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
I always enjoy Jonathan's letters. He's a great writer and from what I hear, a great missionary too.
ReplyDelete