Mountains To Climb Are Easier To Climb With Love

Dear familia & friends,

I think the mountain I prayed to climb 3 transfers ago just made it's
self very apparent & I feel like I can't even have a climb with a nice
path. There are thorns & thickets & mountain lions & whatever other
obstacle, you name it, it's coming at me. But before I get into that
earlier this week I learned a lot of fun things.

I did not know that Noah is the angel Gabriel, I love the ensign, it
goes along greatly with things that have been on my mind or that I
have read about recently. I love receiving revelations & I love how
God is in the details of our lives. His timing is perfect & matchless.
Happiness!

Reading the ensign along with scripture studies is very rewarding,
doesn't happen all the time because studies fly by especially when you
try to read bits & pieces from   All of the standard works, sheesh, I
love it! Can't get enough of scriptures :)

Anywho, Question! In Genesis 9, why did Noah get angry at his son &
punish him when it was his bad decision in the first place & he set
himself up to look like a fool? I might not be interpreting it right
but it was curious & funny to me any insights anyone?

Another insight I had was with Abraham, what sweet faith, how hard it
must have been because his father had tried to sacrifice him when he
was young but for evil reasons rather then good but Abraham was saved
by Christ. The faith & trust he must have had to sacrifice his son
when he was commanded to by God, I wonder if he had wondered if Christ
was going to save Isaac like he had been saved himself from his evil
dad. Could that have provided some form of comfort in the trial of his
faith. Either way talk about strengthen & courage in such a trial.
Taking a bad experience he went through as a young man & turning that
to positive reasons & trust as a father when he didn't have that form
of trust from his earthly father. What a beautiful example &
relationship he had with his Heavenly Father, pure love & devotion
even though he never had that from his earthly dad. I am so grateful
my papa is a loving & worthy priesthood holder who has provided for me
& not only given me but taught me the way to follow Christ's
footsteps. Thank you dad for being a good man & not trying to
sacrifice your children :) you are the best.

It was a delight after district meeting to walk in POURING rain to the
bus stop. I thought to myself, "hmmmm I need to do this more." It is
seriously one of the best & most delightful feelings to be completely
drenched from the rain & to just absolutely enjoy the down pour, I
love it. Ha ha I guess that is what I need to feel towards my
companionship situation just enjoy the exhaustion of it & that it
doesn't have to be exhausting in the down pour. I need to sincerely
love it like I do the rain.

Sister Godwin & I have talked a lot to try to work out things, we are
Very very different. And that's the biggest thing, you can't force
anyone to change, oh the beauty of free agency. You can see that
someone could be happier but until they themselves really do want to
be happy you can't do anything it has to be there choice. That can be
rather aggravating especially when their pride starts to effect you &
the work & others... might result in you yelling... & feeling bad be
because you have been working on not being angry...sigh.

I've been praying a lot for charity & to not be angry because anger &
contention is not from God. I am grateful for God's help, we we're
reading in the white handbook & this stood out to me, "All those who
have callings that put them in the position of influencing others for
good should prayerfully & repeatedly ponder the Lord's teachings to
the Prophet Joseph Smith in Doctrine & Covenants 121:34-46." I am
trying to ponder this more fully & have already had a lot of trying &
crying prayers to God from everything. I sobbed a lot Saturday night
in my prayer to God, I was pretty frustrated with things that happened
that day & the transfer news that Sister Godwin & I would be staying
together another transfer. I want to be the best missionary I can be &
it's hard when you don't have the support or unity in your
companionship. Being equally yoked really makes a difference & I
really want a best friend out here who gets that & is with me in
giving everything we can together as a team. The whole purpose in
bringing souls unto Christ, not running the other direction from
spiritual experiences because they are as she says it, "weird." I
loathe that description word now, every time I say weird it irks me.

Nice thing the spirit taught me at the Kane's was the story in Alma 24
burying our weapons of war, burying our words of war, there is a much
more loving way to deal with life's temptations & contentions. I read
recently a powerful talk in the ensign, I've been praying for charity
& it has been tried like none other. I have prayed to get rid of anger
& to know how to deal with a lot more love towards sister Godwin
because there have been so many times where I just wanted to flat out
smack her not just yell but I have been really surprised to find that
type of anger. I'm not the type or a person who desires to deal with
anger physically but goodness I really wanted to hit her.  Ha ha I
can't believe I'm being this honest but oh man it was hard. Anywho
this article in the ensign was really such an answer to prayer & I
highly recommend all to read it. "Shunning Temptation, A Key to
Receiving Revelation," by Elder Ian S. Ardern.

