Wheat Thins

Dear Familia & Friends,

I love our sweet 91 year old investigator, he is a sweetheart & he
cracks me up. He has the funniest phrases like, "I lost my butt!" In
reference to is stocks down at $1.15 or "The old man's been patting me
on the poo poo again," the old man would be Heavenly Father. Sister
Beck & Westburg found him or rather he found them, he requested a
missionary visit on Mormon.org. Anywho, they've been teaching him for
about 3 or 4 months & they helped him pray for the first time in his
life about 3 months ago. His prayers make me tear up every time or
almost, I've worked really hard not to cry when he prayers. The way he
prays is touching, it sounds like he's just having a conversation & my
favorite thing is when he starts his prayers, it's always unexpected
because of how natural he is about it. For example we will ask him to
pray & he'll have a response to us asking him & then it sounds like
he's about to make another comment & then all of the sudden he is
praying.

For example, "Ok Heavenly Father, it's your son John." Or one of my
favorite prayers..."Well Heavenly Father, it's your son John again. I
want to thank you for bringing these folks together tonight. I want to
ask you to keep them safe.. I want them back. Ok I want to thank you
for my friends in England's health is doing better, I think it has
something to do with our chat last night & these visits with these
angels. I want to thank you for that."

Or hilarious, last time in part of his prayer he mentioned that, "I'd
like to see these girls again real soon, not mangled up somewhere in a
car." Bah ha ha oh my heart this guy is great, I love this man,
praying he will have the courage to accept a baptism date & really
accept the Atonement. I think he hasn't forgiven himself for things in
his past or perhaps he's scared of change. I just pray he will feel
the motivating effects of the gospel & atonement. Even us missionaries
need that, just to be candid even though we have the greatest work
that we are involved in there are days that we just flat out don't
want to be on missions & to be home. I can understand why missionaries
come home early, it is hard. Even when you are being exactly obedient
there are times that it takes everything in you to put up with some of
the daily things us missionaries see. And the hardest things are
seeing people choosing misery when they have happiness right before
them, which is funny because the same goes with us missionaries.

So, I can't say it enough of the importance for members & missionaries
to work together. President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: "So many of us
look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar
with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the
members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an
investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears
testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of
his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes
progress in learning the gospel.

"The full-time missionaries may do the actual teaching, but the
member, wherever possible, will back up that teaching with the
offering of his home to carry on this missionary service. He will bear
sincere testimony of the divinity of the work. He will be there to
answer questions when the missionaries are not around. He will be a
friend to the convert who is making a big and often difficult change.
... The process of bringing new people into the Church is not the
responsibility alone of the missionaries. They succeed best when
members become the source from which new investigators are found."

I feel like everyone thinks that only a select few will make it into
the celestial kingdom, how sad is that & far from the truth, God wants
us all to make it back to Him. We need to strive with all of our might
to bring our family back. Will we be held accountable for such? I
think so & with that we individually need to not have any regrets & go
forward with the Atonement leading the way to help guide us in our
actions & not just show us the way. I think that's why faith is
sometimes blind because we aren't doing our part to work hard but if
we did, if we read & knew the gospel better we wouldn't be as lost, we
wouldn't be as blind. Invite, invite, invite, our purpose is to invite
others to come unto Christ whether they accept that or not is not on
our heads but whether we try or not is.

On Friday we did exchanges with the Spanish Sebring Sisters, oh Sister
Beck & Westburg are STL's which they are awesome at it but it's a
little weird for me because I use to be one & I feel silly because
whenever they go for MLC (which is the big meeting the leaders have) &
I get to go stay with other Sister missionaries for the day. Anywho,
on exchanges we had a really cool experience that taught me a lot. We
were walking & there was a man we saw across the street & he was a
little scary looking & we were going to just keep walking but I just
decided, "why not." I went up to the man & invited him to check out
Mormon.org & he was actually really cool. It was awesome because I was
able to ask him if he has faith in Jesus Christ & he opened up about
how he's taken a step back from church because he had a negative
experience where he was surprised about something bad that happened.
He has a ton of great soul searching questions, for example he asked
why does God let bad things happen? We were able to testify that we
have the answers & that Christ church has been restored & woot woot,
I'm so excited to teach this guy & his wife & daughter who are super
nice. They have only been in Florida for one month & are from New
York. Woot woot! We will be teaching them this week, please keep them
in your prayers, the husband is Marvin, the wife is Bridget & one of
their daughters is Trisha who's 20.

Oh other people to keep in your prayers, Don & Lila Townsend, Don's
baptism is this week on Saturday, we have to move Lila's baptism date
because she is trying to quit smoking. She has gone from 20 cigarettes
a day to 4 or 6 a day. Praying she'll be able to overcome this. I love
these two, they are somewhere between the ages of 55 & 70, ha ha not
sure what age but oh my heart they have such a delightful sense of
humor & are a real joy. Ha ha the first time I met them it was super
hard to understand them because Don has a hard time hearing & Lila's
got a quiet voice with a thick southern accent & she doesn't really
have teeth. Oh how I love them, really if I'm having a hard day they
help brighten it up in a matter of seconds. I'm so excited for Don,
his eyes just shine, I can't wait.

Random hymn I don't think I have singed before & it's nice, Hymn 224
"I have work enough to do," check it out.

Oh & by the way lovely news we had from President Cusick, he has given
us permission to read our emails through out the week during our
personal time if we get any, we just cannot respond until Monday. But
his reasoning is that if we would get a letter it's the same concept,
you'd read it when you get it. Woot woot, so yeah just for ya'll to
know. I still love letters ha ha but anywho!

Happy news, we had 6 investigators at church today, woooooottttt
Haleigh....not positive how to spell that alright :)

Oh read Joseph Smith Matthew super cool & I've been reading in JSH
1:27-64, it's great, I'm excited to read the chapters that Moroni
quoted in verse 40 & 41.

That's enough out of me, Love you all with all my heart!!!

Keep it up & as they say here God Bless!

Love, love, loooooovvvvveeee LOVE love,

Sister Bush