Fired up, off & running! May 26, 2011

Ciao tutti!

Mama mia, sono già stato qua per tre mesi... un quarto del'anno.

Well, things here are going great!!!! We're starting this transfer off running, and we've got some big works here in the making.

First off, I was asked about the weather here. It's just sticky, always. Cioè it always feels like it just rained, but minus the good smell and the fresh feeling. I guess this is what they call humidity. Gross. It's definitely not hot, like Gilbert, where you can feel like you'll get a sunburn in a couple seconds of exposure, but you sweat a lot here. It's kind of like when it was raining here, and I just had to accept the fact that I was going to be wet, and then get over it and move on, it's the same now. I'm gonna be drenched if I wanna go anywhere, so I've learned to just accept it and move on.

Allora, this week was pretty great. We did some finding work in some super ritzy palazzi, that actually had carpet! (no one believes in carpet here, it's weird, and depressing a little) But this place looked like it just walked out of the 20's or something, it was great. Each apartment had huge double doors, and there was a little random decorative table in each hallway, haha wow missionaries get amused by the lamest things. Oh, and also, this place had about 4 apartments per floor, except the top one was all bought out by one person,so that was pretty legit. Yeah, but unfortuantely, no one was home.

Also while doing finding work, we ran into a couple who immediately let us in, and were very nice. We then found out that they were members of the church for about 25 yrs, but now wanted nothing to do with the church (and thus would not let us share a message), but they love the missionaries, and invited us over to dinner or lunch sometime, but unfortunately we can't really justify going if they won't let us share a message or anything... The wife seemed kind of spacey and was trying to share some buddhist doctrine with us, but the husband you could really tell was hurt/sad, and I really wanted to help...  Then later on, we met another lady in the same building that wanted to talk to us (mainly just because she likes to talk) but there wasn't a man home, so we couldn't. It then came to me to go back up and ask the couple, or even just the husband of that first couple to accompany us with her, and just kind of ask him if he could do us the favor of allowing us to teach her, and I had this picture in my mind where the lady we'd teach just keeps going on and on, and then this ex-member comes in and starts testifying and then him and his wife get reactivated in the church. But, unfortunately, my companion was not on the same page with me, and didn't agree.  It can get frustrating sometimes having someone that you have to always appease... Sometimes I feel like he's just too lazy, or not devoted enough, but he definitely has no intentions of changing, and I'm in no position to judge. Però, andiamo avanti.

We have been very busy this week, and I am very happy about it! The door-to-door stuff isn't workin' out so well, so we are now doing what we should've been doing and fellowshipping the members. Our capi zona challenged us to eat lunch at a members house 3x's a week. E così we get to cook less, and then also share a spiritual message with them, and build trust and friendship with our members, so that they actually know who we are. Also, we're keeping busy with less-actives, and we're in fact going to see a fratello tonight that hasn't been coming to church, so we've definitely got our hands full here in Muggiò.

Carlo had to be interviewed by another anziano (by anz ritchie, who is a senior elder here with his wife) so we had to postpone the baptism, but the had they interview tuesday night, and everything is set to go! We're going to announce it in church on sunday, and then he'll be baptized the following saturday (the 4°)!

We had a great lesson tuesday with Carlo before his interview; we watched the film <<finding faith in Christ>>. I had to translate from english to italian for him because we didn't have a remote to switch the language (and I've found that it's a ton easier to translate to italian, than it is to english. english is lame). But the spirit was so strong in the room, and I myself felt very edified, and very much rejuvinated, and felt absolutely ready to give everything to Christ. It was awesome. Carlo, on the other hand, is hard to read, but with what he tells us, and what he does to committ to following in Christ footsteps is more than enough witness to us that he's ready.

We then found out today when we were going over the baptismal program with Carlo, how horrible it was for us to not bring members. He always seemed to know people in church, so we didn't worry too much, but he straight up told us today that he doesn't know anyone. And that's not good. He's been to church 6 times, and so consequently he chose me to give the talk on baptism, then Anz VanAuker will perform the baptismal ordinance, then I will confirm him a member and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. And that's not a bad thing, but we won't be here forever. And when we told him that we won't be here forever he was very shocked. I mean, I just figured the whole world knew that every 6 weeks the missionaries switch cities, and thus there's the possibility that a missionary remain in the city for 6 weeks, or 30 weeks even. No, but we're going to bring members to every single lesson from now on. He even offered to let the missionaries stay at his house, free of rent. Dahhhh.

