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!!!

Mi trasferisco a Milano domani! Jan 25, 2012

Well, this week we got to go back to Follonica one last time to see the Gurrieri family (Esperide, Giovanni, and Giuseppina) and it went really really well! The first time I went there I had all kinds of judgements, thinking that missionaries in the past had gone there just to waste time and have fun and talk and eat good food, not knowing that previous missionaries had tried literally everything to reactivate Giovanni and bring the other two to the gospel. SO, I didn't think that there was much hope, and thus I didn't give it as much as I could've. BUT, I learned otherwise. These last two lessons we've had with them have just been outstanding! And Esperide is definitely the glue that's going to keep them all together, and bring them all back to church!

So that was way awesome. Well, not much else of note has happened this week. I'm getting transferred to North Milano, so that's exciting! But yeah, sorry for the shortness, but I've gotta finish up this email and finish packing. 

I love you all!

take care!

Anziano Bushman

Me and Marco Ligas, the guy we found in Muggiò shortly before getting transferred, the other week we got to go pass by and see them when we went to Milano for a conference

Anz Bushman at an ancient Roman theatre in Volterra

Anz Bushman & Anz Scheurn

Perseverance pays off! Jan 20, 2012

Well, this week has been crazy! (as they normally are) I got to travel up to Verona to see Elder Causse from the Area Presidency, and he helped us a lot with understanding how to be better and more efficient missionaries, it was way cool!

I do have cool story that I want to share: Saturday night our District leader called us and gave us a challenge, and that was that he wanted all the companionships in our district (3 companionships) to have 3 quality placements of the Book of Mormon on Sunday. Quality meaning with the assurance that they will read and treasure the book. So, we went at it. After lunch we started walking around looking for people, but we just couldn't seem to find anyone that would talk to us, and those that would were not interested in the Book of Mormon. We met a couple of people that almost seemed promising, but we couldn't quite get them to commit to reading the book. So now it's 7:30pm. We decided that we needed to change strategies a bit, and we headed into the city center. 

First person we run into is Enrique! Enrique is a member of the church and also a great friend of ours. He was walking with a friend, so we decided to try and see if his friend was interested. It was awesome! Enrique testified of the Book of Mormon, and in a couple of minutes she was asking us for a copy of the Book of Mormon!! So we gave her one. Sweet!! 

Next. We were walking still towards the city's center, and heard a bunch of students speaking english. So we stopped and asked them where they were from, and turns out they're from the states on a study abroad thing. So we walked and talked for while, they were all very intrigued with us and how we're out for 2 yrs and what not. But one of the girls in particular already knew a ton about the church! She had heard a couple of things before and was intrigued so she did a lot of research and knew all kinds of things about the church's history! At the very end, we asked her if she had ever actually read the Book of Mormon, and she said "No, I haven't! But I've been meaning to!!" So, that was my cue to say "Well, just so happens that I have a copy of the Book of Mormon in English right here in my backpack!" lol So we gave her the copy and she was super excited about it! And promised us that she would read it! We gave her some contact information and we went our way again. Sweet!!

Now it was about 8:30 pm and we had to start heading back home. So we did, but on the way we kept our eyes open for anyone who might want to come closer to Christ through reading the Book of Mormon. And we found two soldiers heading out to get some pizza, talked to them for 10 min and they asked us for a copy of the book! Sweet!!!

But it's not over. We still had about 10 min of walking before we got home, and my companion still had a copy of the Book of Mormon in his hand, so we set out to find yet another person before we got to our apartment. Sure enough we found someone! And this time she also gave us her phone number! 

So now we're feeling super good! It was a little late, (9:30pm) but we were close to home, and still heading home, when we passed someone sitting at the bus stop next to our apartment. But we just kept walking. Then I stopped my comp and asked him if he had any more copies, and sure enough he had one last one in his backpack. So we turned back around and talked to this one last girl sitting at the bus stop. She at first turned us down. She had recently gone from being atheist to joining the Catholic church, but we kept talking nonetheless. After telling her about the importance of the Book of Mormon, we testified of it's power, and then she asked us if she could have the Book!

So, after 7 hrs of trying to talk to people, the last 2.5 were super awesome!!!!! Perseverance pays off!

