Promised Miracles!!! Sept 14, 2011

Oh man, life has just been FULL of miracles!!!!! So, to give a little background information, Elder L. Tom Perry issued a challenge to the missionaries, that if we were to teach 20 lessons each week, our baptisms will double. So, it's kinda been a big deal around here to get to those 20 lessons each week, but not only that, to also make sure they are quality lessons, and powerful as well. Well, the first time I got to 20 lessons in one week was just last week (29-8-11 to 4-9-11) and then we got it again this week! And let me tell you, we have been seeing miracles!!! First and foremost, me and my comp are happier than we've ever been on our missions! Second, we teach a LOT more powerfully together!!! And then another thing, as of late, people have been calling us, and coming up to us to ask about the gospel! That never happens!

But mainly, I want to tell you about this man that we found as we were searching to talk to everyone and teach everyone. His name is Alessandro. We met him last thursday sitting on a bench at about 8pm. He'll tell you now about how much of a miracle it was that we met, and how he was so tired and about to go to bed, but decided to go out and get some fresh air for a second when we came up and started talking to him. But anyways, when we first met him, it was kind of rough. He is a very intelligent man, and didn't think we had anything new for him. He's very well versed with the bible, as well as with the Koran and other religious writings. In fact, he even has been working for the catholic church for several decades now organizing missionaries to go to different parts of the world, so religion pretty much consumes his life. And he saw no reason to talk to us. But, we insisted that we had something new for him, so he let us sit down next to him and talk. When we started telling him about the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, it made a lot of sense to him. He told us how there are alot of things in the Catholic church that he doesn't believe. So, after a great lesson with Alessandro, we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, and he was very excited to read it, and before we could say anything he promised us that he would read it, and then asked if we could come back and talk with him about what he's read and whatnot! So, he gave us his number and asked for ours, and we parted!

Next day. We had another appointment with him. So, when we met, we first asked him about the Bok of Mormon, and what he thought about the book of Mormon. We also asked him if he read the chapter we left him to read. When we asked him that, he just laughed at us, and then just like any other fat+rich+intelligent man in the movies, laughed at our naivety as he told us that he didn't just read one chapter, but he read 20 chapters! And then he started telling us about all the stuff he liked about those chapters, about how applicable it all is, and how beautifully written it is! Then he talked for another 20 min about life in general, and started applying all the doctrines and principle in those first 20 chapters to his life, and, yeah! When he told us about how it happened that he read so much in only a day, he told us that his plans were originally to just read the chapter that we gave him and then go to bed. But, as he went to go to bed, he couldn't fall asleep! He said he just felt a hunger to read more! So, he read a couple more chapters, then managed to put the book down and tried to go to sleep, but couldn't! And this happened several times until he had read all the way through 1 Nephi 22. He's a monster! We really wanted to invite him to baptism, and this amazing experience he had with the Book of Mormon gave us even more encouragement, but still I was fairly nervous because he had told us before that he was already baptized, and not as a baby, but when he was grown and was able to make the decision for himself. So, I went about  it rather timidly, but then when I got to the part where I asked him if he would be baptized in this church, he responded very promptly with a yes! Whoot!!!

So, yeah! Miracle!

Things are going great here! The baptism (with Tine) was awesome! Me and my companion were the witnesses, and it was great! Me and my companion are getting along really well! It's just awesome here! Thank you so much everyone for your prayers and all you support!

Vi voglio bene tutti!

-Anziano Bushman

Siena is BEAUTIFUL with room to grow!!! Sept 7, 2011

Well, things have been pretty awesome here in Siena!!! We've just been talking to everyone, and teaching everyone! I'm not sure what it is about the work here, if it's the companionship I'm in, or if it's just this city, but it's really not that hard to find someone that's willing to talk to us out here! We have taught a lot of people out here in the parks, and then when we go to look for people in the homes, we almost always find someone that lets us in, and the last couple times we haven't had to do much looking before we found them! It's way awesome!

So, yeah. We still don't have too many investigators, so now we need to get better at moving from teaching to setting up appointments. But, the one investigator we have right now is getting baptized on Sunday! Her name is Tine, and she is super brava! She's completely changing her life for the gospel, and it's awesome! AND she's wanting us to teach her friends!

