Slow & Steady wins the race! Mar 14 2012

Well, things are going pretty great here in Pavia! I got to have a missionary exchange with Anziano Jenson (my trainer, the frist companion I had in Italy) and I learned soooo much!!!! It was crazy! And it was good being back with him after an entire year!

As for progressing investigators, we're working on helping a lot of different people progress, but it's kind of a problem, because they can't ever commit to see us, nor do they have time to come to church on sunday.... BUT we contacted a referral from one of our members, and she seems pretty solid! She's from Peru and has been in Italy for 2 months, but is pretty devoted to learning the language (she has vocab posters ALL OVER her house!) and we're seeing her again on thursday and probably saturday! Also, we are going to finally get to go see that couple that randomly popped up in church last sunday! So we're going to prepare a super awesome lesson for Diego and Mariarosa!

I'm developing quite the skill for learning people (not just names, but getting to know them AND remembering the names) hahah with how many times I've moved around recently, and so now I already almost know our entire ward! Not that it's a very big ward, only about 60 people, but nonetheless. Hahaha but this ward is crazy!!! I'll try and put together a family tree of this ward, but literally, it is just composed of 2-3 LARGE families! haha it's awesome! Everyone's related!

I'm learning a whole lot though, especially about the power of invites. Not only with investigators, but also with the missionaries in my district. I'm learning about how important it is to give them meaningful invites, and then how doubly important it is to follow-up on the invites. And I've been seeing tons of miracles too!

Well, that's about all I've got for now. I love you all a ton, and hope that everyone is healthy and happy!!

Anziano Bushman

The Meazza Stadium (San Siro Stadium) where both Inter Milan, and AC Milan play.

The museum inside the stadium, there was some old stuff there....

Inside (those green seats are where the Inter fans sit)

This is where I sit...

This is where I sit when the game is getting intense!

This is me getting an interview, because they want me to play for them...

This is where I get dressed out for the games.

From left to right Jonathan (he's a super stud! he's always coming to lessons with us!) Nelson (also a stud, loves coming on splits with us) Andrea (also did splits with us) Anz camit, Irving (New convert), Kevin (reminds me of a young Michael Jackson), me.

Almost all of our group that went to the mtc together just this last week at the district leader training. Left to right in the group picture is Anziano Russo, Scheurn, Portellano, Jeter, Wilkey, Ellsworth, Warren, Bushman

Doing the Lord's Work! Mar 7, 2012

There's not a whole lot to say about this week. Everything is going great! The work here is awesome: we have some awesome members who do almost nothing but missionary work hahah! One even said that if he only had a car than he'd be out with us proselyting and teaching all day!! So yeah. 

OH and we had a couple come to church today, who met the italian missionary at temple square!!! They're super interested, and we set up an appointment to see them next week!!! Hahah all the members were super impressed with us, because they thought that we had found them, but that's not the case =) Bishop pulled them aside and talked to them after church and gave them two copies of the Book of Mormon, so yeah. It's awesome!!! Their names are Diego and Maria Rosa.

Oh, and also, we found a less active member while we were walking around in the park! He doesn't speak too much italian, more spanish, but we were able to communicate pretty well. He wants to come back to church, only he works all day, every day, except for saturdays. So, that's a problem.

Hahaha I've already been back to Milano twice since last week, and i'll be going back again tonight for a missionary exchange. The first one was for a baptismal interview, and the second time was for a SUPER awesome District Leader Training conference thing. This Baptismal interview was super cool though. She's south american, but I'm not sure which country.... And everyone calls her Stella, but her real name is Margiuri (sp?). She understands Italian, but doesn't speak it too well. She speaks spanish. But yeah, one of my responsibilities as District Leader is to hold the Baptismal interviews for the investigators within my District. And so I went back to Milano 3 to interview Margiuri, and it was super cool. The elders teaching her said that she doesn't talk a lot, but I guess being able to understand her spanish (and speak a little bit) she was more willing to open up, because she would not stop talking! Hahah she bore a super powerful testimony, and taught me loads of stuff! It was way cool!!!!

