Email to family:
Thanks mom for all those miracles you see around you! I didn't know about a lot of those things so it made me happy to hear all the good happening over there
For my body aches and pains I think it probably is my mattress. Cuz it changes when I get transferred or sleep in a new bed.... So that's probably it. Right now I'm currently sleeping on top of two mattresses haha which I guess helps cuz my aches and pains aren't so bad.
Maybe the cold too.
Regardless I might try the medicine haha
Sister Dahl, I'll look out for her. I might miss her tho.... If she's going to the mtc this week she will likely be there for 3 weeks, well I have about 6 weeks left here so I suppose it could happen. I guess it depends on if I stay outcast in Sidney or not haha
About the microwave and my cleaning skills:
Since like month one of the mission in Nauvoo I had a particular companion who was messy and I quickly learned that deep down inside I am a neat freak. Guess it runs in my blood or something but I realized just how much it bothers me when people leave dishes out (not just in the kitchen but in the living room or bedrooms) or clothes everywhere (Not just unfolded on the bed - I'm talking about covering the floor and all the rooms and tables) or don't clean up hair in the bathroom (which has always been gross to me no matter what the extent) or ect ect ect. Not only is it icky to see but in the back of my mind when I'm studying or just in the house it's harder for me to be calm. I get irritated more easily when I'm the only person doing the dishes or laundry or the only one that cares what the bathroom looks like haha. So I do care! Clothes and laundry are still being worked on... have to admit I'm not perfect there but I am learning that I like it a lot better when things are CLEAN. very clean. Hahahaha so thanks for raising me right (;
I love Sidney nebraska. I love the ward I love the people I love my companion and I love being a missionary. But this week is what I have come to call a "trial of our faith" week. This week we were expecting to have 4 people accept a baptismal date, 5 come to church and to start teaching 2 new people. Instead we got a bunch of zeros. For all of those goals. Not only that, but we didn't even meet with people! No joke, all week everyone continued to cancel, not be home, reschedule, not reply to our messages, hang up phones and quickly close doors. I was feeling pretty..... upset. I didn't understand because in this companionship I feel that we are more obedient than the last companionship I was in! I feel like we try harder and are more exactly obedient compared to before - and yet the results are less. Now I know that success does not equal baptisms. I know that very clearly. But I also know that obedience brings blessings and miracles. So this week I was like: so where are they?
But this week as I've continually pondered, prayed, read scriptures and wrote things out I've re-discovered things about the Savior. I knew i could turn to Him for answers. As I pondered his life, his perfectly exact obedience and love and sacrifice, I realized that yet so many rejected him. And some continue to do so. If the Son of God was perfect but experienced the worst of the worst, why should i, who still have many many imperfections expect only the best of the best? Why is missionary work hard? Elder Holland says "because salvation is not a cheap experience."
Christ paid the price. And we also, must give our all. Our whole souls. And yes people have agency. And yes God tests our faith. But ultimately, the reason life is hard and we deal with hard things is so that "the works of God may be made manifest in [us]."
I'm grateful for this week, even though it was hard. Even though it caused me to hurt a little and dig deeper and spend more time on my knees. Maybe especially because of those reasons. Without this hard week, I wouldn't have dug as deep or prayed as hard or searched the scriptures as diligently or pondered as much or exercised more faith. Which is why I am grateful for the good weeks but also the "bad" ones.
But in reality, when I step off that plane and end my mission, and someone asks me to describe my mission in one word I won't use good, bad, hard or easy. I will use the word sacred. Because it is a combination of everything. And it is in our extremities - our extreme happy moments, our extreme sorrowful moments, extreme sufferings and rejoicings, extreme stretchings and extreme learning - it is in our extremities that we come to know God. (Just ask Levi savage.) In all these moments and days And weeks I have been coming to know the Savior as I serve And bring people to Him. And that, no matter what other words can be used to describe it, will always be sacred to me.
So that is what I've been pondering this week. It seems that you have been doing the same. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, experiences and feelings! It helped me with mine (:
Anyways, as I said this week was a trial of our faith. Which is hard but it's good because that means that this week I have faith that we will see miracles! Hermana Escobar and I are calling this week miracle week and we are so excited to see what lies ahead (:
Though we had many many many lessons cancel and stuff (like multiple every day) here are some of the things we did get to do this week: (trying to focus on the positive things! )
We built snowmen! Two little ones by our apartment complex. Just for fun haha
I hemmed a dress for a sister in our ward though I have never done it before! She asked for our help and then didn't really give us any instructions and so that was fun haha. We did our best though, hopefully it works out....
We Served at Table of grace again, a food pantry. I like it cuz we get to help people in the community and serve along side other fellow believers in christ. They may not have the full truth but they really do serve out of the goodness of their hearts so I love it. Plus we get to help a lot of people! It's cool.
