Anziano Jonathan Bushman: Be Prepared! Oct. 26, 2011

Oh man, this week has been awesome!!!! We taught a LOT!!!! and saw a lot of miracles as a result. So, first I'll start off with Enrique.

Enrique is a less active member from Colombia. He's about 40 yrs old and super cool, but he's always just not seemed too dedicated, and he never took our invites to read the Book of Mormon seriously or anything. He was super rich, before someone committed fraud on him and he lost his job and house and nearly got kicked out of Italy. And he has told us the whole story about 600 times. But, he has been meeting with us (despite his rough living situation) and he has been coming to church every week. BUT we've been really wanting to get him fulfilling his preisthood duties because we only have three active priesthood holders in this branch. So, we had a lesson about priesthood, and about his duties as a Priest. And it all went normal. He seemed to understand, but it still didn't seem too important to him. A couple days later he asked if we could open the church for him because all his luggage and clothes and everything are there for now. So we let him in because we were already heading there for an appointment. And, by the time we were finished with our lesson in the church, we went to go see what Enrique was doing, and he was all decked out in cleaning equipment, gloves and everything, cleaning the bathroom. No one asked him to either. And it just really hit me that he is really trying to fulfill his calling. He even told us that he had found all of his sunday clothes except for his white shirt, so within a week or so he'll be passing the sacrament for the first time!! I don't know, but it made me really happy to see him taking the initiative like that.

Next is Salim and Cucci. Salim is Tina's boyfriend, and we've been trying to work with him since before Tina was even baptized, but it never really worked out because his other african friends were too close minded. So we finally got Salim and Cucci (also lives with Salim, they are all refugees from Lybia, Cucci speaks Bengledesh and a little bit of english) to meet with us becasue they seemed to have the most interest. So we talked to them about the Book of Mormon, and gave them both one (even a bengledesh one for Cucci). Oh man, and if you could have seen the look on Cucci's face when he saw that book in his own language!!! He was so happy!!!! They're both super excited to read it and talk with us about it on Friday! And so are we!!!

So, another miracle we saw this week was last friday night we were outside contacting people, and we met an Albanian woman at a bus stop. So we started just with small talk, and asked her some questions, and then we asked her if she felt that there was anything missing in her life, and she just burst into tears. After about 5 min of us awkwardly standing there, she told us that someone very close to her had died, and then her bus came. So, in the rush we gave her our card with our information on it and asked her to give us a call so we could talk more, she willingly accepted and got on the bus. So, we kind of just sat there for about 10 min trying to figure out what had just happened, and also waiting for her phone call, but nothing came. So we moved on, figuring nothing was going to happen. Until another 10 min passes by and we got a text message from her!!! Hahaha oh man, that was probably one of the happiest moments of my mission!!! We very rarely find people that are so willing to contact us. So we called her the next morning to give her sometime and found out that we wouldn't be able to meet for a week or so. So, we went about our way, and today we got another text message from her, setting up an appointment with us!!! And she said that her sister wants to come!!!! This may seem small, but this does NOT happen here in Italy. At least not often. And when it does, it means good things. It means that they are open to the Spirit, and wanting a change in their life. And I am SUPER excited for studies tomorrow morning when I get to figure out how we can help her!!!

ALSO Tina gave 7 more African boys as referrals, who all said that they want to come to church with Tina! So add those 7 to Salim and Cucci, and to Mercy (another friend of Tina's that she referred us to) and to Patricia (Mercy's friend that we met while teaching Mercy) and that's 11 investigators Tina has given us. We are going to make this little branch of Siena an African branch!!!! hahaha but really, we are super excited!!!

I was "rebuked" by the Spirit pretty badly today. We were on our way to Pisa this morning, and despite being in recreational clothing, we managed to get into a pretty good religious discussion with a man on the train sitting next to us. Got to what makes our church different, and I talked to him about prophets and then the Book of Mormon. I then found out that none of us (there were 4 missionaries on the train) had a copy. So, when he asked where he could get a copy I had to refer him to our information, and gave him the number of the missionaries in his area. Then as if that wasn't enough he added jokingly that it's a shame that we don't have one right now, because he would have loved to read it on the train. I am never going ANYWHERE again without a copy of the Book of Mormon. EVER. I'm sure he will still call those missionaries and get a copy, because he sounded really excited about it, but it would have been so much better (for him, and even just for us to experience) if we had had a copy with us. Never again.

So, my invite for you all is to never leave home without a copy of the Book of Mormon. It doesn't take up much room, and if it does, all the better, because it will remind you that it's still there. If you carry a Book of Mormon with you, the Lord WILL use you as his instrument to bring the gospel to another. Can't say it will happen right away, but if you don't have one on you, you could regret it. Mannnn the Book of Mormon is so awesome anyways, just bring it everywhere so you can read it in your spare time! Read it while you're waiting in line at the bank, while you're waiting for classes to start, there is so much free time during the day, and the Book of Mormon is a GREAT way to fill that time.

I love you all, and I pray for you all each night! take care, vi voglio un saccone di bene!!!

-Anziano Bushman

The castle at monteriggioni. these things are everywhere in Tuscany!!!

on the way to said castle

Enrique, our super awesome less active that was taking us to a store and to see this castle

So monday night we were in Prato helping out the other missionaries there, but then once we got there we found out that we wouldn't be doing an exchange until the next morning because they had a dinner appointment. SO me and anz lehnardt were in a city that we knew very little of, and just left to do our own thing. Then, after meeting some cool people, 9 pm came and it was time to come back home. So, we got to their apartment and they weren't there, so we couldn't get in. Called, no answer. So, we went to a nearby store, and grabbed some DELICIOOUS yogurt and some water, cause we were starving. Then these pictures took place when we realized we didn't have a spoon to eat the yogurt with, and we're just using the tinfoil lids. We felt very much like hobos lol. Anz Lehnardt above and me below.