The Lord Breaks to Build

Sister Bush and Sister Howard out exercising

Dear familia,

Woot what another up and down week, ha ha I feel like that is every day for a missionary. Some days you love it and it's the BEST thing EVER to be on a mission and other days you are home sick like none other and can't help but think, "Get me out of here!!!." Sometimes you wonder, "what am I  doing wrong" to have things going the way they are and you either find what you can improve on or you realize that no matter what you do things will just happen or just be the way they are without your ability to change it except your perspective. It has been a transition for me to have gone from starting my mission with baptism dates left and right to now struggling to even find new investigators. We have a lot of work and we are obedient but of course we are always finding ways to improve but we have no control on whether or not the branch will decide to do their part. They are improving but sheesh it can be stressful and I have to work on not getting mad, ha ha I read in my scripture study this morning in 3 Nephi 11:29-30 that anger and contention should be done away with and it is something I am working on when I feel flustered about the branch or certain people in it. 

So before I forget, cool story from last week, we were doing the, "To the Rescue" program we're doing here in our mission which is cleaning up the wards/branch directories. Side note by the way, Sister Howard and I were totally inspired because we started going through the branch directory before "To the Rescue," was started, woot! 

So we knocked on the door of one of the less active members we were looking for, a man named Eric and we met his sister Olga instead. When she opened the door, we were both stunned with how kind she was and immediately she welcomed us in and after we introduced ourselves and I asked her if I could give her a hug, she said a hug was very needed. After we both hugged her, she cried and said, "I've been waiting for you." I was deeply moved and touched because that morning I was having a hard day wondering why the Lord would choose me to serve a mission. And He blessed us with meeting Olga who said, "I've been waiting for you, I need to come back, I miss church, I need to come back home." We had a really awesome visit and as she cried my heart was full of gratitude as I realized why the Lord would choose me, the weakest of the weak to serve a mission. He helped me see that one of the best things I do is give hugs :) and I love easily and with all my heart. I'm not the best at other things but one thing I do do well is that I have a big heart and I can love people almost instantaneously from just meeting them. It's unique how we were there for Olga yet she did so much more for me and Sister Howard in giving me the uplift my spirit needed. She and her daughter have been to church twice now and seem much happier and I always look forward to our lessons with her. 

Oh and another cool thing that happened on Friday the 27th we had a zone conference with a member from the quorum of the 70, Elder Teh from the Philippines and is now in Bountiful Utah. Needless to say, it was a much needed zone conference and was awesome!! I was lucky and got to put together a musical number for it and it's cool how the spirit works. When the AP's had asked me that he had requested for a song about the Savior, the first song that immediately popped into my head was, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me." I know this was directed about by the spirit because when I told Sister Howard I was asked to put together a musical number for the conference it was the first song that came to her head as well AND when we went to look it up in the primary hymn book it wasn't in there and before we gave up we checked in the primary room and lo and behold a copy of it was on the piano and we made copies and were able to get some Elders and Sisters to sing it and I played my violin and it turned out nice. Elder Teh said it was one of his favorite songs and he was tempted to come over and sing with us :) Woot! 

It was really neat how Elder Teh directed and created an environment /atmosphere for the spirit to teach and there are so many notes I want to share from it but some of the main things that stuck out strong was the Lord Expects more, Being prepared, not being overwhelmed by trusting and Conquering fear with Faith. One of my favorite scriptures from the zone conference was shared from Sister Cusick which was D&C 6:32-37, very nice! Another thought I like shared by a fellow missionary was Sister Larabee who was talking about teaching by the spirit and how important it is to Be You, be who you are because that's who God called to the mission. Another favorite thing from it was the levels Elder Teh talked about and striving for the standard of excellence and not getting caught in the current of easiness. It made me think of Peter and Christ walking on the water and how Peter couldn't save himself, only Christ could help lift him up and how we need to let Christ help us as well. We can not come out of the current of easiness by ourselves we need Christ's hand which is always outstretched to us and to grasp on and depend on Him. 

So I could go on and on about that conference and it was wonderful and I'm just grateful for what Elder Teh taught us in really involving the missionaries, he had us at the end take time to share what we learned that wasn't spoken or shared yet ( told to us by the spirit). It was very powerful as a couple of us bore our testimonies and they all tied into together, it was beautiful and just proved the point that much more that we are not alone in life and never have to be or do things alone. We have each other and more importantly we have God and Christ!!! We never are alone. Love it! It's just up to us to choose if we are going to be or not. We choose to be happy and etc! So it's helped me a ton this week as I had my ups and downs and continues to help me snap out of my down moments! 

