The True Testimony of Christmas! Dec 21, 2011

Well, this week has been super awesome! We had a super awesome zone conference yesterday and even ended up doing a Christmas pageant, complete with cows, sheep and donkeys (missionaries in costume) lol. It was great! 

Not a lot has happened this week though. We've been doing some good work, finally starting to reach our goals, so that's super exciting. I feel like we've really hit a change as a companionship, where now we're both on the same page, heading towards the same objective, so that's way exciting! We've met some pretty awesome people in the meantime as well! Made almost 100 sugar cookies by now to give out to members and neighbors. haha it's about 1000x harder to deliver cookies without a car, but it's fun! 

Mainly, I'm just super excited from christmas. I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and we've been trying to focus our lessons on it as well. But it just blows my mind at how much love Christ has for us. How much He suffered, everything He went through, and then He doesn't even ask for anything in return! All He asks us is that we take advantage of it for ourselves, so that we can be happy. AND He's our brother. He's literally ALWAYS there for us. And He knows how to help us become like Him. Literally nothing is impossible. These things probably sound redundant, and a lot of people will say these things, maybe even too often. And it's definitely hard to express myself through email (sometimes strategically placed italics and all-caps can help), but if I can leave you with one thing for Christmas, it's that Christ lives. I know it. He's real. It's not a thing created by men just because it's more convenient to believe in something bigger, it's reality. As real as this world we live in. Christ lives! Think about what that means, and then don't ever forget it.

I love you guys, have a wonderful christmas!

-Anziano Bushman

So here we have the "White Tree of Gondor" or I mean "of Siena"

Makin sugar cookies for members and friends. They actually turned out pretty good, I was surprised.

hahaha So apparently the Wolfgramm's have an annual christmas pageant, and so at zone conference they had chosen some missionaries to be different parts, and I got chosen to be an angel haha. I didn't really do much. Just stood there and looked pretty. Lol it was fun.

Anziano Scheurn and his comp came over last night after the zone conference to spend pday in siena with us, so last night we made some hot chocolate and chilled out by the fire. Probably the most fun thing that's ever happened! 

Blessed to stay in Siena! Dec 14, 2011

Well, tomorrow marks one year. 

Topic change! Things are looking pretty good here in Siena! As for Kochi, we're gradually learning how to speak Bengali (Bangledesh). Haha not really, but we're trying to figure out what chapters are in the Bengali Book of Mormon, because it's only "Selections of the Book of Mormon". So we're making some progress by having him read specific chapters. Oh, and we just learned that Akim speaks arabic (in addition to english) and so does Kochi. So we'll be utilizing him as a translator for sure! Akim is making great progress as well! They had a slight bump with Adam and Eve. When we mentioned that the Fall was part of God's Plan for us, they did not agree. But we were able to explain it for them after a little difficulty lol. It was good though. 

Bianka is coming to church, but they've still been way busy and haven't been able to meet with us.... So, hopefully this week we'll get to see them and start helping Bianka towards baptism. 

Maxwell is also coming to church and still making progress! We are going to have to start going out to his house to meet him every once and a while though, which will invlove about 40 min of bus to get there, and then to get back 40 min of walking and 10 min of bus. Hahah it'll be fun though! 

Also! We got a referral for an American family! The dad came to church this Sunday to check it out, and if we get to meet with them again this weekend, I think they're pretty much solid. They're definitely serious about the whole church thing. They want to find a good church, and they want their kids to grow up in it. So now we just need a chance to talk to them about it!!

All in all, I'm super glad that I get to stay in Siena to help all of these people come into the fold of God! It's an awesome work, and I'm super grateful for these two years I've been given to serve!!

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

Oh, I had a pretty cool experience with my comp the other day: we were at the church for some reason, and I was watching the christmas devotional and he was off doing something else, but then when we left I found out what he was doing (see above). It's super nice to find that your efforts are being noticed!

My Gift to Christ this season! Dec 7, 2011

Buon Natale!


Investigator updates:

We met with Akim (Hakim, we just found out how to actually spell his name) and Kochi (Cucci) on thursday, and had a super great lesson! At first I was kind of worried, because Akim had just woken up, and people don't normally pay attention when they're tired.... BUT we went over the Plan of Salvation and get this- he took notes, and stopped us when he didn't understand something. That never happens!!! He was way into it! The Spirit was very strong, so we invited him to be baptized on the 7th of January, and he accepted! Kochi is still a little nervous because he doesn't understand english or italian very well, but he is still reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church!

Then, the next day we were finally able to meet with Maxwell. And we did the same exact thing with him, and taught him the plan of salvation. And although he didn't take notes, he loved the lesson, and accepted baptism also for the 7th of January! It was super awesome!!!!!

Bianka is still coming to church, but I'm still very concerned about her... she doesn't really seem interested in much of church, and they haven't been able to meet with us nearly as often lately... 

Cool experience:

Okay, so mom you mentioned something about how cool it is when we just do what the Lord asks us to do, because then he opens doors for us. Well, Sis Wolfgramm invited us to pick a Christlike attribute for this month, and to make it a "gift to Christ" by doing something everyday to improve on that attribute. Well, mine is patience, and I did not realize how impatient I am hahahaha. SO I kind of forgot about this challenge until the 4th of December, but since then I've been doing a lot better, and part of this challenge is to write down a specific thing that we did each day to improve, and so it's been in my mind now when I'm about to explode at someone "wait, maybe this could be my gift to Christ for today". So that gives me the desire to be patient and what not. SO, story time. We just finished a missionary exchange, and quite often I end up being the one that has to travel up to firenze (90min) to pick up and drop off my companion and then travel back down to Siena. BUT that's only part of it. So we had just gotten to Firenze and we were waiting for the other missionaries to get there, and so we call them and long story short they were more than an hour late (even though the city they were coming from is 10min from Firenze). I can't say I was too surprised, because they are almost always late, but this time, we had lessons to get to, and appointments that could not be moved. So, when I found out how late they were going to be I remembered the gift to Christ deal-io, and started seeing what I could do to rearrange appointments. All in all we got to all of our appointments after some adjusting, but the real miracle is the train ride home. So the train we ended up taking was pretty sweet. We grabbed the first seats we found, and about 5 min later some girl sat down across the aisle from us. So, with very little effort we started talking, and she completely opened up to us about how she's trying to come closer to Christ, and we just had a great 90 min conversation with her! We got her number, gave her a book of Mormon, and she welcomely committed to reading it! And, she wants to bring a friend the next time we meet! Sweet!!!

So yeah. Moral of the story: do what God (and his servants, it is the same) tells you to. You won't regret it. 

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!!!

-Anziano Bushman

Bahahaha, We found a super old missionary slide reel in our closet, and it's got all kinds of messages, with synchronized cassette tapes as well for the audio! hahahaha! In fact, dad, did you ever use these? Some of them have copyrights around 1976ish, so right before your mission. 

This is our ward council. Pretty epic, huh? 

Bianka's Baptism!!!

Decorating the Christmas tree!!!

Anz Palmer & Me, Dec 2011

Man, I love baptisms! Nov 30, 2011

Lorena got baptized!!!!!! Everything went perfect! We spent a good amount of time friday night cleaning the church with several other members due to a bunch of remodelling that's been going on in the church, and then saturday morning we got to the church at 8am to try and heat up the water a little bit lol.... Get this: So since the hot water in the church runs out every 2min, we have to boil pots of water, and then pour it in the font to try and counteract the cold water. After about 30 large pots of boiling water, however, I'm not so sure anything changed. Lol nor did the water heat up at Tina's baptism. Hahaha so I don't know that we'll be trying that again. It was fun though. And it was Anziano Palmer performing the ordinance anyways, so no worries =) I made chocolate chip cookies for afterwards, and also Lorena and Bianka brought some cookies from a bakery and a little tostada (looks like pie, but it's not) and Sorella Feri brought some AMAZING pastries from some local bakery, that were probably on the more expensive end, and they were definitely worth it! We had 12 people all together at the baptism, which, when I first got here we only had 12 total people in church, so that was a huge success! Maxwell, an investigator of ours, was also there! Lorena was so happy!!! Man, I love baptisms. Then we got to spend a good amount of time cleaning the church again, and getting it ready for Sunday.

Man, and Sunday was super awesome as well!! We had two investigators come back to church! John and Hakim, who Anz Lehnardt and I taught for a while, but who then decided that they preferred their church, came back! They were very happy to see me lol or maybe they just love saying "Bushman", but nonetheless, I got a warm welcome from them, and then even more so yesterday when we went over to their house to teach them. Anyways, back to sunday, so we had a gospel principles class with Lorena, Bianka, Tina, Cucci, John, and Hakim along with Presidente Fergnani, and one of Pres Wolfgramm's counselor's that was visiting Siena. So we taught them all about the Gift of The Holy Ghost in preparation for them witnessing Lorena's receiving of the holy ghost in the next hour. It was super awesome!!! Anz Palmer also confirmed her a member. 

So, yeah, they're awesome. 

Just a couple more things before I have to get going, Hakim told us yesterday when we met with him that he wants to get baptized! He said that he did like Joseph Smith did, and has been reading the Book of Mormon for 2-3 months, and now he wants to "become a full member"! So we're super excited for him! Also, we started teaching a partial member family, of which 2 of the 4 members were baptized just about 6 months ago. The two that we're working with are Malvina and Romina. And they both are showing sincere desire to learn! So we are being greatly blessed down here in Siena to be able to see the work progress like it never has here! The members are also responding very positively! After turning us down all the time when we've asked them to come to appointments with us and whatnot, they are now asking us when we have appointments that they can come to! It's sweet!!!!

Oh, and also I got an email from Luca (we baptized him in Ravenna) so that was way exciting as well!

vi voglio tutti un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

An American Thanksgiving! Nov 23, 2011

Well, this week has been intense!

First off with last Thursday, we found out that there was going to be a strike on thursday with the trains (they do these wayyy too often!!!), so we headed to Livorno Wednesday night with Anz Scheurn, his comp, and also Anz Free and his comp, so we had a lot of fun hanging out even before the thanksgiving-ness. Then the next day we got to the Military Base and played a couple hours of football, then had an AMAZING lunch!!! There was turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing (I actually ATE the stuffing for once!! aren't you proud of me???), pumpkin pie, apple pie, and cherry pie, cake, and all kinds of deliciousness!!! And then, if that wasn't enough, F.llo Trexler then sent each of us home with a little brown paper bag with some little fun size american chocolates, a little american box of cereal, and a can of american rootbeer! It was soooooo good!!!

As for an update on Lorena and Bianka, we were getting pretty worried about them last week... We didn't get to see them at all last week because they were super busy, and the Sunday before they didn't come to church, AND Lorena's baptism was scheduled for the 26th. So we were pretty worried. But, when we went into the lesson it wasn't long before we were reassured of how LEGIT they are. One of Lorena's struggles was with the Word of Wisdom. She's a big coffee drinker. BUT when we explained it to her a while ago, and read her the scriptures in D&C, she was immediately on board, and wanted to follow that commandment. No questions as to why it's bad, she just knew it was a commandment, so on that basis she knew she wanted to follow it. So anyways, she told us a story about a couple of days ago her sister in law (not Bianka) had a birthday party, and when everyone got drinks (alcoholic) Lorena kinda freaked out, and asked for a Coca Cola. She said that she didn't even feel the desire to drink alcohol, but that she felt a huge feeling of peace, and strength when she chose the right. So, even in peer pressure. And as for coffee, she's down from drinkin 3-4 cups a day, to one every 3-4 days! Oh, and she's getting baptized in 3 days. That's right. Bianka still doesn't feel ready, but she'll be at the baptism to support Lorena! And now we're just all hyped up, running everywhere to invite people to the baptism, and make sure it's super spiritual! Man, I almost forgot how fun this was!!! All of our investigators are planning on coming, and Tina is going to make sure that those of them that she referred to us come as well! Ahhhh life is good. 

Well, I gotta go, sorry it's a little short today, but next week will be filled with all kinds of exciting baptism stories!!!! 

vi voglio un sacco di bene!

Anziano Bushman

Pride in our Heritage! Nov 16, 2011

Well, not much happened this week. Lorena, Bianka, Maxwell, Harrison, and Cucci all did not come to church this week, so that was disappointing. This isn't the first time they've missed either, so we've got to plan well to find out what's going on. 

Sunday instead of having investigators at church to tend for, I got to translate for 2 hrs. First from Italian to English, and then from English to Italian in Sacrament meeting. It got kind of confusing, but I survived haha. I get the feeling that I didn't do too well with the sacrament meeting translation, because all kinds of people came up to me afterwards complimenting me, and saying that I did well even though it was really hard. Hahahah so that was fun...

A couple highlights this week, first was monday night. Monday night we had an appointment set up to visit the host family of two of the students here. Hahaha and when we got there the host couple and also another italian student that was living there didn't really expect us to speak italian, but when we did, then they seemed pretty excited to find out what it was that these two girls have been trying to explain to them about our church for the past two months. The couple was kind of just like any other old italian couple. They just like to talk. They went off on tangents every 10 seconds, so pretty soon I had to direct any and all questions directly at Clara (the student). She actually seemed super interested as well. We left a Book of Mormon, and although she's going back home to Sicilia for a week, we should get to see her again next week! Whoot! Score for the BYU students!

Next, we had Leadership Training yesterday (which is basically just like Zone Conference). We all meet together and Pres. Wolfgramm, with his wife and 2 assistants, train us. OH and btw, my trainer -first companion here in Italy, showed me the ropes and taught me everything I know- Anziano Seth Jensen just became the new Assisstant to the President, so that was super cool to get to see him! So, although 6 of us were about 90 min late due to a super late train, we still learned a lot of good stuff. We watched a movie as well, called 17 miracles. It was all about the Willie-Martin Handcart company and the main character -Levi Savage- was one of the subcaptains in charge of this company. And he had had burned into his mind a previous experience that showed to him that people in times of hardship and suffering, turn on each other like wolves. And he started to see that happening, and started to warn everyone, but each time he did he got publicly reprimanded by his superior. So, he just did what he could do to help. But he kept having flash backs of the previous experience. At the end of the movie though, during the hardest trials that the company faced, with starvation, lack of sleep, temperatures beyond freezing, and endless walking, he noticed the difference in the Saints. He publicly apologized, and spoke about how heroically they all behaved, and how even in the face of death, they helped those that needed help, and were always there to care for others. They were living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And that was what our Training was focused on this month, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Pres Wolfgramm spoke about how this is our heritage. This is what the Gospel of Christ is all about- no matter what's going on, even in the face of death, pressing forward, and serving others. It was super inspiring, and gave me a renewed desire to serve the Lord with all of my strength!

Well, tomorrow our zone gets to go spend P-Day at the American Military Base between Pisa and Livorno to have a thanksgiving Lunch and play some two hand touch football! So I'm super excited for that! And then on Sunday we're having another thanksgiving type lunch with the BYU students becasue they leave next week, so I will be eating pretty well these next few days! =)

Well, I love you all, and I pray for each one of you every night!

Prendete cura!

Anziano Bushman

The Three Arizona Anziani - Anz Scheurn, Anz Free and Anz Bushman

Zone Conference

Help....by the Beatles! Nov 9, 2011

Well, just a quick update for this week-

My new comp, Anz Palmer is way cool. We're still trying to get used to each other's teaching styles, but we get along really well! Oh, and we set up our Christmas tree (we have a christmas tree!!!!)!!!! So that's been fun. Ummmm not much else. He's cool. It's different every time I get a new companion though, so yeah.

Our branch is all at the Swiss temple this week, and Tina (baptized in September) is with them as well!!!! So that's super exciting! We're still working with Tina's friends, but it is slow going because they are hard to get to (the bus only passes twice a day...). They did come to church again this week though!!! So that was cool!

Oh haha funny story that happened sunday- we were going around th city knocking on doors, and from 100 ft away from a building we heard some singing Help! (by the Beatles) at the top of their lungs! So, we decided to see if we could find them, and sure enough after a couple tries, and following the tune of Let it Be, and Hey Jude lol, we found her, hahaha and when she answered the door she apologized that she didn't hear the door because her headphones were in, and Anz Palmer had the guts to say something along the lines of "oh don't worry about it, we liked the song" or something like that, hahaha and she freaked out! She didn't realize that anyone else could here her hahah we decided to leave out the part where we heard her from 100 ft outside her building. But it was funny. So we set up a lesson with her to meet her at the church, but then something came up, so hopefully we'll be able to reschedule! 

Alright, best for last-

Lorena and Bianka are awesome!!! They have met with us about 5 times since we met them, and they always read several chapters of the Book of Mormon before hand, and even talk about it with each other, and they search the church's website all the time, man, they're perfect!!! We talked to them about baptism this weekend. Lorena has been telling us even since before we brought it up that she wanted to be baptized. She said that neither of them have been baptized yet, and so they've been trying to find the right church to get baptized in, but for some reason each church that they went into just didn't feel right... untill now!! Lorena has also told us several times that she wants to get baptized -not just to say that she's been baptized- but because she really feels it!! Her sister, Bianka, isn't quite as sure yet. She likes coming to meet with us, but she just tells us that she doesn't quite "feel it" yet, so she doesn't want to jump into it without really feeling it. Lorena was talking to me after the lesson and said that Bianka is still just a little nervous because she doesn't know what is going to change with her friends, and studies and what not, and she doesn't know how anything could change either. But that's completely normal, to be nervous. And we explained that to them, and told them that we're not going to make anyone do something that they don't want to. Bianka also keeps telling us that she "feels it" each time we're together talking about it, but when she goes home and talks about it to Lorena, it's a whole other story. So, as of now, Lorena is planning on getting baptized on the 26th of this month, and Bianka we're not sure yet, but they're awesome!!!! We're seeing them again tomorrow!

Man, I'm glad to be a missionary. 

i love you guys, I hope you're all doing well, and staying healthy and warm! 

-Anziano Bushman