Because it was more of a hard week i gave extra effort into my scripture studies (funny how that usually happens) and had some really cool things that i learned as well as some aweosme companion studies!
Book of mormon insight:
I was reading in the scriptures how Christ says to search the scriptures and the prophets and to hearken unto him. So I started reading a bunch of quotes about scripture reading and this one was my favorite:
"I am grateful for emphasis on reading the scriptures. I hope that for you this will become something far more enjoyable than a duty; that, rather, it will become a love affair with the word of God. I promise you that as you read, your minds will be enlightened and your spirits will be lifted. At first it may seem tedious, but that will change into a wondrous experience with thoughts and words of things divine." - Hinckley
Haha a love affair with the word of god. It's my new favorite phrase!! This week I definitely spent a lot of time deep inside the pages of the book of mormon and I do love it so much.
pmg insight:
it says "your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to find, teach, baptize and confirm people and to help them become faithful members of the church who enjoy the presence of the holy ghost."
I think you can even shorten that.
"Your success as a missionary is measured primarily by your commitment to Christ, and bringing souls to Him."
Which was a cool thing to remind myself of this week. We can all be 100% successful missionaries, whether in a visitors center or out knocking doors. Whether you see 0 baptisms or thousands. Whether you have people accept you or not. It's all about your commitment to the Savior.
Come follow me insight:
when Christ turned the water into wine it was known as the beginning of miracles. Essentially #1. I think that in a spiritual sense we are the water that He turns into wine. And that is the most important miracle, the number one miracle we should focus on in our lives. Not only that, but him changing us from water to wine- in these days, the last days, it's like the end of the celebration. Satan will be like the man who was surprised that the best wine was saved till the end. When we let Christ change us, change our hearts, actions, views and natures - the adversary (and sometimes even ourselves) will be surprised at who we became. But Christ wont. Because He knows how good we can be. And that's why we have to let Him change us (:
We had a pretty good weekly planning- this upcoming week we will be doing a lot of traveling (to cities farther away in our area, to zone conference - Which i am stoked about by the way - and stuff like that.) So pray we don't get lost with my navigation skills haha
We talked to quite a lot of people this week. (Haha cuz we had a lot of finding time cuz all the lessons canceled) there is an initiative in the mission about talking to 20 nonmembers we have never talked to before every day. It's quite a challenge in this little itty bitty town in Nebraska but we do our best! And this week we did pretty good! Needless to say we have made some unnecessary trips to Wal-Mart just to talk to more people but hey if it works it works right? (I have so many embarrassing Wal-Mart awkward conversation starter stories hahahaha not just me but my companion too. We've had quite a few good ones. Hers was talking to an old lady about tuna THAT WAS FUNNY and mine was asking advice about vaccums only to find we were in the carpet cleaner section, and the vacuum isle was the one to the right. Good times good times.) Any advice on how we can talk to more people besides Wal-Mart? I don't want to keep going there but there aren't really any other public places here that we can go to.... (the locals prefer to gather at bars lol)
Update on the mexicans: another one is in love with me. This time he is older and has kids so that's even more awkward. I'm sending screenshots of our conversation in the Google photos lol it's bad. We had a call with him to explain the book of mormon more and he kept asking for me, eventually hermana Escobar just lied for me and said that I don't know any Spanish and can't speak Spanish and won't understand spanish either if he keeps being crazy and stops asking gospel questions we are going to block him. Oscar hasn't been contacting us this week so that's that with him I guess haha.
On Sunday Velma got her temple recommend! That was so good. We went through the recommend interview questions so she wouldnt feel nervous. She is so cute haha she was like yes I believe president Nelson is a prophet and all those things and then when we asked if she had any questions she was like yeah, what does a prophet do? Haha so cute. Im So proud of her.
We did service at adopt a dog which is always fun. But those dogs are insane haha and it's always freezing outside when we get their poo. Scooping up frozen poo. Not the business.
And! A miracle yesterday! (Proof that this upcoming week will be miracle week!) We found 1 new person to teach yesterday! It was pretty neat she is very prepared
Anyways that's about my week haha. I love you guys so much and I'm so grateful for both of you! You mean everything to me 
thanks for being such great examples, parents and friends
Love,
Sister Bush
Ps a flock of geese migrated to our "backyard" and I am not thrilled about it because of how much noise they make when we are trying to sleep
Side note thought I had this week:
If/when you plan to come to Nauvoo please please please do not try to surprise me. Last summer I noticed that missionaries struggled more when their families surprised them and didn't tell when they were coming. It made it harder to mentally and emotionally prepare for and also made it harder when the families left and they had to say goodbye/re-focus on the work in nauvoo. So please don't surprise me and recommend to any extended family not to surprise me either! Surprises are fun but just please let me know if/when you will be coming or others for that matter.
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