The branch is super tiny! Maybe 9 active members that show up each sunday, and the only priesthood holders are the branch presidency, but that just means we have a lot of good work to do. One of the big problems with the branch here, is they all live VERY far away. Most of them have to drive 100-200km to get to church every sunday, it's crazy! Our apartment is awesome! It's smaller, but way nice! There's all kinds of nice cooking equipment, and we even have a little backyard!!! We mainly walk everywhere, unless we're going out of Siena to another city to visit a member or less active or something. There are way too many hills and what not to have bikes.

I'm sorry the emails have been kind of short lately... My mind just keeps going blank! Being Senior comp is fun. It's very different in several ways... Because in the past I've had comps that have just taken the lead, and then I've had comps that have tried to take the lead, but shouldn't have (because they didn't know what they were doing), and I've had comps that have just worked as a team, but this, this is different. With both of us being fairly young in the mission I can't very well take the lead, but at the same time, in this situation someone has to. A lot needs to change in the work here, and I'm not blaming it on my companion or anything, but Siena has seen at least 6 different missionaries (me being the seventh) since I got here in Italy, and some of them did not do too much.... But me and my comp are determined to get Siena on track again! AND Siena is gorgeous! Definitely the most beautiful city in the mission! I'll keep sending pictures.

Thank you so much for writing me, I really love hearing from you all each week! I pray for you all each night! Take care and remember to always scegliere il giusto!

Anziano Bushman

(Pictured above and below) Me and Anz Scheurn finally chilling on P-day! (In firenze by the way) Oh, AND there's a Hard Rock Cafe there! So we all went and ate!  Then we went and checked out some of the cool sites in Firenze, it was awesome!

Me and Anz Scheurn got delicious Ice cream - Ben & Jerry's - because my birthday was just a while ago, and his is coming up!

This statue is everywhere in Siena! I guess it's there emblem or something, but it's representative of the Romulus and Remulus story, so I thought it was pretty cool.

Expect the Unexpected! Aug 31, 2011

Well, this week has been a little crazy. The journal entires show most of it, so this email that I'm writing now will just be an add-on to after the entries I sent.

Journal Entries

26-8-11

Well, today while we were finishing up weekly planning, Pres. Wolfgramm called us. He told us that we were getting space transferred. COMPLETELY unexpected! I had just started to get along with Anz Mauldwin, AND we had just found an AMAZING couple (Cesere and Silvana) who we met just 6 days ago and had already came to church, and seen us twice (and a third visit tonight). They're going to be baptized. But yeah, apparently Anz Blaga (from Romania) isn't getting along too well with his companion, so Anz Blaga and I are switching spots. I'm to become senior companion(I've been in Italy twice as long as my new companion) and I'm going to Siena. Wow! I'm kind of excited to get a new companion, but not at all excited to leave Ravenna... AND I haven't even seen the mosaics yet!

27-8-11

Well, last night we had an awesome lesson with Cesere and Silvana! Cesere read all the way to 2 Nefi 9 (90 pages) and had prepared literally pages full of questions for us! But, the part that was even more awesome, is that he realized that all the questions he wrote down didn't really matter, and so he just asked us about the resurrection. It was way cool seeing him - someone who is so focused on facts and what not - start to feel purpose in the gospel. Silvana apologized to us for not having read as much - she only read ALL of 1 Nefi (60 pages) lol. But we had a great lesson aout the plan of salvation. She kind of freaked out about the fact that God has a body of flesh and bone, and that we have the possibility to become like our Father, but as we went on and explained our message, it really made sense to her, it was awesome!

I called Pres. Gresta to tell him I was being transferred, and he was not happy... He tried to pass by last night, but was visiting a family till late.

This morning Fratello Bissi took us to see the best mosaics in Ravenna, and they were awesome! And ancient! Like 400-500 A.D. I said goodbye to my beautiful new bike...sad day...

I met Anz. Lehnardt (my new companion), and he's such a stud! And it was funny, we've had a lot of similar experiences! Especially with our MTC companions, he had the exact same "situation" as me. But yeah, this is going to be a good transfer!

