New From Sister Bush

Familia,

 

Oh how I love you all! Ok, so this email might be short because I don't have much time. Not because of your emails, loved them, but the stupid computer here at the library was struggling, argggg. Anywho here's my Mission President's last letter :( *sniffle* But I know God's timing is beautiful and I can't wait to meet the new President. I just love the Summerhays.  Here's his letter:

 

"Dear Elders and Sisters,

This is the last e-mail I will write you in the Mission Field. Today is the last e-mail that you should send to me at this e-mail address. Next week you should send an e-mail to President Cusick.

I conclude my expressions to you as I started them some three years ago by saying: I love you. I believe in you. I have confidence in what you can be and who you can become. I am convinced of the incredible things you can now do and what you can accomplish in your life. I feel this love, belief, confidence and convincing power because I know that in Christ you call do all things and be filled with His love. I know if you allow Him to abide in you through the Holy Ghost you can be marvelous and accomplish miracles. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep It, you will be Good and do Good. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, you will be certain that the Lord is pleased with your service as a Missionary. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, you will marry someone with the Same Spirit. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, His Power will be upon you and your posterity throughout eternity. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, you will prosper in all things both temporal and spiritual. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, you will live in a blessed and happy state in spite of trials. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, you will dwell with God in a condition of never ending happiness. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, that when you see Him you will discover you know Him and that you will be like Him. I know if you Get the Right Spirit and Keep it, that all will be well with you now and forever-in times of ups and downs. Remember This: The key to get the right Spirit and Keep it is to go with the PROS: Pray, Read, Obey and Serve and when you return home, Tee it up in the Temple at least once a month. I know this all to be true. Please: Stay in the Right Spirit now and forever. Till we meet, talk, or e-mail again, know that I am so grateful for the privilege of serving the Lord Jesus Christ as His authorized servant with you, loving you, and being loved by you. I will always believe in you.

President Summerhays"

 

Isn't he legit! Ok you heard me brag about them last week. So next topic, Betty Waters! Have I told you about her? Oh she is a fabulous, sweet, awesome, older black woman and has the strongest faith I have ever know. She knows the gospel is true we are almost done teaching her all the lessons and she's just waiting for God's timing on getting baptized. We prayed about July 13th for her and she's praying if that is the date to be baptized. Pray for her to get her answer!!! She has way strong faith and has gotten answers before like I said she already knows it's all true and loves it and yessum, we're praying she'll go for July 13th.

 

Oh, before I forget Dad, there's this man we met on the dock who's Japanese :) He is really inspiring, his name is "Hero" and we see him every morning on the dock on our morning run. He loves observing nature and said the sweetest thing about it and I love it. He said he loves nature because it shows God's love and that "nature is innocent, nature does not sin." He is inspiring, he struggles with liver failure and has to go in a lot during the week for 3 to 4 hours for them to pump out the poison in his blood and transfuse new. I am astounding by him and know he is being prepared for the gospel. We hope to be teaching him soon.

 

What did you all think of the fireside? I'll have more to say on that next time and I'll have to share a really cool thought/revelation I had in one of my studies recently.

 

Ahh I'm getting kicked off, I love you all so much and miss you more then you know :D

 

Love, love loooovvveeee,

 

Sister Tasha Cosette Bush

Baptism!

Dear Loved Ones, 

The highlight for the week was Sister Dawn Sloat baptism!!! Yeah! It was so sweet to see her husband baptize her, he's been waiting 9 years and on June 15th 2013 she was baptized! It was such a joy to have them both in church (Brother Sloat hasn't been to church for a while but he was worthy to baptize and confirm her, now we just need to get him back to the temple) and just seeing the spirit touch them during sacrament was beautiful. Sister Sloat is one of my favorite people ever and I felt so strong that I knew before in the preexistence. I can't wait for them as they plan to go to the temple together in a year to be sealed for time and all eternity. And Sister Sloat is dying to go for baptisms at the temple but it's closed until July 13, I think?  But she's planning on getting her patriarchal blessing as soon as possible. Anywho, it was really sweet to meet with her at her house before the baptism (she insisted on us driving with her and her husband, that made me super happy) and I love the memory of Sister Jenkins braiding her hair and seeing Sister Sloat just beaming. She's been wanting to get baptized for quite a while now! It felt like home away from home and ha ha they love us, they have had a couple of missionaries. It was cool because the first set of missionaries they had were sisters and then they had a lot of elders and then us! I got it out of them that we are their favorites but it was sweet they started and ended with Sisters, cool huh? It was also cut how one of the Elders (who had taught her) asked her what it was that the sisters had that they didn't? And she said "I don't know, it's just different with them." I can't answer the questions either but it makes me feel happy that Heavenly Father let it be us. Anywho I love her! Now we just need to convert her son Chris and get the missionaries to him in Hong Kong (he's in the military). She's already teasing him about setting him up with Mormon girls. Oh and Sister Sloat was such a good sport, the water in the font ended up being cold when she went in but she went in with a smile on her face the whole time! 

