Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Thank you soo very much Mama for your packages! Ha ha they have been a delight and Sister Kitchen and I have enjoyed it very much. Today for P-day we're having our Mission Christmas Party on the beach and at the end of it they are having a ugly sweater contest which Sister Kitchen and I didn't have time to go thrift store shopping for but woot woot Thank goodness mama sent me an elf outfit that I'm totally going to wear for the contest part, so wait till next week for pictures on the beach in an Elf Outfit BABY! :D

And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU CASSIE AND DAN RIDING, I LOVED the scripture case AND the cute red wallet AND the fruit roll ups, I screamed I was so stinkin excited. Tee hee I opened my present before Christmas!!!!!! Loved it! Oh and Thank you April for the card and letter, and Ellen and Gabe, thank you for your Christmas card :) Thank you Chelsea I love hearing from you!!! Getting letters and packages are the best, speaking of which DAD, I haven't gotten any of your letters the past 3 weeks, I will check with the mission office to see if they haven't come yet but yessum I have MISSED them VERY much. It's ok though because I understand that life is busy and I'm not the best at writing letters either and we all have our hard days (I'm being sincere by the way, I promise I'm not being a punk). So papa, it's ok. Oh and I just got mama's email that you have written and sent them it's just getting them from the office, tee hee, I love you Pappy!!!! AS for the REST of you, I would love some snail mail punks!!!!!! It's not like missions are hard or anything...whatever... :D I'm so funny! But on a serious note has something depressing happened? I had a really unfortunate dream last night and now I'm a tad worried I won't lie, some one please tell me if everyone is ok or if there is a serious medical thing that has happened to any of you. I love you very much and would much rather know so that way I could add my prayers too. 

Ok, wow what a cheerful Christmas email. Speaking of Christmas cheer, I was pleasantly surprised recently to see Daddy for a few seconds in the "Joy to the World," dvd we've shared lately for a Christmas message with less actives and give out to investigators. It was really cool because I didn't know if he'd be in it or not and then I shouted that's my dad and got really excited and then embarrassed because I was a little weird. I just was really happy to see a glimpse of Daddy. I really miss the family and it was nice to see Dad even though that was years ago it just was cool. 

So lame news, I'm having ingrown toe nail surgery on the 31st of December for my left big toe nail and the little toe next to it :( lame. Happy New Years! Yaaayyyyy....... Thought you'd all like to know. 

I was really touched to hear recently from Chelsea that, " P.s. Aliya prayed for you and Emmett last week! I was shocked because she has never met you but she came up with the two of your names all on her own! :)" It meant a lot to hear that and I'm so grateful, I have always felt a special connection to Aliya. Like Chelsea said, I have never met her but I remember when I first saw the picture of Aliya when she was born I cried, it was weird because I have never cried when seeing pictures of our new nieces and nephews and for some reason I did. I'm really grateful for our family and knowing that I have so many people praying for me even our little ones. Things have been hard lately, I have been really homesick. Not necessarily because it's Christmas, I love Christmas and am fine because we have had plenty of Christmas's as a family that aren't always together because of how big we are. So it's not that, I just really miss you all and love you very much. You all better have a wonderful happy Christmas!!!

Anywho, the Brooksville Ward are so good to Sister Kitchen and I, a lot of people have given us cards and presents and it really touched me yesterday at church because they hardly know me but have just instantly treated me so well. It was so sweet to see how sweet they are to each other too. In elief Society it was nice to witness one of the Sisters in the ward comfort another one who had a loved one pass away. It was touching to see in the closing hymn the one Sister started to cry and the sister next to her put her arm around her and then that sister just fell apart. Sister Kitchen and I just choked back our tears as we tried to sing the rest of the hymn, it was hard. I am so grateful for this gospel and how we get to progress and become like the Savior in being there for each other. I really like how the church's Mormon Messages have been focused on what will our gifts be for the Savior. I'm still trying to decide what mine will be for this new year. My gift that I gave this year was giving my will to the Lord.I am continually still working on that day by day and am definitely not perfect. I have days as a missionary where I totally wimp out and kick myself in the foot for not bearing a stronger testimony in certain situations. But I'm very grateful for our Savior who because of Him we get a fresh new start every day and if need even every hour or second. We are so lucky aren't we?!? 

 http://www.mormonchannel.org/christmas-videos?v=2919740155001&cid=HPFR122013274&im=true

There's a link for one of my favorite songs the tabernacle choir does, isn't it a great video too? 

So, Sister Kitchen and I have a soft baptism date for William Henderson, we'll find out next week if we can set an official date but we just had lesson one with him and he is this sweet old man with a great southern accent. I don't know if I wrote about him or not already but he's a good guy. 

Let's see what else, I'm grateful for Brother and Sister Link, we had our Ward mission leader meeting on Saturday night with the missionaries in our area at the Links Awesome little place with a bonfire in their back yard. They are the best!

Ok, enough from me, I love you all very much and seriously I want you to know how indebted I am to our family, to mom and dad and to every single sibling and your families and to some of my friends, ha ha but more to my family. :) You ARE amazing. I love you, and I love our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who makes all things possible, I am nothing and yet He takes time to remind me that I am everything to Him. I love our Heavenly Father and I'm grateful for the Christmas Season to remind us more of His love. 

God Bless you, much love,

Sister Tasha Bush

Beautiful Brooksville!

Dearest Familia,

Ahoy a hoola hoopla and a Happy New Area!!! I have been transferred to Brooksville and am serving with (drummmmm roollleeeee) Sister Kitchen!!!! Everyone's reaction was hilarious at transfers when it was announced that possibly one of the shortest missionary has been matched up with the tallest. I couldn't contain it and laughed as we hugged and exclaimed, "Oh this is hilarious and SO COOL!" The whole chapel was laughing, it was great :D I am 4'11 and Sister Kitchen is 6'1 we make a Great team! 

Brooksville is lovely, it is a lot more country like and the area is very widespread/ huge. We don't even live in our area, we live in Spring Hill, speaking of which before I forget the address is...

14295 Herring Hollow

Spring Hill, Fl, 34609 

I think that's the right zip code, ha ha pretty sure :D yay! Anywho I really am so happy to be a normal missionary again, it is sooo nice to get back to teaching families and working with less actives/ returning members and all the other fun crazy people. Our Bishop is great, Bishop Chickarello the spelling is probably wrong on that but he is a young guy and his wife is a sweet heart and they have 3 kids. Our Ward mission leader is non-existent apparently he is going through a hard time so I've never met him but I did meet his wife when I was on exchanges with Sister Kitchen a while back (cool eh?!). But not to fret we have the best ward missionaries who have stepped up to the plate, Brother and Sister Link, they are on fire and help out immensely, we love them! 

Other cool things, Brooksville is a real cute combination of people, it's got the beautiful country feel along with fun small town feel and hick ville/ghetto in some spots and yeah it's really nice, I like it a lot.

We've been encouraged by our mission president to get involved with community events to go to things where everyone is like sports or appropriate concerts. So, on Saturday Sister Kitchen and I went to Brooksville town Parade and with how small of a town it is there were a Ton of people there. We found out from a local that this parade has been a tradition for over 25 years. It was a perfect opportunity to hand out, "Night in Bethlehem," flyers which is a huge Nativity they do in Odessa at the Odessa Ward. They've done that since 2006 and last year had over 4,000 people come, check out the website it is such a smart idea and perfect opportunity for the church's name to get out and us missionaries each had an opportunity from different areas to come and help out different nights and it was really cool. Here's the website! 

http://anightinbethlehem.org/

Check out the videos and the photos, isn't that so smart! I love it, they have activities for the family and then a short show and after free cookies and hot chocolate in the church and again just a great opportunity to get the community involved with getting to know the church a little more. There was also a really sweet song, I can't remember the name of it but basically the theme of the song is "Do you have room for the Savior"? It was sung as Mary and Joseph are looking for an Inn and was a powerful reflection to ponder on if we have room for the Savior in our hearts always. 

That's been prominent in my life lately, everyday I strive to pray ( I don't always remember) but I try to pray to have my heart and my mind given to God and always have room for my heart's desires to be with God's and if they are not, I repent and ask for my heart to be purified and more fully with Christ. I've had a lot of cool realizations lately and I love God's timing with my personal studies and what's going on in my life at that same time it's perfect! I read recently in Alma 50 about how Moroni even after they had one a battle was still strengthening the cities and preparing themselves. It was cool to see how hard work brought them to being stronger and how simple means happiness came. They were happy because they kept the commandments and God promised them that they would be happy and prosper if they keep the commandments and if they don't they won't be happy or prosper as well. It is so simple! It helped me see it's as simple as Choosing the Right. 

Choose the Right, CTR, we are taught that as children and it has had a powerful impact on me as I continue to align my will with God's out here on the mission. I came to realize that yes, we should follow what the apostles and prophets have told us in praying for missionary opportunities but what I found to be really cool, when we stop and open up our eyes we will see and realize that we don't have to pray for opportunities! There are opportunities ALL around us it is just about as simple as Choosing the RIght, isn't that cool? If we choose the right we will naturally befriend everyone, if we choose the right we will naturally after befriending them telling them to check out our mormon.org page or inviting them to have dinner and eventually having a game night with the missionaries :D ha ha ARen't the words just perfect from the song, "Choose the Right, when a choice is placed before you." We can find opportunities daily with first ourselves in making sure that we pray and read our scriptures everyday (because we need to prepare just like moroni did), with our families, and then with others. Choose the Right! Get out of the comfort zone and HAVE FUN! 

That's another big thing I learned this week, I wasn't having as much Fun! How can I expect to teach about the plan of happiness if I am not happy? The last few days I was kind of unhappy, I wasn't having a really hard time or anything I just wasn't as happy or having as much fun. But woot that was fixed fast, we had dinner with our Bishop last night and the other missionaries and had a meeting after. And it was a lot of fun. It was nice and Sister Kitchen and I talked after on the drive back to our place how we both weren't having as much fun and just super stressed. It's really nice to get things back into perspective that God wants us to be happy and to proclaim that happiness to others, it has to be sincere or it means nothing! And it has to be done in a sincere way and in His timing. I have learned from Downtown Tampa that you need to first get to know about someone else before you throw down their throat that you are a missionary and here's the gospel. Because then it's about you and not them. People love to have the chance to talk about themselves, everyone wants to be able to share their story and it means a lot when you take the time to get to know them. By getting to know them you help them connect with the spirit and deep down they know they just need help remembering. 

Ok, wow, tangent again! Yikes :D Choose the Right and enjoy the time that it takes, I have found that God's love and timing is everything, sometimes people are ready to come back to church in a snap and others just need a little more time but either way Choose the Right to take the time. I love you all so much!!!

Speaking of tangents, really cool! Sister Burton pointed out to me that the hymn, "Joy to the World," can also be sung in terms of the 2nd coming, isn't that cool?!!! Go through and sing it and it will bring the spirit like none other when you think of it as singing it like the 2nd coming. A lot of Christmas songs are like that too, wonderful!!! I Love the invigorating Christmas Spirit, it's the best!!! I pray and hope you all are enjoying it too and woot woot I love you! 

Thank you for your examples of choosing the right! We have the best family EVER :D 

LOVE,

Sister Tasha C Bush 

I got to go to Donny and Marie's Christmas Concert, what?!

Dear Familia!

Christmas in the City...PSYCH I'm getting Transferred!!!! CRAzy eh?! Oh my heart a lot of feelings! The spirit was super strong and I have felt it confirmed that this is what is suppose to happen and I'm happy but I won't lie it's a little hard and my heart strings have been pulled at a lot of different ways. I love the Tampa 1st Ward and am really really reeeeaaalllyyyy going to miss them as well as my companion Sister Burton, we have had a good time together, especially the last two days which have been full of giggles and hilarious moments. It's kind of hard but at the same time I'm not sad, I am really happy and full of gratitude.

My heart is full! I can't say or write it enough, it IS a wonderful life. :) These last couple of days have been rewarding in the many things I've learned and the depth that it's impacted my life. Oh, Sister Burton is staying Downtown and will be training and the Downtown Elders are being transferred as well, so not really positive on what else will be happening downtown. I am going to miss her, this transfer has gone by so fast and it's weirding me out to realize that January 3rd will be my half way mark, it is flying. It's already December which by the way I love the Christmas Spirit and I hope ya'll know not to worry, I am really happy, of course I miss you Mom and Dad and the family but I'm really not worried for Christmas Eve or Day, I am happy.  My heart has changed a lot this transfer, it has been hard, but so rewarding spiritually. 

It only seems like yesterday we were coming into the city of Tampa, it seems like only like yesterday with our first meeting with Bishop Addison and our Ward Mission Leader Brother Lewis who had the funniest Freudian slip. Bah ha ha I can't believe I forgot to write about it, it was so funny in this meeting he looked at Elder Willard and meant to say, "You've had a lot of success," but instead it came out, "You've had a lot of sex." I died laughing and it was embarrassing and unexpected that only the Sister Missionaries were laughing uncontrollably and it seemed like it didn't even phase the Elders or Bishop even though I could see that one of the Elder Nelson's (there are 2 Elder Nelson's) was trying so hard not to laugh. Oh man alive, good times! 

Sniffle, I'm really going to miss them and the Tampa 1st ward.  I want our family to be friends with so many of the people in that Ward. Anywho, it was sweet yesterday saying good byes and oh man sweet Ethan Freestone who's 12, came up and hugged me and cried and ah, it was hard as I choked back tears reassuring him I'd visit their family and him. He was stinkin adorable as I told him our families were going to be best friends and he responded as he cried, "We already are." Good grief, kills me! That family is exceptional! I LOVE the Tampa 1st Ward!!!

Speaking of that ward, Sister Burton and I earlier in the week were able to help out one night with Ward visits and we died laughing when we discovered one of the less actives we were going to go find/meet was named Thomas Butts (oh and there is an Elder out hear name Elder Butt, isn't that just great!). On our drive over, here is how part of our conversation went as we came up with different ways of referring to them like, "How are the Butts doing?" or "Hey Butts get over here" or "Have you seen the Butts lately". Oh heavens we were so mature as we cried laughing and then we had to compose ourselves when we knocked on their door. Tom Butt was actually a really awesome guy, his wife wasn't as friendly and he didn't seem like he'd be coming back to church but I know they'll come around and I'm excited for the Tampa 1st Ward to fellowship them like crazy. 

Oh, cool side fact! Our zone leaders Elder Crowley and Elder Thomas (love these Elders, they are seriously the best of the best!) have been teaching and set a soft baptism date with a person they met who went to the Book of Mormon musical! So is it worth handing out mormon.orgcards at the Book of Mormon musical even for one person, heck yes it is! Praying more results will happen from it :)

I just can't believe I'm already leaving this area, we're having some cool things happening and people we've been meeting. Yesterday we saw a group of girls on campus having a bible study and talked to them and will be...or Sister Burton and her new companion will be joining them in January, sawweeettt! And yeah, we were going to ride the trolley/bus to teach all day on but unfortunately for me that won't happen but I'm really happy for Sister Burton and oh man I will miss her, we have had no drama and she's a doll.

Oh the concert! I know this email is long but how can I forget the Donny and Marie Christmas Concert :D After our MLC meeting (which was on Friday) we were surprised when the APs let us know that the activity was the Donny and Marie concert at the Tampa Times hockey lighting stadium. It was WEIRD, I'm totally an Awkward missionary!!!!! During intermission us missionaries just felt super weird and I don't know 2nd half of the show was hard to enjoy, it was sad. The 1st part of the show was fun and Christmas like and Marie sang a song with a bunch of pictures of Christ which was cool but then it got really old fast as she kept talking about herself through out the show and all of the people she's met and how cool she is and blah blah blah, it was sad to think of how she chose to represent herself. Oh and it was so weird and I felt so bad for the Elders, during the 2nd half of the show, Marie did a number from Chicago, you heard me Chicago, for a Christmas concert?! Yeah, she tied it into Christmas with how she loves New York aka an excuse to show every one how versatile she is in Singing so many different styles of music. Oh ha ha before that she sang a famous opera song in a Camono (how do you spell that?! asian dress thing) and then took it off after all scandalous like with a flapper dress underneath which I will give her props for it being modest and having sleeves but Sister Burton and I just shook our heads in not understanding the point of her trying through out the whole show to act all seductive and weird. It was weird. I will give them that they have super talented voices and Donny was a lot more humble but still consumed with loving himself as well as both of them bragged on and on about their number one hits and I'm not being very nice. I apologize for this whole paragraph, I just don't understand Pride!!! It drives me nuts and I know that I'm not perfect either and we all are working on it but to have a whole Christmas show devoted to yourself instead of the TRUE meaning which is the Savior and to not say anything in acknowledgement to Him leaves you empty and feeling weird and frustrated. I was really hoping that at the end of the show they'd say something about Christ but they didn't!!!! ARGGGGggggggggg! 

Ok, I'm done, I promise, negativity is not from God, I have really discovered that out here on the mission and it's all about choosing the right! I will write more on that next time but I better stop. I love you all so much and hope you know how much I love you and how grateful I am for Christmas being about Christ and that hope and happiness that comes from Him! 

Love you all so very much! 

LOVE,

Sister Tasha C. Bush

p.s. I am happy!   

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well Hellooo, helloooo!

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Weird how it's December now, it is so strange to not have snow and practically perfect weather! :) Thanksgiving was actually good and we had two Thanksgiving dinners; one with the Freestone family who reminded me of home so much and the other with our ward mission leader's family, the Lewis's. Both were great, really fun and they were awesome to put up with all of the missionaries from our district. The Freestone's are living in their old Stake President's house who are on a mission and it was a really nice place. I about died when I looked outside and saw the view of their backyard which went on to this huge fancy golf course. It was beautiful and it really made my day when they brought out a golf club and we just hit a few from one of the holes I did better than some of the Elders - HA!  

Speaking of Elders check out this hilarious email our mission President sent out, I thought it was soooooo funny! They have gotten a lot more strict on rules between Elders and Sisters out here and this email was really entertaining to Sister Burton and I.

President Cusick

If I offer to go with my wife Stefanie on Saturday morning to the grocery store, ride with her to the pharmacy, run a couple errands, drop off the groceries at home, follow this up with lunch and then go have a fun activity. Sister Cusick calls this "unheard of" or "extremely rare."

If Elders and Sisters go on Monday morning to the grocery store, ride with together to the pharmacy, drop off the groceries at the apartments, follow this with lunch and then go have a fun activity like bowling, a hike or even playing at the Church. Some missionaries might call this "P-Day."

I call it a double date.

Dating is to happen after your missionary service.

Isn't that awesome! President Cusick has a hilarious sense of humor and is pretty funny when he isn't scaring and intimidating the heck out of us all.

Speaking of laughing on Saturday Sister Burton and I were dying laughing, I swear it was national hit on a missionary day, can we say awkward much? We had some guys whistle at us, we had another guy respond with, "You look nice" to when we said, "Hi, how are you?," a homeless man in an accent said to Sister Burton, "You look like a little Pumpkin," and what else, oh this guy who works at "Taco Bus," kept smiling at us the whole time (Mexican's are so flirty) and it was a super entertaining day. Do people not see our name tags? It was hilarious and keeps things fun when street contacting allllllll day. 

Transfer calls are this Saturday by the way. I'm looking forward to it. I love Sister Burton and I'm grateful for all that I have learned in this area and especially grateful for the Tampa 1st Ward, but I miss teaching. We try to teach as street contacting missionaries but it's rare, it's mostly give out a mormon.org card or a Book of Mormon and say a prayer and then that's it. We have some people who are facebook friends and we are looking forward to the lessons we can have with them but we haven't had a lesson yet. 

Oh to answer papa's questions, I think Facebook is a great way to reach people because they won't have "time" to talk to missionaries yet they'll spend 3 hours online. It's a great resource because people will actually open up a lot more on instant chat and you can post mormon.org videos and other links with accurate info when they don't have the right info. They have a lot of rules, you're companion has to see your monitor at all times and you have to approve what each other will post before it is posted so it's good because we are their for each other and don't have to worry about being tempted to do anything stupid like chat with family or friends. Did you know they are also allowing missionaries to have Skype lessons with people too? I also found out that the Temple Square missionaries have online proselyting time as well. Oh and they have a specific MTC Facebook Missionaries which I think they had over 200 or so baptisms from it, the number I think is higher. But it's great for people with Autism who face to face their social skills aren't as natural but on the computer they are on fire with the work.

Anywho, so sorry about this email, a guy was chatting with us but it's good because we got to befriend him and help him get to know a little more about missionaries :) Woot! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH! And I can't wait for Christmas! 

LOVE YOU<3

Sister Bush 

November 25, 2013

Dear Familia!

We've had a lot going on like usual, went on 2 exchanges this week and will have 2 to do this week and I really enjoy it. It's been funny we've had 3 so far and every time I have been the one to leave the area. I'm really grateful for Sister Burton and that we both are sensitive to the spirit, we prayed to know who is to go where and who is to say and every time so far we both have felt that I am to go to these other's Sisters area. I've been to Dade City, other parts of Tampa, and Brooksville now. It's been fun to see other parts of our mission and I am time and time again impressed with our fellow Sisters. It's sweet to hear each of their stories of why or how they choose to serve a mission and I'm always left with deep appreciation and gratitude in their decisions of serving missions. I've also learned a great deal on every exchange, Sister Mortenson for example is one of the most organized and best planners I've met and a stinkin sweet heart and I think she's related to the Hinkley's which would make sense because she's a steller missionary. And ah, I was going to talk about Hermana Graves, Hermana Snow, Sister Skeems, Sister Kitchen and Sister Anderson but I only have a few minutes left so I will write more later on that. 

Ok, cool things. We met this guy named Manuel who is a spray paint artist. He does these art pieces all with spray paint, no brushes and just uses stencils and other really really creative ways at creating these incredible Art pieces and wow, it is epic! He is super receptive and open to learning more about the gospel and ha ha we found out he lives right above us at our apartment complex, so cool! So if you could pray for Manuel and his girlfriend Stephanie that'd be great. We haven't had the opportunity to teach them a lesson yet but we've prayed with him. Another great thing, his friend Steve has added us on Facebook and accepted a book of mormon the 2nd time we saw him. He told us that ever since he met us his life has gotten better and we told him that was because of God and we pulled out a book of mormon and he gladly accepted. Ha ha even cooler, we saw him again this week and he had given our phone number to a friend of his in Arizona who is looking for a religion and he told her to give us a call :) Yeah, that made our day.

We also had a really cool experience with a Muslim couple, they are so sweet and I really admire their faith that they have. Hermana Snow and Sister Burton met them on exchanges and then I and Sister Burton had a lesson with them. Hermana Snow amazingly had an Arabic book of mormon, she had order one to send to her dad for Christmas because he was going to learn Arabic and she thought it was kind of random but then she realized she had order it because of this couple. The husband is going to read it and they want to invite us over for dinner some time. They are from Saudi Arabia and are going to school here and the wife has only been taking English 7 months and she spoke it great. Oh and crazy thing ha ha they told us about their arranged marriage and she is my age and he is 28 and they are the cutest couple and are really happy, good thing eh?! Ha ha, oh his name is Majad and her's is Sahim, I'm not positive how to spell their names but I'm really praying that they will read and pray about the Book of Mormon. They are very dedicated Muslims but we were able to share the 1st vision and they liked it and we discussed a lot of the similarities between Mormon's and Muslims, ha ha Majad asked if Joseph Smith had copied things from Muslims. They were a delight! 

Let's see what else to talk about... oh woot! The Book of Mormon musical is finally over!!! Thank Heavens, we were able to help out a couple of other nights and it went really well. Us missionaries just had good laughs about all the not so kind things that some people said or did but we all just had fun with it and were just that more inspired to treat everyone as children of God. There were a lot of positive articles about us missionaries in the news paper and what not and I am really excited for those who's lives will be changed by it. The Hermana's (Hermana Birch and Larsen who I absolutely adore, these women are AMAZING) had a really neat experience where they talked to a lady and she then decided not to go to the show and helped pass out mormon.org cards instead AND she's going to meet with the Hermana's and have a lesson. She wants to learn more and I'm praying will get baptized so cool!!!!

Oh, to answer Chella Bella's questions :) As street contacting missionaries we are mainly just suppose to try to get referrals to people and give them to other missionaries to teach. It is hard because I miss getting to see the process of people's testimonies grow and what not and it's hard because you just automatically love people and it's hard to only have fast encounters or eventually have to hand them off. But it's been great for me, I've learned sooooooo much and Sister Burton and I have been able to teach a couple of lessons here and there. And we do get to work with people for a little before we hand them off, so it's a lot of hard work and a slower process then what i am use to... well I guess in some ways it's faster but yeah ha ha at the end of the day I love it. 

We had a really neat experience with this homeless man named Steve, he was a sweet heart and just pray that he'll read the book of mormon more. It baffled me that he use to be a lawyer and has a wife and 2 kids but got divorced and I don't know how he became homeless but he is now. It's weird how you can go from being successful to the streets. I think it's so strange and frustrating to me because we have choice as human beings, we have the opportunity to do so much with our lives and it's hard to see people who Choose not to do that. And yes, we do have a Choice. Which I highly advise ya'll to watch this CES broadcast or print it out and read it, Sister Jenkins had written me about it and said some really sweet things to me about it and I looked it up on lds.org and printed it, it is wonderful and amen amen to it! Ah, so good! HEre's the link...

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2013/01/i-will-give-myself-to-him?lang=eng

Anywho, oh before I forget HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZAKIA AND ELIJAH!!!!!!!! I was so excited for Zakia going to the temple, that really made and makes my heart extremely happy! The temple means the world to me and it always makes my day when I hear you all are going. I love letters from Mom and Dad where they mention going to the temple and I know they are already seeing the blessings in their lives from it! I have a strong testimony about making time for the Lord and going to the temple as often as possible because we can make it possible in going. So at the very least go once a month and if you're really ambitious go once a week...or more... :D woot to the woot!

Elijah! I will eventually have a letter coming your way! It is crazy trying to write letters, ha ha the white handbook has a rule for missionaries to limit writing letters and to only write letters on Mondays. Poopala poop but I know blessings come from being obedient but I can and love receiving letters whenever there is no rule against that SO keep it up :D 

Ah, well I'm about to be kicked off, I love you all so very much! And oh Sister Burton and I spoke in church yesterday and if I do so say so myself we did a really excellent job. We had a lot of really sweet compliments after, ha ha one of the Hermana's said that it was general conference worthy, yeeha that's humbling ha ha! We talked about gratitude and drum role no surprise missionary work! Ya'll can check out some of the scriptures I used if you want to or not :) Alma 26:35-37, Luke 17:11-19, Mosiah 2:19-22, Alma 34:38, and John 16:33.

ahhhhhh gotta go! 

LOVE, LOVE, LOVEEEEEEEeeeee So much LOVE,

Sister Bush

p.s. Be happy, you deserve it!!!

Hello, Hello! Never Know What To Title My Emails

Familia!

So first things first so I don't forget - we switched apartments with the Elders so the address is the same accept for the apartment number and oh instead of Dr. it's Ave. I'll just write it out again but I have been getting everyone's letters and I have loved them! Oh Dad, I have gotten all your letters and postcard and they are the best!  :) Hey cool thing, Sister Burton gets a letter from her dad every week too and we both get our letters from our Daddy's on Thursday, it's great :) And packages from our mamas. :D Funny story by the way, in Dad's last letter at the end of it, He said "You are the Best," and it was awesome because I told Sister Burton because she always tells everyone, "You're the Best!" and she laughed because she said her dad had said that in her letter too! So cool!

So the address is 502 S Fremont Ave Apt # 1507, Tampa Fl, 33606. 

Alright, so I love Sister Burton.  She is hilarious and is always saying the funniest things like recently, "It's time to check out mails to the E, our net to the inter." She cracks me up and is great to work with.  We don't have problems and companionship inventories only last 5 or 10 minutes.  She hates contention and is just easy to work with. Oh and speaking of companions, Sister Jenkins and Sister Howard are the sweetest. They stay in touch and I get emails from them every week and even though they are crazy busy (because we missionaries are, seriously I have never been this busy in my life nor this exhausted!) they have both sent me snail mails and are so stinkin sweet. I'm really grateful to have made such valuable lifelong friendships out here, they're wonderful. 

This morning I had a really good scripture study and confirmed things I need to hear from the Lord. Before I talk about that earlier this week we had interviews with our Mission President (on Wednesday). It was crazy because I wasn't nervous at all to meet with him even though everyone else in the mission is, it's hilarious he intimidates the heck out of all the missionaries. I felt relaxed and not worried to meet with him at all and things had been a little hard for me the couple days before  that, I was just really stressing myself out in wanting to be perfect and basically the adversary was doing a great job in sending negative and discouraging thoughts about myself. We discussed only for a few minutes and things were going well and before he was going to tell me more things he asked me if there was anything else I needed to ask him. And as I tried to ask him my question I started bawling uncontrollably, and by uncontrollably I mean super embarrassing type of crying, the kind that is like from your childhood crying, the kind where you can't breath and you're having hiccups crying. Oh my lanta, it was so embarrassing and I, through broken words, apologized to him and said I was fine and that this was really embarrassing.  Oh man it was great. And he laughed too and said it was ok and to just breath. Ha ha, President Cusick is awesome. He asked me what was on my mind and again to just breath. I was having a hard time composing myself, so he told me to walk around and write down what's on my mind and come back and we'd discuss when I was ready and he'd continue on with other interviews in the mean time. I ended up just going to the restroom to sob. It was so strange but I guess I just hadn't cried in a long time and it all just came out there. Sweet Sister Burton came after her interview and hugged me and Hermana Snow came and talked and it was good to realize that I just needed to relax and that God wants me to be happy and that the Atonement is there to help us when we are stressed. It is All encompassing. I expressed how confused I was because I thought I was fine but realized I had been giving myself a really hard time. I also realized that the night before had been rough at the opening night of the Book of Mormon Musical.  I deal terribly with rejection, I hate rejection and the feelings from that show had brought up feelings from the past. So silly how even though you take care of things from the past you really need to accept the Atonement more fully so the past doesn't keep bothering you :) Everything had just built up, stressing myself out in being obsessed with being perfect, wanting to be confident but afraid I'd become prideful, wanting to focus on Christ more, letting the past be the past, missing family, and I really miss our Heavenly Parents and Christ. 

I had a great cry, great fellow sisters, great insights and learning experience and I'm just grateful again. I was able to pull it together and laugh about it and finished my interview with President Cusick. He gave great advice starting with that you can't be perfect that's not possible :) and had a really good example of the need to receive the gift of the Atonement.  My "Preach My Gospel" was on the table and he used it as the example saying how it's like him trying to give me this gift but then me being hesitant and pulling back and forth on whether or not I'd take it. We talked about how I was worthy and I had repented before my mission of everything that I needed to and that I needed to receive that Atonement. The gift is there for us all, we just need to take it. 

President had Sister Burton and I take a break from the Book of Mormon Musical (they had enough missionaries there) and I told him I could do it and he said he knew I could but that a break would be good. Luckily we were able to help out again on Sunday which I was really grateful for because I wanted to help out so badly and I was just fine on Sunday and we had a great time! It was so much better then Tuesday night. 

Anywho, I am so much happier.  Sunday's studies and this morning's have been great. I read in Alma 36 and I love vs 3 and vs 21 really reflects my experience that even though I was having a stressful time and sad it was great because Sunday and today I am SO happy. I really find that description in the verse perfect because the joy I feel today is soooo sweet and I have finally been able to just relax, but still be a hard worker. I also wrote next to verse 21, "The joy of depression," it reminding me of what Dad teaches and I feel like it goes great with it! Read all of Alma 36 if you have time the ending is great and I love verse 30 that is is so simple. Keep the commandments and we will prosper! Also the last sentence, "Now this is according to his word." So good!!!!

Awesome Quote by the way,

"In a real though figurative sense, the book of life is the record of the acts of men as such record is written in their own bodies. It is the record engraven on the very bones, sinews, and flesh of the mortal body. That is, every thought, word and deed has an effect on the human body; all these leave their marks, marks that can easily be read by Him who is Eternal as easily as the words in a book can be read." - Bruce R. McConkie 

I found it in my Bible and love it.  It goes along with my study on the word "word" :) 

Ahhhh I gotta run, I will add another really cool quote next week and more about the cool spray paint artist we've met and how he is our neighbor!!!! SO COOL! and about Jasmine and etc.

SO yes, with Christ we can be happy and life is so good and I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Bush

Woot to the woot!

Dear Familia!

What a week :) Sister Burton and I gave away 31 Books of Mormon this week and it has been a blast, crazy, exhausting, but delightful and never a dull moment. Ha ha! Sister Burton got proposed to by a homeless man and oh I was laughing so hard.  Earlier this week this car was turning at the intersection while we were waiting to cross and this black kid shouted out to us, "Hey White Girls." It was sooooo funny! We got a good kick out of it! 

Let's see what else... we talk to people all the time and we've had some sweet/neat experiences with a lot of people, sorry it's hard to even know which one to share, Victoria or Steve or Tim or Rakisha or Morgan or Jasmine or Edward, it's been neat! 

Before I forget I wanted to share a quote from our ward mission leader who is just soooo awesome. Brother Lewis is a Marine (or in the army?), but at one of our meetings he said, "The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle." It is so true with missionary work, the better and more I study from Preach My Gospel the more confident and secure I am and the more I testify to people about the essentials. That's been really nice here in the city, since we usually only have a few minutes with people.  Sometimes people will talk to us for 30 minutes or an hour. I have worked on testifying more about the Book of Mormon. I have been striving to use it more and it is amazing the miracles that come about from sharing scripture verses with people.  I have stopped asking people if I can share a scripture with them and I just pull out the Book of Mormon and say, "Oh what you just said reminds me of this...." and I share whatever scripture that relates and it's really cool to see what the spirit can do when I get out of the way. There was a man we talked to on a park bench and after a good chat Sister Burton pulled out a Book of Mormon and said a lot of good things and asked if she could give this man the book. He said no thanks and I just opened up the Book and said there's a scripture I'd like to share (I think it was Alma 24:14) and I testified and after Sister Burton asked, "Are you sure you don't want it?" And it was awesome because he said, "Alright, you sold me, I can't say no to that, I'll give it a chance." I LOVE THE SPIRIT! It's great what it can do.

I know it must be a fun adjustment for everyone with every member being a missionary and although the transition might be uncomfortable it doesn't have to be! It's really easy being a member missionary because you don't have to feel pressured in giving your neighbors a Book of Mormon and expecting them to immediately come to church. Just keep being your natural selves and invite them for activities and know that every effort counts and be open to letting the spirit guide every situation and interaction because opportunities will arise for you to testify or just naturally talk about beliefs.  It will be fun for me to transition too - that will be so werid.  Ahhhh!!!  It's going by way too fast, this is crazy!!!! Anywho while it's on my mind, I want to keep it a goal of mine to at least give 1 Book of Mormon away a week when I'm home and I want you to all hold me to that. Ah, let's not talk about that though, I love home, but I also love being here. 

By the way, I had a really sweet experience this morning in my "sacred grove" prayer (a 10 minute out loud pray before personal study) and I'm nervous and I cried but I know it's time and it's been on my mind the majority of my mission. I prayed to Heavenly Father for Him to give me a mountain not only for my faith and my relationship with Him, but because I know it's time to pray for that and that Heavenly Father wanted me to. I don't know what it is that is going to happen, but I felt at peace and I know that Heavenly Father will be with me every step of the way. I cried and expressed that I am scared to Him but not at the same time because I felt His love so strong and again that this is time. I remember earlier on my mission when I prayed for more faith, but I stated clearly to Him that I wasn't asking for a mountain because I remember President Erying's talk from a while ago where he shared his praying for a mountain experience and how hard it was, but his testimony of the Savior was beautiful. 

Anywho after that pray and plenty of tears I opened up my scriptures and it was cool that my study was in Alma 32 and encourage ya'll to read it :) It's a lovely read and I think the biggest thing I got from all of my study was the power of believing, "I CAN." I know with God WE CAN do anything. There is so much inspiration when realizing I CAN and the power that brings, but even more so when there are moments where we all feel like we can't, we KNOW and should REMEMBER, Christ CAN, He Can and that is why WE CAN. 

I love you all so much and I've gotta go but I will write more about Sister Burton and everything next time and will share more stories. Oh I know these are people from my last area but will you continue to pray for Alicia Benally and Juan Herrera and Bridgette Herrera. Ah gotta go! 

I love you I love you, and God loves you! 

Love, 

Sister Bush

Tampa 1 Metro Area BABY Bring on the Street Contacting!

Dear Familia,

Yeeha, soooo to answer all of your questions as you've been dying for a week. :D  I am serving with sweet Sister Burton in the Tampa 1 Metro area, so what does that mean? That means it is a completely brand new area and there are 2 sets of missionaries being sent there, Sister Burton and I and Elders Willard and Nelson. Guess what do we do in this brand new area? We are basically down town in Tampa and a couple of islands by it, Davis Island, Harbor Island, etc. and we Street Contact ALL day EVERY day. Did we have any direction except that? Nope, ha ha we actually didn't even know our boundaries or about the Islands until the 3rd day or so we were in the area. We have been instructed to street contact and basically we are just planting the seeds and trying to get referrals for other missionaries, IT IS AWESOME!!!! I was excited at first and then the first day was a painful reality check on how hard it was and awkward to go up to people on park benches or in passing as the walk by or ya da ya daaa how to make it as natural as possible so they don't get a weird impression about Mormons. Ha ha! So the First day was a little hard but Now I am pumped up because we have had a lot of neat experiences happening already and it is becoming so much more natural and I've been really learning how to trust the Lord and know that I'm not a bad missionary just because we are not teaching full on lessons all the time and that we are just doing things really fast and in passing and handing out Books of Mormon's. It is crazy and awesome, I love it!!! And it really is providing so much growth for me and taken me out of any comfort zone I might have had left, definitely taking that all away, ha ha.

Oh and ha ha I'm a Sister Training Leader too, which means I'm like the girl version of a Zone Leader. So Sister Burton and I will be over 7 sets of Sister Missionaries and we have exchanges once or twice a week. The MLC meeting (missionary leadership correlation or conference meeting?) was really cool on Friday. We got to hear all the new things that are in planning for our mission/ development, including Facebook which the majority of us leaders are involved in and are waiting for phase 2, phase 1 was creating the Facebook pages and only adding President Cusick and President May as our friends. Phase 2 will be further instruction to come and making sure our Zones are Super obedient because if they aren't we as leaders are held responsible, no pressure right? Oh and get this other piece of exciting news, they are working on ipads for our mission and in the next couple of months us missionaries who are obedient will be getting mini ipads to do all of our area book stuff in and to use instead of having to carry our scriptures around and being able to show people videos and what not. Isn't that epic?!  

Oh and guess what guess what!!!!! So The Book of Mormon Musical (by the creators of South Park, not cool at all and really bad) will be coming November 12th downtown Tampa at the Straz theatre and will be going for 2 weeks or so. Our mission President is already working on plans for it where 8 sets of missionaries will be at the theatre with boxes of Books of Mormon's to hand out to people and go with the logos that the church has been putting out of...The Book is always better then the movie or show, something like that! So we will most likely be involved with that since we are the street contacting missionaries and HOLY COW, isn't that crazy?!?