I got the package yesterday at training (which, by the way was amazing), and was super excited! Thank you so much! The music is perfect! and my companion was way excited also that you sent two ensigns (I assumed the second was for him)  and everything was just great, so thank you so much! Haha we've already listened to the Michael McClean cd, and I didn't realize how many songs I knew from him. Also my companion recognized a lot of the songs too and was way excited!

Could you send your recipe for baked beans in the next email? I've made them before, but I forget the amounts of everything... We've got another barbecue coming up for the ward, and we want to bring something to share with everyone and thought beans would be perfect!

Well, training yesterday was great. They taught a lot about change, and our assistants to the president did a very well carried-out skit of a companionship that starts a transfer with high hopes, squanders their time, and then assumes they'll just fix it next transfer, and then they get transferred somewhere else. Complete with several instances where one of the two would freeze while the other stands up and tells the audience what he's thinking at the moment (there's a name for that, I know it.... it's some rhetorical device..... ma non mi viene). But it was very inspirational, and I learned a ton from it. Haha the things they said at times felt like the exact thoughts or even words I've said already in these last two transfers.

Well, I gotta go teach Felix,

Pace

-Anziano Bushman

"Finding" & Sight-seeing! May 18, 2011

Things are going great over here. We're finding more things to do to keep us busy, and it's way exciting! Nothing happened this time with transfers, so we still have p-day today (wednesday). And I'm not sure when, but I do believe we'll meet with president and everyone next week for training, or the week after. And yeah, I ended up singing in spanish for that "fireside-favor" I did last week.

Ok, so first off, it was pretty legit seeing sheep being herded/watched over in real life, but then what happened after I took this picture was even cooler. So we were biking down the canal when we saw this herd, and normally there's a fair amount of people running and biking on this canal path, and one of the joggers had a dog with him. And, being a dog, it was interested in the sheep, and wanted to know what was going on, so it took a couple steps off the canal path towards the sheep, and then things got crazy. The first thing we noticed was that the sheep started to run away from this dog (and this dog didn't look like it was vicious or anything, the sheep were just afraid/cautious) and you started to hear all the little bells ringing that were on their necks. And then immediately after, the two dogs laying down in the picture were barking their heads off at this strange dog. So the dog backed off for a little bit, but I guess it was still curious, so it went off the path again, and this time all the sheep in the entire field started running away, and the dogs owner was embarrassed and yelling at his dog, and then the two shepherd dogs went right up next to the dog and just stood their, staring at him. Just like daring him to take another step. It was really neat to see this all work in action, and I feel like I'm going to use it in some spiritual something some day. But ya, it was cool.

This is my favorite & most random piece of graffiti that I've seen here.

This was in Monza Park (where the goose attacked me) and I have no idea why it's there,
but it was pretty intense. Just a big chair & table. I wonder who is coming to dinner?!?

Umm.... well not much happened this week.  We did a lot of finding work, and got ditched by Mario 3x's. The finding work is starting to look up though, yesterday we were able to get in twice and teach lessons to some people that seemed pretty interested, so I'm excited to teach them again! We had Carlo's baptismal interview yesterday, but after the interview the capi had to call president, and president might have to come give carlo a separate interview, so we may have to postpone Carlo's baptism another week. Alex is still doing great! I don't know if I talked about him before, but he's young (like 25-30) and from peru, and we've almost taught him all the lessons, and he knows he needs to be baptized, but he also knows that it's a big deal, so he wants to see a baptism before he committs to anything, so hopefully he'll be able to come to Carlo's. Besides that, we've still got several people that have told us they're interested, they just are always working so we haven't been able to teach them much. So we're going to start teaching more lessons to the members in hopes of building their confidence in missionary work, and then hopefully we can find some good, ready people through our members. Sorry it's short this week! Next one will be longer!

ti voglio bene

-Anz Bushman

Service comes in all shapes & sizes! May 11, 2011

I just found out that anyone can email me, I just can't email anyone but family back. So it may take them a couple weeks to get a response. But at least people can save on postage like this. My address is jonathan.bushman@myldsmail.net.

Well, sounds like everything is goin pretty good over there! I really enjoyed seeing you all on sunday, and although I've been a little trunky lately (only as in I'm remembering how fun everything was back home and what not) I have been able to get myself and my companion moving a lot quicker lately. And on sunday we didn't have any appointments, but we did go out looking for people, and found someone that said we can return later when his wife and baby son are home, so that was exciting.

