Ups & Downs! June 22, 2011

Well, I don't have too much time to write today, my companion wants to get out of here early so we can go spend a load of money eating at burger king, and then more money to go take a tour through an opera house. Sounds exciting, right?

No, i'm not that bitter about it. COMUNQUE, this week was pretty awesome!

F.llo Romani's new dream was even better. He had a dream that there was this HUGE tree, and two farmers. They noticed that the tree wasn't giving any fruit. Then one farmer said to the other that they need to water it, and give it some time. And then the tree was awesome, and bore fruit and everything. Well, he immediately recognized himself as the tree. And then he said he started thinking to himself, well what does this water represent? What do I need? And he realized it was baptism! But then he also remembered that the farmer said that it also just needs time. SO he's convinced that he just needs some time. When he told us that, I asked him what we could do to help him be ready (I even asked that one in spanish, I was pretty content with myself lol) and he told us that he was already ready! But that he just needs some time, he doesn't want to right now. So naturally, as missionaries, we're frustrated right now.

We also saw Marco and family again, and had a great time! First they treated us to some delicious homemade pizza (which was actually the first pizza I have had made by an italian, and not an egyptian lol) And then he even taught us how to make pizza, and then we taught them a wonderful lesson about the Vision of the Tree of Life. We also gave the two daughters each their own copy of the Book of Mormon, so this lesson served two purposes. First, to get them familiar with reading the Book of Mormon (we read 1Nephi 8:9-34). And then we talked about all the symbolism therein, and also read 2 Nephi 31:17 where we learn that repentance and baptism make the entrance to this path. And then we challenged them to baptism, and they accepted! We don't have a date yet, but they all want and know that they need to be baptized! Whoot! And then the next day they all came to church again, and we saw the two daughters carrying their copies of the Book of Mormon, and it was way touching, and then after church was all over they asked if they could take pictures with us! Haha so half the ward saw that, and they were all smiling, and we were all happy, and it was just great. I love this family, and I do not want to get transferred, but then again, I know that there could be another missionary that's needing a good loving family like this to teach... SOOOO I'll go where He wants me to go.

Muggiò rocks.

Allora, vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene! 

-Anziano Bushman

6 months well spent, only 18 more months to convert Italy! June 15, 2011

Ciao tutti!

Man, life is so intense! I wanna start this email by saying how ridiculously grateful I am to have this AMAZING opportunity to serve the Lord, and gather his children! It is really a unique opportunity to be able to not think about one's self, and focus everything on the needs of others! I am so grateful for the mercy the Lord has had on me in placing me in such a loving family, and with parents who are firm in the gospel of Jesus Christ! I know this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. Sono reso conto. And I can see the truth of it in the eyes of every person we meet.

Well, I'll start off with an update on Marco and family: We met with them again last thursday, and when we got there, Marco immediately sat us down on the couch, then pulled up a chair right in front of us, and began firing questions away. I was hesitant to start because we wanted the whole family to be there, but sure enough S.lla Ligas (wife) came in within seconds and made sure her two daughters (Alessia and Giorgia) were sitting and able to pay attention. She also made sure we started with a prayer, so that was awesome. After the prayer we got a little glimpse by S.lla Ligas at how interested her daughters already are in learning the gospel. The oldest daughter (Alessia, 11yrs old) has already gone through catoclysm (I think that's what it's called...) and was way impressed at the difference of how the kids behaved, and the reverence they all had for the Lord at our church. Apparently Sunday after church when they went home to eat, she even asked if they could pray <<like mom's church prays>>, so S.lla Ligas asked us to give a description of prayer, and had us give several demonstrations (for the lesson, and also the meal that they fed us) so that her kids would hear it from someone who was <<use to praying>> (S.lla Ligas went inactive when she married Marco). Other than that, we taught the Restoration lesson, and it went great, but only because they're so awesome. We spent way too much time just trying to answer all of his questions, when we should have had him save his questions to the end and told him that a lot of his questions will be answered in this short message. And also, my companion kinda went crazy. My companion isn't the greatest at speaking. Even in english at home, he doesn't make sense half the time.  BUT he's great, and I love him anyways. But also, Marco has had a hard time with understanding Anz VanAuker. When he speaks he doesn't do it with confidence, and spends half the time looking away trying to think of how to say something, or what to say, even though he definitely already knows this language like the back of his hand. But anyways, ever since we met Marco, Marco pinpointed my companion's problem, and has told him on several occasions to <<just speak, at worst you'll mess up>>. So my companion I guess felt that he had to prove something that night, and kind of took over the entire lesson. I tried occasionally to butt in, but each time I said something, my companion would take two seconds to listen,and then go trucking on again. I thought it was kind of hilarious, because there was nothing I could do about it. But it also was a little frustrating. But anyways, I talked to him after and he realized what happened, and is gonna try harder next time. Sweet. We haven't got to see them again yet,  and although the wife and daughters were able to come to church, Marco and Oscar got called into work. I'm going to call them again today and try and set up a friday or saturday appointment.