Another thing that really helped with everything was mom & dad's
letters super grateful! Oh & super sweet/ adorable, the river heights
3rd ward are sweethearts & I got this huge valentines card thing from
them, I'll have to take a picture of it & send it in my next email but
it all came in perfect timing. Oh & loved this quote that helped a
lot, it's a quote from one of the apostles that's along the lines of
do not prayer for your circumstances to be changed rather pray for the
strength to change your circumstances. I love quotes.

Another funny thing that helped this week is Siri. In our area books
on our I-pads we can use the Siri feature so we don't have to spend
forever typing out the background info or updating the lessons, we can
just speak it in & Siri types it out as we voice record it. Well it's
super efficiently entertaining because some things it hears wrong &
types out funny sentences. For example I was recording that Sister
Ciccarello was a member present at a lesson & instead of Ciccarello it
put, "and the chick around the house." It provides a good laugh now &
again, bah ha ha especially when Sister Godwin's Siri once put, "She
feels like s!@$~" we couldn't stop laughing because she did not say
that but that's what it imputed. Luckily we can type out the
corrections but wow :D

Speaking of immaturity, guess what?!? There's an Elder Butt out here
in the mission, ha ha ha I wonder if he's related to the less active
family from Tampa who's last name was Butt. Aww nothing like immature
humor really helps get ya through.

Speaking about singing :D we were riding our bikes & funny funny, I
just started singing, " I love biking, I love being a missionary, I
love biking & being a missionary," & lo & behold we passed a house
where as I'm mid singing being random & weird there is a guy sitting
in his chair in his front lawn. It was soooo funny! And instead if
just saying hello, which I did say I first awkwardly singy like, "oh
my goodness, HI!" Biking got hard after laughing so much which just
adds to the crazy look of biking in skirts with helmets, loooovvveee
it! Even better we road pass that house again this week & said hi to
that man, he had a big grin on his face as he waved hi to us if we
hadn't had had an appointment I would have stopped to ask if we can
pray with him & teach him but I promise next time we see him in his
front yard we are stopping & teaching the guy. Wouldn't that be great
if he got baptized & could have the cool story about how he saw some
weird Sister missionary singing a made up song on her bike? Epic I
tell you purely epic.

So miracle of the week we were headed over to the Dacosta's to teach
Laura & it was funny because on the way over their I thought to
myself, "hmm wouldn't that be cool if Brother DaCosta was visiting?"
Lo & behold while talking Sister DaCosta let us know that Brother
DaCosta was in town because they were moving into a bigger house in
Spring Hill for their family & came down to help. It was awesome & I
was super excited to see him & he was able to be there for the lesson.
We are helping them with move tonight & are looking forward to a
lesson & an invitation to be baptized with a date.

Other updates I don't remember if I have shared or not, we dropped
Monica because she's not keeping commitments like reading her
scriptures or coming to church. Hopefully she'll accept it down the
road. Also Donna & Miguel are both out of town, arggg so waiting to be
able to set baptismal dates when they come back. Other then that we
are working on finding like none other.

Scripture time, 2 nephi 32:3-5 I testify that if we enter in the way
of putting God first & applying/ living to the best of our abilities
Christ gospel will be shown all things by the Holy Ghost as to what to
do. Which is what I'm in need of with my companion & fellow
missionaries that can be frustrating & making up their own rules. For
example our Sister training leaders insisted that we send our music
home because President said so. We'll President said in his email the
no music rule was "for now." Just got an email today that we have
permission to listen to moron tabernacle choir or have a church logo
on the cd that we can listen to it in the car. I'm pretty annoyed
because I gave my Sister Training leaders my CDs to send home because
they insisted on it & now the way that really helps me distress is
gone & we have permission to listen to music now. Yeah, I'm ticked. I
didn't know that one of my trials on my mission would be from my
mission President who can't make up his mind on rules or keeps giving
or taking away rules... A little aggravating. But I am trying to be
understanding with it all because he is human to & learning along side
the rest of us.

Anywho mom & dad if you get some CDs that's why, I'm also hoping they
haven't sent them so we'll see.