Siena is BEAUTIFUL!!!! Walking around the city I keep trying to think of some kind of movie, or some kind of photo that looks like the scenery around me, but they don't exist! The travelling we do is all by foot, so no biikes. But man, I just can't describe to you how awesome everything is here! One of the really cool things here is their unity. They have a bunch of contrade (17 neighborhoods) here, and they are all very proud of the contrada they are in, and have flags, costumes, and all kinds of stuff! This week even, one of the nearby contrade is throwing a week long party, where every night they have this huge dinner, and a music show, or some kind of performance, just in the middle of the street! It's crazy! One of the big things with the contrade, is they do this race every year. They call it palio, and it's a HUGE horse race. They take the biggest piazzo (town square type thing, basically a big paved clearing) and lay dirt all around the edges, and each contrada races a horse, and whoever wins has bragging rights for the year or something like that. I've only been here like 4 days, so I'm still learning!!!

  Also! They have a dialect! Kind of. They don't pronounce the hard <<c>>s. So instead of saying chiesa catolica, they say hiesa hatolihah. It's crazy! And coca cola becomes <<hoha hola>> hahahahah

  But everything here is awesome! Our apartment here is way awesome, we have a backyard!!!! And my comp, Anz Lehnardt, is way awesome!!! And right now we're even about to go off to Firenze (Florence) with Anz Scheurn and some of the other anziani in our zone!!!

  Well, just to wrap it up real quick, I wanted to share a quick little spiritual experience that I thought was way awesome. We have an investigator here named Tina. My first impression of her (in church) wasn't the greatest. She seemed very uninterested, and just bored. Yet she was the one of our investigators that has a baptismal date. For next week! So, we had a lesson with her later on sunday, and found out that she didn't quite understand what the law of chastity was. She has a boyfriend, and here in italy, it's very normal for a boyfriend and girlfriend to be having relationships that are... a lot closer to those of a married couple. So when we explained to her that God does not want these relationships outside of marriage, she was upset. She thought that we were interpreting the bible wrong at first, then she moved to asking us if she could just get baptized in a different church and be fine, and she even went as far as to start saying that she didn't like our <<preachers>> in church hahah and said that they are not as exciting as her old one. But, we just calmy bore our testimony and asked her to pray about it, and that God would tell her what she needed to do. After a couple moments of silence, she explained to us her worries that her boyfriend would break up with her if she told him about the law of chastity, and she really really likes this guy. We again just encouraged her to pray about it, and ensured her that God would help her carry out whatever he commands her to do. Then, to my surprise, she asked us if we could talk to her boyfriend. If we could explain the law of chastity to him. She had already decided to keep it! She's willing to risk losing her boyfriend, she's willing to change her entire life for this gospel. And that's what this is all about. This gospel really is a gospel of change. And the story doesn't end there either! Yesterday she told us that she talked to her boyfriend (instead of wating or us to do it) and he was completely fine with it!!! He understood completely! Score! Miracle!!! I know that this church is true. I know that the Lord hears us when we pray, and if we pray with real intent, cioè the willingness to act on whatever it is God tell's us, we will be given the strength to do it.

You guys are awesome, I miss you all so much! Stay strong, and never stop praying!

-your favorite italian missionary,

Anziano Bushman

Some mosaic pictures from one of the churches in Ravenna
(building and mosaics built 1500 years ago!)

These are only a tiny bit of the views we have here in Siena.

My new companion, Anz Lehnardt

Some more of the cityscape, and it's surroundings.

There are a lot of streets with decorations like this. Those flags are flags for the contrada giraffa, and they even paint the lamppost with their colors! It's crazy!!!

