Yeeha!

          Hello Familia,

So this letter is going to be short, they sent out a mission survey that they require all missionaries to do, so boooooo it cut my email time :( But please keep writing and sending your updates and pictures I love them very much. 

This last week has been a fun adjustment as our trio companion went down to two (ha ha I just thought of that part in the lion king song... wow) and the spirit has been Awesome between Sister Howard and I. We get along AMAZINGLY and I love her so much!!!! It is really nice to feel and awww I just so grateful for her. She cracks me up and again I just don't know how to express how happy I am that we're companions. Everything, especially communication is really good between us and the only thing that has been hard if us both figuring out what to do with Sister Jenkins gone. 

We are finally really confident in our ability to know the rules, directions, and adjusting to the change of objective and plan that we have. Yes we do not have a ton of baptism dates right now or progressing investigators but that is because God is have us shift are focus. Our objective right now is going through the branch directory, organizing people into categories and working on part-member families and cleaning up the directory. There is a ton of Work and many Less-actives/ returning members to see and a lot ahead of us. We were both a little frustrated and stressed at first with the change of speed and focus but we are adjusting well and I am confident that as we are exactly obedient and as we continue being unified in friendship and effort we are going to do great things and develop really positively more into who we both are striving to be. 

Any who I'm about to get kicked off the computer but remind me to write about the cool experience we had with meeting Nikki about 2 weeks ago and the cool notes from Sunday and helping me feel better and what not. 

Ha ha, anywho more next week, I love you all very much and read your scriptures, say your prayers, and above all remember how much God LOVES YOU!!!!!

Oh and by the way so proud of my nephew Jacob for being baptized, beautiful!!!!

Love, 

Sister Bush

Greetings from Florida

Hi!

My name is Jenner Marcucci.  I serve on the High Council the St. Petersburg Stake.  I have had the pleasure of seeing your daughter working so hard as a full time missionary.  I just wanted to let you know how fantastic she is!  She absolutely sparkles with enthusiasm and charity. It is not hard to get excited about the gospel just being around her.

Thank you so much for sending her our way!  She is in great hands and has a super companion.

God Bless!

Jenner

Challenging, Wonderful, Painful, Eventful, Happiness

Hellooooooo!

Well goodness, I don't even know where to start this week it has been wonderful, challenging and in the end there is a happy ending. 

So first the news of the week, Sister Howard and I will be serving in Gulfport together this transfer which is only going to be 4 weeks long because the MTC has to catch up or something where they get transfers and what not normal to 6 weeks. Anywho, I'll be training her "all by myselffff," and Sister Jenkins is off to...we don't know :) All the missionaries who are being transferred are meeting in Temple Terrace and they don't know where they are going or who they are paired up with until they get there. I am going to miss Sister Jenkins, it's a very bitter sweet time. I am grateful to her as a sister and friend and am nervous because of the load of responsibility to take for the area but I am very lucky to have Sister Howard. I swear she was pre-trained before the mission. So lots of mixed emotions, I'm really happy to be serving with Sister Howard and going back to just two companions, I loved the trio but it's just a lot harder to balance and be ready with time and what not. It's possible but wooeee. Sister Jenkins is going to do amazing where ever she goes, she is the most dedicated missionary out here and wants to give every minute wisely and for the Lord. I love her and will miss her but I also know that this is really good timing :)

Sister Bush, Sister Howard, Betty Waters and Sister Jenkins

The best news was the baptism of Betty Waters which was on Saturday and at Sister Paunov's pool. We learned fast to not do baptisms at pools, people weren't as reverent but the confirmation on Sunday was very powerful and I of course cried. She is just beaming and goodness, I'm just very grateful, she is a very choice soul!

I cried a lot yesterday day, ha ha, and a little today, just because my heart is very full and I am so grateful to God and His hand in all things and His timing is beautiful. I am so happy, ha ha exhausted but I just wept after reading in Enos after my personal study. The last verse in Enos touched my soul as he expresses how he can't wait reuniting with the Lord and what Christ says to him. I wept because I can't wait for that day, I can't wait to see Heavenly Father and Mother and our Savior and Brother Jesus Christ, I miss them so much. I can not wait for the day for this plan to all be pieced together and I want to see each of you there! The time is now to prepare and Life is beautiful! Good grief I'm going to cry again, I just KNOW with all that I am that IT IS TRUE! It is worth it all and I don't know how to adequately express the Love of God that I feel. Thank you so much familia! 

Goodness, I have learned a lot and I am sending a long talk about the 4th missionary and so I'll stop there and next time woot I'll share what I have learned from a trio companionship for next week. :) Ha ha and we had a really good experience with talking with the Hermana's trio, it was greatly needed and very powerful and spiritual. 

I love you all more then I can ever say, I am just thrilled for all that we have to look forward to and Please put God first in your life and watch all other things fall into place, it does wonders :) Oh and if you can keep Juan and Bridgett Herrera's in your prayers, we are praying that they'll come to church. Sister Herrera is a less active/ returning member and her husband isn't a member and we're praying to set a baptismal date this week. Keep them in your prayers they are an amazing couple! 

Love you, love you loooovvveee you!

Sister Bush 

FWD: Message from President Cusick

Oh and This Is AMAZING!!! Please send to EVERYONE, it is really long but worth it for a FHE or whenever you can. It should be applied to people in general not just missionaries and is really sweet to think about how we can improve ourselves and our hearts intents.  I love it and I love YOU! http://oysmf.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html (Download under "The Fourth Missionary")

Charity is the Pure Love of Christ

Familia!

Yeehaw, what a week! :) Betty had her baptismal interview with President Cusick and did wonderfully! She is getting baptized this Saturday and has been beaming every time we see her. I almost cried during her lesson we had with her last week because of how she was just shining, she expressed how she can't wait to be completely cleaned, to have everything washed away. I love her and it has really touched my heart seeing this huge change in her and how she's reading her scriptures more and has made the effort and sacrifice to come to church. It's hard for her to come to church because she has a lot of health problems but she has really made the effort and has been coming and again the change in her I know is due to the scriptures and coming to church. These basics are the foundation of our expression of our Love to God. It is the foundation to becoming celestial beings. We need to always take care of the essentials of prayer, scriptures and church.

President Hinkley once compared faith and love to the muscles in our arm and when the muscle of the arm is used and worked on it grows but when neglected it becomes weak. Ha ha, oh wow childhood memory of that song, "Muscle in my ARRrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmm, and the land was clean and good and I did what I could, clap clap." Awwww precious, family hiking/ camping memories= awesome, ya'll better be singing that still when you are having your hiking vacations without me! So work your faith muscles :)

Oh another cool thought on that, faith only becomes greater through charity! Read 1 Cor. 13, it's a short chapter and is wonderful!!! Charity is the greatest out of all, if we want our faith or hope or any spiritual gifts/ priesthood power to grow and become stronger they are all dependent upon Charity, upon the Love of God. 

As missionaries we see and meet a lot of people, some a little different and unique than others (ha ha) but this work and ourselves do not move forward without love/ charity. Love is the feeling behind charity and charity is the action, it's like faith without works is dead, wouldn't that be the same for charity then? Please love and welcome any recent converts or less active/ returning members. To not just smile and say "Hi," to an individual, but to find out who they are and to sit by them at activities or in church. Help those around us remain active and dedicated to God. Once they find it within themselves they in turn will do the same thing. Love is essential! 

Woot for the Gospel! By the way ya'll need to got to the website, "Hastening the work of Salvation." You can find it on lds.org/hasteningtheworkofsalvation. President Cusick has implemented a rule that we can only have dinner appointments with members if we show them this website and I highly recommend it. What better way to get ides on how to get more involved in the work then by advice from our Prophet and Apostles. It is a wonderful sight and with a lot of good videos that are inspiring and motivating.

Shoot, I'm running out of time and have to read a talk President Cusick sent to us missionaries. :) I love you all sooo much and will have to write about our Zone Conference we had recently next time and some funny stories as well. 

I love you all so much! Look up charity in Preach My Gospel, it's in lesson 6, the section of Christlike attributes. So again I love you, Love each other and yourself and by doing that you are showing your love to God! God loves you so much!!!!

Love, 

Sister Tasha C. Bush    

Oh Say Can You SINNNGGG!

Helloa Familia!

What a fun week this has been :) So coolest opportunity EVER, on Saturday (August 3rd) a couple of us missionaries (I think about 42 of us?) got to sing the national anthem at the Rays game in the Tropicana Stadium! It was awesome!!! I am seriously so lucky and it was hilarious to see how ecstatic the Elders were to be singing o the pitching mound. It was a really neat experience to be able to sing in front of thousands of people and the best part that I loved about it was standing their singing with the name of Christ on me. It was beautiful to stand in front of a small portion of  "the world" and sing our nations "Star spangled Banner" and sing it for God in the spirit it is meant to have, it's cheesy but I really felt that sweet spirit in standing steadfast and immovable. It was also a sense of relief after we sang to have the crowd go wild, it was funny because I wasn't positive as to how they'd react and good grief I was so giddy and surprised to hear the type of cheering they gave after. Ha, ha maybe it was so loud because of the missionaries in attendance in the stadium. Either way that was a highlight and invigorated me with a deeper sense of gratitude and feelings of adoration in being a member of God's church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I loved it!

It was so much fun too because we got to watch the game after and it was a blast to be in a huge section of missionaries and I usually am not a fan of baseball but I had never been to a game before and now I am wondering how in the heck I had never gone to one before, I love it! :D Oh and the Rays won, woot woot! Oh and another cool thing, they had a big tank of sting rays in the stadium, ha ha

Anywho an even bigger highlight was our branch's testimony meeting yesterday, it was such a powerful meeting and so many beautiful testimonies, I'm so proud of this sweet Gulfport Branch, they are coming along so much better from where they were at the start. My heart was full and I had to get up and express my gratitude to God. It has been so overwhelming the happiness and love of God I have felt form Saturday to Sunday, how could I not express my thanks. Good grief, my heart has been touched deeply lately and I am just overwhelmed by the goodness of God. The bigger picture is wonderful and I pray and hope we can all give our thanks and even better our hearts and wills to God for that is not only the best thing but truly the only thing we can give to our incredible, loving, Heavenly Father. God is Great! I love and miss Him so but what better way to be closer but by doing the things we need to. I find myself constantly striving to more fully giving my heart to Him. It can be hard at times and I'm striving more and more to not be so selfish. And what I love about it is how much I feel God's love for me for what I'm giving in the moment. As long as I'm trying I know He is accepting, I hope we can do that for each other, that we will love and continue to accept each other and encourage each other to be better.

Oh and nice scripture thing that our stake over here is doing, they have every week a scripture that you're suppose to read every day and this week's scripture is 2 Tim. 3:15-17, it's nice! 

Oh and other great news, our investigator Betty Waters finally committed to a baptismal date for August 17th!!!! She's having her baptismal interview today and keep her in your prayers, it should go well and ah I'm so excited for her, I love her! Ha ha she cracks me up too, she teased me yesterday after my testimony and called me a water bucket, I'm such a cry baby when it comes to bearing testimonies! I adore her and she loves us and I'm hoping we can soon teach her adorable grandson Kevean, who's 7 and he has practiced praying for us and is a pure delight. His prayers are so good for a 7 year old. 

Anywho, I'm very proud of Betty, it's a huge and hard transition, she's a 73 year old baptist woman and has been to that church for over 20years and is really close to those in her church. I am amazed with her faith and I can't wait for her to go to the temple. That'd be neat if her church friends would join our lessons but... I don't think they're to happy with us :)

Funniest thing by the way that I forgot to write about, a couple district meetings ago our Elders were practicing a role play on how to help an investigator commit to baptism. At every district or zone meeting we always practice a role play of some sort. This one was the best one yet! So Elder Lagoona was the investigator and Elder Ryan and Tanner were teaching and the 1st role play went great and they did a good job on not putting up with excuses and reminded him of how he felt the fruits of the spirit like the Galatians scripture describes. So on the 2nd time that they repracticed it was even better, Elder Tanner was super bold and ha ha the best part after he asked Elder Lagoona how he felt and his response straight face and everything said, "I feel good, I feel the fruits, I feel the fruits coming back."

Elder Ryan straight face, " Yeah, we feel the fruits too."

A little bit of silence and Me, "BAH HA HA HA haaaaaa"

And the whole district busted out laughing. We were all crying with laughter it was so funny and we are now making shirts that say, "Can you feel the fruits?" So ya'll can you feel the fruits? Well I've gotta run but I love you all so much, more funny stories next week and I love you, I love you, I lvoe you!!!!!

Remember Who you and how much God Loves you and I love you, Love love love, 

Sister Tasha Cosette Bush