2 Tim 3:14-17, john 5:39 two other nice scriptures.

And let's see, oh another thought/ insight from brother Kane who
realized Satan didn't hear Heavenly Father out for the whole plan just
got angry & huffed out before the whole plan could be presented, I
think? Not positive on that & I don't know if I have shared that
before but I think it's a cool insight. Let us try to hear each other
allllll the way out before we get angry & storm from the room. I am
grateful for my brother Elijah who taught me that before I had left
for my mission. We were having a family discussion & one of my
siblings voiced his opinion about something & it ticked me off & I was
trying to stand up for what I thought was right. It got frustrating so
I left the room crying & Elijah came after me & pulled me in a big
brother bear hug & whispered in my ear,"don't leave, we need you tash,
if you go this family will fall apart, don't leave just come back, we
need you." I reluctantly came back even though I was incredibly hurt I
knew that truth is truth & we all need each other to be a complete
family. This likewise is true In the bigger picture. I am
understanding more where less actives are coming from. They just need
to be loved & know that they are needed & have someone tell them to
come back, we need you.

I am grateful for my siblings that we stick together as a team. I am
also grateful that they are so loving & humble to apologize even in
disagreements they are willing to let each other know that when it
comes down to it we love each other no matter what.

I think love really helps every problem, I've been frustrated with our
mission President Cusick because he doesn't always portray it or say
very nice things. I just have to remember that people express love
differently & don't show it the same way as others. That is been fun
to learn this transfer oh & Sister Godwin & I are staying together
another transfer, woot for climbing mountains, oh my heart has days
where it can take it & others where I just want to cry. There is hope
though on Sunday she said she was going to try to be more happy and
kind on her part. Yay for the power of prayer.

I need to always remember Christ to have His spirit with me always
just like it says in the sacrament prayers & in 3 Nephi 18:11 & in
verse 15, "watch & prayer always." And in verse 18 says it again. In
verses 24&25 those greatly touch my heart. Christ is the light that we
need to uphold & we do so by sharing that with every child of God, so
many souls need to have the Atonement, so many people don't even know
about the hope of a Savior. There have been times where in a lesson
I'll ask a child if they know who Jesus Christ is & they will respond
with no. Everyone needs to know.

Ok, this is SUPER long :D good luck & woot love you all! Hope things
are improving you've all be en in my prayers & fasts.

LOVE, much LOVE,

Sister Bush

Wowa Powa

Dear Familia and Friends,

Before I foget HAPPY BIRTHDAY to DIXON! On MARCH 3rdddddddddddddddddddd! Sinnnggginginginging :D Happy birthday on that day! Ha ha you're the best from the west in the east! Wacha! :)

So, wowa what an interesting week. I have found the happiness of the miracles that come forth when you have a unified companionship...which mine isn't... didn't discovered how truly frustrating it has been until recently. On Monday we went downtown Tampa for 3 days. It's a thing the whole mission is doing, they are having all the missionaries do this over these last few transfers. They have about 3 sets of missionaries come stay with the downtown sister training leaders, who are Hermana Birch and Larsen (love them!) and it's a nice apartment, ha ha random. Ok, so the Elders do this as well with the APs. Its a mission joke among the missionaries that Hermana Birch and Larsen are the girl AP's because they are clearly President Cusick's favorite missionaries. It makes sense they are both gorgeous and just flat out rockin Sister Missionaries, they are incredible examples and again are the best examples of what Sister Missionaries should be like/ disciples of Jesus Christ. 

Anywho, we went down from Monday to Wednesday to do a fast training on Street Contacting/ fast quick interactions with people in handing out pass along/ mormon.org cards. If lucky have an engaged conversation and get their contact info to pass on to other missionaries. I was really grateful that it was my old area so I didn't have to stress out about the city :) I felt like I had a nice head start because a little bit of practice from the transfer I had spent serving there. I think it's awesome and genius that they are doing this. They also start out any new missionaries there as well, super smart and again awesome! So, this experience was very eye opening. Not only did I learned a lot, I did enjoy myself quite a bit. My confidence was really boosted up in realizing that I was a lot more comfortable and good at it then I realized. Oh and the other cool thing, they had different "stations" of where missionaries were required to be certain times of the day so we weren't all in the same places, for the most part. For example, some were assigned to go on the bus while others were assigned a certain park or block of town. It's cool because some people are starting to have a lot of interactions with the missionaries in the city and starting to get to know "the mormons." 

