it was so cool cuz we got the answers we needed! Wow the power of the Book of mormon. It became more true today than it was yesterday. I know it is the word of god because only the word of god could do something so amazing like that. It was a miracle to me 

January 15, 2019

Heyo! 

Many things happened this week..... I don't even know when to start.

We had a Bible study with Loretta, an older lady who has only let us do service until now and let us pick the topic of the next bible study! 

District council was awesome, sis McMurray joined us and we did lots of fun roleplays 

I spent some time chopping chocolates at grandma's house- sis mueller is an older lady who makes lots of chocolates to keep her busy and I cut up like 10+ pounds of chocolate! Haha sampled some of it too (; 

Bradley! I'm not sure if i told you about Bradley or not yet. He is 32 and has special needs- and a personality disorder. He likes to pretend he is like a 12 yr old girl. Not sure how that works but he has a such a good heart. He always has a lot of questions about the gospel and this time we got to give him a tour of the Church building and then teach him the restoration (very simply). It went super well! He came to Velmas baptism and he says he will come to church (not this Sunday but next) so we are excited about him. He's hilarious though he asked us if we wanted to come to his apartment and get our nails done hahaha 

We went to the old folks home and played bingo with the oldies, it was definitely a highlight. One of the old ladies named Lillian kept asking if we were playing bingo and doing the wrong numbers haha it was hilarious she cracked me up 

Velmas baptism!!!!! What a crazy day. Our ward helped with a some of it but for the most part we had to do everything. (Get the flowers, fill the font, set up the room, make cookies, print the programs etc.) haha funny story the bishop told us that when filling the font we have to stir the water cuz it gets cold at the bottom so I got in and did some laps with a broom! Haha plus also the water wasn't warm enough and the water heater was dying so we boiled pots of water in the kitchen and dumped those in. It was an adventure let me tell you!!! Haha 

Buuuut the service went so good! Velma was afraid of the water but she got a priesthood blessing beforehand and was just fine. There were two priesthood holders in the font to help her feel secure. We did a musical number too! Sis Carrasco played her ukulele and sis walker and I sang the rainbows song (: I made sure not to say "my lungs are washed away" (; (; (; haha it was good. 

Bradley even came! He was late so he didn't see the actual baptism but he was still there so that was good. Then we had some light refreshments (cookies, sandwiches and more cookies) then everyone left and us sisters did all the clean up. We had to clean the font, clean the overflow where we had refreshments, vacuum everything, clean the kitchen, all the dishes people used, and then take the towels and suits home to wash them. It was quite a day.  Also Velma invited all her extended family to the baptism so that was super cool (: 

Overall, great day with great memories!!

Also this week we got to meet with herb, a recent convert who has been slightly avoiding us. We talked about the temple and he has a goal to get there we are so excited for him (: 

Speaking of temples no I have not been since the beginning of the year. Im in nebraska so im too far away to go. 

But i've only heard good things and I can't wait to go!!!! 

Also last night we had FHE with the Christians and obryans.  The obryans have a 11 year old girl named katelynn who is being pushed to be baptized.... We want her to to desire to be baptized on her own for the right reasons before she gets baptized so we are trying to help her. 

This week I think I've learned a lot about the importance of doing my personal best. Sometimes my companion(s) may have a hard time with being obedient or as hard working as I want to be but i can still try to do my best. 

Also, in my scriptures I was reading in 3 Nephi 10 when Christ talks about how he gathers us like a hen gathereth her chickens and I did a scripture study all on that. I used my journal to write down times when he has gathered me, would have gathered me, how he is gathering me and how He will gather me. It was super cool!! (: I'm so grateful that His arms are always outstretched to me! 

And I'm so grateful that your arms are always outstretched to me too!! I love you both so much!!

Love love love 

Sis Bush 

Ps. Cool quote I heard this week: "We express our faith with our feet" 

January 8, 2019

Adventure is out there! 

This week we drove to aurora colorado. Sis Carrasco had a doctor's appointment but we didn't even get to see him. Even though we drove all the way over there and used a bunch of miles. Cuz the morning of there was a HUGE crash on the freeway. A semi had flipped over the bridge and landed on the road below upside down. 7 other vehicles were involved and a helicopter was there too. I know a lot of people were hurt and injured. So because of that we missed the Dr appointment. He said he was booked all day so even though we drove from Sidney Nebraska to come see him it wouldn't work. Wow all that time down the drain. The only good thing was that we got to go to Krispy kreme!!! I haven't had Krispy Kreme in 9 months. So that was like the best day of my life. I bought a dozen glazed for myself and then I followed my older brothers example and got a dozen for president McMurray as well! He was super happy about that haha. 

Hola, como estas? 

This week I had an opportunity to use some of my limited spanish. Remember when I read the book of mormon in spanish? Well it came in handy. We had a visit with this lady who is active but lonely because no one in the ward speaks Spanish and she can't speak english. So we went over to lift her spirits and read the book of mormon with her. We all took turns reading verses and I was actually able to participate! Sister Carrasco said I pronounced things correctly like 80% of the time haha but she said it meant a lot to this lady that I did what I could to help her feel loved. So that was cool. 

Miracles after miracles. 

We stopped to visit with this inactive family. Sister walker was worried cuz she said they haven't usually let us in but when we drove up they opened the door before we even knocked and invited us in! We had a great conversation and they not only invited us for dinner but also for us to come back once a week to read the book of mormon with them!! 

We visited another inactive family this week. Their daughter isn't baptized. They are usually kind of mean but they let us in! And not only that but they came to church on sunday!! It was the best day ever because the day before when we went we had to walk home (3 miles in the dark cold haha) and ended up with some blisters. Well when they came to church we were all like YES THE BLISTERS WERE WORTH IT it was a great moment haha. 