Arggg I have so much I want to share but only 9 minutes left to type away. So I'll save insights from the Relief Society broadcast for later along with what I learned on exchanges recently oh except I have to share this quote that Hermana Duong shared with me,

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. it is our light not our darkness that most firghtens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were meant to shine as children do. It is not just in some of us it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others." 

I have no idea who the quote is by but I loved that and love Hermana Duong, seriously I have never met someone so Christ like in how she treats and loves others. She treats others the way they deserve to be treated, she treats them as their potential in who they really are and I learn so much from her everytime! 

Ah anywho, I love you all things are much brighter and the biggest thing I've learned is being broken down, getting rid of my imperfections and allowing God to build me back up. Just like the cool temple anaolgy at the broadcast. 

Ah I have so much more I want to share but that will be all for now, ha ha that's all folks! I love You all very very much oh and DAD and MOM THANK YOU soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Much for the choir cds. I totally cried when I opened the creative package :D and read the title of "Homeward Bound." It's been everything I needed and for others as well.

LOVE LOVE LOVOVEEEEOOOO!!!

Sister Bush

Circle of Influence

Dear family! 

I forgot to send this last week, it's from our mission President Cusick and I love it and it's been awesome because both Sister Howard and I really strive to implement it in our companionship and it's wonderful. I am so grateful for her and the hard work we've both put into our companionship, it really makes a difference.  I'm just very grateful! 

Here is his email he sent last week - love it! 

"I have had some wonderful comments about being focused on those areas of your life that are within your Circle of Influence. Many of you have found great peace in this understanding. Here is a reminder of the concept.

Your life doesn't just "happen." Whether you know it or not, it is carefully designed by you. The choices, after all, are yours. You choose happiness. You choose sadness. You choose decisiveness. You choose ambivalence. You choose success. You choose failure. You choose courage. You choose fear. Just remember that every moment, every situation, provides a new choice. And in doing so, it gives you a perfect opportunity to do things differently to produce more positive results.

Habit 1: Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are "response-able." They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior. Reactive people, on the other hand, are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn't, it affects their attitude and performance, and they blame the weather. All of these external forces act as stimuli that we respond to. Between the stimulus and the response is your greatest power--you have the freedom to choose your response. One of the most important things you choose is what you say. Your language is a good indicator of how you see yourself. A proactive person uses proactive language--I can, I will, I prefer, etc. A reactive person uses reactive language--I can't, I have to, if only. Reactive people believe they are not responsible for what they say and do--they have no choice.

Instead of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which they have little or no control, proactive people focus their time and energy on things they can control. The problems, challenges, and opportunities we face fall into two areas--Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence.

Proactive people focus their efforts on their Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about: health, children, problems at work. Reactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern--things over which they have little or no control: the national debt, terrorism, the weather. Gaining an awareness of the areas in which we expend our energies in is a giant step in becoming proactive."

Awesome right?! Enjoy working on your circle of influences :) 

Much love,

Sister Bush

Dear Family,

Have I ever mentioned how much I love church and Sundays? Well I do, I LOVE Sundays. I love going to church and having/ finding every talk, every class and every lesson or interaction with someone at church and what they say is just what you needed to hear. God is aware of us and He is consistently blessing us no matter how close we choose to be to Him, His love is unfailing!

On Saturday we attended Emily Virginia Stokes baptism. She is this funny, energetic, cute and quirky 8 year old who the Gulfport B Elders, Elder Ryan and Elder Tanner taught. She cracks me up and made my day a week ago when she and her grandmother (Sister Houser, who's a member and has been through A Lot, her husband died I think 3 years ago and before that Emily's father died and her mother struggles with a lot but was able to be at the baptism and the Elders are working with her, I apologize for the information overload) asked me to speak at her baptism on the Holy Ghost. She also asked Sister Howard to speak on baptism and it was neat because as we we're preparing for our talks, we both felt that we needed to switch and teach what the other was asked to talk on. We of course checked with Sister Houser who was fine with it and immediately after preparing for our talks became much easier, took no time to put together and flowed naturally. Who knows why the Holy Ghost so strongly impressed us to speak on the other's topic but I'm grateful we listened to the prompting and were able to proceed forth the way the Lord wanted us to.