I was grateful to be able to stop by one of the restaurants Sister Burton and I had gone to when we served together there for dinner. I was very happy to see Victoria still working at Peta's Republic which is one of my favorites, it is delicious! Anywho, again I was really happy to see Victoria, she is one of those people that I feel like we were friends before this life and connect too. She was going through a lot and it was nice to hear that she is praying more and reading her bible (which is a good start ;) ) I encouraged her to read the book of mormon and to check out the church in town. It was nice to be able to write down scriptures for her and to have a really good conversation with her. 

Downtown Tampa was a valuable experience that needed to happen. Like I said earlier it was eye opening. It is a astonishing difference to see what a unified companionship can accomplish which I discovered on splits with Hermana Larsen. Let me explain/give an example. On Tuesday we were assigned for our station for the first half of the day to ride the bus which is a great way to teach people lessons and what not. So on the bus Sister Godwin sat in the front of the bus and I went to the back. I met a man named Mike, had a great conversation and got his phone number to give to the STL's. I was pumped up from the positive encounter and conversation as he left with a mormon.org card and smile on his face. It was disheartening then to look down at the front of the bus to see my companion asleep. It really just made my heart drop. I was going to wake her up but she is always doing this. Every Sunday in church she falls asleep. We have talked about it and she knows what she needs to do but she doesn't care. We have had conversations on caring more, again she knows what she needs to do, this is a before the mission thing as well and yet she just won't do it. It seems miserable to be miserable and to know what you need to do but to just continue on and for what pride? What a lame thing. Anywho, she wasn't happy with herself either and as we got off the bus around downtown I tried to encourage her. She had the good idea to go on spilts with the STL's to have them help out.

We met them at the park and she went with Hermana Birch and I went with Hermana Larsen. Hermana Larsen and I in that short amount of time that we did splits had miracles left and right and the spirit was so strong. I missed that soooo much. It was nice to be with someone who gets it and who loves the Lord in putting His will first and putting aside any selfish concerns. We talked to a lot of people, said a prayer with a man who was probably homeless but I felt we needed to it was sweet, and the best was this couple we met who were sitting at this table. They were my favorite. We talked with them and they were asking a ton of stuff so we sat down and had a great discussion and by the end of it while the man was talking to me the woman leaned to Hermana Larsen and said. "I really want to read that book." In reference to the book of mormon we just had given her. It was AWESOME and the man was so prepared as well, he had a lot of questions and good points about how incorrect the bible was and it was exciting to testify of the power and truth of the Book of Mormon being not only a second witness but a accurate correct witness of our lord and savior Jesus Christ. Oh goodness it was a great experience. So, take that miracle happiness of support from Hermana Larsen who was willing and always talking to people and how we were balanced to getting back to Sister Godwin who is just pushing through. It was hard. 

I love her but was stunned to see what I've been putting up with this whole transfer and it was more stunning in comparing at the end of the downtown experience I had passed out over 100 cards and she had passed our 18 or 20. When you care God will help you succeed more then what you can do. Grant it I will give her the credit that what she did was a Huge improvement of how she has been. And she did a great job on the bus the 2nd day and engaged in conversations with people and was friendly and smiley. So it went a lot better. 

I was also grateful for when we got back Wednesday night, we had a text from our STL's for out area, Sister Goodmen and Trabatitch letting us know we were going on exchanges with them for Thursday and Friday. Good thing that that happened because with all that I realized and was able to report to Hermana Larsen it was nice to have exchanges with Sister T to be able to talk about everything else. I've notice that obedience to the written rules mean nothing when you're heart isn't being obedient to what we should be doing in living the higher law. Sister Godwin is good at being obedient to the written rules as to caring and loving God's children that's a whole other story. I know she does and I have seen her care but she puts up such a fight. It's not worth the fight, loving is so much better even though it is harder!!!!

I love Sister Trabatitch and I feel bad because that's the wrong spelling. She is incredible though and is a convert herself and is one of the best missionaries I have ever seen. I am touched by her dedicated service even though more then half of her family is not supporting her and her own father hardly rights her because of her decision to serve a mission. She loves being a missionary with all of the opposition she has and that is a missionary who gets it. I am blessed to have gotten to know her and am grateful for what she has done for me.

Anywho, all this to say, that I get that I'm not the problem and how I never want pride to be my problem. I've worked through what I needed to and I am happy and from earlier this week seeing the difference in myself and the difference in other missionaries good or bad it just re motivated me to do better. My heart has been purified and I just feel this energy and urgency of the work. There is not any time to waste time over our petty selves. The bigger picture is so much more then us being selfish! I loved a scripture I discovered in John 17:3, life eternal is to know God and Jesus Christ. How do we get to know them? Take the time to. Put God first in our lives. It just doesn't make sense not to.  

