Priesthood Power! Aug 24, 2011

           Well, today was big! First of all, Cesere and Silvana came to church today? Cesere is a man that we met last night (during red-zone) when we were leaving his palaza. We talked for maybe 2 minutes, and then his wife came and they left to go walk their dog. So, we left them with a pass-along card, and it just so happens that Anz Mauldwin pulled out that very same card that NO missionaries like because the picture is just a big meadow. I even remember thinking "oh great, why does he have THAT card? I would never bring that card with me!" But, sure enough, when Mario asked in Gospel Principles why they decided to come, Silvana said it was that card! Because it talked about a plan that brings happiness. Wow! Biglietti NEVER work for ANYTHING. Except this one. So we had a great lesson and scheduled to meet with them tomorrow. Also Decio (crazy/drunk/less-active) came to church! Then, after church, I participated in giving Luca the Aaronic priesthood! He's such a stud! So then we went and had lunch with Mario and Marianna.

            Then we had a problem. My bike had a decent hold. So we called Luca, and he just laughed and told us to come over. So we went over there and he fixed my tire for me. Man, he's such a stud. Also he was making a kite with Marco when we got there, just doing what he can to bond. Stud!

            So then we went on our way, nothing special happened in red-zone casa, but when we were heading back to our bikes, over by Columbus', we heard some screeching and turned around in time to see 2 cars crashing into each other (not head-on) and then coming to a stop after running into a couple of signs & poles. We were on the other side of the street and we just kinda sat there, not sure what to do, as we saw all these people start to swarm towards the accident, and heads were popping out of all the building windows. We probably stayed there, planted, for about 5 minutes before moving to get a better view. I'm not gonna lie, I really wanted to be the hero in that moment. I wanted to know exactly what to do, run over there, do it, and convert 50 people to the gospel. First thought! When we moved to get a better view, we saw a woman on the floor in severe shock. And at that moment I had a kind of fear strike me. I knew I shouldn't leave (Jesus Christ wouldn't leave when there was someone to help), but all the same, I didn't know what to do. So another 5-10 minutes passed. I felt a grand responsibility to do something, anything, knowing that the keys of salvation of all these people in the province of Ravenna are in our hands, I just didn't know what to do. Then I noticed someone, Columbus, the 2nd counselor in our branch presidency was right there next to the young lady, helping her remain calm, and in somma talking charge of the situation because the ambulance had still not arrived. And at that moment I felt, probably more than I ever have before in my life that I was in the right place and at the right time! We were both ready and prepared and worthy to give a priesthood blessing, and I knew in that moment that the Lord knew he could count on my for whatever he needed done! We went over there and asked Columbus if there was anything he wanted us to do and he was very lad to see us. We ended up not giving a blessing, but I know that if God wanted us to, it would have happened. The ambulance then came and took the girl away, but I was left deeply impressed. As priesthood holders, we really hold the power of God in our hands, so long as we remain worthy of it. And it is an awesome power! Yeah, basta!

          So just a little update on the Sunday journal entry that I sent you (above section), Cesere and Silvana met us Monday night AND Tuesday night in the church, and they are AWESOME!!! Cesere writes for a newspaper, and Silvana is a nurse, and they have so many questions, it's awesome! When we asked them why they are meeting with us, Silvana's response is because she wants to draw nearer to God, and build her relationship with him. Perfect!!! For now, it seems to me like Cesere might be a little more interested in the history of the American Indians, but as soon as he reads their history I know he's going to find a lot more than he expected. They are awesome. We have another lesson with them Friday, again with our Ward mission leader, so we're way stoked!

I love you all! Thanks for everything you do!

Anziano Bushman

 It was hilarious because this guy that sold me the bike then stuck these stickers on that have his last name on them lol. So now I'm also advertising for him. 

