The Chubby Bunny game! May 23, 2012

Well, we found a new apartment! WHOOT! Back to real work now!!! In a month or so I'll send you guys pictures and what not, but the new apartment is SO MUCH better! So, yeah.

This week is starting to pick up. Transfers are next week, so there's a big push for everyone to make sure the work is going good in the case of getting a new companion, so that way the new missionary can come into the area and have immediate hope and desire to work and do his best and what not, so yeah! We're giving it our all!

Unfortunately, Rubio has kind of fallen off the face of the planet, but we'll keep working with Domingo to try and bring him to church. BUT we have had several other success this week:

Monday night we had a pretty awesome Family Home Evening with the Carbone family (the family in the attached picture) about the importance of honesty. So we played the game chubby bunny (with the marshmallows, and fitting as many as you can in your mouth while still being able to say chubby bunny) and related it to how easy it is to lie at first, but then eventually it gets to complicated and you can't talk anymore, or you just burst (it was super funny, and we even got more or less of it on video!!) So that was super awesome.

Then earlier today we had a super awesome lesson with Nury (domingo's friend with the family) And she is super awesome!!! We watched the 20min Restoration DVD, and she ate it up! She even took notes!!!! And then at the end she was able to relate completely with Joseph Smith because she has been doing the exact same kind of search, and so she immediately accepted the invite to baptism! We're super stoked! She also wants the rest of her family to hear about this, so they're going to watch the film again tonight when everyone is home, and then we're going to meet with them all on Friday! WHOOT!!!!

Oltre a cio, there's not much else. Me and my comp are getting a long really well, so it's kind of sad realizing that he'll probably be transferred next week (he's been in Pavia for 6 months now).

Well, I love you all! Take care!!!

Anziano Bushman

The Carbone Family
Does anyone else notice the irony of this picture? Jon is the tallest one there!

Do Something Nice! May 16, 2012

Well, most of this last week unfortunately has been dedicated to finding a new appartment, but we have seen a lot of success in that! And we should be completely finished and decided on an apartment by friday!!! Whoot!

BUT a quick little miracle find for you- Domingo, our superstar new convert brought a friend to english class. This friend turned out to be awesome!!! And if she hadn't been sick today and in the hospital we would have had a lesson with her today....  But anyways, we gave her a quick tour of the church, and she was super excited about the room for the little kids! (I forget what we call it in english.... ) And so she's going to bring her husband and her 4 kids to church on Sunday!!! Whoot!!

Well, I just want to let you all know that I love you, and pray for each one of you every night. This week's email is a little short, but we have to get going. Next week!

Vi voglio bene! Do something nice for someone this week. It makes a difference. hahah okay, well there's my random advice for the week. Take care!!

Anziano Bushman

I will give you the grand tour... bedroom,

makeshift closets,

bathroom area,

and kitchen (in the background) with our delicious softer-than-butter chicken!!!

We all live in a yellow submarine!!!!!!

All Part of God's Plan! May 9, 2012

Alright, just a couple of things I want to share with you all real quick.

First off about a SUPER awesome referral given to us by one of our stud new converts, Domingo. His name is Rubio. Domingo first brought him to church and we met him there, but we ran into some difficulties getting ahold of him after that. So two weeks later Domingo brought him to church again, and he still seemed super awesome, and super interested in learning about the gospel, but as soon as we tried to call him, we ran into the same difficulties. So, we decided that we would pass by his house before going to see Domingo, but yet again, he wasn't there.  To make an unnecessarily long story short, Domingo told us that he saw Rubio's car outside of his house, and so after our lesson with Domingo we checked Rubios again and he was there! We had a super short lesson with him because we had a train to catch, but he accepted baptism almost before we could even invite him to baptism! He said that he wants to change his life and leave his life of sin behind!!! He also asked if his son (11yrs old) was old enough to be baptized! --For those of you not familiar with missionary work, this is classified as GOLDEN. And it is very desirable in our field of work. The second lesson with him was almost just as good. We taught the restoration, only to find out that he had already gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon, because when he was reading it the other day, the Spirit testified to him the truth of it. And he recognized it to be of God. AWESOME!!!!! So, yeah, he's a super star. But he's not married to the woman he's lived with for the last 12yrs, so we've got that little speed bump first =) Whoot!