Ha ha, I have felt like I've been through a lot but I know I really haven't. I am grateful for everything I have experienced thus far even with companionship struggles. We are all so much better then what we choose to be at times and I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ in every detail of our lives to help us fulfill more of who we really are. We can do that if we soften our hearts and let Christ help us out. Pride is NOT worth it. 

Anywho, I am excited, when Elder L. Tom Perry was here ( I heard this from the STL's) he had told President Cusick that there needs to be 8 baptisms per missionary happening for our mission. I know if an apostle of God says this that is what needs to happen and will happen. Frustrating thing is when the Stake Presidents were told this they all said that that's too much and not possible. Grrrrrrrrr Seriously people, you are going to question direction from and Apostle? I don't get it. Anywho, they agreed on by October 4th to have I think 4 or 6 baptisms and then December 6th up to 6 or 8. All because of the lack of faith from Stake Presidents in this mission. I was grateful to hear though that our Stake President, President Thompson was in support of what Elder Perry said. I know that faith precedes the miracle and that it will happen if we do our part and BELIEVE. 

Sister T and I had a lot of great experiences together, President Cusick had asked us a while back to walk once a week. Sister Godwin complained about it and will bike but wouldn't do the walking. On exchanges Sister T was awesome and we were able to do it together and even in the broad area of Brooksville, because of our faith the Lord put people in our path. It was wonderful. Sister Godwin and I finally did it recently, I was grateful for the change she was making and ha ha not as awesome the results that Sister T and I had but it is a start and will continue to be brighter and better. 

This work is true, it is hard but it is worth it and it IS FUN. :) I love this time and I hope each of you do to, it Is indeed the last days let's live it up in the best way by preparing! 

I love you so much, I don't know if I express it enough but I am grateful for the family I was brought up in. I am grateful to know my heart finds relief in knowing that my parents and my siblings are doing what they should be. I am so blessed to be apart of such a wonderful group of people who listen to the Lord and are following the spirit. I am so grateful for my friends in how supportive they have been in my life and such a positive piece in my life and heart. I love you all so very much.

Thank you for everything and keep it up, every effort counts and is beautiful!

MUCH LOVE,

Sister Bush

p.s. D&C 58:27, 2 Nep 2:26-29, Alma 37:47, Deut 30:19-20 

I Have A Feeling This Email Will Be Short

Dear Familia and Friends,

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LYDIA tomorrow, what a fun and exciting time, woot woot :D And thanks Mom and Dad, loved your Valentines made my day and was just what I needed, great letters. And Thank you April, it was adorable and appreciated. 

So this week, we had a great miracle, Sister Peek did an awesome and natural job in suggesting her friend to talk with us who her friend is looking for a church. Her name is Donna Dufour and we had a a great time meeting her. They've been changing things in our mission in how we teach lesson one and it is really neat. Instead of us reciting Joseph Smith's experience memorized we have the investigator read the experience and then we say, "I testify that what you just read is true." It's a unique way but powerful. At the end of lesson 1 instead of talking about the book of mormon we now tell people that we have a gift for them next time we see them. The next lesson is all about the book of mormon and we read parts of the first chapter with  them and then commit them to reading it all from the beginning to the end. Before we would assign different chapters and what not to go with different lesson points and we can still do that but it's more encourage to actually have them read it. It was a nice tender mercy of the Lord to have my prayer answered for Donna to come to church because she did :) She only stayed for sacrament but what a blessing to have someone come to church!!! We will be teaching her Lesson 2 or 3 this next week and will be committing her to a baptism date, wish us luck. 

Let's see, we haven't been able to see Monica, she keeps canceling on us and it's frustrating, we have good lessons with her and it's super spiritual and then she flakes out. ARgggg, so hopefully things will go better this week because I know she is so close! Blah.

