I AM SO HAPPY!

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow Wowa I have never been so happy on my mission!!!! 

On Tuesdays we had transfers and it truly was inspired, I'm so grateful President Cusick is in tune to the spirit because we have had so many miracles ever since transfers. So, my companion is Sister (Kelsie) Godwin, she is from Torlck, California and she is 24. She is done with school got her degree in international economics and she's thinking of going to Law school after her mission at BYU. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!! Oh my goodness, it is amazing, truly amazing, what difference one person can make.  We get along soooo well.  So well that we both have been baffled by how time flies and we accidentally have gone to bed late a few times because we don't even realize the time. But no worries we are obedient. :) And can I just say how grateful I am for an obedient companion?!!! I am so grateful, so grateful that the next day in our companionship prayer as I started to say the prayer I just couldn't help but cry as I expressed my joy to God for the inspired transfers and for Sister Godwin. We have had such a good week as we are organizing and dejunking the apartment, it had so much junk from past missionaries and that was suppose to have been done by the missionaries who lived there before I came, but I won't get started on that. I will be kind and Christlike, but I will just say it is amazing the difference one person can make - good or bad.  It is astonishing. Please try to choose to make a difference for good in any circumstance, this is for me too but really we can invite the spirit so much more when we are careful about the little things too. 

So, I am a very happy missionary right now. :) I love being on a mission and I love being a missionary. This is seriously the best thing ever and I think everyone needs to go on a mission, boy or girl, it is great no matter what!!!! 

 Before I forget, I love Ami Maikoski and I met her mama last Sunday. Sister Maikoski embraced me for a long time and it's a moment I will forever cherish. I couldn't help but cry as I felt the love in her embrace and that love was powerful. I had never met her and she just loved me, I know it's because I remind her of her daughter, but that type of love changes the world. If only I could embrace everyone in that manner, how could that change people? My sister Chelsea recently wrote her love that she has for baptisms. She's loves attending them because of love she feels Heavenly Father has for them. I'm so grateful for her example and it was such a good reminder for me to think if I'm giving that type of love or not. Especially in that moment I had with Sister Maikoski, I felt so much love going through me, I could feel Mindy. And I look forward to every Sunday seeing them and hugging them with every part of me. I want to hug people more like that, although I guess that might scare people on the first time of meeting me. Haha! But it's neat.

Speaking of neat, Sister Maikoski and her husband are serving a mission in Florida.  They live here, but they are missionaries. They help with the addiction recovery church program so we get to send anyone we're working with to them if they have word of wisdom issues. And before Sister Kitchen left we saw her on Monday in the store and she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I always give her a big hug and we have the best interactions and she always kisses me on the forehead or cheek, I wish I could spend more time with that family but at the same time I know that in time I will be able to. I want to bring everyone I see into this Gospel so that they can experience this kind of love. I'm feeling the urgency of the work and I know that this is the time to prepare for the Savior's 2nd coming. God wants all of His children to know of His love, we cannot just expect to be the only ones to enjoy it. Think of the love you feel when you are sad or insecure and need to be comforted, aren't we lucky to have it. There are millions of people going to bed at night without this. It breaks my heart, everyone needs to have this kind of love!!! I'm far from perfect and stumble on my words all the time as a missionary. I have a hard time teaching and keeping it simple and I often make a fool of myself, but I know that as long as I try that is what's important. As long as I try to make every interaction count with strangers no matter how awkward it can be I know that the spirit will work through me and let these people feel of God's love. It will catch their attention and bring them to the gospel but the Spirit needs me to be an instrument in it's hands. 

