Hello, Hello! Never Know What To Title My Emails

Familia!

So first things first so I don't forget - we switched apartments with the Elders so the address is the same accept for the apartment number and oh instead of Dr. it's Ave. I'll just write it out again but I have been getting everyone's letters and I have loved them! Oh Dad, I have gotten all your letters and postcard and they are the best!  :) Hey cool thing, Sister Burton gets a letter from her dad every week too and we both get our letters from our Daddy's on Thursday, it's great :) And packages from our mamas. :D Funny story by the way, in Dad's last letter at the end of it, He said "You are the Best," and it was awesome because I told Sister Burton because she always tells everyone, "You're the Best!" and she laughed because she said her dad had said that in her letter too! So cool!

So the address is 502 S Fremont Ave Apt # 1507, Tampa Fl, 33606. 

Alright, so I love Sister Burton.  She is hilarious and is always saying the funniest things like recently, "It's time to check out mails to the E, our net to the inter." She cracks me up and is great to work with.  We don't have problems and companionship inventories only last 5 or 10 minutes.  She hates contention and is just easy to work with. Oh and speaking of companions, Sister Jenkins and Sister Howard are the sweetest. They stay in touch and I get emails from them every week and even though they are crazy busy (because we missionaries are, seriously I have never been this busy in my life nor this exhausted!) they have both sent me snail mails and are so stinkin sweet. I'm really grateful to have made such valuable lifelong friendships out here, they're wonderful. 

This morning I had a really good scripture study and confirmed things I need to hear from the Lord. Before I talk about that earlier this week we had interviews with our Mission President (on Wednesday). It was crazy because I wasn't nervous at all to meet with him even though everyone else in the mission is, it's hilarious he intimidates the heck out of all the missionaries. I felt relaxed and not worried to meet with him at all and things had been a little hard for me the couple days before  that, I was just really stressing myself out in wanting to be perfect and basically the adversary was doing a great job in sending negative and discouraging thoughts about myself. We discussed only for a few minutes and things were going well and before he was going to tell me more things he asked me if there was anything else I needed to ask him. And as I tried to ask him my question I started bawling uncontrollably, and by uncontrollably I mean super embarrassing type of crying, the kind that is like from your childhood crying, the kind where you can't breath and you're having hiccups crying. Oh my lanta, it was so embarrassing and I, through broken words, apologized to him and said I was fine and that this was really embarrassing.  Oh man it was great. And he laughed too and said it was ok and to just breath. Ha ha, President Cusick is awesome. He asked me what was on my mind and again to just breath. I was having a hard time composing myself, so he told me to walk around and write down what's on my mind and come back and we'd discuss when I was ready and he'd continue on with other interviews in the mean time. I ended up just going to the restroom to sob. It was so strange but I guess I just hadn't cried in a long time and it all just came out there. Sweet Sister Burton came after her interview and hugged me and Hermana Snow came and talked and it was good to realize that I just needed to relax and that God wants me to be happy and that the Atonement is there to help us when we are stressed. It is All encompassing. I expressed how confused I was because I thought I was fine but realized I had been giving myself a really hard time. I also realized that the night before had been rough at the opening night of the Book of Mormon Musical.  I deal terribly with rejection, I hate rejection and the feelings from that show had brought up feelings from the past. So silly how even though you take care of things from the past you really need to accept the Atonement more fully so the past doesn't keep bothering you :) Everything had just built up, stressing myself out in being obsessed with being perfect, wanting to be confident but afraid I'd become prideful, wanting to focus on Christ more, letting the past be the past, missing family, and I really miss our Heavenly Parents and Christ. 

I had a great cry, great fellow sisters, great insights and learning experience and I'm just grateful again. I was able to pull it together and laugh about it and finished my interview with President Cusick. He gave great advice starting with that you can't be perfect that's not possible :) and had a really good example of the need to receive the gift of the Atonement.  My "Preach My Gospel" was on the table and he used it as the example saying how it's like him trying to give me this gift but then me being hesitant and pulling back and forth on whether or not I'd take it. We talked about how I was worthy and I had repented before my mission of everything that I needed to and that I needed to receive that Atonement. The gift is there for us all, we just need to take it. 

President had Sister Burton and I take a break from the Book of Mormon Musical (they had enough missionaries there) and I told him I could do it and he said he knew I could but that a break would be good. Luckily we were able to help out again on Sunday which I was really grateful for because I wanted to help out so badly and I was just fine on Sunday and we had a great time! It was so much better then Tuesday night. 