At the baptism our branch President Stretch said, "You only fail one time in life and that's when you fall and don't get back up and try again."

I really like that and it made me think about how if we just choose to forgive ourselves and use Christ's atonement we can never fail. And the only way of the best way to pick ourselves up is by grabbing Christ hand for help. God and Christ's hand are always outstretched to us. It's not just for when we sin, it's for when we're tired and our at our weakest. When we feel inadequate as a person, a friend, a child, a parent, a sibling, when we wish we were better. Christ is here to lift us up in ALL things even if we're happy. In Jacob 6:4 and 2 Nephi 19:21 it talks about the outstretched hand of the Lord. Sister Howard and I taught in Relief Society and there's a huge painting of Christ in the room and Sister Howard noted how His hand is opened/ out stretched. I then noticed the majority of Christ's paintings have his arm or hand outstretched, I love it, Because it's true! :)

Here's a quote from the lesson I really loved and had to share, it's on the Priesthood, "Where in all the world can you find a class of ministers that dare take the position our Elders do? Where is the man or the set of men that can be found that dare to present themselves before the world and say that they have been authorized of God to administer certain ordinances to the people through which they may receive revelation form God? Anyone announcing a doctrine of this kind would soon be found out if he was an impostor- he would place himself in a very dangerous position, and would soon be discovered if he held no such authority.... God has sent his holy angels from heaven and restored the authority to man to administer the ordinances of the gospel."

Last night we taught the rest of lesson one to Sister Sloat's friend Joseph and Kwame (Joseph's son who just graduated highschool). Joseph knows the bible like it's nobodies business and he came to that  knowledge and found God when he was in prison for 15years. He has great questions and the spirit was awesome in the lesson and Sister Sloat's testimony was perfect. I am so grateful to her and she really relates to Joseph. Keep him in your prayers, I invited him to baptism and he said he would when he finds it's true :) yay! Oh also if ya'll can pray for Cadum (Sister Prices nanny or as she calls him, her manny, ha ha) we've just started teaching him and he's been reading a lot and we are hoping to invite him to baptism this week. 

Anywho, the work is just in the stages of adjusting, our mission President is having us go through the ward directory with our bishops/ branch presidents and Change is in the air. I love it! 

So a person I'm grateful for is Sister Gulbransen, she is this steller woman in our branch who is always going on business trips and she has made a goal to give out a book of mormon every week. She has been successful thus far and usually gives out more then one in a week and woot to the woot! Prayer to Heavenly Father and He will always set up situations perfectly. I really want to continue to be a missionary after my mission, so ya'll can hold me accountable when I get home and  make sure I'm keeping up to giving out a book of mormon every week if not every day! 

Oh and before I forget, transfer calls are this Saturday (the 14th), Sister Howard is a wonderful missionary and my eternal Sister, I love her to pieces and I can see her training, not positive how things will go but I hope we can have one more transfer together. If not, ha ha I wouldn't mind being transferred either, I've been in Gulfport a long time, I love it but I wouldn't mind a change. So you if you have any letters to send me please send them soooonnnn because I might possibly be sent to a new area next Tuesday. 

Well, I'm going to hurry and print some things off, I love you all greatly oh and before I forget. Mom and Dad, a women we prayed with at a nursing home facility, her name is Indigo and she's I think in her 30's, told me to thank my parents. She said, "God bless your parents for raising you so well to be so young and yet so faithful at such an age, tell them thank you for me. Thank you for raising your daughter and for what she's done." She was really sweet and I luckily I didn't cry as she told me God was so proud of me. I'm not the best missionary and I have a ton to improve on but I am extremely grateful for her kind words and for God using her to send me His loving words. Sister Howard and I hope to teach her more, she was open to us giving her a Book of Mormon and hopefully eventually lessons. She has such a good attitude and it's stunning, she was attacked from behind from a guy that was a friend and only has one leg, the other (right leg) goes to her knee and her other injuries...needless to say look painful. So thank you mom and dad for all that you have done, it really is incredible. 

I hope we never forget the blessings God has consistently provided for us. I love you all so much and I pray all is going well at home. I received Dad's awesome letter and it was powerful, thank you Dad! Sister Howard thinks your awesome too :D we at times exchange our letters that mean a lot to us and read them together, like I said she is a lifelong and eternal friend! Thank you for your letters, they are beautiful! I hope all is well at home and would be happy to add anything ya'll need to my prayers. 