Sister Godwin and I had a call Wednesday night from the Elders telling us we needed to contact a less active who's daughter had died. We called her and turns out the daughter is not dead but her kidneys are in failure and she's handicap.We said a prayer  with her but after while we talked to the mother she because stressed and panicked as she talked to us and was having an emotional break down from the stress of her two other children who told her that she needed to decide between them and her youngest handicap daughter because they were tired of it all. She is in her 50's and has been taking care of her daughter for years and she's exhausted. She was breaking down on the phone and just kept repeating, "My daughter is dying, my daughter is dying, I don't know what to do, TELL me what to do." I remember feeling so stressed as Sister Godwin and I were sitting at our living room table and just trying to calm her down. Trying to reassure her that Christ knew everything she was feeling and God was aware of her and that she just needed to pray to Him, that it would be ok. She got so angry and just yelled, "Don't you understand, I have tried, I need someone to tell me what to do, I need you to tell me if I should keep taking care of my daughter or not." She went from crying, to being mad at us and saying we were too young to understand to then asking us what to do and telling us she knows God loves her. It was really hard and the whole time I was just praying and trying to find scriptures and prayed to know what to possibly say. My heart ached for everything she must have gone through and how hard it all must have been because she hadn't been to church in years and with out God of course life is harder.  Nothing was working or calming her down, I felt like just throwing my hands in the air and responding with something harsh like you're the adult, I'm only 22 you should have your life figured out by now!!! Or, I'm not my Dad who could tell you what to do, he's the psychologist! 

Luckily I didn't do that or give up, I just put down my scriptures and instead of trying to think of how Preach My Gospel would do it or trying to find the right scriptures, I felt that what she needed was to be loved. I knew that trying to read her scriptures wasn't going to do anything without getting to know her or just talk to her. I asked her as she repeated about her other children how old her two other children were. I was shocked when she said 25 and 30, stunning right? That they would act that way was so surprising. But I didn't focus on that and I just let the spirit guide me and said, "Susan, you're doing the best you can and I know that God loves you and that God gave you your handicap daughter because He knew that you could and would love her." I continued to let her know that God was so proud of her and that she was so courageous in being such a wonderful mother and that she was doing the right thing. I testified of God's love and how we are not alone, Christ has gone through everything she went through and was with her every step of the way in her life and in the present moment. That He knows how she was feeling. I don't remember what else but it was neat that she calmed down and was a lot more kind and went from not wanting to see us to welcoming a visit from us and she felt a lot better and what not. It was nice to realize how we don't have to do missionary work alone, it's pointless, we need Heavenly Father, we need His spirit and most importantly our needs are met by the Savior's love and atonement. After validating her and testifying of God's love then we were able to share scriptures about Christ. I learned soooo many things from that experience it was overwhelming, but I was filled with peace and joy after. I saw the Atonement in a light I never understood before, this Church is true. 

Speaking of truth, I was super happy to get this letter from Sister Lesh (I LOVE this woman so much from the Gulfport Branch, she's the best) oh and I got to see her at transfers because she gave the other Sister missionaries a ride. :) It was great and hilarious because President Cusick was a punk and pointed me out in the meeting because when I came in I saw Sister Lesh and we had a very happy embrace and sat next to her and he loves to point people out, tee hee it was super entertaining so here's her email she sent to me...

"Sister Bush~

It was great to get to see you today in Tampa! It turned out to be a dramatic entrance...thanks Pres. Cusick. :-)

We got back and dropped off suitcases and bicycle quickly before heading over to meet with Betty's daughter, Vivien. We visited for awhile and then Sis. Nebecker asked if we could offer a peace and blessing prayer. The new sister gave it and covered everything very well. Afterward, we were all quiet and reflective for a couple of minutes. Sister Nebecker finally asked her how she felt and she tearfully told us she felt something good inside. We explained that it was the Holy Ghost bearing witness and each of us testified individually. Sis. Nebecker asked if we could come back and also asked if she would commit to being baptized if the teachings confirmed to her the truth of what we were saying and she said, tearfully, that yes she would. I think one day Betty's influence will come to fruition for quite a few of her family...and wait until she gets going on genealogy! I believe the girls are going over on Thursday.

It was a very powerful day for me. I just felt so full of the spirit. What a gift it is to serve with my sister missionaries! I pray for your success every day.

I love you!!
Let me know how you like the new area.

XO Sis. Lesh"

Isn't that AWESOME!!!! Betty's daughter who I wanted to meet from forever ago is now seeing the missionaries and AH, I just am so thrilled to hear that news and pray with all my heart that many more of her family members will come to the gospel.