Anywho, I am so much happier.  Sunday's studies and this morning's have been great. I read in Alma 36 and I love vs 3 and vs 21 really reflects my experience that even though I was having a stressful time and sad it was great because Sunday and today I am SO happy. I really find that description in the verse perfect because the joy I feel today is soooo sweet and I have finally been able to just relax, but still be a hard worker. I also wrote next to verse 21, "The joy of depression," it reminding me of what Dad teaches and I feel like it goes great with it! Read all of Alma 36 if you have time the ending is great and I love verse 30 that is is so simple. Keep the commandments and we will prosper! Also the last sentence, "Now this is according to his word." So good!!!!

Awesome Quote by the way,

"In a real though figurative sense, the book of life is the record of the acts of men as such record is written in their own bodies. It is the record engraven on the very bones, sinews, and flesh of the mortal body. That is, every thought, word and deed has an effect on the human body; all these leave their marks, marks that can easily be read by Him who is Eternal as easily as the words in a book can be read." - Bruce R. McConkie 

I found it in my Bible and love it.  It goes along with my study on the word "word" :) 

Ahhhh I gotta run, I will add another really cool quote next week and more about the cool spray paint artist we've met and how he is our neighbor!!!! SO COOL! and about Jasmine and etc.

SO yes, with Christ we can be happy and life is so good and I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

Love,

Sister Bush

Woot to the woot!

Dear Familia!

What a week :) Sister Burton and I gave away 31 Books of Mormon this week and it has been a blast, crazy, exhausting, but delightful and never a dull moment. Ha ha! Sister Burton got proposed to by a homeless man and oh I was laughing so hard.  Earlier this week this car was turning at the intersection while we were waiting to cross and this black kid shouted out to us, "Hey White Girls." It was sooooo funny! We got a good kick out of it! 

Let's see what else... we talk to people all the time and we've had some sweet/neat experiences with a lot of people, sorry it's hard to even know which one to share, Victoria or Steve or Tim or Rakisha or Morgan or Jasmine or Edward, it's been neat! 

Before I forget I wanted to share a quote from our ward mission leader who is just soooo awesome. Brother Lewis is a Marine (or in the army?), but at one of our meetings he said, "The more you sweat in training the less you bleed in battle." It is so true with missionary work, the better and more I study from Preach My Gospel the more confident and secure I am and the more I testify to people about the essentials. That's been really nice here in the city, since we usually only have a few minutes with people.  Sometimes people will talk to us for 30 minutes or an hour. I have worked on testifying more about the Book of Mormon. I have been striving to use it more and it is amazing the miracles that come about from sharing scripture verses with people.  I have stopped asking people if I can share a scripture with them and I just pull out the Book of Mormon and say, "Oh what you just said reminds me of this...." and I share whatever scripture that relates and it's really cool to see what the spirit can do when I get out of the way. There was a man we talked to on a park bench and after a good chat Sister Burton pulled out a Book of Mormon and said a lot of good things and asked if she could give this man the book. He said no thanks and I just opened up the Book and said there's a scripture I'd like to share (I think it was Alma 24:14) and I testified and after Sister Burton asked, "Are you sure you don't want it?" And it was awesome because he said, "Alright, you sold me, I can't say no to that, I'll give it a chance." I LOVE THE SPIRIT! It's great what it can do.

I know it must be a fun adjustment for everyone with every member being a missionary and although the transition might be uncomfortable it doesn't have to be! It's really easy being a member missionary because you don't have to feel pressured in giving your neighbors a Book of Mormon and expecting them to immediately come to church. Just keep being your natural selves and invite them for activities and know that every effort counts and be open to letting the spirit guide every situation and interaction because opportunities will arise for you to testify or just naturally talk about beliefs.  It will be fun for me to transition too - that will be so werid.  Ahhhh!!!  It's going by way too fast, this is crazy!!!! Anywho while it's on my mind, I want to keep it a goal of mine to at least give 1 Book of Mormon away a week when I'm home and I want you to all hold me to that. Ah, let's not talk about that though, I love home, but I also love being here. 