Second awesomeness of the week: super awesomeness, in fact. Owed 100% to planning. We were out working in a new area we had planned, and although the less active member we had planned to pass by wasn't there, it was alright. It was just all part of God's plan to put us in the right part of the area. So then we go to a building that we're feeling pretty good about, but once we got in, there was a VERY upset man who threatened us with calling the cops and even threatened to come down himself and make us leave. So we learned that that wasn't the building God had planned for us. It was actually the one next door. Almost right away a South American man opens the door, smiles, and asks us if we want to come in! We quickly obliged and then went on to teach his family of 5. They're super awesome, and we're going to be seeing them again on saturday!! But the coolest part was when we looked back on who we had planned on finding. --side note: we've been encouraged to try and visualize the people that we're going to find that day, I mean literally visualize, as in hair color, gender,anything that comes to mind. -- So we planned on finding a pretty specific family, we decided that the husband would either be bald or have a buzzed head, and that the wife would have dark, pinned up hair, and that they would have a baby. And that's what we found! Plus they have  other kids, but that part we didn't specify, so it still counts as 100% awesomeness. And now we're going to teach them the gospel =)

Weeellll, that's all for now folks. Tune in next time!

vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

Finding people & Fortifying Cities! May 2, 2012

Well, this week has been once again pretty crazy. We did get to play soccer though on Pday, so that was super exciting! and pretty tiring... hahah it took me a solid 3 days of stretching before my legs were no longer stiff hahah! WOW I'm out of shape! But some missionary coolness from the soccer: two of the kids that came weren't members, but they were also pretty young, and so I got talking to them during the game and whatnot and we became pretty good friends, and then 3 days later we ran into them on the bus! They said they wanted to come to english class, and so I got their phone number, and we're going to see on saturday if we can't teach their family the gospel after english class! So, yeah! Other than that, we're still just out looking trying to find people to teach. All of our current investigators don't have time to see us, and thus aren't making progress. Even Wendy... Wendy has school in the morning, then work, and then at night she has italian class and then homework. Soooo yeah. 

On the upside, we had a pretty good lesson with a family that is not doing so well together... Bishop wanted us to encourage the members here to hold family home evening, so we devised a lesson plan we wanted to share with all the members. Using the story of Alma 48-50 (about Captain Moroni fortifying the cities) we then talk about fortifying the families, and have them write down all kinds of things they can do to fortify their family. Then taking those pieces of paper we construct a pretty awesome castle type thing and commit them to do what they've said. And with this family especially, it went really well. They invited us to their next family home evening, so we'll even have an opportunity for a follow up. 

Another key lesson we had this week was with Katherine. Katherine (15) has an older borther (Melvin 19) and younger brother (Kelvin 13) who are both members. My companion has been talking about her for 2 months now, and how golden she is, but I have yet been able to meet with her, until yesterday. Yesterday it took a while to get started with the lesson. She doesn't see how God could exist and let so much suffering exist in the world. We finally got through to her, but for one reason or another she just wasn't even willing to "experiment upon our words". At that point there wasn't much else to say. She then asked us why we were so sad (we had previously mentioned that there's always a reason to be happy) and so we explained to her. We explained that it's a pretty sad thing when someone isn't willing to try (at absolutely no cost) something that can grant them the greatest gift of eternity. And that really hit her. We're not going to plan another lesson for her, but we're hoping we'll see her every once and a while because of Melvin and Kelvin. 

Yuri and Lizbeth couldn't be more solid. They're awesome!!!! We're going to talk in ward council tonight about getting them home teachers and the whole shpeel, and once that's in place, they couldn't be better! 

Well, I do believe I have to go. I wish you all the best of luck in these last couple days of school, and would challenge you not to forget God. He's always there for us, especially in these stressful times. So don't forget to seek first the kingdom of God (cioè read the book of mormon each day) and all the rest shall be added unto you.

vi voglio un sacco di bene!!!

Anziano Bushman

Our pet spider just outside the bathroom window. It's actually rather fascinating watching him reconstruct his web and whatnot. We've had him for nearly 2 months now! =)

 A pretty car I wanted. I thought Zac might appreciate this one.