THE work is Hastening, as Elder Kopischke a member of the 70 said at a zone training we had with him on Saturday, the word hasten doesn't just mean to run quicker, it means to shorten. That was in reference towards the 2nd coming!!! He also said that the world is already really wicked and that it will get more wicked like the prophesies foretell of Christ's 2nd coming but he also said something very interesting. He said that the world can't get too wicked or even the valiant will fall and we can't have that. So it only makes sense that the Savior's 2nd coming is coming faster because Heavenly Father wants us all to make it back to Him, He's not going to risk us not making it back to Him. Crazy right?! 

Not to get any of you panic and not saying that it's going to be here really fast but I've just thought about it a lot recently and if we DO want it faster then we need to work our bums off and fulfill the prophecy of the whole earth hearing the gospel! 

Ahhh, out of time but I love you all so much and leave you with that food for thought and will have to share more from Stake conference and that zone training. It was amazing! 

I love you all so much, keep it up, and God bless :) 

Much love,

Sister Bush

P.S. people to pray for= Miguel, Monica, William, Victoria, the Link family (ward mission leader and wife they do a lot for us), Bishop Cicerello? (can't spell his name), Suyania, Nathan, and the Appels. Ok, too much, pray for who you want. Love you :D 

Well That Was Unexpected

Dear Familia and Friends,

What the Weird! Sister Kitchen and I just got a call from AP Elder Peters and Sister Kitchen is being transferred and I'm getting a new companion :o She's only been out 4 months but Elder Peters said that President Cusick just had some inspiration and yessum. It was a couple of weird emotions because Sister Kitchen and I have had a lot of fun, she's been opening up to me a lot more and she knows the area better then me and we've had some miracles and wow just very surprising. But at the same time I feel the spirit about it that it's what's suppose to happen and I'm grateful, we've learned a lot from each other but I think she is needed elsewhere. Random but wowa.

So, sorry this is going to be a very short email, we're doing emails on the family history computers here at the church and everyone keeps talking and distracting me, ha ha fun and annoying at the same time, arrgggggg :P 

Let's see, it's been a weird week, a lot of our appointments keep falling through. So it's felt like a very unproductive week, even our backups didn't work out and we're not allowed to track and we don't have enough miles because we're given a strict limit on them. Just a tad weird but I've learned a lot, how to do better on my part and how to breathe and know that that's just how it goes sometimes and just to laugh, laughing is fantastic and just makes life a lot more entertaining and less miserable :) But I know things are turning around and will be picking up more! I love this ward, they are super supportive of us missionaries and we have splits every Tuesday night and we do basketball or volleyball Friday nights at the church which is a wonderful tool to use in fellow shipping less actives and investigators. Perfect environment that eases them into church which by the way one of our investigators well I don't really know him but he was a former investigator of Sister Kitchen and Anderson's. His name is Miguel and he came to basketball And came to church on Sunday with his daughter, woot!!! He didn't stay for all of church but he at least stayed for all of sacrament :D

Oh and WOOT Brother Decasta came to church!!!!!! We hadn't heard from him this week and we were planning on teaching him L2 but there family never had the time to. So, we saw him Saturday gave him the pamphlet and without us asking he told us he was going to come to church. He stayed for all 3 hours and contributed in gospel principles and from what i heard he did in Priesthood as well. Woot, sadly he's driving back to Texas so we won't see him at least for another 5 months but hopefully in that time he will read the book of mormon and go to church there and what not. 

Yesterday, we had a farewell party to big jimmy and little jimmy. Can I just say how much I love this dad and his son?! They are the coolest and little jimmy has autism and it's just so neat to see the dad work with him every sunday and how loving and understanding the ward is. It was really cool because Dad (our dad) wrote in his letter about how he's reading a book recently about autism and asbergers. Anywho random but the farewell party at the Mojica's last night was so much fun, it just felt like home and  I love this ward. 