So, ha ha lots of stuff that I'm grateful for and have already had so much personal growth from it all. I'm really grateful to the Lord and echo Ammon's exclamation of joy in Alma 26, God is good. I had prayed last transfer to be a better missionary no matter what transfers brought, to be more focused and just better for God. I prayed to be more of who God wants me to be and who He knows me to be and to help me remember who I really am from the pre-existance. Heavenly Father answers prays, to be a better missionary He has called me to be a Sister Training Leader which requires me to be an example and a more/exactly obedient missionary because other missionaries will be watching me and follow after what I teach spoken or unspoken. Pray answered :) And then to be more of who He knows me as, ha ha I have been put in a street contacting new thing which requires me to completely trust and depend on Him and to have confidence. I love how prayers are always answered in unexpected ways, it is beautiful how God works and makes me think of Elder Bednar's talk, loved where he talked about when we ask for certain things and God gives us situations or other things to give us not only what we ask for but more of what we really need. 

I am very grateful and blessed in more ways then one. I love our apartments, carpet floors, aw I missed carpet floors and a nice gym which is epic, I've been working out a lot harder and it is Fantastic! Also another HUGE blessing is the Tampa Ward which I wish we could work more with but oh their are 8 of us missionaries who attend that ward so the other Elders Nelson and Shupe and Hermana's Snow and Graves get to work with the ward and they are so lucky. We work with them to but in a different way, we are not involved with less actives or recent converts since we are street contacting missionaries and yessum are area book process is ha ha not really existing since we just do what we do :)  But anywho, the first time we went to the Ward building, it touched my heart deeply because on the inside it is SUPER similar to the Cliffside 1st Ward which just warmed my heart because it was like a piece of home for me and I was really surprised by it and had so many random childhood memories and thinking back to what the building was like growing up and wow, it really had an impact on me and I was grateful. It felt like home which meant a lot because I really miss home but it was sweet to have a piece of it here. 

Oh and I wish you could all meet our Ward mission leader, Brother Lewis, good grief that man is ridiculously AWESOME, I look up to him so much, he is hilarious and on fire!!! I'm going to send a copy of the ward mission plan he came up with in correlation to the "To the Rescue" thing to mom and dad. He is amazing, he gets it and his testimony is booming. Our bishop is such a neat man and is a sweetheart, Bishop Addison, good grief, both of them and their love for their ward really impacted me. 

And ah, testimony meeting, I cried with the first testimony who was this cute little boy who just recently got baptized and he talked about how he can feel the spirit and how some days he gets mad and feels the difference but knows that it's ok, that the spirit it still there and that he can say sorry and it's ok. He then bore his testimony that he know's the church is true and he started to cry as he said that we are all God's children and God loves us. And good grief, that got me, such a tender testimony at such a young age and I'm just grateful for families raising their kids right and I'm grateful for our family and bah! So good! Attending church that day was powerful for me, it was the closest I have felt to home on my mission thus far and really meant a lot. God is good and I'm so happy. Ahhh this email is getting way too long and I don't know if you'll all make it because it's so long, ha ha so here's my new address oh and when ever there are transfers feel free to send your letters to the mission office address because they'll get it to the new address's while ya'll wait for my new one :) Just letting ya'll know, not because it was hard this week just because I love letters, promise I'm doing great!  

So here's the address...

502 S. Fremont Dr. #420, Tampa, FL 33606

I know this is really long, so I'll try to wrap it up but last night we met a lot of cool people on campus, Rakisha and her two kids, Sosonia and Alyia (cool right?), and we met a girl from India, Sonam and met a guy from Shrilanka, Rashawn, and met a guy named Wayne Magee, ha ha this cool Black guy who apparently has Irish and native american in his ancestry, super cool.

So yes, missionary work has been adjusted to something else and I'm learning how to have 1 minutes/5 minute lessons which is great because I prayed to teach more simply and more simplified. Again Heavenly Father answers prayers in very un-expecting ways. So yes, we're coming up with creative ways to contact, we'll be riding the bus to talk with people, possibly side walk chalk of the plan of salvation like they did in London was it? or New York? Can't remember and yeah, we're going to try to set up a table at the University for different events. Yessum lots of creativity going on, woot to the woot! 

Ok, I'll stop writing but I love you all so much and my heart if full and don't forget to have the courage to just ask the Lord. He wants us to ASK and He WILL give! I love you all so much and am truly grateful and I'll try to remember to give more cool details on some of the people we met and what not!

LOVE YOU MORE THEN WORDS CAN EXPRESS or like a weird man singing to himself,

LOVE,

Sister Tasha C. Bush

P.S. to give you comfort since we are in a city, we will be getting pepper spray, our mission President is going to be getting pepper spray for all of us Sister's, yay! :D 

Transfers!!!

Dear Familia,

Bet you can't guess who is getting transfer?! Yeah, THIS girl here :D squeal! I'm so EXCITED!!!! Can you tell? :D So, I find out with who and where tomorrow and I'll be opening up a brand new area in the mission AND I will be training in a trio, woot woot! Oh and Sister Howard and Sister Mahilum will be getting a third companion too. I really can't wait, I love change. I love Sister Howard and Sister Mahilum and they have changed my life for the good and I can't wait to see them in the Eternities, really great woman! 

Yesterday, was really sweet and tugged at my heart strings a lot and of course I cried plenty of times too. The branch President Stretch when he announced the news, before he said it started to cry, it was really sweet and I'm grateful for the kind things he said. I'm really going to miss the Gulfport branch, there are a lot of great and fun individuals in that branch and ha ha of course there are some crazy weirdos but what is a branch or ward without those...less drama? Bah aha ha ha, I meant just more excitement, yay! Anywho, my heart was really full yesterday and had touching experience after touching experience. We had one last lesson with Alicia and her brother Brandon Benally and her son Issac AND we had the pleasanter surprise of her mama Sister Birdsbill!!! She was back from visiting her daughter in Montana for 4 months and I was extremely grateful to see her once more before I left Gulfport. At the lesson both of them made me cry from the words they said about me and I really want you all to meet them, they have powerhouse spirits and great things ahead of them. Sister Birdsbill said in the native american culture it is not common for people to just love others right off the bat like she did with myself and Sister Jenkins, she said when she first me us she just fell in love with us. I love her!!! I am praying a ton that Alicia and her mama will go back to church. Brandon has and he's working toward the Melchizedek Priesthood and he's getting his patriarchal blessing on Sunday, oh my heart is full! I love them! 