So, S.lla Amer called us yesterday morning, and then my companion passed the phone to me without telling me anything she said. So I started talking to her, and she asked me if I could speak spanish. I told her no, but that I used to be able to, and that I'm trying to re-teach myself. She then asked if we could help her at the church tonight at 6 pm. I said sure, and then asked what she needed me to do, and after some clarification she told me that I would just need to recite something, because the boy that was going to do it was out of town. So I figured why not, this would be our service for the day. So we got there at 6, and waited 20 min before anyone showed up, and then before S.lla Amer showed up, a young woman from the ward and her mom showed up, and asked which one of us was going to sing with her daughter tonight. So, first surprise, I'm singing. So I told her it was me, and then s.lla amer showed up and started explaining to me more what I was to do. Turns out this was a song between a young man leaving on his mission and his girlfriend, and he's saying stuff like <<I won't judge you if you find someone else>> and she's saying it won't happen, and that she'll wait hor him, because <<tu eres especial>>. SO I had to learn the words, melody, and structure of this song in 20 min (the meeting started at 7, it was like their standards night or something) and then had to act it out with her in front of about 40 of the ward members lol it was pretty great. And then at the end of the song I picked up my luggage and walked down the center of the audience with another youth who was my companion in this skit, and we left all dramatically with our girlfreinds waving at us. Hhahaha it was hilarious. And don't worry, I didn't so much as hold her hand. So we're good. But it was definitely weird lol. So, yeah, that's my story.

So, I know I didn't say much about Uncle Reuben in the last email, but it was kind of hard to hear that he had passed away so suddenly. I know we didn't see him too often, but I have a lot of good memories with him and stuff he would do with us. With riding horses for the first time, and going up to the cabin.. But one thing that was very different, that hasnt ever felt so real, is I felt very much relieved, and although I'm so far away from all of you, I feel like he just came where he can be a little closer to where we are over here. Because he can now see the things we're doing, and help me out when I'm struggling, and it's comforting knowing that there's one more angel in heaven that is watching over me. And I forget that a lot. I forget how many relatives I have that are watching over me, so it was just really nice to be reminded of that. It's still very sad that his time on earth is up, but it's also very comforting having a knowledge of our heavenly father's love and the plan He has for all of us. Just made me remember.....

Allora, non posso pensare di qualcosa di più per dirti, ma ho appena realizzato che dico <<so>> tanto... cioè l'ho scitto al'inizio di ogni paragrafo... haha, va beh.

ti voglio bene!

Anziano Bushman

This is the Duomo in Milano. And that's me in front.

This place is called the skull church by the missionaries. I have now idea why there are so many bones and skulls here, but there are. (Yes, those are skulls behind me...)

When you don't have a mixer and the spoon just won't do...

Added benefit of using your hands...

And, of course, it was worth it!!! 

This basically sums up my companion. I had already done my 30min workout this morning, then I took a shower, and found him in the workout room like this. He didn't quite make it to the bench before he realized how warm he was in his blanket...

Ups and Downs! May 4, 2011

Well, we'll start off with the good news stuff. I confirmed Azayra (Ahd-sigh-ear-uh) a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Sunday, in front of the entire congregation (100-150ppl), in Italian, and didn't choke!

Claudio- the not-so-good news... So, Claudio hasn't been keeping his commitments.... and whether or not it was due to a physical capacity to remember, we knew we were going to have to drop him. He just wouldn't let go of his wine. He's loving the orzo (coffee substitute) but it's been 2 months... And then, to cap it all off, at about 19:00 on Sunday, we were in his neighborhood to see a different investigator. Now Claudio has been seeing us twice a week, for 2 months, and has been to a baptism, general conference, and church 5 times. And when we were in his neighborhood on Sunday, we saw him walking out of the catholic church, all dressed up still, 7 hrs after our church ended. So  I went over to talk to find out what was going on, but under the pretense of just saying hi. I asked him how he was doing, and he said he was doing good, and I asked why he was still all dressed up (Italians are always blunt like that, so it was allowed) and he just told us because it was Sunday, and didn't mention the whole <<I'm still going to catholic mass>> part. SO we saw him yesterday. Talked about his reading in the Book of Mormon, and then we asked him what he expects from us, what he wants from us, each time we come over. He responded saying that he likes to talk with us because we're his friends, which isn't BAD, but after 2 months he should have a better motive... We then talked about 2 Nephi 32. And about how this is the only way, and there is no other way. We then asked him if he wanted to be a member of this church, of the Church of Jesus Christ. He said no, and that it wasn't for him, and that he was good how he is. So my first thought was that he just didn't understand what it meant to be a member, maybe he thought being a member meant being a missionary, or something else, so I explained it more, I reminded him of him telling us he wanted to be baptized, and all the stuff we had talked about. He then told us that he has thought about it since then, and has decided that it's not for him. So we told him that we wouldn't be able to keep coming twice a week, but that we would still call him each week, and remind him about church each week. So, claudio is done. Turns out he was only having us come over because he's a lonely 67 yr old Italian man. Which, it isn't bad, but it was deceitful nonetheless... Bahhh idk. I'm trying to learn from this. He was the first person I met in Italy that let us into his house, and it didn't work out. Hopefully somewhere down the road he'll see the importance in everything we taught him...