Love you more then words can express! 

Much much Love,

Sister Bush  

So Happy!

Hello Helloa Familita!

What a wonderful week. :) Can I just say again that I love being on a mission!!! Ah, so awesome. Sister Howard and I have definitely had a change of pace but we get along great and I love our mission President and Sister Cusick, they are the best. 

So, ha ha I never know what to share, things happen so fast here and miracles left and right, big and small. Hmmm, oh this happened a while ago, but I love it!

Once upon a time (before Sister Jenkins was transferred) we were driving home for dinner and on our way home there was a car with it's hazard lights on stuck in the turn single at a light and with a young woman who obviously didn't look very happy. I'm really glad Sister Jenkins said something, because if she hadn't I would have.  She asked if we should help the woman in the car and of course Sister Howard and I said yes, turn around. So we went and asked her what if she need help and she said her car ran out of gas. We parked the car, got out and helped move her car over and off the road, 2 random guys pulled over and helped as well. They offered to buy her gas and she gave them $20.00 and guess what? They never came back, punks, but they seemed high off of something anyways when they helped push the car (ha ha random side note there). Anywho, we gave her (Nikki) a Book of Mormon, our phone number and said a prayer with her. We told her to text us if the boys didn't return and we bore our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. We then went to a gas station and bought a small thing of gas and took it back to her while she was waiting for her friends to come. It was awesome, because while we went to get the gas and when we came back her friends were there and she told us while she had been waiting for them she read the Book! She had read to 1 Nephi 12 and loved it!  We said another prayer for her friends and gave them Book of Mormons too and it was just an awesome experience. Nikki, said she was really interested in learning, we got her address and turns out she's in the Elders area - argggg! But she's golden and they are to be the ones teaching her even though she wants us to teach her, ha ha!  I firmly believe that there are no coincidences in life and there is a reason for almost everything. :)

Anywho why I share this story is because it is something that ANY ONE can do! Have a Book of Mormon on you always and God will provide a way for His word to be shared with those we meet. It was a beautiful experience and she is definitely prepared. There are millions prepared and we can deliver the gospel to all those around us in a natural normal way. Just by being kind, by doing a simple act of service, in the simple way of "paying it forward." Through these moments we often don't realize what golden opportunities they are provided for us by God to give someone an opportunity to learn about Salvation. Even if they don't accept it then they will later! Everyone's process is different but your piece or act of kindness is part of that process that will eventually effect the bigger process and picture of that person's life and decisions.  

Another cool experience that really touched my heart was hearing the talk of one of the recent converts we visit (she's been a member for almost a year now), Sister Katrina Price. She shared the touching story of God trying to get a message across to her in her life and she finally seeing it. She was praying for help from Heavenly Father with struggles she was working through and found more and more that she needed to do things on her part. So she bargained with Heavenly Father that she'd do better on her prayers and start reading her scriptures like the Sister Missionaries told her to do (tee hee that was us!) if He'd help certain things work out. She was trying and started to see the difference more and more but was still struggling. She always was praying for this little boy she was helping, she works for an adoption agency and works on foster kids cases and trys to help them get adopted. Well this one 10 year old boy in particular she was working on his information and the parents that were fostering him were great but had promised each other that any of the foster kids they fostered they wouldn't adopt. She was visiting the 10 year old boy who use to be horrible and had a lot of problems but had really changed. She asked him what it was that had changed him and he said "I let Jesus into my Heart." She then asked him what would be an ideal world to him and he said to be adopted by his foster parents. It broke her heart because she knew the promise the couple had made. Anywho this boys message struck her so deeply and she realized that is what she needed to do more fully in her life. So she started reading family scriptures more and praying more and things changed and have improved for her. And happy news! As she prayed for this little 10 year old boy, she got a phone call from the foster parents and they had decided to adopt him! Isn't the love of God beautiful! 

Goodness, I only have 5 minutes but I know that if we let Christ be the center of our lives everything else will fall into place, with ourselves, with our families, with our lives. "All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ," (preach my gospel). 

I love you all so much and I love Christ and I love my mission, why? Because why not! Life is wonderful and we can CHOOSE it to be so. I love you all so much, I love God and never Forget you are a CHILD OF GOD :) ha ha Love you so much!

Love,

Sister Bush