The Book of Mormon - keystone of our religion! Oct 19, 2011

oh man, things are starting to pick up.... 

So, first I'll talk about this FHE that we just had on monday. It was awesome!!! Anz Lehnardt and I have been wanting to get the BYU students here to start talking to the families that they're staying with about the gospel, and turns out they already are! They're super awesome! We did a little activity where we kind of role played how some different opportunities may come about to talk about the gospel, and gave them each a chance to try. Hmm... I don't know if that made sense... I'm losing my english here... ANYWAYS it went really well! They were all way excitied and enthusiastic about sharing the gospel! It was awesome!

Then yesterday we had a super awesome day!!!! Filled with amazingness and miracles!!! For lack of time I'll just talk about one though. So, we met this guy named Jacopo (yah-koh-poh). he says it's a native tuscan name. Boh.  So we talked with this guy, and he was super legit! He told us that the most important thing to him is respect, and then went on to list all the things that are wrong with this world, and basically told us that he's living all the standards of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was legit. His only problem is, he doesn't have the gospel. And he doesn't want to be influenced by other people, or books. (we tried to give him the Book of Mormon). BUT in studies this morning we came up with a really good game plan for him, and we're just super excited! He's a way bravo guy.  Haha sorry this isn't very detailed. My fingers are cold lol. It's already below 50 here!!! It's ridiculous. Haha I spent a good half hour trying to read our users manual for the heater. Its on now though!

We've also seen a lot of miracles with the Book of Mormon lately. People know it's true. Even if they don't believe in this church, or anything else, they can't deny the truth of the Book of Mormon. It does nothing but invite others to come unto Christ. It's awesome!!!! hahaha we talked in district meeting one day about the book of mormon being our sword, and the other's out there (Jehovah's Witnesses) are still carrying around clubs. And it's true!  The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion! If it's true, then Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Either Joseph Smith was a true prophet, or he was a crazy, egotistical man that wanted to write a book that would invite people to become like Christ. And that doesn't even make sense.

OK now I'm just rambling, but I know that the Book of Mormon was written by ancient prophets of God. It is the Word of God. And we need to listen to (read) it.

I love you all! Take care!!!

-anziano bushman

Pictures will have to do! Oct 12, 2011

***Computer problems got in the way this week, so pictures will have to do!

So, this is a human being. He stands there for hours on end, just perfectly still. THEN, when someone puts money in his little bucket on the ground there, he starts going back and forth all slowly, rolling the camera wheel, kinda just like a robot.... it's creepy, and very interesting all at the same time!

AHHHHHHHHHHH they were playing chess! In the middle of the city! With a HUGE chess board!!! BAHHHHHHH it was very very tempting to play......

This is on the Firenze Duomo, and that middle guy there reminded me of the video game Assassin's creed that Zac plays all the time, so i thought I'd send this picture for him =)

The morning of General Conference, I made homemade cinnamon rolls! (and orange rolls!!) We found a Betty Crocker cookbook in our apartment... go Betty!!!

Anziano Bushman has taken to cutting his own hair!!! He says it looks fine, but you can't really tell from this angle... So we are asking for better pictures!

Stretching Our Limits of Sacrifice! Oct 5, 2011

Ciao tutti!!

First I want to start off by talking about how awesome conference was!!! One of the talks that really hit me was Elder Eyring's talk in Priesthood session. He talked about sacrifice, and shared MANY instances in his life where he was taught how to sacrfice his time and energy. He talked about several instances where he would be just getting to bed late after a long day of exhausting work, and then he would get a call requesting his help. So, after continually responding in the affirmative, it got easier and easier. He emphasized the importance of <<stretching our limits of sacrifice>> so that when the time comes when a lot is required on our part, we will be ready to do it, even if it's more than we ever thought we could do. Our district leader on Monday's district meeting then decided to talk about this as well, and we did a cool activity that helped burn this whole concept into my mind a lot. He first asked my companion, and then someone else to volunteer with him, so after no one else volunteered, I said I would. So, what he had us do was push ups. So we took off our jackets, and just did push ups until we couldn't do anymore (we got somewhere over 60-70 each). Then he asked us how we felt, and 3 seconds later said that he thinks we can do 10 more. So we did. About died. And then the same thing, after a brief pause we did 10 more, and then down to 5 more, until we had done over 100 pushups. Then we went and sat down. He then compared it to this talk, he talked about how there's always that little bit more that we can do, and as we make that a habit, it gets easier. Just like working out, you work hard until it's easy, then you make it harder. And that's how we get stronger. I know that this principle is true, and I know that God will help us as we sacrifice more and more of our time and energy for him, and I'm way excited to put this promise into action!

I don't think I said anything last week, but we got a call from our new convert the sunday before last, and long story short, she's in love with my companion. hahahahah it was probably one of the more awkward things in the world (and she's 36 yrs old), so we called President to see what we should do. To our relief he said that he doesn't feel that Anz Lehnardt needs to be transferred. But instead, he just advised us to make use of missionary exchanges, and try and do one each week, and teach this lady without Anz Lehnardt being here. So, we've been doing that, and just this week Anz Merrill came in to Siena with me. Anz Sam Merrill is from Chandler, AZ and turns out he went to CGCC the year after I did, and was even in choir! Consequently, he got to meet Emily, and a lot of my other friends from that choir, and even Jordan Clark, and a few other kids from GHS that came to CGCC! Hhahah so that was crazy. Oh, and even further, I went in to visit the choir like 3 or 4 times, while he was there! And I went to each of their concerts! He said he thought he recognized me, and he realized that it was from those. Hahahah it's a small world!

Our less actives are making a lot of progress! Enrique found a place to stay finally! (he's been homeless for over 100 days now) and Paolo and Saverio are both coming in to do genealogy during the week, and just seem a lot happier!

We've already got our entire week booked with appointments, and finding work, and things are just going great! It's starting to get a little cold now, so that's fun.

Oh! And, if I could I would send some pictures (hopefully next week...) but I made cinnamon rolls and orange rolls on sunday before conference, and they were freaking delicious!!!! I don't know how it turned out so well, but they did! And they were pretty cheap too! Sweet! So yeah, that's my cooking update =)

Well, vi voglio bene tutti!

-Anziano Bushman

We love Conference! Sept 28, 2011

We are SUPER EXCITED for conference this weekend! And way ready to hear our prophets, seers, and revelators reveal to us the will of God!

Transfers were this last week, and Anz Lehnardt and I are very glad to both get to stay here in Siena for another transfer!

Not much going on though... We talk to people, they accept us, and then they don't answer our calls. It's frustrating, but we know that it will all work out in the end. We did get a hold of Alessandro though! He answered our call finally and turns out that he's just been super busy with work! We were getting kind of worried that maybe he had found some anti-mormon stuff, but he said that in october his schedule should be freed up some more! So we're super excited about that.

Other than that, we're doing a lot of work with the branch, and the less actives. We're hoping that we can get more people coming to church, that way everyone will get more out of it.

Well, I love you all! Take care!! Watch conference! It's going to be awesome!!! Oh, and you should also read Pres Uchtdorf's talk in the ensign this month about conference, it's a good pump up!

vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman