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.

Short & Sweet! July 27, 2011

Well, I tried sending pictures again, but for some reason the computers refuse to read my memory card half the time.... so, maybe next week.

So, this week we had another AWESOME ward activity, where we made a ton of progress, expecially with Luca and his two kids. Luca's two kids (Ana and Marco, 13, and soon to be 12) normally stay with their mom, but for these couple of week they're with him, and he was able to convince them to come to this activity, despite the fact that they're fairly against us as misisonaries, and this church in general. When they arrived at the church at 8:30 in the morning they were wayy tired, and just looked not happy, at all. Responded with one word answers, and just gave us nothing. The good thing though, was that fairly quickly, they warmed up to us, and were laughing and having a blast by the end of the day! Luca is still on track to be baptized on the sixth of August. Unfortunately our branch president and several others are on vacation in the USA for several weeks, so they're going to miss it, but he's ready for sure.

Nick and Omas also have baptismal dates for the 27th of august! So we're super excited for them.

Umm.... not much else to say.... everything's going good in Ravenna.

Sorry it's really short today, I've been trying to figure out this picture thing, and it's not working... I'll make sure to write more next week though!

I love you all, take care!

Anziano Bushman

The field is white! July 20, 2011

Wow, things are goin great here! I love hearing from all of you guys!

Well, let me update you on Luca. Luca, is a freaking stud. He has accepted everything, and is trying everything that we tell him. We talked to him Sunday after church, and set a baptismal date with him for August 6th! He is just awesome. We talked to him last night about it, and he shared some experiences he had. First he told us about his mom, who is super catholic, and has started to bring Luca into Catholicism now that he's talking with us. He told us that she has started coming over and reading the bible to him, and Luca told us that after she read the bible with him, he read from the Book of Mormon with her! He's told us tons of other experiences too with him doing missionary work like this. And he's already working on inviting his kids and mom to his baptism, it's awesome! It just amazes me at how quick he is to share the gospel, when a lot of members are wayyy timid about it... And even further, Luca we feel still doesn't have a testimony about the gospel. He follows all the commandments, and is changing his life to the gospel, but hasn't seen a change yet. And regardless he's still being patient. He's just super bravo. That's all I can say. The only thing is, the reason he's not seeing the blessings yet is because he's not asking. He's super honest with us, so when something comes up that he struggles with, he tells us. And he's told us for a couple weeks now that he doesn't really feel the need to pray. He feels that because God's Will will be done regardless, what's the point of praying and trying to change it? So we explained last night that the purpose of prayer is to align our will with the Will of God, and also to ask for the blessings that God is just waiting to pour out upon our heads, but can't until we ask for them. So we committed him to at least get into the habit of praying, even if he doesn't feel it, to just get  in the habit of praying morning and night, and he said that he'll do it! We're going with him tomorrow to each lunch at the Branch President's house, so we're way excited about that as well!

Eddie is also doing awesome! His wife (Ester) is still not coming to church, but Eddie has started to make a more concerted effort to come to church, and came at 10:20 instead of his usual 11:30! So he got to experience Gospel principles class and sacrament meeting, and it was a way good experience!!!

Nicolas is another man from Nigeria, and he started coming to church I believe 4 weeks ago because one of our members told him it would help (he was kinda depressed, and out of work) and the tuesday after he came for the first time, someone in our ward found him a job, and he's been working ever since! He's also come to church every week since. We finally were able to meet with him and his wife for the first time on saturday, and we talked about the first vision, and the restoration of the church. They loved it! Anziano Bona and I were about to invite him to baptism, but the memebr that we had with us (Colombus, also from Nigeria) mentioned that we will not rush anyone, and that we will take things piano piano. So if we went and invited him to baptism that kind of would've made a liar out of Colombus.... BUT after the lesson Nicolas walked us out to our bikes, and asked us what he needed to do. We looked at him a little confused and my companion asked <<need to do for what?>> Nicolas responded <<for baptism>>. So we quickly told him that we would love to talk about baptism the next time we come over. And in fact, Anziano Mendel and I (on a scambio) went and talked to him yesterday about baptism, invited him to baptism, and he accepted it! We left him with a baptismal calendar, and he said that he will talk with his wife to choose when, but yeah, he's super legit. The only thing now, is we need to figure out how to get his wife more on board. 

ALSO, another super legit find on monday. Anziano Mendel was at Ravenna wih me, and the lesson we had planned fell through. So, we just rode around for a little bit until we found some palazzi that looked promising. So we knocked on all the doors, and got absolutely nothing. Tried the one next to it, and still nothing. BUT at the last floor there was a girl sitting on the staircase, so we started talking to her, and found out that she had already been talked to. Even further, she had had a baptismal date, and told us that she just got too scared. So, we asked if she'd like to talked some more, and figure out what happened, and so she gave us her number and we went on. When we got home, I checked our area book and found her progress record. She was investigating the church in 2008, and from what the missinoaries wrote, was super golden!! But, just like she told us, when it came down to being baptized, 5 days before the scheduled date, she just got too afraid, and the missinoaries didn't write anything else. So now we're in the process of trying to get ahold of her, but I'm super excited! It didn't look like she had any problems with the gospel, just got afraid, so yeah. 