So, yeah, that's all for today folks. I just want to leave you with the challenge to always be ready to testiy of the Book of Mormon. There is no book on Earth that can bring a man closer to God. And if you doubt that, try reading it first =) 

Allora, vi voglio bene tutti!

-Anziano Bushman

Anz Bushman & Anz Scheurn in Milano

Anz Bushman, Anz Scheurn, Anz Palmer, Anz Neff

Faith Precedes the Miracle! Jan 11, 2012

Let me paint you a picture (only figuratively though, I can't actually do it for you, you're going to have to get out you're own paper and choice of drawing instrument) Okay, so start by drawing a.... yeah, nevermind, too hard. SO..... there's a family. Giovanni is about 70 yrs old and a non active member. He served in the military when he was younger, and thus has been hardened a bit by war. Giuseppina is his wife, and she is about 60 yrs old. She's a non-practicing Catholic (just like the other 95% of Italy) that LOVES to talk, and LOVES to talk about how good of a person she is, and she's really funny =) Esperide is their daughter. She's 21 yrs old, and has known the missionaries since she was 10. So, for 11 yrs the missionaries have been trying to baptize Esperide and Giuseppina. They live about 2 hrs away, and it seems like the visits have turned more into social visits. But, with the persuasion of our Branch President, the missionaries accompany him every other month or so (the Branch President lives in a nearby, equally far away city) to see this family. So the first two times I went there, I did not have a good experience. I went into it each time expecting to be the missionary that was going to change the situation, but nothing happened. I wasn't able to get a word in, and both times we didn't even get to share the lesson we prepared. So, take 3 came along this last Saturday. I was determined not to waste a third visit (and 4 hrs of train rides) and made sure that we had a super focused companionship study beforehand to prepare for this lesson. The comp study went great! We outlined every little detail of the lesson, we talked about little activities we could do to keep their attention, but most of all, we focused on why this was important to them. As you probably guessed, the lesson went great! We taught with power and authority, and each time Giuseppina tried to tell us that she was already doing everything right, we were able to kindly interrupt her and continue on. We used the Plan of Salvation to describe the "why" of the gospel, and focused on talking about what the Celestial Kingdom will be like. At the very end, we applied it all directly to our invite: that they need to read the scriptures and pray. Almost instantly there were objections, with Giuseppina saying she can never find time, and Esperide didn't look like she even wanted to read, and Giovanni didn't think he would be able to remember to read each day. But after 5 min of inviting them over and over, and reitterating the importance, Esperide piped up, like an angel from heaven, suggesting that they read as a family each day before dinner. So that way Giuseppina finds the time, and Giovanni doesn't forget, and they agreed!!! 

And now, the aftermath: That was all on Saturday. In the lesson we were also wanting to invite them to church, but with the fuss they put up with reading and praying, the spirit directed us not to. Which was kind of a bummer. But, that night, as I went to pray before going to sleep, something told me that Giovanni may have enough desire to come to church, and I got the impression that I should include him in my prayers, to give him the strength he needed to wake up early enough to get to church. Now, I've heard people say before things like "oh, I knew you were coming, I just had a feeling, I knew it!" and they would get all excited, and personally I've always thought they were kinda weird. Firstly because I didn't really believe that they knew before hand, and secondly because them knowing beforehand didn't change anything. And for those of you with those same thoughts, honestly I don't know what to tell you. But the fact that I knew he was going to come, and then he actually did come to church, was amazing! It was just the most awesome feeling that God wanted to show me his power in telling me something that was to come. I can't describe it, but it was awesome. Oh, and we called this family yesterday to see how the reading is going, and they're still going! Score!

So, yeah. That was awesome. Esperide is going to get baptized. We had a pretty sweet Training meeting yesterday in Milano. Oh, and just out of curiosity, I don't suppose you know how far it is from Siena to Milano, do you? Yeah... it's 400 km... And how long did you say that takes in the cheap trains? 8 hrs?!? And that's only one way. So you could say we're pretty tired by now. Trains aren't the comfiest either. But, we had a super awesome Conference thing yesterday, so it was worth it. We learned a lot about applying the scriptures to help resolve people's concerns, so it was fun. Saw a lot of good friends. SO yeah. That's about all I got for today.

You guys are great! Keep up the prayers! I can definitely feel them! I love you all! Take care!

Anziano Bushman

Anziano Bushman's Christmas card