Anziano Jonathan Bushman: 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