Carlo- Has a baptismal date for May 21°! He's progressing great! AND I know it should be a fairly tragic thing, but his compagna (girlfriend) and him are not getting married anymore, so that can no longer be a motivation for him to get baptized, and yet he's still wanting to get baptized! Now my only worry is sometimes I think he's more worried about us helping him and his financial needs than his spiritual needs (he's about to get kicked out of his house, and he needs to find a place to stay, and he's been asking us to help him pack boxes, which we don't mind, that's just service, and now he's asking us to find boxes for him, because he doesn't have anymore, which is a little less like service, and a little more like running errands, and he has even asked us for money twice now. Apparently he even begged Anziano VanAuker on the phone Monday for money.).... and we aren't necessarily qualified, or called, to help people in their physical/temporal needs, so this should be interesting....

Sunday night we got <<biddoned>> (si dice <<fare il biddone>> to mean that someone ditched us at an appt and that sort of thing, but missionaries just use <<biddone>> as a verb, and say <<they biddoned us>>, so yeah. There's your little Italian lesson of the week!). We were heading home to meet up with a member to go to another appointment, but we had some extra time. So we stopped at the church to pick up some bread that one of our members had given us during the church services so we could drop it off at our apartment. When we got there we ran into a couple from our ward that was desperately trying to get into the church, because she had left her laptop there from teaching a lesson to the young women. They had gotten a hold of one member that had the keys, but that member only gave them the keys to get into the parking lot, and we got there just in time to let them in so she could get her laptop. It doesn't seem like a very big deal, but the timing that went into that had to have been very precise to have worked out like it did, because we were only going to the church for 60 seconds to pick up a bag and then we would leave and lock everything up again, and she might have not been able to get her laptop for work the next day. I don't know, it just really touched me that we were able to be so plainly an answer to someone's prayers, and so simply too, and by no doing of our own. Soooo, yeah!

But, ya! We are finding a lot of people lately. We found 3 new investigators yesterday! And things are looking up! We just really need to focus on meeting with people 2-3 times a week, and get them to come to church.  Ummmmm yeah. That's all I got.

Pace!

vi voglio bene!

Anziano Bushman

Marco at the grigliata (sp?) he's one of our investigators, and he's great! He's totally ready and wanting to be baptized, they've just been waiting on documents to come in from their home land (ecuador) as evidence that he hasn't been married before, so he can then get married to Jessica (Jessica was a less-active member, and then started coming to church again about 7months ago). Their family is great though, and they have two awesome kids, and come to church every week even though they live pretty far away!

S.lla Amer is our superstar member. She's from Peru, and she's a super awesome member-missionary! She's helped a ton with investigators in the past, and we're hoping to enroll her help here again soon. She has 3 daughters, and since I came to Italy she has had us come over 3-4 times to teach their family and prepare their 8 yr old for baptism. 

Mattia, Marco and Jessica's youngest child, who is also a monster. Everytime we have a lesson with Marco, they have to bring the whole family to the church because they live fairly far away, and because it's just good to have the whole family there, but every lesson that little child makes it his duty to be as loud as physically possible! He'll do something that causes a lot of noise, and then turn to us to see if we react, and then he'll just keep doing it and looking back at us to see what we do. He's a monster. And then at the grigliatta I was kicking the soccerball around with Marco (his dad) and Mattia kept coming up to us and taking the ball and saying <<Mio!>> (mine) and then he'd just walk away with it and set it down. So me and his dad would just keep kicking it around him untill Mattia would get so upset that he would run to his mom complaining, but his mom would just be there laughing at the situation and then Mattia would get even more frustrated lol. It was great.

Anz VanAuker said I had to have a picture of myself.

F.llo Amer. Huge, egyptian, husband of S.lla Amer, and very intimidating. But very awesome!

This stadium I saw in milano when I was doing a scambio. That's the Inter MIlan.

These two pictures taken at night are for dad and zac; I went on a scambio into milano monday/tuesday and we passed by an aston martin dealership.