"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

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.