April 30, 2019

Hello all! 

This week we served in the Bakery, Sara Granger Kimball home, Cultural hall, Facilities Management and the Visitors Center! 

The variety of experiences I have here in Nauvoo is remarkable. We got a visit from a dear friend, tried to stop our guests from chasing the cows, met a couple who drove over 5 hours (for the 4th time) to visit Nauvoo even though they aren't members of our church, shoveled rocks till our backs nearly broke, had a movie night with our mission president, made a successful parmesan chicken in the slow cooker, sung our hearts out in different languages and learned what true humility is. What a week! Am I right or am I right? Haha I love being here it continues to change my life every day. 

So! This week I wrote part of George and Christiana's story. Don't worry, i haven't forgotten about Lucius! The rest of his story is coming up, but the Riser family has been on my mind this week! So here's this clip: 

RISER FAMILY: 

George stares in fixation at a wooden shoe last, concentrating on poking the holes with the awl in the right place. His eyebrows wrinkle as he threads the flax seed string through the holes in the leather. 

Christiana watches him pull out the nails in silence. She's anxious to talk but doesn't want to interrupt his work. 

Finally she can't help herself. 

"George?" 

"Hm?" He's still staring intently, and doesn't look up. 

"I want to discuss something with you." 

He nods, but Christiana knows he isn't listening. 

"Sie da." She speaks German, their native tongue, to signify that she needs his attention. 

George looks up, sets down the shoe last and puts the hammer in his lap. "Ja?" 

"I wish to ask your opinion of the Prophet, the Prophet Joseph Smith and his words this morning." Christiana studies him, her heart pounding. 

George smiles. "I was contemplating the very thing at this very moment!"

Christiana laughs and then leans forward. "And? What are your feelings on the subject?" 

He rests his arm on his work table and runs his hand through his hair. 

"I cannot forget the feeling in my chest as he spoke...... as he explained eternal truths with such simplicity and testified of our Lord Jesus Christ with such surety. I feel as if the aching void in my heart has been filled with His restored gospel." 

Relieved and overjoyed with his response, Christiana jumps up. "I feel the same!" 

They nearly dance around the kitchen, rejoicing. He spins her and they nearly fall over, bumping into his work table. Shoe lasts and nails fall on the floor. Neither of them are bothered, because the feeling in the room and in their hearts is a deep, pure joy. 

George smiles from ear to ear, tears filling his eyes as he tenderly grabs Christiana's hands. "I know it's true. We must be baptized." Christiana agrees and they embrace. 

Only hours later, Christiana is awoken in the middle of the night by her baby boy. John. He was sick all day and now he's not only crying but he's struggling to breathe. She scoops him up in her arms and rushes to awake her husband. 

George runs down the stairs and gets a rag wet for the baby's head. He comes back up the stairs and kneels and Christiana's side, eyes full of concern. 

A painful hour go by and George gets up, pacing the room. 

"I cannot bear to see him like this. And he's only getting worse." 

Baby John gasps for air, coughs, and begins to wail again. 

Christiana's hands shake as she touches Johns forehead. "Should we call upon brother Joseph?" Her words are barely a whisper. 

George stares into the little candle flame and then back at their son. "He is a man of God. If anyone will know what to do, it will be him." 

He then begins putting on his shoes, coat and scarf. He kisses John Jacobs forehead and squeezes his wife's fingers. 

"I'll be back." 

As the night goes on, and John gets worse and worse, Christiana holds her little son tightly in her arms, listening to his feeble coughs and desperate gasps. A question continues to plague her mind. Why? If we are trying to be faithful, and even just decided to be baptized, why is the Lord letting this happen? 

She rocks her son back and forth, silent tears sliding down her face. 

"Oh God, please heal my son." 

*********************** to be continued.... 

The question that is plaguing Christiana at this moment often hurts us too. 

Why do bad things happen to good people? If God is merciful, why does He allow evil and suffering to occur? 

What do you think? 

I think there are many answers and quotes and scriptures and songs. But my favorite explanation are the ones the Savior gives himself: 

"that the works of God should be made manifest" (john 9:1-3) 

And 

"this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." (Mosiah 24) 

Christiana will soon receive the answer to her question. But until then, I want to testify that God loves you. He knows you. He knows your struggles and trials. And He is there with you every step of the way, blessing you and comforting you so that you can grow closer to Him. 

Have a great week! Stay tuned! 