Like I mentioned, I did a scambio with Anz Mendel yesterday, and it was way fun! I probably mentioned him before while I was in the MTC, but he was in the group that I helped welcome into the MTC, so he got here to italy  weeks after me. But yeah, he's a wayy cool guy! And it was wayy different being companioned with someone that has been out less time than me. But, things went way well. 

But yeah, this zone, is the best zone in the mission. I also saw Anziano Ramjuoe (sp?) and Anziano Free at interviews on monday, so it was fun getting to catch up and everything (both of them were also in Anz Mendel's group)

SO, yeah! Life's going great! Finally figured out how to work this dang oven without burning suff lol, and now I'm working on repairing the rest of the apartment lol. 

And thank you so much mom for the package! I love it! And the music is super awesome too! My companion also wanted to thank you for the song <<One Day>> hahah he loves that song!

I love you guys all so much!

Stay strong, and scegliete il giusto!

-Anziano Bushman

Some of our members here in ravenna at that activity where we gathered up in the mountains and read and sang together!

Me and my comp, Anz Bona!

Me and our 2nd counselor, Colombus.

The view that we had on all sides of us - it was awesome!

Me and Luca, our investigator. 

We visited a new convert that lives near the beach! Man, I miss the beach....

Heading to climb up that tower (Bologna) for p-day! 

Inside the tower, Anz Bona and Anz Dunshee
(our zone leader, and Anz Bona's MTC companion)

On top of the tower, super legit! 495 steps to get to the top!!!

The view outside of the tower, for 360 degrees!

Working hard, Feeling Good! July 13, 2011

Heyyyy! So, I didn't realize how many times i used the word <<legit>> last week until mom and dad both quoted me in their emails saying <<legit>>... lol mah bad. COMUNQUE, to answer a couple of questions, the verb <<scappare>> means to leave/escape/get out of somewhere. So when I say we scapped, it's just like english italian saying that we got out of there. When we travelled to ravenna, we took the first like 2 hr train ride with about a dozen missionaries, and then the final hour stretch to ravenna was just me and anz bona. I have started exercising again, now i just have to get my companion to go running with me! The physical area is about the same size, but the only work we do is in the city of ravenna itself, whereas in muggiò we had a bunch of cities way close to us that we were able to bike to and what not. Here we only travel outside of ravenna every now and then to visit members. It isn't quite as hot out here as it is in AZ, but the humidity is pretty uncomfortable, and we're constantly sweating! 

We do have another progressing investigator, his name is Eddie. Eddie is from Nigeria, and has two daughters and one son. For a while it didn't seem like anything was going to happen, but then Friday, he brought his three kids to our ward barbecue, and they loved it! His wife didn't come cause she was way tired, and just wanted a break from the kids haha, but everyone loved to see them there, and it was awesome! Unfortunately Luca did not come to the barbecue because he went to the dentist earlier that day and had a huge cavity, so he couldn't necessarily eat anything... BUT we also then had a lesson with eddie the next day, and we feel that he is making some huge progress! He finally read the chapters that we have been leaving him, and this time his wife actually sat in on the lesson! (His wife had originally heard that LDS are  some kinda devil worshippers, and so she was afraid to even listen to us) So now even she is starting to make some progress! We left her a Book of Mormon, which she was way excited about and said that she would read it for sure! But, she said that she won't start coming to church until she sees some changes in <<this man>> (pointing to her husband). Hahaha and Eddie's response to that was kinda funny, he asked her <<What do you want me to change? Do you want me to be white?>> lol So we tried to convince her that she would be supporting her husband a lot if she came to church with him, but she wouldn't budge. Vediamo. But Eddie did come to church again, granted he came super late, and only caught the last 30 min of Sacrament meeting, he still came. He told us Sunday mornings are the only opportunites he gets to play soccer with his buddies... so I'm afraid that's the reason he keeps showing up so late....

Luca is still super awesome, came to church again for all three hours, but still isn't feeling anything. He trusts us, so he does the things we ask him to do, cioè read the scriptures, and follow the commandments, but he doesn't see the blessings. aaaand so yeah. Also, he doesn't like to pray on his own. He prays when we're there, but for some reason he won't on his own... And I'm about 95% sure that that's the only thing he's missing. So keep him in your prayers!

Well, right now I'm in Bologna, at the end of a 2 day scambio, so we've got 6 missionaries here and we're all wanting to go out and do something fun, so sorry this letter's kinda short.... 

The missionaries here are super awesome! It's so much fun, and i'm learning a ton! Also, every single new missionary that I meet and do any work with has complimented me several times on my italian, so I guess the language is going pretty well! Well, I will try and write more next week! 

Prendete cura e divertitevi!

-Anziano Bushman