Priesthood Power! Aug 24, 2011

           Well, today was big! First of all, Cesere and Silvana came to church today? Cesere is a man that we met last night (during red-zone) when we were leaving his palaza. We talked for maybe 2 minutes, and then his wife came and they left to go walk their dog. So, we left them with a pass-along card, and it just so happens that Anz Mauldwin pulled out that very same card that NO missionaries like because the picture is just a big meadow. I even remember thinking "oh great, why does he have THAT card? I would never bring that card with me!" But, sure enough, when Mario asked in Gospel Principles why they decided to come, Silvana said it was that card! Because it talked about a plan that brings happiness. Wow! Biglietti NEVER work for ANYTHING. Except this one. So we had a great lesson and scheduled to meet with them tomorrow. Also Decio (crazy/drunk/less-active) came to church! Then, after church, I participated in giving Luca the Aaronic priesthood! He's such a stud! So then we went and had lunch with Mario and Marianna.

            Then we had a problem. My bike had a decent hold. So we called Luca, and he just laughed and told us to come over. So we went over there and he fixed my tire for me. Man, he's such a stud. Also he was making a kite with Marco when we got there, just doing what he can to bond. Stud!

            So then we went on our way, nothing special happened in red-zone casa, but when we were heading back to our bikes, over by Columbus', we heard some screeching and turned around in time to see 2 cars crashing into each other (not head-on) and then coming to a stop after running into a couple of signs & poles. We were on the other side of the street and we just kinda sat there, not sure what to do, as we saw all these people start to swarm towards the accident, and heads were popping out of all the building windows. We probably stayed there, planted, for about 5 minutes before moving to get a better view. I'm not gonna lie, I really wanted to be the hero in that moment. I wanted to know exactly what to do, run over there, do it, and convert 50 people to the gospel. First thought! When we moved to get a better view, we saw a woman on the floor in severe shock. And at that moment I had a kind of fear strike me. I knew I shouldn't leave (Jesus Christ wouldn't leave when there was someone to help), but all the same, I didn't know what to do. So another 5-10 minutes passed. I felt a grand responsibility to do something, anything, knowing that the keys of salvation of all these people in the province of Ravenna are in our hands, I just didn't know what to do. Then I noticed someone, Columbus, the 2nd counselor in our branch presidency was right there next to the young lady, helping her remain calm, and in somma talking charge of the situation because the ambulance had still not arrived. And at that moment I felt, probably more than I ever have before in my life that I was in the right place and at the right time! We were both ready and prepared and worthy to give a priesthood blessing, and I knew in that moment that the Lord knew he could count on my for whatever he needed done! We went over there and asked Columbus if there was anything he wanted us to do and he was very lad to see us. We ended up not giving a blessing, but I know that if God wanted us to, it would have happened. The ambulance then came and took the girl away, but I was left deeply impressed. As priesthood holders, we really hold the power of God in our hands, so long as we remain worthy of it. And it is an awesome power! Yeah, basta!

          So just a little update on the Sunday journal entry that I sent you (above section), Cesere and Silvana met us Monday night AND Tuesday night in the church, and they are AWESOME!!! Cesere writes for a newspaper, and Silvana is a nurse, and they have so many questions, it's awesome! When we asked them why they are meeting with us, Silvana's response is because she wants to draw nearer to God, and build her relationship with him. Perfect!!! For now, it seems to me like Cesere might be a little more interested in the history of the American Indians, but as soon as he reads their history I know he's going to find a lot more than he expected. They are awesome. We have another lesson with them Friday, again with our Ward mission leader, so we're way stoked!

I love you all! Thanks for everything you do!

Anziano Bushman

 It was hilarious because this guy that sold me the bike then stuck these stickers on that have his last name on them lol. So now I'm also advertising for him. 

I didn't wanna write it all again, so I just took a picture of my journal entry...
Thanks Mom for transcribing it for me;)

A picture is worth a 1,000 words! Aug 17, 2011

Just wanted to share something fun that I got to do on monday (my birthday)-

Well first we had an unexpected district meeting, so we had to travel to Bologna (about 90 min by train, and 20 min on bus to get to the church) so we got back in Ravenna around 3:30. Luca called and asked us if we wanted to do anything for Ferragosto (national holiday). So we accepted, and ended up having a nice little Family Home Evening with Luca and his son, Marco. We had some dinner, and then we told them about the importance of families, and then why we hold FHE, and what exactly it is. We then ended with an activity and played some briscola (an italian card game, way fun! and if you want I can send you guys a deck so you can play (italians use different playing cards)). And then after that Marco said the closing prayer for us! And Marco has been one of the most resistant against anything that has to do with our church, so we were way excited that he prayed for us, and we're hoping to see some good success with bringing him and his sister to the gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Well, that's all I've got time for, sorry. 