Love, 

Sister Bush

April 24, 2019

I'm obsessed with the tulips here. So today for my tour I'm going to give you a tour of the women's garden. 

This week i served in the log school, cultural hall, John Taylor's home, the post office, Sara granger Kimball home and the scovil bakery! (I serve in the bakery a lot because I'm the site coordinator for it. Which means I'm in charge of keeping it clean and orderly, making sure who ever gives tours their isn't using false information and also doing the numbers for the month) 

Here are some core experiences from this week: 

Cleaning the temple. Wow, what an experience. It felt so wonderful to clean and quietly go around the temple. Another thing was the temple worker let us climb up to the top of the bell tower again and that was just the coolest!!! I love it so much. We are going to clean again tonight (: 

#CovenantCommunity! So in our site guide, we have the information for the sites but we also have like paragraphs on "key messages" basically there are different testifying opportunities in the sites and they put them into different categories for the sites so that we can all be mentioning different themes of nauvoo. One of them is that Nauvoo is a covenant community. That they served out of love and out of a desire to keep their covenants. Well because I love service so much me and my companion started this secret service thing among the missionaries where we do service without telling them it's us and just leave a card that says #CovenantCommunity pass a long the service! So it's way fun and we did some good ones this week. 

Asking Inspired questions!! I love how the spirit guides my tours with helping me know what questions to ask. And I think these two experiences were helped by you guys praying for me to have and follow the spirit in my tours. 

1. At the cultural hall, I had a family that came in, with quite a few kids. I felt inspired to ask what their favorite hobbies were. They responded and I was able to tell them that the pioneers had hobbies too! And help them find something in common with those people and it was super cool they had a really fun tour. It was awesome. 

2. At John Taylor I told a family a story about how he and his wife were led by god and because they had faith it all worker out. I then felt to ask them if there was a time in their lives that they felt led by god! It was way cool cuz they actually answered and told me an experience they had in their early years of marriage! And the daughter was with them and she just got back from a mission and I testified to her that God would lead her and stuff. It was super neat. 

Speaking of John taylor, I just love that place. I feel so connected to him and leonora! No idea why. But they are amazing. 

Also this week I connected with 3 nonmembers: troy, a man from Chicago who came with a member friend and was enjoying the history. I got to bear my testimony of Joseph smith to him. 

 janice, a woman who came to visit a restaurant in Nauvoo and came for a tour. She left in the middle of a tour but came back after to ask further questions and I got to give her a book of mormon, invite her to pageant and get her email! (: 

and cindy!!! Ask about her during our video call (: 

My companions talk..... a.maz.ing. she talked about how Christ is the tree of life. And how His atonement is the fruit. We need to plant that seed in our hearts once we get to the tree and nourish it. I'm forwarding it to you guys cuz I love it. 

met a fun kids named porter this week! hes like 10 years old and reminds me of reuben. he lives here in town, his dad works at facilities management(: im sending videos of his dance moves and stuff haha. 

Training w pres Lusvardi! Yay! He's back from the seminar! so he taught us some cool things and was getting us hyped up for the summer(:

like:"it might look different here, but this is the lords vineyard. he will send the people to you here. and that effectual door will be opened. it may be the door of the scovil bakery or the heber c kimball home, but the door will be opened. let the lord work with you here, and the door will be opened." yes!!!

in elf voice:

I LOVE YOU 

I LOVE YOU

I LOVE YOUUUUUUAH!!! 

sister bush

April 17, 2019

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY

thursday 

site: family living center 

the sites were pretty slow so the teamsters invited us to take a ride on the wagon!

a little girl, about 10 yrs old sat next to me. she had told us she wanted to serve a mission and was praying she would come serve in nauvoo haha so cute. on the wagon i would point out things that arent usually part of the tour like the baby oxen or other things. eventually the wagon teamster was talking about the temple and how the saints had to leave it. this little girl turned to me and whispered quietly, "why did they leave?" it was so sincere and innocent! i explained to her about the persecution and how god had a plan for them and they had faith in Him. a sweet moment. 

that night we also had a training with president. once again he climbed on something haha. funniest part was that it wobbled under him and sister lusvardi was like "dearest!" haha it was so cute! 

friday 

site:facilities management! 

so this summer one of our site rotations will be working in FM. facilities management takes care of the historical sites, the grounds, the old homes and other things like that. so when we served there for the day we got to work in the greenhouse! we planted seedlings and little baby flowers. it was so cute i never thought i would have cuteness aggression for a plant but i did that day hahaha it was lots of fun too! we sang to the plants as we re-planted and re-potted them. the quote on the title of my email came from working in fm. i asked richard what we should do with the dirt and he immediately responded, "we dont say the D word here.... its soil." haha we had quite a laugh over that. there are so many cool plants here! so it was an awesome day. 

that night when i was studying in the book of mormon i discovered once again why pres mcmurray would always call it the handbook for repentance! 