But yeah, things are going great. Now, more than ever before in my life, I feel like I am doing the work of the Lord. I feel like he's preparing me to be the worthy servant that he needs from me, and it's awesome!!!! NEVER stop praying!! NEVER stop studying the scriptures. Don't just read them, but study them. Buy a 39 cent spiral notebook if you have to, and write about each chapter you read. Just anything that comes to mind while reading. Even if you don't understand the chapter, write down that you don't understand it. Trust me. I promise you that you will learn SO much more!

So, yeah.

That's it for now, I'll give you some low downs on our investigators next week, along with some pictures of me in the San Siro/Meazza Soccer Stadium (where Inter and Milan play. It's HUGE)

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!!!

-Anziano Bushman

New Area & New Responsibility! Feb 29, 2012

Okay, so big news this week. I'm goin' to Pavia!

After 5 short weeks, I'm leaving this awesome ward.  I'm pretty sure I've learned close to 100 names (but not only names, I also know them as people) and have eaten at least 20 times at members houses...

The logistics would be because President brought 2 elders in 2 weeks ago to prepare to take the place of the sister missionaries in the office (office missionaries are only in the office till 5 pm, and then they go out and do proselyting work. But they have a car. And they are in the Milano 3 ward/area). So, since we have a limited number of elders in our mission, a lot are going home this transfer, President is closing our companionship, and putting sisters in our apartment. So yeah. After all the drama with the members accepting that my comp was leaving, then we found out that I'm leaving as well, and yeah. It's been fun breaking that news to everyone. Good news is that I'm in the same district still. And I'll be the district leader (means I'll have to organize district meeting, exchanges, and do phone calls every so often) so I'll get to come up to Milano 3 whenever they have a baptismal candidate to do the baptismal interview! So yeah, I've been telling the members to start finding people to baptize =) And, yeah. That's it.

These last few days have been filled with cleaning, because the sisters are taking this apartment, and if it's not in good condition when I leave, I'll hear about it.

So yeah, not much else has been going on.... OH! JeanCarlos' parents came to church!!!! and they seem even more solid and eager to learn about the gospel!!! So I'll be in close contact to make sure our replacements here do their part to help that family. 

Well, sorry it's a short one this week. I've got to head back and get cleaning again. WHOOT!! =)

Well, take care, vi voglio tutti bene!!!

-Anziano Bushman

At the ward party for Carnevale - - the equivalent of our Halloween. I went as Teancum.

Eric's birthday meal with me and Anz Camit

The Friolo Family (kids are Michael, Ashley, then Allison is the oldest)

 Bishop Donatone's family (daughters left to right, Noemi and Jennifer)

Albello Family (kids- Shinenah and Samuel)

Spencer, me and Anz Camit

Snowman Contacting, and other Mormon Myths! Feb 22, 2012

Alright, we'll start with some funnies.

Hahah so, last week I got stopped by an ancient Italian man, who told me that my ring (CTR ring) was on the wrong finger. I keep it on my middle finger of my right hand, because that's where it fits the best, and it doesn't mean that I'm married. Well, this old man went on to explain to us what the meaning is of putting your ring on each of the different fingers, and ended by telling me that my ring on the middle finger of my right hand means that I'm an adulteress. bahahaha ooops, he caught me lol. ohhhh, so that was funny. He wouldn't let up either until I moved my ring to my pinky haha. So, yeah.