I love you all! And thank you so much for the letters and package! 

-Anziano Bushman 

Tallest to shortest, Joyce, Queen, and Freedom. Columbus' kids.

We found out that we had the same pants, lol!

Luca, his not so happy mom, and Ana.

Our baptismal font, lol!

Us and luca

Oh man, I sure hope sam's club sells this.... 

Transfers & Africans! Aug 10, 2011

Thanks for all your emails! And I got your letters on monday through the mail (don't worry, I haven't opened them yet). This letter is going to have to be relatively short this week though, Anziano Bona is getting transferred to La Spezia, and we have to catch a train here in a couple minutes to head to Bologna so we can catch a train in the morning that will take us to milano centrale by 10am. AND, my computer keeps turning off.

So, in short, this week went by great! Luca was baptized saturday night by Anziano Bona, and we had a ton of members show up to the baptism, despite the fact that there weren't even very many in town. It was awesome. Luca's mom and dad, and daughter came to see him get baptized, and the mom was just freaking out the whole time (she's catholic, and is very much against him getting baptized "again"). His son didn't come, but he came to sacrament meeting the next day with his sister when Luca received the Holy Ghost (i confirmed him). So that was way awesome. And then, Luca even bore his testimony in church! He started off by saying how scared he was to be up there, but then he also told us all how peaceful he felt during his baptism right when he went under water and was completely immersed, he said he just felt a huge peaceful feeling, it was awesome.

I have not exactly gotten a pause yet though. Everything's been way hard because my bike tire got stolen last week, so we've been walking everywhere because we don't have time to take it to go get fixed, but that in turn means that we're going to spend a lot more time on foot. So we really need to just schedule a time some day to take it in. So saturday before the baptism I ran and Anziano Bona biked to the grocery store so we could get some vanilla, and then I made easy candy and banana bread for the baptism. It was a little intense making it all, because I only had about an hour before we needed to set off to the church and start filling the font, but I got it done, and everyone loved it and a handful of people made me give them the recipes in church the next day.

As far as Carlotta goes, we tried calling her again a couple days ago, and this time someone answered (I'm not so sure if it was her or not, I've only heard her voice like twice) but when we called, the person that answered asked who we were, and then said that they couldn't hear us, and then hung up. So we tried again, and it was a different voice, but piu o meno the same thing happened. SO, I don't even know. I don't want to give up on her, because she knows that this church is true, but I don't know what to do either.  So, yeah.

Unfortunately, I dont have time to upload pictutres today, but I've got a ton of pictures that I will be sending soon!

One thing that I just realized that I don't think I've told you guys about, is africans. Africans are legit. Most of the time at least. Most of the africans here are from either Nigeria or Ghana. And when you meet an African that uses his head, it's way legit. Columbus, our 2nd counselor in the branch presidency here is super legit. He's from Nigerie, and is a spiritual powerhouse! We went over to his house monday night for Anziano Bona to say goodbye to the family and what not, and Columbus just gave him the pep talk of his life! It was awesome! They speak english as their second language in africa, so they are all better at english than italian, but just the way they talk is awesome. It's almost like they just learned the most epic words, and then they use those all the time. A couple examples: Columbus is the nicest guy in the world, and would never hurt anyone, but he's got a little son that about 3 yrs old that is just a MONSTER, and we could be in the middle of a lesson with them and Columbus will all of the sudden turn to his son (freedom) and yell at him saying "Freedom, I will beat you! Stop that right now or I will beat you!" hahahah Idk, it may be one of those things where you just have to be there, but it's hilarious. And, I'm about to throw this computer in a lake, because it keeps turning off. So I better stop right now while I still have a tad of patience.

I love you all! Thank you so much for the letters and emails! I love hearing from all of you!