Jacob 2:11 gives us the steps for repentance. and we grow up learning the steps but it was cool to read them in this way. 

it says: "o my brethren, hearken unto my words; arouse the faculties of your souls; shake yourselves that ye may awake from the slumber of death; and loose yourselves from the pains of hell that ye may not become angels to the devil, to be cast into that lake of fire and brimstone which is the second death." 

okay so i broke it down as follows:

hearken = listen to Christs words, have faith 

arouse the faculties of your soul = realize what you have done wrong, have a desire to change

shake yourselves = be humble, ask for forgiveness 

awake from the slumber = make it right 

loose yourselves from the pains = forsake your sins, never do it again, forgive yourself and trust in the Lord. 

i hope that makes sense because it does to me! i love learning about repentance in new ways (since we are supposed to repent everyday!) let me know what you think. 

saturday 

site:print shop!

we had a young nonmember couple come in to the print shop and they were so cute! they kept describing nauvoo with words like "important" "feels special" "noticed a different vibe when we came into town" "think it is so cool" i loved seeing their reactions to things! 

we had a good comp study that day too, we studied how christ is the tree of life. (cuz my comp is speaking in church on easter sunday so we were brainstorming it was way nice) 

sunday 

site: Brigham young home! 

what a day. on our call ill explain how i got to give a tour to bishop waddell and how cool it was!!! also he gave us a bom training on the priesthood and priesthood keys. wow. 

definitely my TOP highlight of the week!!!!! 

monday

site: print shop and post office.... we were only assigned to the print shop but no one was at the post office so we double dutied it for a bit and so yeah haha that was crazy too 

i studied pmg chapter 4 all day and how to receive revelation. weve been talking a lot lately on how important it is to receive revelation for our guests and use the spirit in our tours. so ive been studying it earnestly. ive felt a great desire and push from the spirit to become more in tune so that when the summer craziness gets here and we are running around like crazy i will have already attuned myself to his voice and be ready to listen to the promptings he gives. because right now the crowds aren't too bad (we gave like 20 tours yesterday) so its the perfect time to use that quiet time and the slower tours to practice following the spirit more. thats one thing i want to be different about my tours this summer compared to last. of course i tried to listen to the spirit last summer but this summer i want the spirit to guide my tours more and rely on the spirit even more. so since you asked what you can pray for, you can pray for the guests that come into our sites that day that their hearts will be prepared and pray for me and my companion to be guided by the spirit to know what stories to share and testimonies to give. so that we can make the tours more personal. because that is my main goal right now 

Also we got to eat dinner with a senior couple that night! the Nashs. they are so cute. it felt like family talking to them and also they gave us a 2 person crockpot to borrow for the summer so send me all the crockpot recipes for dinners! cuz it is perfect for pageant season when we will be at the sites all day and have 30 minutes for dinner before going on to pageant grounds. if i can just make something in the morning before we go and its ready for us when we get home, that would be amazing. the only recipes i have are the chicken bacon che and the pesto lasagna so let me know other good ones i can use!!!!! 

tuesday 

site: bakery

conversation w elder dallon (a cute service elder who comes to the bakery almost every day) 

elder dallon: i dont come to the bakery for a cookie. i come because i feel a connection to lucius scovil. he loves temples and i love temples." 

me: "what is it that you love about the temple the most?"

elder dallon: "the peace. its a place i can go in a hard time." 

aw! i love people so much. 

also we had a district game night: this time we played..... the thimble game! hahaha we have so much fun with these family games you have to send me a list of our favorite family games so that we can keep playing these fun ones haha everyone loves them. 

night time activities we do:

meetings with president

song practice 

district council

guitar hymns to feel the spirit

game nights

and soon.... cleaning the temple!!!! im beyond excited about that. yay! 

okay love you so much and ill talk to you soon!!!! 

sis Bush

ReplyReply allForward

April 10, 2019

Hello everyone!!