F.llo Romani we have met with two or even three times since the last email, and he's doing great! He's got some misconceptions that will need to be cleared, such as he believes in reincarnation, and he still doesn't quite have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And we did have quite a regrettable moment the other day when we were with them... So Santos (F.llo Romani) is a big believer of dreams, and that they mean something, and so he asks us each time what we think about his dreams. This last one he had was pretty epic (at least for us). Oh, and just another piece of background info, they weren't able to come to church on Sunday because S.lla Romani was way sick. So this dream: The first thing he described to us was that there was this water coming out of the floor like a fountain, and this water was the purest, cleanest water he has seen, and so he decided to start washing his face in it. The other piece was that he was at church, and got a signed piece of paper, and then he had to sign it as well. This paper somehow told him, or at least reminded him that he needed to come to school, and he recognized that as he needs to come to church, so he's recomitted himself to next week for sure. So hearing this as a missionary, I immediately thought- baptism is ridiculously clean water that washes us clean! His dream is telling him to get baptized! But, I brushed it away thinking that it was just my over-eagerness. So when we left their house Anz. VanAuker turned to me and shared with me his interpretation of the dream, which was the same as mine as far as the baptism part goes (confirming in my mind even further that we should have shared our opinion when he asked us) and then he also pointed out that after the baptism, he went to church where he was given a signed piece of paper (baptismal certificate). So, I'm pretty sure that was God wanting us to interpret that for him, but we failed. Miserably. Oh well, hopefully he will have another dream for us today when we go over there!

Yesterday we had a zone conference, and all the birthdays from June 1st to August 30th were celebrated, so I got to go up to the front and choose a toothbrush (lol) and a candybar, and then people got to talk about how much they love me. Haha and Anz Scheurn was one of the first to raise his hand for this one, and he made sure everyone there knew that I'm awesome, a stud, and that he loves me haha. That guy is awesome!

That's awesome that Zac has already made the official decision to go on a mission, and that he has that strong desire! Make sure he knows that our stakes mission prep class is freaking amazing! Way better than mission prep any where else, and if you just study Preach My Gospel like they tell you to, you will have such an incredible advantage in the mission field!

Well, I'm just about all out of time.... So I will just leave you guys with this last testimony that gives me goosebumps everytime I think about it-

<<Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.>>

I love the people of Italy, they are so awesome! And I love all of you at home, and I hope you are all doing great: staying healthy, going to school, and making good decisions every day! I pray for each one of you every night!

vi voglio bene!

il vostro missionario italiano,

Anziano Bushman

Man, I love the Lord! June 8, 2011

Alright, I want to write these experiences down real quick before reading/replying to your letters, cause this week was epic. 

Ok, so I guess this is Italy's rain season or something, because the past two weeks it has rained EVERY DAY, for at least half the day, so it's been a little difficult. And then the short times in between rain, the roads are wet and muddy, and thus we're getting muddy water splashed up on us from our bikes, but COMUNQUE, Friday was awesome.

So just a little bit of a setting for this story, we have been really focusing on going to see members, and less-active members, in hopes of incorporating them more fully in our missionary work, because we're horrible at finding people. So, it had been about two weeks with this focus, and nothing noticeable had happened, in fact Anz VanAuker even turned to me Thursday night and told me that he was leaning on me with this whole <<working with the members>> thing, because (he told me) he has no testimony of working with members (not that I did either, but I was hopeful). So Friday we had another appointment with a less-active couple. Things were a little stiff at first, and they weren't very open with us at all, so it was kind of rough. BUT we found out that he wasn't a member, only she was. And he had just arrived from Ecuador a year or two ago, so he was very uncomfortable with the italian language so far, thus the nervousness/awkwardness. SO, I tried throwing                     the tiny bit of spanish I knew in there, and he immediately opened up, and was smiling, and told us that he had been studying the gospel in Ecuador, but wasn't sure about some things yet, but wants to be baptized! Score!

