Space Transfer! June 27, 2012

Well, for those of you who don't remember from last august/september time, a space transfer is when there is a tragedy in the mission, and President has to change a couple of companionships in the middle of a transfer to keep everything still alive. We had a missionary that I knew (more or less) go home. So, I got transferred to Modena. Modena is in the same region as ravenna was (emilia romagna) and I really do like the area. There were 4 missionaries here in Modena, but President transferred 3 of them out, closed a companionship, and sent me here with Anz Strobelt who got to Modena 4 weeks ago. And then Anz Strobelt is finishing the mission in 2 weeks. So, if you've been following, this means that neither of us know anything about the area, investigators, or members. And I've got 2 weeks to figure it all out so I can explain it to the next missionary. Hahah it should be exciting!

We got the call on Sunday night around 9:15, right at the end of the work day, and then monday we were in Milano all day for a zone conference. I got here in Modena Tuesday around 4pm. It's a nice city. I was super sad to not be able to say bye to all the members in Pavia, they're super awesome!!!

Also, in Pavia we had a record number of people in church! And, to make it even more of a miracle, was our ward in Pavia just barely changed Sacrament meeting to the first hour instead of how they had it, as the third. But, Nury and her 4 kids were there in church for sacrament meeting, as were 3 romanians that we met in a park! And then, Davide (Nury's husband) came for the last 2hrs of church!!! It was a huge miracle!!!!!

I've also been seeing some awesome success in english class. There's a student in Pavia that used to come to english class a long time ago, and even took the missionary discussions for a while, but after the church moved she stopped coming. But recently Paola has been coming and really enjoying it. Well, this last friday at the end of the class we invited her to say the closing prayer. She was a bit taken off guard, and said that she had never prayed before, and not wanting to constrain her I told her that I would pray if she didn't feel comfortable, but she quickly responded saying that she wanted to say it, and just asked for a refresher of how to pray, and then after she finished the closing prayer you just knew that it had touched her. The spirit was so strong, you could almost touch it!!! It strikes me as odd that the missionaries had never asked her to pray before, because she was very willing to pray, and it was exactly what she needed! And then here in Modena I had another nearly duplicate experience! English class is turning in to a pretty awesome finding activity!

Well, that's all I've got for you. Just keep in mind to always be looking for missionary opportunities! They're there, I promise!

-Anziano Bushman

Certosa di Pavia. It's a pretty sick monastery, and you have to be super quiet, and no pictures are allowed....

Me and Anz Jensen (my first comp & trainer in Italy) right before he went home!!

Bishop Poggiolini's family

MILANO ZONE!!!

Last night with Anz Eveson 

Start a Study Journal! June 20, 2012

Heyy, we finally moved in!!! Whoot! This place is soo much nicer too! I snapped a couple of photos, so you may be able to get a good idea of how awesome this place is.

Well, as far as the work goes, it’s going well. Two lesson in particular come to mind (even though we’ve had many awesome lessons this week). The first one I wanted to mention was with Marius (gelataio miracle find from a month ago). We finally managed to find a time and place that worked for both of us, and turns out he’s even more awesome than I remember! After we presented him the Book of Mormon and explained a bit, he told us he had a question… which normally isn’t the greatest thing to hear, because too often that statement is followed by some piece of anti-mormonism nonsense. He then asked us (also keep in mind he’s 20 yrs. old, loves soccer, and pretty normal guy) so he asks us “How can I avoid sin and temptation?” That was definitely NOT what I was expecting! But Marius is such a stud! And really wants to change his life, and he believes that we can help him. Golden!!!

The other lesson that stands out was yesterday with Davide Bedalucco. Ruben (our ward mission leader) was able to come with us, and even drive us there, saving us from a 40 minute bike ride in church clothes. But Ruben was super key to this lesson. He was just able to relate to Davide better than we (as foreigners) would ever be able to, and so things are finally starting to click for him! Nury, his wife, was working so we’re going to go again by them tomorrow to catch Nury up to speed. But the best part about all of this was the enthusiasm that Ruben had after the lesson! He was just super excited for Thursday, and ready to make plans and what not to help this family towards baptism! It was definitely something I hadn’t seen in Ruben yet, but I am super glad that he’s involved again in missionary work.

Well, that’s all I got. I love you all so much, and hope to see all of you at the airport in 6 months!

Oh, one little tidbit: one thing that’s really helped me a lot this week, is I started (finally) a study journal. Following the counsel of Elder Scott, I bought a notebook that I like and could even “treasure” and I’ve been keeping note of any questions I’ve had, or dilemmas I’ve been facing, and then praying about them and writing down what I receive as an answer in prayer. And then! (this part is key) I’ve been reviewing what I’ve written. And let me tell you, it is making a world of difference! Things I never imagined that I could do are now coming to me as natural. It’s amazing! If you don’t have a spiritual study journal, I suggest you start one! Well, again, vi voglio un sacco di bene! Ciao!!

Anz Bushman

On scambio with Anz Lehnardt, my ex comp/new district leader!!!

Pictures of my new place!

"Leading the Mission"! June 13, 2012

hey hey hey!

haha umm. Anyways. This week has been crazy. We've been trying this year to really focus on the apostolic promise of teaching 20 lessons continuously which will lead to double the baptisms, and this last week was the first week in our mission's history when an entire zone (9 or 10
companionships) all got at least 20 lessons. And it was our zone of Milano. It was pretty exciting! And now we're going for it again and for the rest of the transfer, "leading the mission" as President Wolfgramm said. Super cool side note about that, is the other district leader (we only have two districts right now in Milano) is my home boy Anz Scheurn, and one of our zone leaders is My MTC comp, Anz Webb! So, they've been super key to making that happen this last week.