Nauvoo is alive and well. Okay maybe not super alive. I only had like 4 people come visit my site yesterday.... But it's okay because I can feel the summer business creeping up on us! This week I served in the Wilford Woodruff home, Tin Smith Shop, Riser Boot Shop, Sara Granger home, the Seventies Hall, Scovil Bakery and the Lyon Drug Variety Store. It feels to good to be back. 

Also my companion is hilarious. Within two hours of being companions she told me that we should make up our own language. This week we pretended our bikes were horses, I hid under her bed and scared her, and we made so many puns my companion had to leave a tour she was laughing so hard. Fun times haha. 

This week I came across a scripture (and shared it in a tour) that became very meaningful to me. Alma 29:10: 

"And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me." 

One of the biggest miracles that comes from missionary work is the miracle that happens inside the missionary. When I share the gospel of Jesus Christ, I grow closer to Him. I see His hand in the lives of others and am able to recognize Him more in mine. The blessings I have received for serving a mission out weigh the sacrifice. If there is a blessing you need in your life, an answer to a prayer or trial you are struggling with - become a missionary. You don't necessarily need to put on a nametag, but it's as simple as sharing the truths that have changed your life and your love for the Savior Jesus Christ. It will change and bless others, but I promise it will also change you. It is the miracle of missionary work!!! 

Well I hope everyone has a great week! Thank you for all your support, prayers and emails! 

Sincerely,

Sister Bush 

PS. 

To help myself envision and appreciate the sacrifices of the Saints more, I decided to write historical fiction for Nauvoo. I will include pieces at the end of some of my emails - you can read them if you want! Just please know that it is not official from the church and though the stories and some of the quotes are factually accurate, the rest I made up. So yep. Please let me know if you have questions haha. 

This time I wrote about Lucius Scovil, the owner of the bakery in Nauvoo. He was originally from Connecticut but traveled to Ohio and he and his wife Lury were converted to the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in Kirtland. They showed their faith in many ways and had quite a lot of challenges. No matter what challenges, they trusted in God and pressed forward. What I've written jumps forward into Lucius' story, up to what I think may have been one of the hardest moments in his life. After coming to Nauvoo, serving missions, in the Nauvoo legion and by helping build the cultural hall, he lost his son Joel at age 14 and then the twin girl newborns and a little bit after that lost his wife. The fact that shows his faith is one little line in our site guide: "Just days after his wife Lurys death, Lucius was in the Nauvoo Temple." 

Based on that one line, I wrote the following excerpt. 

Later, Lucius even drew a picture of the Nauvoo temple and had it made on 150 dozen plates to sell to the people he taught in England. What an inspiration. 

Please let me know your thoughts and feelings about what I wrote. (Sorry its just a rough draft) 

Have you ever been in a hard situation like Lucius? How did you get through it? How was your faith strengthened? 

He just stands there. Numb to it all. Numb to the crisp, chill wind that stings his nose and ears. Numb to the aches in his bones that have come from many sleepless nights. And most of all, numb to the deep, devastating pain in his heart. Who knew that coming to Nauvoo would mean being asked to give up so much. 

And so he stands there, a broken man in front of 4 snow covered graves, his body as still as the tombs that he states at. He doesn't have the desire to move or to be. He could just freeze here, and it would be more bearable than leaving his wife's side. Lury. Just thinking her name opens the floodgates of his memory and he closes his eyes to see her in different stages of their life together. He sees her in a plain blue dress on the night they first met, a sparkle in her eyes. He remembers her in another dress, her wedding dress, walking down the aisle with a beautiful bouquet of flowers in her arms. He thinks back to when she was working hard to  load their belongings into a wagon before they moved to Ohio. He watches her in the kitchen, in the middle of cooking but pausing her stirring to read out of the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. He also sees her come up out of the water on her baptism day, a look of pure joy on her face. And then the memories begin to turn grey as he sees her calming the children when they were afraid of the mobs. It gets darker still as he watches her grieve at their 14 year old sons passing. Finally he remembers the way she held his hand and laid her head back down on her pillow for the last time. 

Lucius opens his eyes and the 4 graves glare at him. 

Joel. Mary. Eliza. Lury. How I will miss you. 

Lucius is pulled from his thoughts when he hears his name. 

"Brother Scovil." 

He turns and sees Heber Kimball, who puts a hand on his shoulder. "You need to get out of this cold. Why don't you join me and Vilate for dinner? She can cook us something warm." 

Lucius doesn't know how to say no to Heber's kind invitation so he just nods and follows Heber away from the burial grounds. 