Let's see, we also saw Sister Merrill and had dinner with her (a great branch member, she has the best accent EVER and is a remarkable woman) and of course I cried at her place to, Sister Howard said a lot of kind things about our companionship and was crying and I was crying and ha ha sweet Sister Mahilum. And I cried more when Sister Merrill gave me a hug and spoke in my ear all that she was grateful for from me and told me how special I was, ah the amount of love from people is overwhelming! Good grief, oh and she gave me this really pretty necklace and is going to paint me something. Why are people so sweet?!!!! 

I really can't wait for the life after this to be able to reunite with people because I can't stand goodbyes, argggggggggggggggggggggggg! Anywho, Sorry for how annoying I'm being in this email, I just have a lot of gratitude and good grief, overwhelmed. 

So to the point, I am grateful for Gulfport even with all it's quirks the good and the bad, I am grateful to God, God is so GOOD. I Love Heavenly Father and I feel like boasting of HIS Strength and how wonderful HE IS. Early in the week, on Thursday, October 24th, I saw the most breath taking Sunset I have EVER seen in my life. I echo Hiro when he says God manifests His love and power through nature. It is stunning and I'll have to get pictures from Sister Howard and Mahilum to send. Any who I am very grateful and pray you all are toooo! 

Give, Give Give your hearts to God and Miracles proceed forth and you will see God's love, I cannot quite comprehend is love but it is GREAT. Do not be put down by the advisory, LOVE beats everything, every negative thought, every bad day, every tiring times, LOVE BRINGS US TO TRUTH. Love who you are because you're from God, love each other because they are too, but most important Love God because HE loves you!

And guess what? I do too :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

Sister Tasha Cosette Bush 

P.S. Attached are pictures of me and Sister Dina Merrill, the other one is of Alicia and Pat and the last one is the 2nd Gulfport trio - sniffle - greatly will be missed! 

We Have A New Companion!

Another Picture from Hiro, our trio companionship, welcome Sister Mahilum (pronounced, Ma-He-Lum)!

Visiting Hiro at Sunset! We got him a Japanese Book of Mormon and are praying it will soften his heart more to wanting to learn more, he is awesome and oh there is his Golf hat :D 

Dear Familia!

So I was going to complain but I realized that wouldn't be very productive now would it? All I'm going to say is PLEASE, please, ppplllleeeeasssseeee, get to Hastening the Work and helping the missionaries because we've been asked not to track and it's kind of tough that we only have 3 or 4 investigators and it would be heaven to have members bring us people to teach and yeah. Just get involved if you haven't yet ok? Go teaching with the missionaries, better yet bring them people to teach, befriend a less active, give out a mormon.org card, beat your testimony, do visiting and home teaching,  ANYTHING, just get involved!!!! Sorry just had to get that off my chest, some people are angels here in the Gulfport branch, others....... I won't get started. Just smile and wave...smile and wave boys. :) So thank you family for always being a great example of living up to our baptismal covenants, I really do mean it, I am grateful that I've been in a family that is striving to follow Christ's footsteps and actually puts faith into action. So thank you! 

Ok, ha ha, I have great news! We met our new companion on Wednesday and had dinner with her and the ap's and President Cusick and Sister Cusick and the other new missionary and her new companions. We didn't find out till after who was going with who and our new companion (drum role) is Sister Mahilum (pronounced, Ma- He- lum). She is from the temple square mission and is from the Philippines, she has been serving for 8 months and will be serving in field for about 4 months then finish her mission in Temple square. She is quiet but has a very strong testimony/spirit. Everything she's told us about the Temple square mission sounds awesome! They get to do all kinds of things including field trips and they get to do temple sessions a lot. Kind of broke my heart hearing about all the cool stuff they do and she showed us pictures and all I could thinks was "dang that's really cool, I'm super jealous right about now."

Who knew it is such a cool place to serve? Ha ha, but I am happy and I had the spirit confirm it to me immediately when I opened my mission call that Florida was where I was suppose to go. I will say however, I miss the temple sooooo much and I really can't wait to see the new temple film and arggg I pray we can have a temple field trip eventually for our mission. Anywho, I am truly impressed with Sister Mahilum's sweet spirit, she says the most sincere prayers and bears powerful testimony in lessons. The spirit just rushes into the room when she speaks, it's so powerful and incredible to me, I've learned a lot in my small observance of her and hope to apply that quiet strength that invites room for the spirit to be so consistent with her and when she speaks. 

Let's see other good news, we set a baptismal date with Karry Liberatare for November 29th and we are really excited for her and pray she'll continue to do well and overcome temptations like drinking and what not. And thank you for praying for her, she has felt our prayers and I know it's not just our's, I am grateful to know and feel the support from our family praying for her, thank you! And if it's ok, please continue to pray for her, she's in desperate need of a job and has been applying as many places as she can but is pretty stressed out. I can't believe how much she has already read and I can't wait to see her beginning to believe in herself more and more. She kept asking us if we really think she'll be ready by November 29th and it was sweet to see how she brighten up more as we said we Know she'll be ready and with the help of God all things are possible and He know's her personally and wants her to be happy so of course she'll be able to. I'm grateful for the hope of the gospel. 

Other news: we've been walking a ton because Sister Mahilum doesn't know how to ride a bike, she's never ridden one, because she just never took time to learn. So we have been trying to teach her and she's getting it and it is really fun. She is adorable and it just made me appreciate mom and dad even more in that they always persisted in us not giving up and learning new skills. I am very grateful for bikes and transportation, my legs have been so sore from all the walking but woot for Wednesday when we get the car again, hallelujah! 

Anywho, Saturday is transfer calls and I've give up on thinking that I'll be transferred and just please pray that I'll keep my sanity :)  

Oh and fun, cool, random, fact, a member once pointed out a house to us that the famous mobster Al Capone use to live in, crazy eh? I still need to get a picture of it but apparently the house next door to is has a secret tunnel in between the two house's and he use to use that in escaping. 

Oh and before I forget the Florida Tampa mission has created a facebook page open for out families to check out and see, here's the link for you all, we as missionaries aren't allowed to go on but family can! Here's the link, 

Speaking of facebook, Emily, will you manage my account again since we've created different one's for the mission as missionaries? Also feel free to add pictures from my mission only if you have time :) and if you want you can change my profile picture too, ha ha Love you!

Alright on that note! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID BUSH aka GREATEST DAD EVER!!!!!!! You'll have to have Gabe play the greatest man ever song by Weezer. I hope your birthday on Tuesday will be everything you want Pappy and my gift will be to set another baptismal date, hopefully soon, yay! Thank you for everything Papa, love you!

MUCH LOVE!!!

Sister Bush