I didn't wanna write it all again, so I just took a picture of my journal entry...
Thanks Mom for transcribing it for me;)

A picture is worth a 1,000 words! Aug 17, 2011

Just wanted to share something fun that I got to do on monday (my birthday)-

Well first we had an unexpected district meeting, so we had to travel to Bologna (about 90 min by train, and 20 min on bus to get to the church) so we got back in Ravenna around 3:30. Luca called and asked us if we wanted to do anything for Ferragosto (national holiday). So we accepted, and ended up having a nice little Family Home Evening with Luca and his son, Marco. We had some dinner, and then we told them about the importance of families, and then why we hold FHE, and what exactly it is. We then ended with an activity and played some briscola (an italian card game, way fun! and if you want I can send you guys a deck so you can play (italians use different playing cards)). And then after that Marco said the closing prayer for us! And Marco has been one of the most resistant against anything that has to do with our church, so we were way excited that he prayed for us, and we're hoping to see some good success with bringing him and his sister to the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Well, that's all I've got time for, sorry. 

I love you all! And thank you so much for the letters and package! 

-Anziano Bushman 

Tallest to shortest, Joyce, Queen, and Freedom. Columbus' kids.

We found out that we had the same pants, lol!

Luca, his not so happy mom, and Ana.

Our baptismal font, lol!

Us and luca

Oh man, I sure hope sam's club sells this.... 

Transfers & Africans! Aug 10, 2011

Thanks for all your emails! And I got your letters on monday through the mail (don't worry, I haven't opened them yet). This letter is going to have to be relatively short this week though, Anziano Bona is getting transferred to La Spezia, and we have to catch a train here in a couple minutes to head to Bologna so we can catch a train in the morning that will take us to milano centrale by 10am. AND, my computer keeps turning off.

So, in short, this week went by great! Luca was baptized saturday night by Anziano Bona, and we had a ton of members show up to the baptism, despite the fact that there weren't even very many in town. It was awesome. Luca's mom and dad, and daughter came to see him get baptized, and the mom was just freaking out the whole time (she's catholic, and is very much against him getting baptized "again"). His son didn't come, but he came to sacrament meeting the next day with his sister when Luca received the Holy Ghost (i confirmed him). So that was way awesome. And then, Luca even bore his testimony in church! He started off by saying how scared he was to be up there, but then he also told us all how peaceful he felt during his baptism right when he went under water and was completely immersed, he said he just felt a huge peaceful feeling, it was awesome.

I have not exactly gotten a pause yet though. Everything's been way hard because my bike tire got stolen last week, so we've been walking everywhere because we don't have time to take it to go get fixed, but that in turn means that we're going to spend a lot more time on foot. So we really need to just schedule a time some day to take it in. So saturday before the baptism I ran and Anziano Bona biked to the grocery store so we could get some vanilla, and then I made easy candy and banana bread for the baptism. It was a little intense making it all, because I only had about an hour before we needed to set off to the church and start filling the font, but I got it done, and everyone loved it and a handful of people made me give them the recipes in church the next day.

As far as Carlotta goes, we tried calling her again a couple days ago, and this time someone answered (I'm not so sure if it was her or not, I've only heard her voice like twice) but when we called, the person that answered asked who we were, and then said that they couldn't hear us, and then hung up. So we tried again, and it was a different voice, but piu o meno the same thing happened. SO, I don't even know. I don't want to give up on her, because she knows that this church is true, but I don't know what to do either.  So, yeah.

Unfortunately, I dont have time to upload pictutres today, but I've got a ton of pictures that I will be sending soon!

One thing that I just realized that I don't think I've told you guys about, is africans. Africans are legit. Most of the time at least. Most of the africans here are from either Nigeria or Ghana. And when you meet an African that uses his head, it's way legit. Columbus, our 2nd counselor in the branch presidency here is super legit. He's from Nigerie, and is a spiritual powerhouse! We went over to his house monday night for Anziano Bona to say goodbye to the family and what not, and Columbus just gave him the pep talk of his life! It was awesome! They speak english as their second language in africa, so they are all better at english than italian, but just the way they talk is awesome. It's almost like they just learned the most epic words, and then they use those all the time. A couple examples: Columbus is the nicest guy in the world, and would never hurt anyone, but he's got a little son that about 3 yrs old that is just a MONSTER, and we could be in the middle of a lesson with them and Columbus will all of the sudden turn to his son (freedom) and yell at him saying "Freedom, I will beat you! Stop that right now or I will beat you!" hahahah Idk, it may be one of those things where you just have to be there, but it's hilarious. And, I'm about to throw this computer in a lake, because it keeps turning off. So I better stop right now while I still have a tad of patience.