It was also really neat to realize she was the cleanest and most perfect person in the room after her baptism. I can testify that when we repent with a sincere heart and with real intent, God truly remembers our sins no more. He Himself says so in Hebrews that He remembers our sins no more, so know and believe that God will forget, So shouldn't we learn and move forward from the past if God does? Let whatever is troubling you from the past GO and LOOK FORWARD to the future if you have already made amends with God; for your mistakes and sins do not exist anymore. How great is that? Another thing I loved from Sister Sloat's baptism was the musical number she choose and had us do which was, "As Sisters in Zion." How sweet is that, ah I love her! 

Ok, other cool thing from the week was our specialized mission training, sniffle it was our last mission training with President and Sister Summerhays and good grief I'm going to miss them, they are amazing. I do know that it is the timing of the Lord and the new President will be just as great just in a different way. So what I loved about this training was what I usually love, how much of Christ's love and the spirit that resides there. I learned so much ! And cool fun facts we learn like the prophet and 12 apostles pray for the missionaries every Thursday in the temple and on June 23 there will be, and I quote from Elder Nelson, " the most important missionary meeting of the last dispensation." If that doesn't catch your attention or desire to watch, I don't know what will, if it doesn't... I'd say you have no soul :) tee hee Just saying,I really can't wait for it!!!  

So a lot of cool stories from the training that I'll try to tell or in other words prepare yourselves for another long email, muah ha ha ha..... 

First one= Golf story from President Summerhays, yay! They had a question/answer session for us to ask President and Sister Summerhays anything we wanted. And Elder Russell asked, "How do you stay successful and humble? or how do you gain success and stay humble?" Prepare yourself's for an awesome answer, bah! President responded with a story about how he grew up with the mentality of wanting to always win in sports and hoping the other team would lose. A classic competitive spirit in high school and through out his life but he realized how he didn't like having that attitude of being in a game and always thinking, "Don't make it, don't make it." So he sincerely prayed to Heavenly Father to have a change in attitude and for the help to practice the attitude of wanting the other players to win. Of course he continued to work his hardest to win but more and more he strove to have the attitude of saying in his head, "Make the putt," to whomever he was playing against. In one particular tournament, he and everyone else had already played and their was one last guy to go. If this guy didn't make his last putt, then President Summerhays would win but if he did this man would. President Summerhays sincerely said over and over again in his head, "Make the putt, make the putt, come on make it!" And the other man did and won and President Summerhays about shouted for joy, people could tell that his smile was sincere and handshake when he congratulated this man. And yet others didn't. Either way it came around again where President Summerhays had the last putt in another tournament and guess what, he made it and won the tournament. He discovered how much more joy is felt when wanting and rooting for other's success as well. So how do you stay humble while being successful? You cheer and pray for other people's success along yours! Doesn't mean you don't try your hardest and work your best, you just can relax and see others as children of God trying their best too. I loved that story! So love your neighbors and be your best! I loved how President said it, when you knock someone down pick them up, ha ha. 

Another neat thing about the Summerhays is how well rounded they are. I love that they love sports and musicals, they are huge into musicals and plays and art and I just think it's neat that they appreciate all sides of life. It was cool how they talked about creating a family plan to stay solid in the gospel because they are in the world a lot and they have to stand as that standard. It was apparent that family came first when Sister Summerhays shared how President once flew home for his daughter's finals basketball game in high school watched the game and then flew back out to the tournament he was in. They talked about the most important work you'll do is in your home, careers will take you away from home, so you'll have to learn to keep home sacred. Thank you mom and dad for doing just that, I seriously have the best parents ever! 

It was sweet too how when any missionary asked a question the whole time while answering the question, they looked directly at the missionary and I don't know why but I just thought it was cool how they made you feel like it was just a conversation between you and them. Needless to say they are wonderful and are people that just love. Oh and how they gained their testimonies was for President it was scriptures and he actually was a less active growing up and was reactivated when he was 17 years old. And Sister Summerhays said she gained her testimony from her first baby, she said she felt that she had a bit of heaven when she held her daughter in her arms for the first time. 

Wow, this email is getting longer and longer. One last story, that I loved! It's a native american analogy, where a grandpa is telling his grandson about how there's a war going on inside everyone, with a good wolf and a bad wolf and how it's a constant battle. The grandson ask's which one wins and the grandfather's response is, "The wolf you feed." 

AWESOME Right?!! Oh I love it! Anywho, they then did a skit about 3 different voices people hear, the critic, the stressed, and the deeper self (our spiritual true self). It was a very powerful skit and they talked about how Satan= critic, he poses as God because he's desperate to be like God but with Satan he destroys. The spirit= light, love, and gives us energy. Feed the good voice! When you criticize yourself and others, that's only coming from one voice, not yours but Satan's. Who you really are, isn't that. I'm loved this training because it helped me breathe and accept where I am and it's ok that I'm not perfect and to learn to love myself. To feed that good wolf :) Look for the good in the day, there is always 1 good thing in a day. We can't serve to masters choose today to be grateful or not.

Oh and one last thing, I love what another missionary said, "God loves us the way we are but He loves us too much to let us stay that way." Isn't that great?! YaY! We are God's finest creations, know it and believe it, I know that in my prayers I've been praying to see me as God sees me. God loves us, so shouldn't we as well? 

Oh and two last quotes President sent in his letter this week. 

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught,
"In this work there must be commitment. There must be devotion. We are engaged in a great eternal struggle that concerns the very souls of the sons and daughters of God. We are not losing. We are winning. We will continue to win if we will be faithful and true. We can do it. We must do it. We will do it. There is nothing the Lord has asked of us that in faith we cannot accomplish."

President Monson adds,
“On occasion we need to make a second effort - and a third effort, and a fourth effort, and as many degrees of effort as may be required to accomplish what we strive to achieve.” 

I love you all so much, I believe in you, and I believe in Christ and God,

Love you love you looooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeee you!!!!!! 

My Eternal Love,

Sister Tasha C. Bush 

P.S. Our bikes got stolen last week, ha ha no joke, and we had them locked up to a big palm tree and when we came out of the lesson they were gone. Also we reported it to the police and had a case number for it, called them to see if there was any update and they didn't even put anyone on the case yet. So yessum, I'll be calling the CTR bike shop, yay for bike insurance. 

P.S.S I love Sister Jenkins and I really don't want either of us to transfer this next transfer, we both really want one more transfer together because we feel like there's so much more work to do to build up the area and we have found a ton of unity together. 

P.S.S.S If you can keep the Sister and Brother Sloat's in your prayers and to keep coming to church, I know Satan will attack and work hard on them for choosing the right. And if you can pray for Tamika, we haven't been able to teach her any of the lessons yet, so if you can pray that we might be able to have a chance to teach a lesson with her. Thank you so much! And let me know if there's ever anything I can pray for. Love you all!

Bike Helmets in the Bathtub

Hello, Helloa loved ones!

 

This week has been fun, fantastic and tiring, but rewarding! I am so happy and love being on a mission. Won't lie, a couple of days ago it was really tough.  But God teaches us things we pray for.  I made the mistake of praying for greater faith the last few weeks and boy did it get tough. It was tough to find the energy and to remember the reason why I decided to serve a mission.  I was reminded very fast the next morning when Sister Jenkins and I were awoken by our phone with a different alarm we didn't recognize. Welcome to Hurricane Season Baby! We were awoken at 4:15am to text messages of Tornado Warnings and tropical storms, yeehaw!

 

So if you are wondering, the mission rules and protocall for tornado warnings= putting on your bike helemets and getting in the bathtub with pillows and what not. Yay for obedience, without it we wouldn't have awesome pictures of us with bike helmets on our heads and sitting in a bathtub excited and freaked out (not used to weather warnings at all, apparently it's not a big deal in Florida, people just hangout in their houses and react to it as people in Utah react to snow...for the most part) but we were hilariously delirious and we made a game of it. We created a show called, "Bike Helmets in the Bathtub," and we talked in British accents and gave awesome advice as what "to do" in emergancies (but really what you shouldn't do). We think we're pretty funny. Anywho we were up until 4:45am when we got a message that the warning was over. We went back to bed full of the giggles.  Later our little weather radio alarm went off and it was a legit warning, so back to the bathtub we went and oh man it was hilarious. We are safe and sound and there was a tornado that went through Gulfport, but nothing too serious, really it was a small one. Sister Jenkins and I are looking forward to creating more episodes of our show. 

But on to the part where I learned something...:) Besides being an entertained and looking like weirdos, it was really sweet and humbling during the other warnings. I knew that we were going to be fine and safe, but I also realized the importance of being on good terms with the Creator. I realized if this didn't go well, do I feel that I am in good standing with God? Could I confidently know that if I stood before my Maker that I would be ready and happy? It was a beautiful wake up call (well annoying with the alarm) and it was good for me to realize why I'm on a mission. I don't share this to scare any of you and seriously it was a tiny storm, no one was hurt. I share this because I learned a lot in that moment. The significance of life, how humorous a serious moment can be, realizing by the end of the storm it was something sooo small and at the end of it all is God. Life is simple, beautiful and it can be fun! Missionary work is FUN! It is so exhausting and rewarding at the same time :D

 

Yesterday, we had a beautiful lesson in relief society and (woot!) 3 investigators of ours came to church and happily 2 of our returning members might be able to be considered active soon. But I loved the scriptures that were shared, Exodus 3:11-14, D&C 88:67&68 and John 5:30-36. I thought it was neat to feel connected to Moses, thinking,"Hey a prophet of God was very insecure before his work." It was comforting to see despite his insecurities all that he accomplished because of God, because of Christ. I love God's response to him, "Certainly, I will be with thee." And even better, "I AM THAT I AM." I love that.  Life doesn't have to be complicated, it is as simple as God saying, "I AM." I find that beautiful that because HE IS, I CAN BE. With Christ and God we can take the impossible and make it possible and what a beautiful promise from God. All we have to do is obey His will and blessings from Heaven pour out upon us. So love Him and see what you CAN BE with I AM because HE IS. :) God loves you so!

 

Ok, I'll get out of preaching mode. Oh I don't remember if I told Dad or not, but I finished the Book of Mormon on the last day of May. I thought it was sweet to see that Dad finished it in his first 2 months of his mission and I did too! I didn't read the whole thing in 2 months but I finished it all by my first 2 months here in Florida. Yay! Oh by the way A BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandma E and Cassito bandito and Daphne and who else have I missed?! :D ha ha - I'm so considerate!

 

Other fun news, Sister Jenkins and I were able to go to the "Tropicana Field," the huge baseball field, home of the Rays, for one of our investigators high school graduation!

 

Well shoot, it's that time where I have to go again, but as always know how much I love you all and Oh everyone please don't do drugs! Ok, seriously tell your little ones and everyone you know.  We had an experience recently with a guy who was crazy and no doubt it was from drugs and beer. So don't do drugs, you will make a fool out of yourself. Alright on that note (ha ha!), keep the commandments, don't do drugs, but do however make fun random videos while sitting in a bathtub with bike helmets on, and know the most important thing to know is God's love!

 

Oh and keep up with going to the temple, I love you all so much and am so proud of my mama and dad, who are diligent temple goers :)

Love you more then I can ever say,

 My eternal love,

Sister Tasha Cosette Bush

P.S. Happy Father's Day coming up! I am extremely blessed to not only have the world's best mom but the world's best dad! Dad, I wish I could buy you a ticket to come play golf in Florida or even better buy you a golf course in New Zealand, that would be awesome! But not as awesome as you! Thank you for being there for me, I really am lucky to have you as a dad. Shoot I am about to be kicked off, I have a very cheesie letter coming about how amazing you are. I love you!!!