We'll again I'm so sorry on how short this email is but will write a better one next Monday and I can't wait to let you know who my new companion is and all the other random stuff too. Much love oh and random scripture, D&C 138:44

Oh and a really cool thought that Brother Kane had in our scripture study (we visit the Kane family once a week, he's a recent convert and we have scripture study with him and his wife.) as he prepares for the temple. Mentioned how Satan wouldn't even listen to the full plan after he wasn't chosen, he didn't even give it a chance to listen to the rest of the plan. Listening is so important and giving others a chance to speak especially if we are upset with someone or are angry. We need to pause and let them speak, ha ha remind me to tell ya'll of the funny story from Sunday. 

Ok much loves and hugs, everyone's calling me to come play basketball. 

Love LOVE Love! 

Sister Tasha C. Bush 

The Tree of Life

Dear Familia and Friends,

What a wonderful week this had been! I am just astonished, grateful, and overwhelmed at the love of God and how this life all works out, it's truly astounding.

Where to even start!  I guess I'll start at the beginning of the week with something a little more silly then serious. For our P-day (January 6th) we went to Weeki Wachee to see the famous Weeki Wachee Mermaids! What a weird but cool thing all at the same time. The swimmers were super impressive with what they do and how they've had to train themselves with the under water oxygen thingy and swimming in mermaid tales and what not but oh man I was suppressing laughter during the little mermaid show they had. They had the old recordings to it which needs to be updated because it was really weird as the voice over head dramatically described the battle between the prince and the sea witch (as they fought underwater which because of the water was hilarious slow motion fighting for them) and the overhead voice, "They tumble and they fight and LOVE conquers All."  It was super entertaining. But what was cool, in one of their routines, "Fish tales," they had Enya playing and it was pretty "magical," and weird. So was it worth $13.00 - heck yes! We were thoroughly entertained and had a lot of fun and lots of laughs. I sent pictures to mama, and I got a video of different parts of it that I can't wait to send home for you all to see. Oh I forgot to attach a picture of the prince and sea witch.  Oh well, next time. :) 

So, we started the week great with Weeki Wachee and had a really sweet experience with a family in our ward. It was a grandmother and her 3 granddaughters and one of them is less active and knows it's true but is caught up in her life style and not wanting to give that up yet. It was so nice to boldly and sweetly testify to her of God's love for her and true happiness being found in the gospel. We got along really great and we invited her to church and she said she'll think about it, but wasn't going to make any promises. It was powerful to see her younger sister's testimony and her younger sister was right on with everything she said and it touched my heart as this sister started crying (the one who was expressing her love to her less active sister). And the Grandma bore her testimony of the promise she made to her Grandpa that she would keep them strong in the gospel and how she wants that for them. Oh and I can't believe I forgot about this, wow, at the start of the visit/ dinner with this sweet family there was a picture of the Grandpa, he had passed away from cancer a few years ago and they had framed a picture/ birthday invitation of his which he ended up dying on his birthday. Guess what his birthday was? July 3rd, my birthday, when I heard and saw this I expressed my surprise that we shared the same birthday. The less active daughter was surprised by this as well and I know that there aren't coincidences. I am excited to work more with this family and help motivate their fellow sister and granddaughter. It meant a lot this Sunday (which by the way this Sunday was one of the Best Sundays I have ever had on my mission) when this grandmother came up to Sister Kitchen and I and showed us the piece of paper her less active granddaughter wrote. On it she had written to her grandmother to try to wake her up for church, not making any promises but that she might come and that she loved her. The grandmother said this has been the most progress she has seen in 4 years and that she knew it was because of our visit. She gave us the paper to have. 

On Tuesday we had the blessing of teaching and inviting Monica Brummett to baptism for February 9th. She's accepted and it was so comforting to see her come to church and she contributed to the gospel principle's lesson and had a great comment and stayed for all of church. I love her and she has 4 children and it's really neat because every time we come over to teach the kids will be involved with other things and yet they always just come on their own and join our lessons. It's really amazing to see especially from the younger boys who could be playing outside or watching tv and yet we find by the end of the lesson they are all sitting down listening. The spirit of God is powerful and people are drawn to it and long for it. 

