July 20, 2019

Hellooooooo

What a week. I know I say that every week haha but what a week. This week everything was just go go go go haha but that's how it is with pageant season!!

Sunday... I had another kidney episode. I had one at 3am and then another one at 8am. This time it was my left kidney and it hurt so bad I didn't make it through sacrament and stayed in the bathroom curled up. So we came home early, I slept, then we had district council and then I served in the Brigham young home. My kidney hurt again during sites but I took medicine and still gave tours. I just wanted to show heavenly father that I was willing to still work. Also that day there was a family who let their kids go over the fence to chase our sheep! Seriously?!?!?! That's not okay. So i had to go out there and tell the parents that it isn't okay. Haha people are so weird why do they do these things. Our sheep were freaking out but they calmed down later. 

Monday 

I went on exchanges with sister _____, and we served at the bakery! What a day. Whenever the crowds would get intense, she would go to the basement and hide out because she said she was afraid of having an anxiety attack. So at the moment when I would need extra help she would leave. Yikes! It was a long day but I did just fine, we only had 50 something tours instead of the usual 90. So God helped me out there haha. But it was good to spend time with sister-------, since she has been having a hard time. We had an awesome companion study during lunch and at the end of our exchange she just turned to me and said thank you. I said what for? And then she said "sister Bush, by far you have been the most nice to me since I have come to nauvoo. Thank you for being patient and being kind." It was so sweet. Kinda sad that I've been the nicest cuz I really haven't gone out of my way or anything but I'm glad she knows I care about her. 

After that I went on a district leader date with sister mckenzie! We went to Wal-Mart to get her some craft stuff, stopped by Wendy's for a snack and then sang at the end of British pageant. She's so fun and has a sweet spirit about her (: 

Tuesday 

we got to serve at the log school! 

We had lots of cute families come in, homeschooled families that connected with me, and I tried all day to follow the spirit. At one point the spirit helped me save a little girl cuz she was eating chalk and her parents didn't know! But I was able to notice and point it out. Phew! 

Sister Decker and I also had an adventure that day because we were finally able to arrange the furniture in a certain way to be able to open the trap door in the sitting room and discover the basement! Haha. The miracle is that no one came in while we were doing that hahaha 

That night we did sunset and I made the parmesan chicken in a crockpot for our lunches this week (: 

Wednesday 

We served in the cultural hall! With sis Norton and mckenzie. First, sis Decker re-enacted the whole movie called how to lose a guy in 10 days haha. Neither sister Norton and I had seen it (or any movie for a long time) So we felt like we got to watch a movie because of her acting skills haha it was hilarious. Because of that, I had the idea to let the families that came in do favorite movie scene re-enactments on the stage of the cultural hall so that they could have more fun during the tour! It totally worked! What a hit! Boy did those families and youth groups love it haha. My favorite was two dad's who did the song from the lion king. 

"I can see what's happening..." 

"What!" 

"And they don't have a clue..." 

"Who!" 

"They'll fall in love.. and here's the bottom line..." 

(They both pretend to cry) 

"Our trio is down to 2" 

Hahaha so funny. 

Also that day we had a huuuuuge storm! A bunch of trees were knocked over, street signs almost fell on people, the tornado sirens went off and about 60 youth flooded into the cultural hall, sopping wet. We took them down to the basement and what happened was amazing. They all started passing around a roll of paper towels and rags they found, and began singing hymns. It was a beautiful moment ad I could hear the tornado sirens and thunder in the background but these youth had prayed and now we're singing songs like come come ye saints, I am a child of God and child's prayer. How sweet. 

Thankfully the storm let up, and people went. We had more tours and then we were told to close the sites early and go help on pageant grounds with all the chairs and mud so we could get the set, stage and entire thing ready so that pageant could still go on!! It was awesome. And pageant was amazing that night. I love the way the Lord helped us finish everything and put it all back in time for it to work out. 

Thursday 

Log school again!

It was actually surprisingly busy! Log school isn't super popular but all day we were giving back to back tours. So neat! It's my favorite to joke about phonetic spelling with people. Also we had a fun guy who loved puns even more than I do and was making new ones every minute. What a crack up. I gave him a few back haha. Also I met a cute cute cute lady from georgia, about 2 hours away from where I was born! She was just going and going on about how much she loves nauvoo, loves the gospel and is happy to bring youth here. Adorable. 

Friday 

Boot shop! I got to be Christiana almost all day! 

There was one family that really stuck out to me. The parents began crying when I talked about my family and how we listened to Joseph smith. The kids began crying when I talked about how I lost my son. As I explained how hard it was for my family to loose my little boy, the kids turned and looked at their parents. By the feeling in the room, I could tell that they had recently lost someone. The rest of that tour I'm sure they thought I was still portraying Christiana but I wasn't. I bore my testimony to them of eternal families and Christ. I quoted verses from the book of mormon and the spirit was so strong. The boot shop became a sacred spot for me and that family that day. I saw them later at sunset and the dad told me it was his kids favorite place that they went that day. How amazing. I love how special that was. 

Today is me and sister Deckers compiversary!! So I'm making a cake. It's a surprise but I'll send you pictures  (: 

I hope trek has been amazing. I can't wait to hear all about it! 

Oh also a verse that I pondered a lot this week was 1 Nephi 1:5 

"Wherefore it came to pass that my father, lehi, as he went forth prayed unto the Lord, yea, even with all his heart, in behalf of his people." 

The thing that stuck out to me was that he prayed AS he went forth. Not before. Not after. But in the very act he was praying. And that's how I've been trying to give my tours, to have a prayer in my heart for the people I've been teaching as I'm teaching them. I think it's made a huge difference, and the amount of promptings I have received has increased. I love the power of prayer! I'm sure you've had a lot of in the moment prayers since you've been on trek 

Wellp, I think that's all I've got. I love you I Love You I LOVE YOUUUUAH!!! 

Sister Bush