All evening, Lucius feels like he left his heart in the cemetery. Heber, Vilate and their kids talk and laugh about what happened that day and what the neighbors were up to. Lucius looses track of the conversation, still feeling empty. 

"Sounds reasonable?" Heber says, jolting him back to the moment. 

"Sorry, to what are you referring?" 

"I'm attending the temple the morn after next, would you care to join me?" 

"I don't know if I'll be able." Lucius replies quietly, studying his shoes. Brother Riser did a decent job on them but they are in need of a few repairs.....

Heber looks at him thoughtfully. He then turns to Vilate. "Don't you think it's time these youngsters retired to bed?" 

She laughs and nods, gathering the 6 rowdy ones and taking them out of the dining room.  As the noise fades, Heber sighs. "Brother, we must go together into the Lord's house." 

"I just can't bear going inside.... without her.... I just need time to grieve-" Lucius tries to explain.

"The temple can heal your soul, don't you believe that?" Heber asks. 

"In my mind I know it does. I know that it helps, or at least that it is supposed to... but I don't feel like it does." Lucius looks up, meeting Heber's gaze. 

Heber smiles with empathy. "I know what you mean by understanding but not feeling. Not too long ago, when I returned from my mission in England, the Prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation and an instruction for me that I did not wish to obey. In my mind I knew it was the will of the Lord, coming through His prophet, but in my heart I did not feel any such feelings. I paced the floor day and night, it troubled me so!" 

"And what did you do? Did it pass?" Lucius wonders. 

"My wife Vilate plead with God on her knees to know how to comfort me. She was shown a vision of the celestial kingdom." 

Lucius can tell by Heber's reverent tone that he doesn't just share this story with anyone. 

"She described to me the glories of it." Heber continues, nearly whispering. "The next day I worked on the temple. As I pondered over what she said and prayed over the matter which was paining me, the feeling I desired came." 

They sit in awed silence and a smile comes on Lucius' face. 

"That is truly remarkable." 

"The holy spirit works best in holy places, Brother Scovil. You must come to the temple with me. It is the ultimate source of revelation. I do believe if we go in a spirit of fasting and prayer, the Lord can comfort your aching heart and heal your wounded soul." 

Lucius nods. "I appreciate your sincerity. I will accompany you to the house of the Lord." 

                ************************

To be continued.... 

____________________________________________________________________

EMAIL TO FAMILY:

My district is me, sis daugherty, sis green, sis taylor, sis Baldwin and sis wilson. Sis green and Baldwin were in my MTC district so that's awesome!! 

"Your mom is literally Mary Magdalene" - sister green to me haha 

Another random fact: the handsoap my companion bought smells like you dad hahaha 

This week has been quite the week. There's too much so I'm just choosing like 1 or 2 things from each day that were the highlight. 

Wednesday 

Site: Wilford Woodruff 

Highlight: Learning about sis Daugherty 

Sister Daugherty has a very unique story. Without going into crazy detail, she was in a million foster homes before being adopted at age 9. She went through A LOT of other hard family things but has always trusted in the Lord. And has worked hard and eventually came on a mission. I gained a lot of respect for her as we talked and I learned about her life. She has also matured a lot on her mission. Before I came back to Nauvoo I prayed for a companion that has a strong desire to be obedient. When I got sis Daugherty I was a little surprised. When we served together in Carthage she was always giggling about who knows what and a bit boy crazy. Lol in our first companion study in Nauvoo however, she bore her testimony to me of obedience and shared with me her earnest desire to obey out of love for the savior. I love her so much and I'm grateful that we can laugh our heads off but also work hard to bring the spirit into our tours. #goldencompanionship

Thur

Site: Tin shop 

Highlight: there were some nonmembers that came to our site and we got to answer their questions about the temple! Plus I shared a scripture from the book of mormon (2 Nephi 25:26) to explain why all the saints and why all the people in Nauvoo today are so happy. We rejoice in christ! (:  

Fri

Site: Riser boot 

Highlights: 

Sis Daugherty leaving the tour because she was laughing so hard (I started using a terrible joke lol. What was George risers favorite hymn? "There is sunshine in my soul today!" Haha ) 

District council: we went to Carthage and didn't get to go inside but had district council in the car, talked about how we will put what we learned on outbound in our tours and how we will be better missionaries this summer. It was very good for us to talk about. 

