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

Sister Bush

From: Michael Teh 
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 8:32 AM
Subject: Sister Bush
To: Cathy Bush

Dear Brother and Sister Bush,

I had the wonderful experience of meeting with your daughter in a zone conference in Tampa, Florida a few weeks ago.  It had such a powerful impact on me that I still think of it   During one of the opportunities that I invited missionaries to share their thoughts, she stood up and bore a powerful testimony.  I wish you could have been there to see and hear her.  You would have been very proud.

Sincerely,

Michael John Teh

Helloa Helloooo!

Dearest Familia!

First off, I apologize by how long it's been since I have written the family as a whole, I was going through a lot of ups and downs but life couldn't be better and I've gotten it together (ha ha that rhymed, love it when that happens :D) 

So first off, I am grateful to God and the help He brings, fresh perspectives and His perfect timing and love. I am grateful for gratitude, I keep a gratitude journal, the one Cassie sent me off with, I started it a tad late but I'm grateful for when I don't write in my journal at least I have something being recorded ha ha. A huge thing that's brought the biggest change in me, was the message Heavenly Father sent me through another one of His children. Thanks to Sister Stephanie Gulbransen, I look up to this woman and admire her SO much. She is incredible but before I go off on that story let me start off with some cool things. 

I forgot to tell of the really cool experience Betty Waters had had when she was first doing her family history with Sister Paunov. Betty had named one of her daughters Julia, she decide on Julia because the name was a combination of her father's name with her mother's ( I forgot their names, she told me oops) anywho... She was stunned to find out her great, great, (I think just 2 greats) grandmother's name was Julia and found this out from the help of Sister Paunov. She had no idea she had an ancestor with the name of Julia. Betty's family history is a little more difficult to find out because her ancestor's were slaves in the states, it is fascinating and I just wanted to cry when we were with her doing the beginning of her genealogy. Her daughter Julia and her I think are the only ones in the family who have started this. I can't wait for her when she can receive her endowments. This woman means a lot to me and she Loves Sister Howard and I. I pray we can teach her daughter and her other kids as well. Her sweet grandson's join us a lot for her lessons and pray with us, they crack me up. Oh ha ha, yesterday I taught the lesson in Relief Society and Donnell and Kevian (they're the grandson's that have joined us for the lessons occasionally) they are 8 and 7 or 9 and 7 I can't quite remember (and we're hoping to get permission to teach them from their parents but Betty hasn't asked them yet) anywho they came to church with Betty and came in for the last part of Relief Society and when I closed the lesson very enthusiastically and after I said amen Kevian clapped wildly, it was hilarious. And everyone just died laughing and he was cute as he got a little bashful of realizing, oh we don't clap :D it was adorable and made my day. And that lesson went really well, thanks to the spirit, it was nice to prepare on my part and then just let the class teach the rest of the lesson. I had read a paragraph from dad's letter last week and ended the lesson with, "Hastening of the work is when we realize that we have worth." Oh and I also told of mama praying for every plant she plants :) that makes me very happy.

I figure when we discover what makes us truly happy then we become more involved with wanting to share the gospel every opportunity we have. It doesn't have to be big but can be even something as simple as handing out a pass along card and what not.  I won't get into my long missionary tangents of ways to be a missionary, we all know. :) ha ha 

But yay, I have found a lot of stress relief and happiness. I was over stressing myself out about trying to be the perfect missionary again and it takes the joy out of life when you over obsess and correct yourself, God wouldn't want that. So I'm a lot happier and much more relieved from stress when I discovered that I can do great things. I was getting worried for after the mission (silly to have been thinking so far ahead, me and the future, good grief) about what to do with my life and hoping to be successful and in the perfect major and yada yada yaaadddaaaa. It was nice to finally breath and realized what I want to do, which is the will of the Lord. I discovered our wills combined quite nicely when I don't try to figure it out on my own. He unexpectedly answered all my fears, worries and concerns during a lesson with an investigator, Mia Pete with Sister Gulbransen. Sister Gulbransen is a POWERHOUSE woman and practically taught the lesson, she is AWESOME. She was bold and forward and just said it was it was of, "No, this church is true and this WILL be the best decision of your life EVER. I know you know it's true because it IS." She rocked it and just again said it plain and simple and how it is. She is a successful business woman (and by successful I mean she's only 38 and has 4 different degrees and has a goal to have a million dollars by the time she is 50 and she is well on her way with how well she is doing she will be retired and happy). She inspired me so much because she credited all of her success to Heavenly Father. She told Mia straight up if she wanted to be successful she need to pay her tithing, keep the Sabbath day holy, keep the commandments and laws of God, which includes daily scriptures and pray (which by the way prayer and scripture study is a commandment :D) and basically put God first in your life and all other things fall into place. Sister Gulbransen whipped out scriptures left and right from the bible and book of mormon and then bore personal testimony. She has had a rough back round and she came from a really dark place to today where she is successful and is a worthy temple goer and has her endowments and everything!!! 

Anywho, she helped calm my heart down with her heartfelt, strong, bold, sincere testimony of Heavenly Father first in her life. I couldn't help but cry when I bore my testimony and then gave gratitude and thanks to her. I have felt a completely change and shift in myself and am so much happier, this was a very crucial pivotal life moment and experience for me. I feel so strong and at peace for everything and I too can do great things and will do great things, ha ha not like my patriarchal blessing doesn't tell me that 10 times. For some reason it was her that I needed to meet and hear that from , for some reason it was this time in my life to have a huge shift for my life and for some reason my eyes and heart and mind weren't fully opened to the truth till that moment. God prepares us for things in life for the right timing and I just realized wow how true that is for everyone and the gospel. Ha ha when ever I think or hear the phrase "how true that is" I think of how Bryan Reagan says it ha ha ha, love it, random side note anywho! Sometimes we just don't believe or accept things even though all of our loved ones tell us for years (all of you familia and mama and papa) and for some reason it just happen at a different times. So yes, life is really awesome right now even though we're not teaching a ton of new investigators. 

Oh cool thing though, Sister Howard shared Joseph Smith's first vision, I invited her to baptism and she's getting baptized on November 9th, woot woot! Ha, funny thing, she is in the Elders area so we're giving her over to them to teach but I pray that I have another transfer here so Sister Howard and I can be at her baptism together. 

Oh another cool thing, after church yesterday, we have a new investigator. Kary, a young mother was outside of the church and looking at the paper with info for us missionaries and she wants to join the church. Her Grandma is a member and Kary has read the book of mormon twice and wants to get her life together. She opened up to us and has had some pretty horrifying things that happened recently to her 2 year old daughter and she needs God. We are meeting with her Tuesday and she could definitely use prayers, her name is Kary Liberatare. 

Oh and I don't remember if I shared this or not but a cool thing I needed to hear from our lesson with Olga she said, "The Lord doesn't choose perfection, He chooses the weak, He chooses those who fall and get back up." Love it!

Wow, this is a long one, I love you all so much! I can promise you that if you trust God and His perfect timing, all WILL work out for good. We might not understand the trials we go through but we go through them for the perfect timing to help others not just ourselves. So we can understand how others feel in times of pain, sorrow, confusion, etc. He loves us so much, never ever EVER forget that and continue on :) yay! I love you all so much, this church is TRUE, put it first. 

Love,

Sister Bush