Friday Part 2:

     So, as we were finishing the lesson with the Romani's (less active and nonmember in the above paragraph), we started noticing the clouds rolling in, and thunder and lightning were becoming more and more frequent. So we finished up and headed down to our bikes, praying that we'd be able to make it all the way to Carlo's in time (carlo lives 30min on bike NW of our house, and we were something like 20min SE of our house at the time. South Monza to East Cesano Maderno). Our appointment with Carlo was at 7:30, and it was about 6. So as we were walking out to our bikes someone yelled out to us <<Elders!>> (Not <<Anziani>>, <<Elders>>). So we turned around, fairly confused, thinking that it was some spanish speaking member or something. His name turnd out, was Oscar, and he was a member that had recently moved here to italy, spoke english, and didn't know where the church was. So we gave him our biglietto and started to head on our way again. But then the rain started, and it started FAST. So we left our bikes at the pole they were locked to and took shelter over by Oscar underneath the palazzo we had just come out of. So, with nothing else to do, we started talking to Oscar again. Found out that he is from Argentina, lived in the States for 10yrs driving a semi (and there learned english) but then got caught and deported lol. So now he's living with his sister and her family in Italy. 

     Then some random, crazy guy pulled up in a work truck, and got out and started walking around staring up at the rain, and just enjoying it, like some crazy person. Then crazy random guy started walking towards us, and we soon found out that he was the husband of Oscar's sister. So we got to know him a little bit. He's 37 yrs old, just got back from a skate park (and still had his knee pads on) and his name is Marco. After a couple more minutes Oscar asked us where we were headed, and if we had an appt or anything, so we told him about Carlo that lives in Cesano Maderno, and how he's going to get baptized tomorrow, and everything, and he immediately started asking Marco if he could give us a ride. Unfortunately, he couldn't because he can't drive anyone else in his work truck. But then Oscar started talking about the other truck he had, and turns out he also had a pick up truck (NO ONE IN ITALY HAS A PICK UP TRUCK. NO ONE!). So Oscar went and checked with his sister, and in a few short minutes Marco was giving us AND our bikes a ride, 30min away. Awesome! Even better, we had a captive audience for 30min, and he started asking about the Book of Mormon and everything, so we gave him a copy as we explained it's history. We then just so happened to drive right past the church, so we pointed it out to them, and told them they were invited to come on Sunday. So we got to our appt, a couple minutes late, but we got there, and thanked them for everything, and that was it. Didn't have too much hope that they would come to chuch or anything, but hey, we got a ride to our appointment.

Sunday.

     At 9:15 a fratello knocked on the door to our classroom and beckoned us to come out there, and there was Marco (dressed in a suit and everything), his wife, and Oscar. So after getting over the shock that they actually came, we got Marco's wife (who turns out is a member) to Relief Society class and Oscar and Marco came with us to Elder's Quorum. About 10min into the class Marco turned to me and asked me if he was allowed to make any comments, and of course I responded he could. So, he made a lot of comments, was well accepted, and things went great! By the end of church we found out that he also has 2 daughters (9yrs old and 11yrs old) who were already off to primary before we got to see them, and the whole family came out of that building loving it! Marco went around thanking everyone that spoke in the classes and whatnot, and someone invited them to come again next week, and Marco responded by saying  <<of course, we have need of this>>. AWESOME! 

So, we're seeing The Romani's again today in a couple hours, and then Marco and his family right after that. So awesome. 

I can't get over how incredible the Lord is with timing, and placing people in our path for us. If we hadn't been focusing on members and less active members, we wouldn't have found F.llo Romani, and if we never went to their house, we would have never run into Oscar, and thus Oscar's brother-in-law. Man, I love the Lord!

In response to emails: 

Haha no, the pizza guy had never had a cookie like that before in his life. In fact, most italians (and I'd even say europeans) have never had a chocolate chip cookie. They have flavorless and stale storebought cookies that they eat for breakfast, but those can't rightfully be called cookies.

Carlo's baptism went great! We were worried no one would show up, but we had about a dozen people show up, so it turned out really great! Hahah and we didn't have a pianist, becuase the 5 ppl in the ward that can play piano were busy, or out of town, so for the hour that we were at the church filling the baptismal font, I started practicing Choose the Right, and I am a Child of God. Haha it was a joke! but still better than nothing. I confirmed him the next day in sacrament meeting, and it was awesome! He's awesome!

