February 26, 2019

Email to family:

I taught the word of wisdom in a bar...

Check that off my mission bucket list.... 

Hellooooooo! 

I cannot tell you how many times thid week ive slipped on ice. I havent fallen yet! But i slip basically anytime i try to walk somewhere. Everything is just covered in ice haha. It's crazy. 

I've gone to seminary twice this week! Shared spiritual thoughts about missionary work and invited the kids to participate in certain ways. Great kids. It was hard enough for me to go to seminary when it was early and cold in el Paso but the cold here is so much worse! Icy, snowing and everything is frozen. Often these two kids from the Siler family are the only kids that show up. That's dedication. And some of the kids travel 30 minutes to get to seminary and 30 back every morning. How inspiring. 

This week I parked our car in the garage and yep forgot the garage code.  Good thing our landlord is so nice! 

We had lunch with Velma in Oshkosh and did a lesson about the plan of salvation. She's so sweet I just love her. She's already doing so much service in the church! What a great human. 

We also did some contacting in Oshkosh and we met this guy named jimmy. His wife and her dog were with him, they were in their car smoking. We talked to them about the book of mormon and he was super interested and excited! But we can tell if he's just super religious or super creepy cuz at first he wanted to have a lesson with us at a dump and then he asked for pictures of us and also he says things like "I can feel the Lord in you sister!" So I dont know. Maybe he works at a dump, maybe he's just an old guy who likes pictures. Or maybe he's a creep. We have a lesson with him on Wednesday at a cafe and we are bringing out ward mission leader brother anderson. Cuz I would not feel safe without him there haha. We shall see if he's actually interested or if he's just a weirdo. Maybe both 

We spent time with the peters and boy do I love sister peters. She is so tender. She told me that she was watching me in church last Sunday and that she started crying because she was so proud of me and to her it was a mother daughter kind of moment. How cute! She's just wonderful and I can't wait for you to meet her mom I think you will be kindred spirits haha. 

This week I was illegal or in other words, I was proselytizing in walmart! Most of the time we just go to Wal-Mart to talk to 20 people if we are short on how many we've talked to and usually it's just like "hey how are you" "I like your ____" or occasionally we will offer free service or give them our number. But this week I started talking to this lady and her husband and she was just golden! I gave her a book of mormon, got her number and we are trying to find a time to meet! (She lives in kimball, not sidney) so that was awesome! Hermana Escobar told me that she was looking around cuz she thought I was going to get arrested or told to leave or something hahaha God words in mysterious ways. Even at Wal-Mart. 

In district council hermana Escobar and I got to give a training on charity. Good stuff. Something I learned this week about the phrase charity never faileth and it endured forever. Why is charity greater that faith or hope? I have some thoughts on this I'll share when we call (: 

Also I'm grateful for your quotes and references to miracles mom cuz that's something I studied this week! How God is still a God of miracles (: 

Also, can we just talk about mormon 9:21 for a second??? What a promise!! As I was pondering it though, I think that the phrase "in the name of christ" doesn't just mean we have to say Christ's name as we pray. I think it means that whatever we are asking for has to be something that he would want, or in other words that it is according to his will. Or something that he would ask for or something that is for the purpose of bringing souls to him. Do you get what I mean? In the name of christ means much more than just saying his name, it means doing it for Him! For the sake of His name. So that was a cool thing I noticed 

We tried really hard to get the holcombes to come to church this week. We had dinner with them, a lesson on the importance of the sacrament, and planned to have breakfast Sunday morning with them to help them stay motivated! Well, an hour before we were supposed to go have breakfast she canceled on us cuz she said she wasn't feeling good. Whether it was true or not (probably was true) i was like dang it satan!!! So close. It sure is hard for people to come to church when they haven't come for a long time. 

Okay I just want to brag about my companion for a little bit. She's amazing. She works so hard and is fearless and loves the people. She prays with sincerity and is so determined to learn english. This week was hard on her because she feels embarrassed and frustrated when people don't understand her because of her accent. It's kind of heartbreaking for me actually. Cuz I understand her super well. Every once and awhile I ask her to repeat something but I always get it. It's just sad to watch her practice asking certain questions and saying certain phrases over and over, working on the grammar, how to pronounce it and everything until she gets it and then we get outside and she tries using those phrases or questions and everyone is like "what?" Or they turn to me to ask what she's saying like if she can't repeat it or anything. It's so sad to watch. These people have no idea how hard she works and how much she wants to communicate with them! Aw. But she keeps trying and I love that about her. She just keeps going, keeps testifying, keeps speaking up. Her faith is incredible. And she always has amazing insights about the scriptures and the gospel! I love it. She also spoke in church this week (which she practiced for all week) and it went good. So proud of her. 

This week we really felt your prayers. The Marquez aren't doing so good but we got to meet with Danielle twice (and I'll explain all the miracles along with that) she came to church on her own! 

Plus. Austin is now on date for baptism and we met with him twice too. (MARCH 23) 

I sure hope I don't get transferred before these two get baptized! 

Anyways. They did so good this week and I'll explain all the cool miracles about their progress during our call so the kids can hear about the effect of those prayers! 

We also met a lady named pearla who wants us to come teach her and her son's this week so that is flippin cool. 

dinner with the frankens! I love those guys. They are so funny and some of the most missionary minded members I've ever met. They are the ones who met Danielle at the gas station and brought her to church. They are amazing. This week we began a home mission plan with them and I'm excited to see what miracles come from it! 

So my back is doing better but now my shoulders and neck hurt all the time... the back roller doesn't seem to help with that too much. Any ideas?? 

Also please pray for some elders in my district, their apartment caught fire and burned down yesterday.... that's basically all I know. 

On Saturday we find out about trasnfers. I really really hope that I stay. I think it would be better for me, better for my companions progress, better for the people we are teaching if I got to stay in Sidney for 3 more weeks before I go back to nauvoo. So I'm really crossing my fingers for that! 

Anyways yes my email is different, to be more in line with not using lds and mormon - they changed it to missionary. 

Emails sent to my lds email are automatically forwarded to my missionary email so it doesn't matter all too much. But the one I'm using now is my missionary.org email so you can just email that directly. (: sorry I forgot to tell you guys haha 

As for the phone calls id love to spend some time one on one with the kids! And also hear some of you guitar skills dad (; 

Ps i know I asked last week but can I have a list of birthdays and holidays and anniversary (and grandparents birthdays included cuz i can call them for those) cuz I don't want to miss anything important now that I can call on special occasions! 

Plus also. You both are just so cute. Reading your emails i can hear your voices in my head and it's just awesome to know about your lives! I love you guys so much!!! 

Love,

Sister Bush