Speaking of people being drawn to the spirit of God, we had the BEST District meeting ever on Wednesday. Elder Barry and Elder Murray are wonderful and sniffle for Elder Murray this is his last week of his mission, he is awesome and it's weird to see realizing that that day is coming up fast for me, I'm already half way through and it just is flying now. Anywho, they had us all get blindfolded and follow this string that they put through out the church (Like the iron rod) and only instructions we had were to follow the string and the light. It was really powerful exercise for me because there were a lot of symbolism personally for me and it was hilarious because some how Sister Kitchen and I got mixed up in the Gym and wound up going back all the way to the beginning again (and through out it we would get tempted by the other missionaries who were being like the devil) and at one point there was a flash light and I got confused because we were suppose to follow the string and the light and the light was flickering and the other missionary whispered to follow the light and so I did and then it went black and I screamed and ran back to the string and then eventually Sister Kitchen and I made it back and to the end. Ha ha, it was not only fun and entertaining (they got a video of me too, punks) but really powerful. Oh and they had a different light that didn't flicker and they used that example that satan will mimic the light and try to mislead us but the Light from God is consistent and will not confuse. There was a quote I read recently that I love, it said, "Keep it simple the devil loves complexity." That was a big eye opener for me. Anywho, I love the tree of life and know that God will never leave us in the dark or mislead us, that we have the tools and map and direction to get straight back to Him. 

I know this email is getting super long and I'm out of time but oh real quick we had another lesson with the Decasta family, it went great. And I pray that the dad will take time for the missionaries in Texas when he goes back for work. Luckily we found out he'll be in town just a little longer so we should be able to teach him more of the lessons and woot! I can't wait for him to fully accept this!!!

Ok, last thing real fast that has changed my life. This Sunday was amazing and again was one of the best Sundays of my mission yet. Sister Kitchen and I talked and we were on fire as and I think we gained a lot of trust from the ward, it was great. The children in the ward love us and just warmed my heart when after church cute little Evey exclaimed in the hallway, "It's the missionaries!" With a big grin on her face and her cute little voice, awww I just love them! Oh and her brother's name is Desmond!!! 

The thing that really has impacted me deeply and I will never be the same, I didn't expect my heart to be healed so fast in this moment, was when a women, Ami Maikoski came up to me and expressed what she did. She thanked me for serving a mission because I was the spitting image of her sister who had passed away from cancer about 9 years ago. She said I had no idea how healing it was for her to see me and she let me know that everything I do from my mannerisms to my personality was exactly like her sister. She told me of how her sister had served a mission and while there, she was diagnosed with cancer. They had 6 beautiful years with her before she passed away but I was overwhelmed by how strong the spirit was and stunned. She said when I first came to their ward and she saw me she was shocked and leaned over to her mom and said, "Mom, it's Mindy." She thanked me for what I've done for her and for being able to tell her children that never met me that I was Mindy. I am grateful, I had never planned on serving a mission and I know this is what God had planned for me but wow I never knew how needed I really was. This was healing for me, I will be forever grateful for this women, she helped me see how wonderful it was to be me. I've been in pain for a really long time and I am baffled about how this has pieced so many things for me. Is this the Atonement? Is this how it works, we were both healed in just a moment of talking with each other. I stand all amazed at His love. God used us to heal each other and this specific time and place and as I expressed my thanks to Ami and what she had just done for me she said it wasn't her but it was Mindy. I can't wait to meet Mindy after this life and give her a hug for what she's done for me, I am so deeply honored and finally can love myself, I can love who I am and be happy with who I am. 

God's love is stunning. I'm overwhelmed. "God does notice us and He watches over us. But it is usually through another person that He meets our needs." - President Spencer W. Kimball

I was having a hard day on Saturday and was happy and healed and having the best day ever on Sunday. I love God, I love this life, I love that He is so aware of us! I love Sister Kitchen, I love this Area and I love you!!!!

Look for God's love today, He loves you all so much! 

Love,

Sister Tasha C. Bush

Well Goodness Me, Is That A Toe Turban?

Loved ones!

First off before anything else, I have felt your prayers and love like none other, I am sooooooooooooo grateful for you all and have truly been strengthen this week by your love. 

My toe surgery was fast and they did both my big left toe and little toe next to the big one. The most painful part was the shots they put in my toes to numb them but other than that it was fine. They did give me medicine for pain that makes me really drowsy so I'm not a big fan of that but things are going great. I personally think Dr. Young is a much better Doctor but no worries I'm good and walking, the first few days were a tad painful but I'm doing much better. 

The picture of me with the My Little Pony, was a Christmas present I got from another Elder in the area. Yeah, apparently I reminded him of the pony pinkie pie...has anyone ever heard of a Bronnie? Neither had I until last transfer when I was a Sister Training Leader and they had at one of our meetings/conferences a discussion about helping fellow missionaries get rid of Pokemon playing cards and other childish things such as my little pony stuff. So a Bronnie is a man that likes the story line of my little pony and they make up their own stories and draw the ponies and make up different ponies and are basically men that like my little pony but they are serious about it. So you can imagine how surprised I was and the awkwardness of trying to be polite and kind when I opened this... yeah that was probably one of the most uncomfortable feelings I have ever had on my mission but entertaining none the less!!! Tee hee 

Oh and other funny business that I wish I had my camera when I saw this but Sister Kitchen and I were finding a less actives house and the area we were in had all of these street names Dad would absolutely love and these are real street names, they had... Tournament Dr, Sandtrap Dr, Golfers Way, Green turf, and bunch of other street signs that I was wishing I had my camera, it was awesome! A lot of houses here in Brooksville having golf courses as backyards and golf courses running down the middle and in between houses as part of the living complex. It's pretty cool. 

Ok, on that note, things have been a lot better. And I wanted to apologize for venting so much in my last email, I felt really bad because I realized I need to be a representative of Christ and I had gotten a really nice email from President Barfuss and in part of it he said... "One simple rule for missionary happiness and missionary success is this: In all that you do, in all that you say, in all that you think and in the manner you serve, always emulate the Savior." 

I realize that how I had emailed about things last week wasn't the best way to go about things and I wanted to say I'm sorry. I am going to strive to emulate the Savior a lot more and it's easier to have patience and focus on what I can do on my part. Yesterday in church I had a really good realization of how simple it all is and that anything positive is from God and anything negative is from the adversary. It is that simple, so I'm working on this week that whenever I take something personally or take something that Sister Kitchen does in the wrong way I can see the source of where that is coming from. God is a God of love and will only encourage those kind of thoughts and what not. Life is a lot more simpl if we approach it at the angle of thinking about what the Savior would do. We are all so much better then how we act sometimes, we are so much greater then what we choose to do as well and luckily the Savior and God sees that so shouldn't we? So again I am really sorry in what and how I choose to write about last week and hope to be better at that.  And sorry for the my little pony paragraph too, now that I think about it. :D 

Thursday we had exchanges with Hermana Birch and Hermana Larsen and can I just say they are the Perfect Sister missionaries!!! They are the best examples of what missionaries should be like. They both came to our area which is the first time I've ever had that happened and we basically went on splits. I love LOVE love Hermana Birch and am so grateful for her, we had an amazing conversation and I have found a wonderful friendship. She means the world to me and we had so many amazing experiences on exchanges and the spirit was SO strong!!!!!! It was nuts, on Friday we were seeing a part member family, the dad isn't a member and is only in town for 2 weeks and then goes back to Texas for work and is usually gone for months at a time. I love this family.  Anywho, he came out from under the sink that he was putting in and started talking to us and came and joined the lesson. It was soooo cool!!!! He kept trying to figure out how he knew Hermana Birch (after we had had a discussion about prayer and different scripture verses) and she said, "I'll tell you how I know you, I knew you before this life and I promised you that I would find you and bring you the gospel." The spirit was so strong and he started to cry and she told him that he was going to get baptized and become a Mormon. It was epic!!! And I was crying and the mother and daughter were just beaming. He said the prayer and at the end of his prayer thanked Heavenly Father for us and as he was saying that his voice got choked up and he started to cry and ended the prayer. There are no coincidences that the Hermanas came and did exchanges with us at the time that not only did Sister Kitchen and I need it, but that they were here conveniently at the time this man would be visiting his family! God has a plan for us all!!! I am so grateful for the Hermanas they helped Sister Kitchen and I feel loved and amazing. I think that's what we need in life, to be able to have someone see us as who we really are and then we feel like we can do great things. That's a big thing I'm learning this transfer is I need to see how God sees me and go off of that love, be motivated by His love and truth. Hermana Birch also told me that ever since she first saw me (at a Sister conference when President Summerhays was here) bear my testimony she just thought wow, I don't know what it is about Sister Bush but there is something really special about her. I am so grateful for her, things like that make a world of difference for people.  We need to say what we feel more often to people, because that really helped me. Oh and I'm not getting after anyone by the way just saying it in general and that's what I learned and need to do more. Anywho she also said that she's had a companionship similar to mine before and how it's a great learning period and will work out and that we're together for a reason and that Sister K needs me right now. I just love her and she is amazing, I swear she is going to be the next general relief society president or something, she is a powerhouse and oh it was so sweet at the Decasta's (the part member family with the dad), Brother Decasta looked at her as we were leaving and said, "you're seeing something now aren't you?" And it was super cool because she told me after in the car she was seeing that family in white and going to the temple together. It was so cool! Oh and she is so bold told Brother Decasta after she gave him her email, "I want you to send me pictures of your baptism." It was great. 

Sister Kitchen and I were able to meet with him last night and with the Bishop and he opened up to us a ton. I was astonished to hear some of the things he had been through and am still baffled. I think that is probably the hardest thing I have heard since I have been on my mission, but I'm grateful for the Love of God that is manifested for him, he has amazing things planned for him which helped him survive and keep sane from some of things he went through growing up with a corrupt and despicable step dad. The stories were disturbing and I won't talk about it, but again I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ who has conquered every evil thing in this world and I am so excited for the Justice that will come about in the last days.

Ok, this email is really long and I better send it, I will have to write more about the other miracles we had happened and the ones Sister Kitchen and Hermana Larsen had as well. 

Oh and one of the pictures is of me and Sister Skeem, I love her, she is serving in Dade City and she wrote me the sweetest note in my notebook at district meeting last week, she is the best. 

Anywho, I love this gospel and know it is true, I am grateful for the miracles coming about and love the heat of a refiners fire. Oh and again things are a lot better, Sister Kitchen has been a lot happier which makes me happy to see. Woot, we are going to go see live mermaids in Weeki Wachee for P-day. :D Have a wonderful day I LOVE YOU and can't wait to write about the new investigator we found and what not. 

Love,

Sister Tasha Bush

Happy New Year!

Dear Familia,

Goodness, I love you! Skyping was so motivational for me and just energized me for the work and really added to the list of reasons why missions are so awesome! Mom and Dad are the best and just seeing and talking to you two made me appreciate you THAT much more and I realized how happy my family makes me. It was nice talking to Gabe and Ellen and the Kirbys!!!  I can't believe how grown up the kids are, goodness, is this what getting old is like? :D 

But on a serious note, I really loved talking to the family. Mom and Dad, I miss you two so much and talking to you two helped a ton, I loved our conversation and I realized, "Wow, I really miss a gratifying conversation." In the mission you get that with some people but not always with your companions. I am grateful Mom and Dad have great, solid, COMMUNICATION. Talking with the family, I never realized how that is something that I'm extremely grateful for. It's been hard with Sister Kitchen. I have tried so hard to ask her questions, have fun, be there for her, give her space, do service for her, leave her a kind note, and praying! It's super frustrating to be pumped up about the work and wanting to be close to someone and they just are grumpy. ARgggggg I am tired. But this is the happy thing I get to learn right now so I'm grateful for it. It's tough, I will share what I learn from personal study during our companionship studies and I'm happy and I ask her what she learns and she'll just give a blatant, "I read in 2 Nephi and in Preach My Gospel and an Ensign from the article, it was good." .......I understand that we all have times like that but it's Every single day. I have stepped back and thought ok anything on my part to work on and I'll work on Listening more or asking more questions or leaving space for silence. We have had so many car rides of over 30 minutes (our area is big) just in silence. I love silence but it's the majority of the time. 