When we were in Oshkosh (an hour drive from our house) we found in our records a Mexican family who was super interested about the gospel but the missionaries stopped teaching them basically because they didn't speak english. Well! Sister Carrasco started talking to them in Spanish and on the spot we got a return appointment and their number! We are so excited to start teaching them. The only sad thing is how far away they live haha 

Fool for Christ! 

I love being a fool for christ. And just talking to everyone no matter what. It's so much fun hahaha 

This week we were fools for Christ at Wal-Mart, which was fun cuz they weren't interested and the lady next to her was. 

We were fools for Christ when we were in our car doing scripture study and I saw a lady walking her dogs past us and I got out of the car to talk to her. 

We were fools for Christ when we were driving somewhere and saw a guy walking so we parked farther up and then walked back towards him (so he wouldn't know.) He took a book of mormon and said we could visit him! 

We were also fools for Christ when we were walking and a guy was getting his mail and then getting back into his car while his kids were yelling haha he took a book of mormon too. 

We've had some really fun awkward hilarious cool moments with being fools for Christ and I love it so much! Talk to everyone!! 

You'll never believe...... 

Yep I'm like that lady in over the hedge. I got slacks! I bought two pairs. Gray and black. Im actually wearing the grey ones today haha. Mainly because I know during pageant season that all the bugs will be super annoying and it will be nice to wear pants. Second reason is that even though it makes me look like someone's secretary, I am way more comfortable haha. I'll send pictures. 

I got a phone call from sister Van Camp this week! It was out of the blue. It was great to talk to her but the reason was sad. Dan has not been doing so good. He and his girlfriend broke up, he has been avoiding meeting with the missionaries and rumor is he has been drinking and smoking again. So she called me to tell me to try emailing him (which I have but he hasn't answered) I was totally in shock! I'm super worried about him too. So extra prayers for Dan would be great. Update on Jayden- She's going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with her dad on saturday! I'm so happy for them. 

I met the cutest dog in the world. (Besides the ones I've had of course.) But I want to steal him so bad!! We do service at adopt a dog and clean up the animals and play with them and there is this dog there that is so adorable. He is a pit mixed with terrier. So he's basically a mini pit bull except he is super nice and sweet and not scary like some pits are. And he will stay small forever. He doesn't bark like all the other dogs in the adopt a dog place do, he doesn't shed much and he is the sweetest ever! I'm sending pictures. If I could take him home with me I would in a heartbeat. 

Come follow Him. 

I LOVE COME FOLLOW ME IT'S THE BEST. Something I'm doing so it's easier to study even when I'm busy is on sunday I do the readings (Matt 1 and luke 1) using that extra hour and then throughout the week I just add like 5 to 10 minutes of my normal study by reviewing and pondering the things in the manual. So maybe that's a good idea. Whatever works! 

I had a cool moment with come follow me when I decided to compare Zachariah's response to the angel and Mary's response to the angel. Because they both asked questions, but one was struck dumb and the other praised. 

He said " whereby shall I know this?" And was saying "how am I supposed to believe you?" In essence, asking for a sign or a further proof. 

And Mary asked "how shall this be?"

Saying, I believe it shall be, but how? 

She accepted it would be with faith but sought further knowledge from God by asking how. In essence, she had faith but also acknowledged her questions, and took them to Him. 

Also in my own scripture study I've been studying what it means to be a disciple. 

"The word disciple comes from the Latin discipulus, a learner. A disciple of Christ is one who is learning to be like Christ—learning to think, to feel, and to act as he does. To be a true disciple, to fulfill that learning task, is the most demanding regimen known to man. No other discipline compares with it in either requirements or rewards. It involves the total transformation of a person from the state of the natural man to that of the saint, one who loves the Lord and serves with all of his heart, might, mind, and strength......

To eliminate the influence of the world is a difficult thing. But to gain mastery over his own desires is another, even more difficult task. It is like hauling off all the rocks and thoroughly tilling the soil once the forest of his mind has been cleared of false ideas........

Though we cannot overcome the world on our own merits, his are quite sufficient. If we are learning, then we are disciples. May we learn well and be disciples indeed.

Then, instead of the natural forest of worldliness that smothers out all else in our lives, we shall have created a Garden of Eden. As the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory, even so must each individual disciple renew his own personal life in the glory of our God."

 (Excerpts from a Sept 1974 ensign article called Becoming a Disciple By Chauncey C. Riddle. So good!!!!) 

Anyways I've been learning a lot, growing a lot, loving a lot and working a lot.

 It's a great day to be a missionary!!! 

Love you so much!! Thank you for everything 

Sis Bush 

January 1, 2019

Hello all! 

"According to my food journal i eat approximately 6 fruit snacks a day." 

That is a quote from one of my companions. Let's just say this transfer has been very interesting!! 

Haha we have a lot of fun together. 

This week we have served at a food bank, finished reading the book of mormon, 

walked in a blizzard, discovered that I could fit in our dryer and invited Velma to be baptized! 

Lots of good memories. 

Today is a new year! But it's also just a new day. 

And just like a new year is a new start, every day is a new beginning. 

The message of Christ's gospel is that you can always have a new beginning. 

The moment you decide to turn to the Savior, He will welcome you with open arms. 

The scriptures teach us: 

"Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; 

for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, 

f ye will repent and harden not your hearts, 

immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you."

I have come to know for myself that the moment we humble ourselves and turn to the Lord, 

the power of His atonement takes effect in our lives. 

You can choose to have a new, fresh start whenever you need one because of Jesus Christ. 

I know that He lives and that He loves you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

Have a great day everyone! 

Sister Bush