Alright, next. SO, we had a great lesson with Jean Carlos's family (torres), but we were a little late, and we stayed a little too long. But before I get to the funny part, let me tell you about the lesson- We failed pretty epicly. We planned, but our planning was no good. We were going all over the place, and didn't have much direction. BUT the spirit was strong, and they felt it! So we ended with committing them to read 3 Nephi 27, and also committing them to come to church next sunday! They couldn't this last sunday because they were out of town, but they said that this sunday they'll be there! Which is a huge improvement from the last time we invited them, and they just kinda shut it down, saying they didn't want to. The dad is very interested (he told us he was interested) and the sister is very curious to read the book of mormon, but the mom seems a little skeptical... BUT! It's going great =) Okay, funny part now. So, we were running very late to a Relief Society activity that we were hosting (we were teaching them how to make various american baked goods). We left the Torres family and got in the elevator to leave the building, while talking about how late we were, but how great the lesson went. Then we got to the bottom floor, and the elevator door opened, but the external door (Italian elevators are very different) would not open. This elevator was not very big either. So, we kinda started freaking out, none of the buttons were working, and we didn't have much clue what to do. So after several minutes of panicking my comp realizes that there must be some kind of manual opening mechanism in the crack between the elevator and the elevator shaft wall, which he finds, and he was able to open the door and save our lives. hahah so yeah. That was fun. We also had a member with us, who was freaking out (but he's also very funny) named Johnny, hahahah yeah. good times. Johnny said that he was already deciding which corner of the elevator he was going to sleep in lol.

Alright, and now a cool experience we had. So, on Pday, we decided to make a snowman. And it turned out pretty dang well! While we were making this snowman, a small crowd had gathered. There were 3 boys of around 12 yrs who were very impressed at our snowman-making skills, and even as soon as we finished, they all whipped out their cell phones to take pictures of the work of art. Hahah it was great. But the real cool part came the next day. So we were just leaving our apartment after lunch, and as we turn the corner where our snowman was, there were about 10 kids, three of which were the same from the day before. And one of the kids from the day before shouts out, "that's them! It's them!" and they all came running towards us. We thought they wanted an autograph or something, so I started pulling out my pen and some paper, but they instead started blurting out different things like "Where are the gold plates?" "What was written on them??" and other questions of the sort, and one of them gets out "We learned about it in school!" So, we finally got them all quiet and they told us that they studied in school that day how our religion came about in the 19th century. They were taught just about everything, except the first vision, where God and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. So we explained to them the whole story, and gave them each a pass a long card that they could take home, and we told them also that we could give them a free copy of what was written on those gold plates as well. They were all super excited just to talk to us, and to hear it from our own mouths! It was way cool. I can't say I have too much confidence that any of their parents will listen to them, but maybe. Maybe someday down the road when they've grown a foot or two, they'll remember that day, and accept the missionaries into their own homes. So, yeah! Score one for Snowman Contacting!

No news on Nader. He came to church for Sacrament meeting, but we couldn't meet with him that night, so we're trying to see him during the week soon. Keep him in your prayers though!

We were also the other day trying to find out about these members on our ward roster, who we've never heard of, and one of them the other week told us to come back on monday and her dad (the member) would be home. So, we went back on Monday, and surprisingly enough he was there! He told us that we were an aswer to his prayers, that he's been wanting to come back to church, and was just talking about it a couple of days before we stopped by. So, we are very excited to have found him, and we'll be working with him getting him back to church in the next couple weeks! his name is Gianpietro Portinari. So, yeah, keep him in your prayers as well!

And that's all for now folks! Things are cookin' over here, and I'm loving it!

Take care, and don't forget to study the scriptures every day!!
-Anziano Bushman

Me and our snowman we made on Pday. Anz Camit is pictured below.