I love you all! Thank you so much for the letters and emails! I love hearing from all of you!

Take care, and sempre ricordatevi scegliere il giusto!

mi macate, e vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

Busy, Busy, Busy! August 3, 2011

La mia famiglia e gli amici,

Oh man, this week had been intense. Right after last wednesday we had a scambio with the traveling assisstants (two missionaries assigned by Pres Wolfgramm to just go around and do scambi with nearly all the missionaries in our misison). I was with Anz Duersch, who actually used to be the Bologna Zone Leader last transfer, so everyone in our zone knows him pretty well. Our scambio was way awesome. He's a way good missionary! We talked to a bunch of people, and really helped out a lot of people.

One of the things we had planned was to see some less active members. So we found the addresses of about 5 less active members that lived over by where we were planning on working for the day, and planned to just pass by them to break up knocking on doors and what not. When it got to be about 7pm, we realized that we did not write down the address of the less active member that we planned on for that time of the day, and we were on foot, at least 45 min from home. After some difficulty, we got the address from our first counselor in the branch here, and went over to see this less active member. When we got there, we rang the doorbell-thing at the entrance of the building, and said we were the missionaries, and he immediately opened the doors and told us what floor he was on. So, not quite used to such a welcoming environment from people we don't know, we went inside and found out which room was his. When we got there we quickly learned that he was a relatively troubled man. He told us that he was in need several years ago (financial need) and so he asked the church (more specifically the members in our branch) for help. They told him that there was nothing that they could do, and then because he couldn't provide for his family, his wife left him, and they all fell away from the church. So we talked a little bit about 2 Nephi 4, and about how much God has done for him, and continues to do for him. But, he wasn't entirely paying attention to anything we were saying. He said that his girlfriend from peru is coming in september, and they're going to get married, and since she's a member of the church, he want to get married in an LDS church [weddings are a little different in Italy, temple marriages aren't recognized under the law yet, so members have to get married in a church or somewhere first, and then in the temple in Switzerland] so for this reason he wants to start coming to church again. He didn't say anything about him knowing it was the true church or anything, so we're going to be meeting with him at least once a week. 

But yeah, my reason for recounting this experience, is just because we planned literally about 30 different places to go/people to see/things to do that day. And we didn't even get to 5 of them. But, one of them was to visit the less active member, and that one went through. There were plenty other less active members that we could have planned to go see, but I can't say that any of the others would be this willing to listen to us, or would have even been at home. Idk, it was just a nice little reminder that God is in control here. That God was able to guide us in our planning the night before, so that we could start to help this man. Idk, it was cool. 

Let's see... anything else.... Sunday, we went to go see a member family that Anz Bona and his last companion had been trying to see for months (the trick was asking the wife, not the husband) so that was fun. Oh, and on the way there, Anz Bona bifffed it bad. [he crashed] I don't know exactly what happened, but some old lady was riding her bike towards us, and for some reason he swerved, and since his bike already sucks, that swerve was just enough to jerk the tire sideways and have him go head over the handlebars. I had to slam on the brakes to prevent running over him right after that, but yeah, it was pretty bad. Messed up his shin, hand, and ankle a little bit, and even got a nice scratch on his head. But we were super close to this member family, so they helped him wash up and what not, and he's feeling a lot better now. 

Monaday and tuesday I was on a scambio with Anz Duque, one of our zone leaders who's actually from the phillipines and he's way awesome! He's an amazing cook (already graduated from culinary school in rome) and is a recent convert of 3 yrs. So we had a way good time. One of the first things we did after lunch, was we decided to walk around and look for people in the park, and the very first people we went to ended up being pretty cool. They were two ladies from cameroon, that spoke french, and we immediately got their attention by the fact that Anz Duque was catholic 3 yrs ago, and so we talked about the difference of our church from the catholic church, and talked about prophets and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was way good, and they were way excited when we gave them each a copy of the book of mormon. So, yeah. It was a pretty good week. Well, not much else to say. The other anziani here are wanting to go eat, so I'm gonna finish the email there. 

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!

anziano bushman

Our last church activity - that man on my left is Luca, and his son Marco is right in front of me, and in front of him Luca's daughter Ana

 A cool-ish statue in San Marino.

P-Day in San Marino.