By the way, I had a really sweet experience this morning in my "sacred grove" prayer (a 10 minute out loud pray before personal study) and I'm nervous and I cried but I know it's time and it's been on my mind the majority of my mission. I prayed to Heavenly Father for Him to give me a mountain not only for my faith and my relationship with Him, but because I know it's time to pray for that and that Heavenly Father wanted me to. I don't know what it is that is going to happen, but I felt at peace and I know that Heavenly Father will be with me every step of the way. I cried and expressed that I am scared to Him but not at the same time because I felt His love so strong and again that this is time. I remember earlier on my mission when I prayed for more faith, but I stated clearly to Him that I wasn't asking for a mountain because I remember President Erying's talk from a while ago where he shared his praying for a mountain experience and how hard it was, but his testimony of the Savior was beautiful. 

Anywho after that pray and plenty of tears I opened up my scriptures and it was cool that my study was in Alma 32 and encourage ya'll to read it :) It's a lovely read and I think the biggest thing I got from all of my study was the power of believing, "I CAN." I know with God WE CAN do anything. There is so much inspiration when realizing I CAN and the power that brings, but even more so when there are moments where we all feel like we can't, we KNOW and should REMEMBER, Christ CAN, He Can and that is why WE CAN. 

I love you all so much and I've gotta go but I will write more about Sister Burton and everything next time and will share more stories. Oh I know these are people from my last area but will you continue to pray for Alicia Benally and Juan Herrera and Bridgette Herrera. Ah gotta go! 

I love you I love you, and God loves you! 

Love, 

Sister Bush

Tampa 1 Metro Area BABY Bring on the Street Contacting!

Dear Familia,

Yeeha, soooo to answer all of your questions as you've been dying for a week. :D  I am serving with sweet Sister Burton in the Tampa 1 Metro area, so what does that mean? That means it is a completely brand new area and there are 2 sets of missionaries being sent there, Sister Burton and I and Elders Willard and Nelson. Guess what do we do in this brand new area? We are basically down town in Tampa and a couple of islands by it, Davis Island, Harbor Island, etc. and we Street Contact ALL day EVERY day. Did we have any direction except that? Nope, ha ha we actually didn't even know our boundaries or about the Islands until the 3rd day or so we were in the area. We have been instructed to street contact and basically we are just planting the seeds and trying to get referrals for other missionaries, IT IS AWESOME!!!! I was excited at first and then the first day was a painful reality check on how hard it was and awkward to go up to people on park benches or in passing as the walk by or ya da ya daaa how to make it as natural as possible so they don't get a weird impression about Mormons. Ha ha! So the First day was a little hard but Now I am pumped up because we have had a lot of neat experiences happening already and it is becoming so much more natural and I've been really learning how to trust the Lord and know that I'm not a bad missionary just because we are not teaching full on lessons all the time and that we are just doing things really fast and in passing and handing out Books of Mormon's. It is crazy and awesome, I love it!!! And it really is providing so much growth for me and taken me out of any comfort zone I might have had left, definitely taking that all away, ha ha.

Oh and ha ha I'm a Sister Training Leader too, which means I'm like the girl version of a Zone Leader. So Sister Burton and I will be over 7 sets of Sister Missionaries and we have exchanges once or twice a week. The MLC meeting (missionary leadership correlation or conference meeting?) was really cool on Friday. We got to hear all the new things that are in planning for our mission/ development, including Facebook which the majority of us leaders are involved in and are waiting for phase 2, phase 1 was creating the Facebook pages and only adding President Cusick and President May as our friends. Phase 2 will be further instruction to come and making sure our Zones are Super obedient because if they aren't we as leaders are held responsible, no pressure right? Oh and get this other piece of exciting news, they are working on ipads for our mission and in the next couple of months us missionaries who are obedient will be getting mini ipads to do all of our area book stuff in and to use instead of having to carry our scriptures around and being able to show people videos and what not. Isn't that epic?!  

Oh and guess what guess what!!!!! So The Book of Mormon Musical (by the creators of South Park, not cool at all and really bad) will be coming November 12th downtown Tampa at the Straz theatre and will be going for 2 weeks or so. Our mission President is already working on plans for it where 8 sets of missionaries will be at the theatre with boxes of Books of Mormon's to hand out to people and go with the logos that the church has been putting out of...The Book is always better then the movie or show, something like that! So we will most likely be involved with that since we are the street contacting missionaries and HOLY COW, isn't that crazy?!?