With the lunch appts, we had one on sunday, and it was pretty awesome. F.llo Mollica (ex-Ward Mission Leader) and his family came, as well as his mother and father-in law, and it was all at F.llo Mollica's Grandpa in law's house. So it was quite the family reunion. But it was way fun to hang around with F.llo Mollica while they were preparing the food- he brought his guitar and showed us a few of the songs he's been working on (He's wayy good!) and even showed us a Missionary Blues song he wrote hahaha it was hilarious. It was talking about no one letting the missionaries in, so the missionaries turned to each other and asked each other what they should so, and they decided, <<suoniamo!>> haha it was funny. Then he had me show him some of the stuff I knew, and he really liked some of the chord progressions that I had written, and thought it was very amusing how different I play the guitar (being american and all). So yeah, it was fun. But unfortunately, for most of the lunch appts, we have to ask, and with a lot of the members it feels very awkward to ask, but our zone leaders have reassured us that the italians expect us to ask, so I guess we'll keep asking... The food is always great! The desserts not so much, but the food always!

Sii forte, abbi fede, e prega ogni giorno.

Anziano Bushman

Every Member a Missionary! June 1, 2011

Ciao tutti!

This week has been great!!! We've been starting to work more with the members, and this last week we were able to see 4 families (2 lunches and one dinner) and we also were able to visit a less active family, it's been great! Carlo is progressing great! He is going to be baptized this saturday! I can't tell if he's making any friends in the ward.... We brought a member with us to a lesson with him this last saturday, but Carlo just was all weird the whole time.... Granted, the member we brought is a little strange, they already had talked a lot in past activities, so Carlo already knew he was like that. In fact, I wanna say something about this member. 

His name is Fratello Bressan, and he is about 5ft 2 or something, and has HUGE arms, and is just a super strong guy. He also has a hilarious speech impediment. It's not exactly stuttering, he just regularly gets stuck in the middle of his sentences, and like physically can't spit it out for a second or two. But he's great. And when we called him to see if he would come with us to this appointment with Carlo, he thought we were calling to set up a lesson to teach his daughter who's going to be baptized in a couple weeks. So, we set up that lesson right before Carlo's and then asked if he would come with us to teach Carlo, and his response was just hilarious. I guess no missionary has asked him to help teach in a lesson, because he started asking me why we would want him to come, and was telling us that he can't teach, and wouldn't be good at that, so I just laughed a little and encouraged him that he could do it, and then he agreed to come. 

So first, when we went to visit his family, his two daughters are crazy, and loud. But despite F.llo Bressan's awkwardness in conversation, he knew how important this gospel is, and made sure that his daughters respected the message we had, and made sure that they were learning from it. Also, this man, whom I have known for three and a half months now, and whom I have never heard speak more than a sentence without stopping, when he offered the prayer at the end of the lesson, to bless his daughter to be ready for baptism, he did not stutter once. And as I'm writing this, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but to me it shows that there was nothing that was going to stop him from calling down the blessings of heaven on his family. It was awesome. 

Then, when he came with us to see Carlo, he was super friendly, and did everything just right. He joked around with Carlo, and he even had studied the message we were going to give, and had found some scriptures for us to share with Carlo. No one does that. But it helps so much! When the member studies for the lesson they are going to participate in, it prepares them to share their testimony, and then we have with us a testimony of a normal person, that is currently dealing with all the normal things of life, and it's just so much more powerful, and seems so much more realistic than ours as missionaries, who are not living a normal life AT ALL right now. 

So that's Fratello Bressan. Stud.

Also, we got a new Ward Mission Leader on Sunday so, unfortunately, we don't get to work with F.llo Mollica anymore. But, F.llo Alaimo got called in his place, and he is awesome! We had family home evening with him and his wife this last monday, and it was great! He reminds me of a leprachaun. But, physical appearances aside, he is a lot more available, and way humble! (F.llo Mollica was super humble too, I just wasn't expecting to get another humble leader). He has told us over and over so far that we are going to need to lead him by the hand, and how he's just a neonato. So it's gonna be great. He's a new convert of 8 yrs, and has been the Elders quorum president for the last 7yrs, and he has a strong desire to get the ward involved in missionary work, so we're stoked!

Well, that's it for this week! Thanks for the letters! I love hearing from you all!

-Anziano Bushman

This is our favorite local pizza guy. His name is Rami, and he's egyptian. He moved here like five years ago, and now their whole family is here in Italy. Him and his older brother however own this pizza shop, and it's right between us and the church, so it's way close. It was his 20th birthday last week, so I taught him how to make cookies as a birthday present. It was pretty fun. We're trying to get him to come to church, but it's a little hard because they live in milano. BUT he has told us several times recently that he wants to come to church, we just need to get him there now!