Anziano Jonathan Bushman: The field is white! July 20, 2011

Wow, things are goin great here! I love hearing from all of you guys!

Well, let me update you on Luca. Luca, is a freaking stud. He has accepted everything, and is trying everything that we tell him. We talked to him Sunday after church, and set a baptismal date with him for August 6th! He is just awesome. We talked to him last night about it, and he shared some experiences he had. First he told us about his mom, who is super catholic, and has started to bring Luca into Catholicism now that he's talking with us. He told us that she has started coming over and reading the bible to him, and Luca told us that after she read the bible with him, he read from the Book of Mormon with her! He's told us tons of other experiences too with him doing missionary work like this. And he's already working on inviting his kids and mom to his baptism, it's awesome! It just amazes me at how quick he is to share the gospel, when a lot of members are wayyy timid about it... And even further, Luca we feel still doesn't have a testimony about the gospel. He follows all the commandments, and is changing his life to the gospel, but hasn't seen a change yet. And regardless he's still being patient. He's just super bravo. That's all I can say. The only thing is, the reason he's not seeing the blessings yet is because he's not asking. He's super honest with us, so when something comes up that he struggles with, he tells us. And he's told us for a couple weeks now that he doesn't really feel the need to pray. He feels that because God's Will will be done regardless, what's the point of praying and trying to change it? So we explained last night that the purpose of prayer is to align our will with the Will of God, and also to ask for the blessings that God is just waiting to pour out upon our heads, but can't until we ask for them. So we committed him to at least get into the habit of praying, even if he doesn't feel it, to just get in the habit of praying morning and night, and he said that he'll do it! We're going with him tomorrow to each lunch at the Branch President's house, so we're way excited about that as well!

Eddie is also doing awesome! His wife (Ester) is still not coming to church, but Eddie has started to make a more concerted effort to come to church, and came at 10:20 instead of his usual 11:30! So he got to experience Gospel principles class and sacrament meeting, and it was a way good experience!!!

Nicolas is another man from Nigeria, and he started coming to church I believe 4 weeks ago because one of our members told him it would help (he was kinda depressed, and out of work) and the tuesday after he came for the first time, someone in our ward found him a job, and he's been working ever since! He's also come to church every week since. We finally were able to meet with him and his wife for the first time on saturday, and we talked about the first vision, and the restoration of the church. They loved it! Anziano Bona and I were about to invite him to baptism, but the memebr that we had with us (Colombus, also from Nigeria) mentioned that we will not rush anyone, and that we will take things piano piano. So if we went and invited him to baptism that kind of would've made a liar out of Colombus.... BUT after the lesson Nicolas walked us out to our bikes, and asked us what he needed to do. We looked at him a little confused and my companion asked <<need to do for what?>> Nicolas responded <<for baptism>>. So we quickly told him that we would love to talk about baptism the next time we come over. And in fact, Anziano Mendel and I (on a scambio) went and talked to him yesterday about baptism, invited him to baptism, and he accepted it! We left him with a baptismal calendar, and he said that he will talk with his wife to choose when, but yeah, he's super legit. The only thing now, is we need to figure out how to get his wife more on board.

ALSO, another super legit find on monday. Anziano Mendel was at Ravenna wih me, and the lesson we had planned fell through. So, we just rode around for a little bit until we found some palazzi that looked promising. So we knocked on all the doors, and got absolutely nothing. Tried the one next to it, and still nothing. BUT at the last floor there was a girl sitting on the staircase, so we started talking to her, and found out that she had already been talked to. Even further, she had had a baptismal date, and told us that she just got too scared. So, we asked if she'd like to talked some more, and figure out what happened, and so she gave us her number and we went on. When we got home, I checked our area book and found her progress record. She was investigating the church in 2008, and from what the missinoaries wrote, was super golden!! But, just like she told us, when it came down to being baptized, 5 days before the scheduled date, she just got too afraid, and the missinoaries didn't write anything else. So now we're in the process of trying to get ahold of her, but I'm super excited! It didn't look like she had any problems with the gospel, just got afraid, so yeah.

Like I mentioned, I did a scambio with Anz Mendel yesterday, and it was way fun! I probably mentioned him before while I was in the MTC, but he was in the group that I helped welcome into the MTC, so he got here to italy weeks after me. But yeah, he's a wayy cool guy! And it was wayy different being companioned with someone that has been out less time than me. But, things went way well.

But yeah, this zone, is the best zone in the mission. I also saw Anziano Ramjuoe (sp?) and Anziano Free at interviews on monday, so it was fun getting to catch up and everything (both of them were also in Anz Mendel's group)

SO, yeah! Life's going great! Finally figured out how to work this dang oven without burning suff lol, and now I'm working on repairing the rest of the apartment lol.

And thank you so much mom for the package! I love it! And the music is super awesome too! My companion also wanted to thank you for the song <<One Day>> hahah he loves that song!

I love you guys all so much!

Stay strong, and scegliete il giusto!

-Anziano Bushman