Take care, and sempre ricordatevi scegliere il giusto!

mi macate, e vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

Busy, Busy, Busy! August 3, 2011

La mia famiglia e gli amici,

Oh man, this week had been intense. Right after last wednesday we had a scambio with the traveling assisstants (two missionaries assigned by Pres Wolfgramm to just go around and do scambi with nearly all the missionaries in our misison). I was with Anz Duersch, who actually used to be the Bologna Zone Leader last transfer, so everyone in our zone knows him pretty well. Our scambio was way awesome. He's a way good missionary! We talked to a bunch of people, and really helped out a lot of people.

One of the things we had planned was to see some less active members. So we found the addresses of about 5 less active members that lived over by where we were planning on working for the day, and planned to just pass by them to break up knocking on doors and what not. When it got to be about 7pm, we realized that we did not write down the address of the less active member that we planned on for that time of the day, and we were on foot, at least 45 min from home. After some difficulty, we got the address from our first counselor in the branch here, and went over to see this less active member. When we got there, we rang the doorbell-thing at the entrance of the building, and said we were the missionaries, and he immediately opened the doors and told us what floor he was on. So, not quite used to such a welcoming environment from people we don't know, we went inside and found out which room was his. When we got there we quickly learned that he was a relatively troubled man. He told us that he was in need several years ago (financial need) and so he asked the church (more specifically the members in our branch) for help. They told him that there was nothing that they could do, and then because he couldn't provide for his family, his wife left him, and they all fell away from the church. So we talked a little bit about 2 Nephi 4, and about how much God has done for him, and continues to do for him. But, he wasn't entirely paying attention to anything we were saying. He said that his girlfriend from peru is coming in september, and they're going to get married, and since she's a member of the church, he want to get married in an LDS church [weddings are a little different in Italy, temple marriages aren't recognized under the law yet, so members have to get married in a church or somewhere first, and then in the temple in Switzerland] so for this reason he wants to start coming to church again. He didn't say anything about him knowing it was the true church or anything, so we're going to be meeting with him at least once a week. 

But yeah, my reason for recounting this experience, is just because we planned literally about 30 different places to go/people to see/things to do that day. And we didn't even get to 5 of them. But, one of them was to visit the less active member, and that one went through. There were plenty other less active members that we could have planned to go see, but I can't say that any of the others would be this willing to listen to us, or would have even been at home. Idk, it was just a nice little reminder that God is in control here. That God was able to guide us in our planning the night before, so that we could start to help this man. Idk, it was cool. 

Let's see... anything else.... Sunday, we went to go see a member family that Anz Bona and his last companion had been trying to see for months (the trick was asking the wife, not the husband) so that was fun. Oh, and on the way there, Anz Bona bifffed it bad. [he crashed] I don't know exactly what happened, but some old lady was riding her bike towards us, and for some reason he swerved, and since his bike already sucks, that swerve was just enough to jerk the tire sideways and have him go head over the handlebars. I had to slam on the brakes to prevent running over him right after that, but yeah, it was pretty bad. Messed up his shin, hand, and ankle a little bit, and even got a nice scratch on his head. But we were super close to this member family, so they helped him wash up and what not, and he's feeling a lot better now. 

Monaday and tuesday I was on a scambio with Anz Duque, one of our zone leaders who's actually from the phillipines and he's way awesome! He's an amazing cook (already graduated from culinary school in rome) and is a recent convert of 3 yrs. So we had a way good time. One of the first things we did after lunch, was we decided to walk around and look for people in the park, and the very first people we went to ended up being pretty cool. They were two ladies from cameroon, that spoke french, and we immediately got their attention by the fact that Anz Duque was catholic 3 yrs ago, and so we talked about the difference of our church from the catholic church, and talked about prophets and the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was way good, and they were way excited when we gave them each a copy of the book of mormon. So, yeah. It was a pretty good week. Well, not much else to say. The other anziani here are wanting to go eat, so I'm gonna finish the email there. 

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!

anziano bushman

Our last church activity - that man on my left is Luca, and his son Marco is right in front of me, and in front of him Luca's daughter Ana

 A cool-ish statue in San Marino.

P-Day in San Marino.