Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Leaving your nets & Humility - Jan 18, 2011

Ciao!

Primo, mi scusate per parlevo in italiano, mi ho dimenticato che voi non parlate italiano... Comunque, la parola "scherzo" significa "joke" o "i joke" e la parola "cioe" significa "like" come una cheerleader. O! E non posso usare lds.org piu per mandare e-mails, quindi devo mandare una lettera mediante il "Post Office".

Allora,

Mercoledi- Elder Holland came on tuesday and i didnt write about it so i'm going to tell you about it right now. It was amazing!!!! He is such a powerful speaker, and I think every missionary needs to hear the talk he gave! He especially stressed the importance of being dedicated to the work, and said many things like "You don't have the right to be anything less than what your nieces and nephews [or cousins] think you are" "You don't have the right to compromise what a mission is" and then he talked a lot about the 12 apostles in Jerusalem after Christ was crucified and Peter kinda lost hope and they returned back to fishing. 3 days later, of course, Christ came back and essentially said (idk if this is scripture or not BUT it's true) "When i asked you to leave your nets, it was forever" and that raelly struck me, because I, like the twelve, have been called to a magnificent work, and it won't end after 2 years.... so ya.

Giovedi- I have become quite the expert at staying awake during study time now. Whenever i get tired i muster up the strength/will power (mostly will power) to stand up and walk around while I read, and it helps TREMENDOUSLY, so ya, that's been fun. Anziano Parrish and I decided to have an "English Fast" where we only speak italian all day on friday. OH, and everyone loves all the sweaters I have, and I have been complimented many a time because of them, so thank you mom!

Venerdi- We were kind of thrown into teaching the lesson on the Restoration of the gospel all in italian today, so that was kind of crazy, BUT I found out that I know a lot more italian than I have given myself credit for, so that was cool. Another thing that has sort of become a trend (whether divinely-directed or not) I have been sufficiently humbled in basketball (and no, i will not go into details.) each time i feel even a little bit proud of my italian speaking skills. Coincidence? probably not. Also today, Anziano Webb and I had to interview the 2 district leaders in our zone, and it was wayy fun just to talk to them for a while and hear how everyone was doing. It's way nice being in this position becuase I love helping people, and that's now my calling.

Sabato- The only thing I have to say for today is Fratello Calder is hilarious. He's so sarcastic, and he's sarcastic while speaking italian, so it makes it wayy easy to stay upbeat in class, and on good terms with everyone.

Domenica- was crazy. I had about a billione leadership meetings, one of which was at the residence hall where I think there were 12 zone leaders met on our floor, and it turns out Branch 33 is responsible for our residence hall building, and the Italian zone is in charge of Branch 33, and Anziano Webb and I are in charge of the Italian zone. SO, we have 4 floors in our building x about 20 rooms x about 4 elders per room = 320 elders we get to babysit. che forte, no? But in all actuality, all the meetings were very fun, and I learned alot about being a leader. And I also learned a lot of things that Anziano Webb and I specifically are supposed to be doing, so that was exhilirating.

Okay, so our branch got 2 new portuguese districts (about 25 elders) and Anziano Webb and I were asked to teach one of the districts about the importance of being guided by the spirit, and then direct their District Meeting to show an example to their district leader what all is to be done, It was so fun answering all their questions, I really enjoyed it, and I really felt like I helped them to get started on the right foot. So, ya. Also, they committed me to breaking the MTC GYM record for pull-ups which is now at 29, so I will report back to you about that later....

Lunedi- Today was the first official day we were supposed to teach in italian at the TRC, and it went great! WE taught a native and her husband who both served in italy, and I understood alot of what they said, however there were many instances that I had to ask them to repeat (di nouvo) and so that was humbling as well lol. Oh! and Anziano Webb had some prety hilarious word mix- ups... One of which was when we had finished talking about baptism he wanted to ask if they had any questions, so instead of "domande" meaning "questions" he said "domani" which means "tomorrow" and so the couple looked at eachother a little shocked and said they werent quite ready yet lol so that was funny

oh! and here's an awesome italian phrase you can use: ti spacco la faccia meaning I will break your face. apparently its used fairly frequently in italy

that's all for this week, thank you so much for the letters! keep em coming!!!

-Ciao

Anziano Bushman

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