So, ha ha lots of stuff that I'm grateful for and have already had so much personal growth from it all. I'm really grateful to the Lord and echo Ammon's exclamation of joy in Alma 26, God is good. I had prayed last transfer to be a better missionary no matter what transfers brought, to be more focused and just better for God. I prayed to be more of who God wants me to be and who He knows me to be and to help me remember who I really am from the pre-existance. Heavenly Father answers prays, to be a better missionary He has called me to be a Sister Training Leader which requires me to be an example and a more/exactly obedient missionary because other missionaries will be watching me and follow after what I teach spoken or unspoken. Pray answered :) And then to be more of who He knows me as, ha ha I have been put in a street contacting new thing which requires me to completely trust and depend on Him and to have confidence. I love how prayers are always answered in unexpected ways, it is beautiful how God works and makes me think of Elder Bednar's talk, loved where he talked about when we ask for certain things and God gives us situations or other things to give us not only what we ask for but more of what we really need. 

I am very grateful and blessed in more ways then one. I love our apartments, carpet floors, aw I missed carpet floors and a nice gym which is epic, I've been working out a lot harder and it is Fantastic! Also another HUGE blessing is the Tampa Ward which I wish we could work more with but oh their are 8 of us missionaries who attend that ward so the other Elders Nelson and Shupe and Hermana's Snow and Graves get to work with the ward and they are so lucky. We work with them to but in a different way, we are not involved with less actives or recent converts since we are street contacting missionaries and yessum are area book process is ha ha not really existing since we just do what we do :)  But anywho, the first time we went to the Ward building, it touched my heart deeply because on the inside it is SUPER similar to the Cliffside 1st Ward which just warmed my heart because it was like a piece of home for me and I was really surprised by it and had so many random childhood memories and thinking back to what the building was like growing up and wow, it really had an impact on me and I was grateful. It felt like home which meant a lot because I really miss home but it was sweet to have a piece of it here. 

Oh and I wish you could all meet our Ward mission leader, Brother Lewis, good grief that man is ridiculously AWESOME, I look up to him so much, he is hilarious and on fire!!! I'm going to send a copy of the ward mission plan he came up with in correlation to the "To the Rescue" thing to mom and dad. He is amazing, he gets it and his testimony is booming. Our bishop is such a neat man and is a sweetheart, Bishop Addison, good grief, both of them and their love for their ward really impacted me. 

And ah, testimony meeting, I cried with the first testimony who was this cute little boy who just recently got baptized and he talked about how he can feel the spirit and how some days he gets mad and feels the difference but knows that it's ok, that the spirit it still there and that he can say sorry and it's ok. He then bore his testimony that he know's the church is true and he started to cry as he said that we are all God's children and God loves us. And good grief, that got me, such a tender testimony at such a young age and I'm just grateful for families raising their kids right and I'm grateful for our family and bah! So good! Attending church that day was powerful for me, it was the closest I have felt to home on my mission thus far and really meant a lot. God is good and I'm so happy. Ahhh this email is getting way too long and I don't know if you'll all make it because it's so long, ha ha so here's my new address oh and when ever there are transfers feel free to send your letters to the mission office address because they'll get it to the new address's while ya'll wait for my new one :) Just letting ya'll know, not because it was hard this week just because I love letters, promise I'm doing great!  

So here's the address...

502 S. Fremont Dr. #420, Tampa, FL 33606

I know this is really long, so I'll try to wrap it up but last night we met a lot of cool people on campus, Rakisha and her two kids, Sosonia and Alyia (cool right?), and we met a girl from India, Sonam and met a guy from Shrilanka, Rashawn, and met a guy named Wayne Magee, ha ha this cool Black guy who apparently has Irish and native american in his ancestry, super cool.

So yes, missionary work has been adjusted to something else and I'm learning how to have 1 minutes/5 minute lessons which is great because I prayed to teach more simply and more simplified. Again Heavenly Father answers prayers in very un-expecting ways. So yes, we're coming up with creative ways to contact, we'll be riding the bus to talk with people, possibly side walk chalk of the plan of salvation like they did in London was it? or New York? Can't remember and yeah, we're going to try to set up a table at the University for different events. Yessum lots of creativity going on, woot to the woot! 

Ok, I'll stop writing but I love you all so much and my heart if full and don't forget to have the courage to just ask the Lord. He wants us to ASK and He WILL give! I love you all so much and am truly grateful and I'll try to remember to give more cool details on some of the people we met and what not!

LOVE YOU MORE THEN WORDS CAN EXPRESS or like a weird man singing to himself,

LOVE,

Sister Tasha C. Bush

P.S. to give you comfort since we are in a city, we will be getting pepper spray, our mission President is going to be getting pepper spray for all of us Sister's, yay! :D 

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