Umm update on Nury and Davide really quick. They're still super awesome. Davide just has a hard time waking up to get to church. Saturday for work he works from Friday night at 11pm till sat at 1pm to make double the bread for sunday, but then with keeping track of the kids when he gets home, he's super tired on sunday. But we have a lesson with them tomorrow, and I got some inspiration from one of our members to try sacrificing something with Davide. Cioè, I'm going to give up taking naps if he'll wake up to come to church. This member said that it really helped him (his missionaries gave up fruit juices and soda until he could give up alcohol) so I'm hoping it'll work here as well.

We've been seeing a lot of miracles every day though, and it's super exciting. We set a baptismal date with a man named Maurizio that we just met on Monday! He's going to be baptized on the 7th of July, and he's a stud! He reads all the pamphlets we give him, and then when we go to teach him he just soaks it all in! And he's italian!!

We also have several others that we will be seeing this week again, like Marius from the gelateria, Lamin, Omar, and hopefully we'll run into our Dutch friend from S. America Carlos who is super solid! Only he didn't know his phone number, nor did he have his phone on him.... But! We know more or less where he lives, and he has our number. He
accepted baptism, and wants to learn more, we just need to pray.

Well, I may have to figure out a way to record this part of my emails before hand and email it or something, because this is not enough time. Mom, how would you feel about transcribing my handwriting? I feel like I've tried this before, but I don't remember how it went. We'll see.

I love you all! And I honestly do pray for each of you every night, by name. Take care, and remember what matters most!

Anziano Bushman

A Way of Life! June 6, 2012

Whew!! Life has been super crazy in these last couple days, but most of it has been for the better! My new companion, Anz Eveson, is a stud. He knows very well everything that preach my gospel, and the rule book says, and is thus helping me become a much more obedient missionary, and for that I am very grateful.

Update real quick on the Badalucco family (Nury and Davide): We had a lesson with them on saturday, but with the craziness of making them american hamburgers it was hard to make much progress. But we have a lesson planned with them tomorrow night in the which we want to help them choose a date for baptism!

Marius (Gelataio guy) is also a super stud! We have yet to teach him, but we have a lesson with him tonight.

Hmm.. There's actually not a lot to write about investigators this week... Although we have seen miracles every day. The most common miracle we saw was how much people are changing in response to being taught about the gospel, even if we are teaching them on the streets or in the parks. One lady in specific was with her husband and 5 month old baby, and didn't even want to listen to us, but her curious husband let us go ahead and talk. At the end though, we wanted to leave them with a prayer, which the husband didn't think was necessary. But, Giulia (the wife) by now was much more interested than her husband and insisted with her husband that we say a prayer before we leave.

People are accepting the gospel. Today. The time for harvesting (as the scriptures say) is come. And I am so grateful to be able to be a part of it here in Pavia!!!!

I love you all. And I wish that you all would keep in mind the importance of this gospel and how it is meant to be a way of life. If you want to read a chapter that demonstrates this, read 3 Nephi 12. It's life changing!!

Vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene! And hopefully next week I'll be able to organize my email time better to be able to write more about the week. Until then, take care!!

-Anziano Bushman

I'm Super Excited! May 30, 2012

Transfers!!! And life is crazy.

We have definitely had some pretty super awesome miracles in the past 7 days. First of all, I now officially know all the legal words and terminology for settling on a house contract. Now I'll just have to translate into english when I get home lol. But we will be moving in as soon as the kitchen gets finished, so in 2ish weeks. And we're super excited!!! My companion is leaving for Verona, and I am getting a pretty green missionary, Anz Eveson. So, yeah, I'm excited!!!

Update on Rubio: still impossible to get ahold of, but we were able to find him at home this week and so we stopped by and he's still reading the book of mormon, and still has a desire to learn more, he's just been super busy lately.

Update on Nury: Super awesome!!! We have seen them twice this week. The first time we met the rest of the family and watched the restoration with them (per request of Nury) and the second time they had brought two other friends and so we watched the restoration again (per request of Nury). Both lessons went great! And everyone (a total of 6 people plus 3 crazy little boys) wants to get baptized!! So now we just have to decide when! We're going over to Nury's again on saturday for a lesson and we're going to make them american hamburgers that they're super excited about haha. But I just want to say something real quick about Davide (Nury's husband). He is a stud!!! He's completely italian, but there's something about him that you don't see a lot in italians, especially non-member italians. Most of the time italians are upset, or grumpy, or at least seem that way, especially when it comes to llittle children running around and not listening. Well, Davide owns a bakery and works pretty crazy hours, BUT when he comes home and we come over to teach his family, he ALWAYS has a smile on his face, despite how crazy his kids are being, or how many of them he has to physically tie down so that he can listen to what we're saying. He's just got an amazing amount of patience!! It's awesome!!!

Well I'm gonna close with a pretty cool miracle from last week. So, we were just about to head home when my comp got the urge to eat some gelato. Seeing as we hadn't eaten any that week I consented, and we went to a gelateria that we've been meaning to pass by. As we're eating the gelato, the gelataio (gelato guy) asks us what our tags mean. We then explained to him that we're missionaries, and from that point forward he got really excited, and amidst the mad rush of people wanting gelato, gave us his number and we set up a return appt! We'll be seeing him on saturday! And just like many things lately, I'm super excited!!!

Well, that's all for this week! I love you all! Take care!

Anziano Bushman