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