The family Boldissoni

Investigator Questions:/ Feb 15, 2012

So, this week. not too eventful. We did, however, have a nice surprise lesson! We got called by a member saturday telling us that her son is hungering for spiritual nourishment, that he's 20 yrs old, that his name is Nader, and then she set up an appointment with us for the next night (Sunday). The member is Sorella Calcaterra, and she's from Sicilia (Sicily), and she actually had a pretty cool conversion story, was baptized with her family when she was 12, a week after meeting the missionaries! Anyways, she first fed us, and the dinner even included several semi-american dishes (she lived in the states for two years or so), so that was fun. But then we got to know Nader, and he's way cool! We hit it off immediately, he said he liked us because we were not like the other missionaries, we're actually normal people. He did tell us that he knows he needs to get baptized eventually. He didn't get baptized when he was eight because his parents were getting a divorce, but he said that right now he's not ready to get baptized, and that he's got too many things on his mind right now. So we set about trying to figure out what was holding him up. He told us that he had a question that he needed answered. But he also told us that he didn't think the church or baptism would answer this question. He told us that he's asked other church leaders, including our bishop here, and other missionaries (he even knew Anziano VanAucker, my second comp here in Italy!) as well, and no one's been able to answer him. So we asked what this mysterious question was, and he asked us: Why is it that I can see ghosts? *cough* Umm, didn't see that one coming. So that's kind of a tricky situation we have now. He sees ghosts relatively often, and has since he was little. It's not that they torture him or scare him or anything, but it's something that's important to him, and he wants to understand it.

Haha umm so yeah. That was the highlight of our week! Any suggestions would be more than welcome.  Other than that, next week should be more eventful. We have a consistent sunday night with S.lla Calcaterra and Nader, so there will be an update on that next week. Tranne cio, vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene! statemi bene!

-Anziano Bushman

McDonalds had a Arizona special, and I was very skeptical of it.... My hunches proved to be true. Their "Arizona Sauce" wasn't any more than mayonnaise and a LOT of pepper. It was definitely not an ideal hamburger by any means. McDonalds fails!

When doing the Lord's work, miracles happen! Feb 8, 2012

Oh man, this week we had a super sweet miracle!!!! Time to get my story-telling fingers on! Kinda hard in this cold though. For some reason my fingers think they need to be warm to be able to move. Strano. ALRIGHTY

This week we needed something to happen. And something did happen. We were struggling with how to find some new investigators. The evening times, when it's the prime time to go out and find people, is all taken up with weekly appointments with new converts, which probably could have been organized better, but too late now. So, we decided to go about and set up a bunch of lessons with members of the church. At the same time, we looked up any less active members around their area, so we could pass by and figure out who they are and how they're doing.

So, Saturday we had an EXCELLENT lunch at the house of a family that was baptized just over  year ago, and afterwards we went to go look for the first less active that we had written down. His name was Eric JeanCarlos Torres. And other than his name, address and phone number, we knew nothing about him. So we found his house, rang the doorbell, and a young man of about 26 yrs answered. We asked for Eric, and he just asked us who we were. We told him we were missionaries. His response "What's your point, what do you want?" And so we told him that we saw that Eric was a member of our church and we wanted to pass by. So he went to go get him. Eric comes out and greets us with MUCH enthusiasm, asks us how we're doing, and tells us that his parents are sleeping, otherwise he'd let us in. So we chat for a bit, he tells us about how his girlfriend introduced him to the church and he then got baptized about a year ago, then his work schedule changed and he couldn't come to church anymore. He also told us that his family doesn't know that he got baptized. Aiya. So at that point we asked to get his phone number so we could try and meet with him another day, and he went inside to get his phone. As soon as he opened the door, I saw that his parents had woken up and were walking around, so I threw myself up against the wall trying to hide so we didn't get him in trouble at all hahaha. But, to my surprise he came back right away inviting us in because his parents were awake. We obviously did not decline. Got in and right away Eric started gathering everyone telling them that he has something that he wants to share with them. double aiya. So me and my comp sat down as they all started to ask us about who we are and everything, and Eric started responding very enthusiastically, saying how we're from Melinna's (the girlfriend's) church and we eventually even taught the entire restoration to them, just answering all their questions. Told them about the Book of Mormon and everything. Then we passed the ball back to Eric. And he prepared himself a bit, and then told everyone how he got baptized, but didn't want to say anything because he didn't want them to think it was just for Melinna and not because he really believed it. The first one to respond was his sister, who said: Yeah, I kind of figured already. Hahahah next response was the dad who asked: well why wasn't I invited? (to the baptism) hahahaha so yeah, they're awesome!! They told us that we were lucky to have caught them, because that's the only time of the day in the entire week that they are all home together. So, we set up an appointment with them for this next saturday! SWEET!!! And, yeah haha. That's it. When doing the work of the Lord, miracles happen!