And the conversations just aren't as gratifying. We have had maybe 3 good talks where she opened up on fun memories or what not and we had a good time talking, sharing funny awkward date moments or family Christmas traditions. Fun conversations but few and far between. I love spiritual conversations and yeah it's tough. I really am trying and I do care but I'm so sick of girls and their ornery attitudes. I can't stand grumpy people. Heck, I've had success in becoming friends with grumpy people when no one else could and then they become a lot less grumpy and kinder. Good grief it's a whole other story of working with people who are kind in public and at home have a whole other side. Mom, Dad, and siblings I am so sorry how I treated you all at times back in high school when I had my bad days. Even in college, aaaaahhhhhhhhh. It's horrible and stupid. 

Good grief, I apologize about this email but heck this is my reality right now, I've done a really good job about not writing  about the unpleasant moments from companions in the past (there has been a lot that I haven't written about) but I needed to write about it or I might have a break down. I understand that we all have our hard days but for crying out loud learn to communicate instead of treating everyone crummy and even though you think talking about feelings is weird. Face your feelings and get over it! Hey thanks family, writing that last sentence was what I just need to hear, "Face your feelings and get over it!" I need to apply that to myself with this situation. 

Wow, well there is my human venting email, I apologize it's a little negative, please don't judge Sister Kitchen. I think the grumpiness is just from homesickness and she grew up differently. I realize that it is a huge blessing I was raised in a home where we were taught to naturally communicate our feelings and not everyone's home is like that. 

On the positive note, Christmas was great skyping and after I wish it would have been more productive but that's in the past now. The week has been a little rough and our numbers weren't very good because I got sick on Saturday, but luckily I didn't throw up, I just had a really bad stomach ache that made me feel like I was going to but I didn't, woot! 

Other positive things, Aunt Pam was a sweetheart and I got a huge package from her with some awesome Tabernacle choir cds! Oh and other positive thing we do service for our neighbor Jan and her husband Ken who lives across from us. We gave them a Book of Mormon and a Joy to the World dvd with some treats for Christmas. :) Jan has started to read it and has been asking us some questions about what we believe. It's great, we are hoping to start teaching her! We have to be careful with the apartment complex in how we go about things so we've been doing a lot of service for Jan and I love her. We were helping her put her Christmas decorations down (it reminded me of mama and her bins) and putting her bins in her garage which by the way garages here in Florida are used as storage units, it is very rare to see anyone actually use their garage for their cars. Anywho it was super sweet because Jan let us know how she talks about us all the time to her husband Ken. She really appreciates us and it's been fun to get to know her and her to get to know us. She had some Elvis tree ornaments and I asked her if she had seen the musical "Bye Bye Burdie" and she loves that show, ha ha we started singing some of the songs from it. She said she liked getting to see this other side of us, ha ha! I swear people mix us up with nuns so much (well Jan is Catholic) but people really look at missionaries like we are from another world. Ha ha well we are different from the world, thank heavens. 

Anywho, one other cool thing, on page 807 in the bible, JST John 1:1-3 compared to John 1:1-3 has really given me a different perspective, is the "word" the gospel or is it the holy ghost? What do ya'll think? Before I read JST I thought the "word" was Christ which at times it is but now it has a new meaning. Love it!

Oh and I just got a call today, I'm having my ingrown toe surgery on January 2nd instead of tomorrow. Woot to the woot this will be fun :) 

Ok, enough out of me, thanks for putting up with my venting and I will do better on writing more positively. My gift to the Savior this year is to Choose the Right, right now! Which I might not have in venting so much in this email but WOOT the New Year doesn't start till the 1st, so HA! Choose the right, right now! 

I LOVE YOU!!! And hope and pray you all had a Merry Christmas and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of Ugly Bug Balls and what not :D

LOVE YOU!

Sister Bush