Sat

Site: Sara granger! Yes we had to serve in the sites. We were supposed to be able to watch conference in between tours but the Wi-Fi at our site was broken! So after missing 30 minutes we texted president Lusvardi and he said to go to the visitors center. We biked there, watched conference, biked back for tours (gave 2) biked back to the visitors center for the 2nd session, biked home. Boy my legs were so sore!!! But it was so worth it. 

Sun

Site: bakery 

Highlight: Conference!!!! Conference was AMAZING. 

Favorite talks: elder hollands, president Nelsons from the priesthood session, Sister eubanks, and elder rasbands. Sooooo gooood haha 

Favorite quotes: I don't know if these are all direct quotes or what the spirit changed th3equotes to be so they would help me more haha it's just what I have in my notes since I don't have good internet access.... 

"All heavenly father asks of us is to do the very best we can every day." Ballard 

"Our quest is to bask in the light of Christ, which will bring peace, joy, and happiness." Ballard 

"We can know the things of god as we seek them with spiritual eyes." Anderson 

"He makes it possible for us to hear and follow his voice" homer 

"Such a moment demands our respect" Holland 

"This hour is the most sacred hour of our week" Holland 

"Christ sees us in our tree" eubank 

"If you don't find it here, you won't find it anywhere" christofferson 

"Zion on earth being joined with Zion above" christofferson 

"The saviors atonement saves us from an inevitable crash landing" calister 

"I need to feed my spirit" little boy/pres Nelson 

"TIME IS RUNNING OUT" pres Nelson 

"Christ redeems. And his atonement is real." Oaks 

"Knowledge of these things can only be gained by experience." Bednar 

"As vital as learning and growing in our homes is now, it will be even more vital in the future" bednar 

"We are at a war with Satan for the souls of men" Rasband

"Christ centered homes are fortresses of faith" rasband 

"Never be the reason a woman cannot receive her temple blessings" pres Nelson 

[In speaking of honoring the priesthood] "this will be the only way you will protect your families in the days to come." Pres Nelson 

"We all need to repent" pres Nelson 

SO GOOD. SO FLIPPIN GOOD. 

The quote I want on my shirt...... ummm..... I don't have a lot of quotes yet! Cuz I don't even know how accurate mine are and can't read the talks over again yet. 

When do you need an answer by?? Could I give you my choice next week? 

Mon

Site: Seventies hall 

Highlights: Fhe with the Lusvardis. We have spent almost every evening with the lusvardis this week and they are my favorite ever. I went up to pres Lusvardi when we first got here and told him that if he ever knows of someone who needs extra fellowshipping or friendship that I would be happy to help. He was like "well what if I need a friend? Can you be my friend?" Haha so now I'm his friend and we've kept that going it's so cute and funny. He has given such amazing trainings this week I wish I could tell you everything I've learned. 

Plus also he has told us a lot of stories about his life and it's so cool!!! I'm currently compiling a list of reasons why they are cool . I also asked him who the other 2 nephites are and he just laughed haha 

Also i introduced Grunt piggy grunt grunt to my district. Hilarious as always!! 

Tue

Site: Lyon drug 

Highlight: Nearly zero tours all day (we only had like 1 1/2. but! I had a really great study so it was an awesome day. Yay!!! 

Anyways I hope Kelsey finds her ring!!! Also I was happy to hear all the crazy updates on people haha 

Also glad that you enjoyed Lord of the rings haha so fun. 

Can't wait to talk to you in 30 minutes!!! 

Love 

Love 

Love

Love

Love 

Love 

Love 

You 

All 

Sister Bush 

April 2, 2019

*takes a deep breath* 

HERE WE GO AGAIN! Round 2 of Nauvoo! 

Let me just describe one moment from yesterday: 

I was sitting in a van, surrounded by sisters, driving on a windy road with a view of the beautiful Mississippi river. Everyone was talking, sharing stories and experiences from their outbound assignments. I was trying to get a glimpse of old Nauvoo through the trees. And then I saw it. The top of the Nauvoo temple. My heart skipped a beat and I immediately smiled. 

I'm home. 

I will forever miss the fort collins Colorado mission, I feel honored to have served there. And of course I'll visit! I love the people there too much not to. 

But now, I'm back where I'm meant to be for the next 6 months. Among the saints. Telling their stories. Testifying of Christ's love for people of all cultures and time periods. 

You'll continue getting updates with their stories and mine! (Let me know if you want off the email list haha) 

Sincerely, 

Sister Bush 

The Fort Collins Colorado Nauvoo Illinois Missionary