Well, my fingers aren't working anymore, so I'm going to have to end it here for this week! I love you all, and you are all in my prayers each night! Take care!!!

Anziano Bushman

It's freezing! The worst & biggest winter storm in 3 decades!!!

F.llo La Franceschina, his daughter Aurora, his son Andrea, and my comp and I

A Mission, at times, is bitter-sweet! Feb 1, 2012

Well, Milano is pretty sick. It's huge!!!! The biggest shock for me right now is the amount of public transportation they have! They have buses everywhere that come at least 5-6 times each hour, they have trolley type things (basically a train on the street) that come a little less often, and then Milano has a HUGE metro system. Spanning the entire city and more, with trains stopping at each stop every 3-ish minutes. It's crazy!!! And then there are also 4 or 5 normal train stations throughout the city. Milano is so big that our area is only a third of the city. If you were to cut the city like a pie, we are the south slice =) There are 6 elder missionaries, and 6 sister missionaries, just in milano. In Siena, we were the only two missionaries in that half of Tuscany. BIG difference! So here in a little bit I'll be going into centro to hang out with a friend of mine (Anziano Russo) that got transferred into another part of Milano 2.

There are about 100 active members in the ward, and they are all awesome! In my first 3 days, before I even got to church, I had already met more members than there are in all of the branch of Siena!

My companion's name is Anziano Camit. He's from Utah, but his parents have since moved to Las Vegas. Aaaand that's about all I know about him. Boh. He's pretty cool.

The work is pretty much starting from ground zero over here... They just had three baptisms last transfer, and now we don't have any investigators. But one of the new converts, his name is Eric, is super legit!!!! He's from Congo, and he's just so eager to learn and to follow christ! He's such a boss!!!!

Oh, and also, it has officially been snowing for 24 hrs now. NOT COOL! Snow is very strange...... It's so small, and seems so harmless, but pretty soon it's got you completely surrounded, and has multiplied a billion times, and then it sucks. BUT, we're surviving =)

I've had some pretty cool experiences, and some bitter ones already in this last week in Milano. Bitter moment first. So yesterday we were just riding the metro back and forth to try and talk to people, and one of the girls that I stopped quickly told me that she was not interested at all. But, having to wait for the next stop I figured I'd just try and make small talk or be friendly or something. Well, turns out she's french, and within a few short seconds she turns to me with that tone that you only hear from snobby cheerleaders in the movies and asks me "are you wanting to talk the entire trip?" So, I responded no and turned to walk away, when -no joke- 50 people get on, and completely surround me, and trap me right next to this girl. So, I was stuck there VERY uncomfortably for another 5 min until I could get off. It was painful.

ALRIGHT, SWEET EXPERIENCE TIME: Saturday night we were out knocking on doors, and all of the sudden this lady just let us in before we even introduced ourselves! She looked pretty happy to see us, and was talking to us like she knew us, and was introducing us to her friend, but my companion had no idea who this lady was (neither did I, of course). So we were kind of tentative, thinking she was mistaking us for Testimonies of Jehovah or someone else, but then we were quickly reassured that she was a member. But yeah, I'm bringing this up because in the 15 min that we stayed there, her and also a younger ex missionary that was living there both gave us referrals (without us even getting to ask) to teach their friends. SCORE! So, yeah. Haha idk, I thought it was cool.

Well, that's all for now folks! Tune in next time to here about how many awesome people are going to get baptized in the near future!!!!

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!!!

-Anziano Bushman


P.S. There's a guitar here in our apartment!!!!! So instead of falling asleep after lunch when my companion takes his daily nap, I've been learning all the hymns on guitar!!!