We had a really nice lesson with Miguel and we brought a sweet member with us to his lesson. Laurel Murray, Laurel is incredible, she is in her 30's and is a miracle that she is alive and walking. She was in a car wreck 11 years ago, she was hit by a drunk driver. She was told that she would never walk again and she told us how silly doctors are. Her loving father promised her that she would be able to walk and with many priesthood blessings and the persistence and dedication of helping move her legs for her everyday she is now walking. She walks with a cane and is slow but truly amazing that she is. I am grateful for her example of her father's faith and for her faith. She struggles in talking and honestly the first time I met her I had wondered or thought that she was handicapped mentally. But then hearing her comments in Relief Society I soon and quickly discovered just the opposite, she is a brilliant individual and is powerful. I love how her comments always tie back to Christ and God's love. She always talks about what a joy life is and how her accident is the best thing that has ever happened to her. She has talked before about how people are distracted by the physical and how that is not it, it's all about the spiritual. She talked about how even she was distracted, she had played volleyball and did track in high school and was very active. After her accident she was angry for 6 years at God but now is so sincerely happy that it happened. My favorite thing she always talks about is seeing the Christ in each other and what a joy that is. We just need to see the Christ in each other. 

Anywho, I love her and am really happy we took the time to have her come teaching with us, she just beamed when we asked her too and had talked about how she had always wanted to serve a mission. She really had an impact on Miguel and I know her testimony brought him to say at the end of the lesson that he wants to get baptized. We are praying for a date and he is too. This week we should be setting a baptismal date with him. I am grateful for Miguel, he always ask good questions and really thinks about things seriously, it's great he is so contemplative about gospel topics. We've been praying for him too that his wife will be able to get her paper work process done fast, she's in the Dominican Republic and is trying to get to the states so she can be with Miguel. It would be neat to teach her too. 

It's been nice to see people coming closer to God and changing, nothing makes me happier then sitting down in a lesson and find out that they've actually been reading their scriptures. It's a nice feeling. It helps. Speaking of help, I am grateful to God and charity. I've prayed for it a lot and it's been tested as my patience is tried with my companion. That has been the hardest thing for me my whole mission and I didn't think it would be. Companions are driving me nuts though. I just want a best friend who is great to deal with. It's tough, my current one is emotionally disconnected and even though is great with being organized and being obedient, has a tendency to not really care about the people we serve. She does and then she doesn't and it's baffling to me. It's nice to have the open communication so we can talk about it and I'm grateful for that but she knows what she needs to do and pray for and yet won't. We can be the only ones to choose to be happy to choose to care. I am getting exhausted. I feel I have done what I can on my part to be a happy, healthy person, I am just sick of other people not doing that. To go day after day seeing adults choose misery is aggravating. We must all answer the call God has given us and choose His will not ours. I'm clearly not perfect but I am learning to choose happiness everyday instead of getting discouraged by others choices and it's nice to see a difference in my life. Again, I am working hard on it but it doesn't take hard work when I forget myself and do service or let others know they are loved. It only gets depressing when consumed with just being selfish and thinking of myself instead of others. What a difference it makes to think of others, to think of Christ, to think of God and His love. The bigger picture is everything. 

Much Love,

Sister Bush

Happy Valentine's Day on Friday!

Dear Familia and Friends,

HAPPY UPCOMING VALENTINES DAY!!! I LOVe, love and have definitely manifested it from God this week and last few days and today. I'm so happy that everyone is happy and feeling of that love too :) I have seen so many blessings of God's love, big and small ways one of the ways...

In an email from President Cusick who sent a hilarious email titled, "POPI," which stands for Prayer, Obedience, Pamphlets, and drum roll..................I-PADS!!!!! WE are getting Ipads tomorrow and get this we EACH are getting an I-pad and WOOT to the WOOOTTTTTT!!!!!!! :D Super excited, best Valentines week EVER! 

And Thank you, Thank you thank you MAMA, for your package. On Saturday, I had the pleasant Surprise of seeing a package as we were walking out the front door after lunch. Adorable outfit and happiness of snacks, so good. 

Another way I felt of God's love was on Tuesday when I got to talk with Sister Tilley. What a wonderful life changing discussion we had and hope I had none of you worried, things are great :) It was funny because even before seeing her that morning and the drive down I had gotten myself so stressed out and worked up before it that I ended up having a migraine, Sister Godwin didn't know because I just kept it to myself but it was painful and unnecessary. It was crazy too because while we were talking and going over things I even thought I was going to throw up because of how stressed I was over the whole thing, I didn't do anything bad I was just super worked up. Ha ha, what a relief I didn't and thank heavens to Heavenly Father for helping me to breathe. So some of the things she said that really helped me get over beating myself up for past mistakes were, "Every choice that we make is the choice that we're capable of making at that moment." But the events after help us to progress. Some times in life we get the joy of learning from the choices we were only capable of making but the key thing is the choices we choose to make after we have learned what we needed too. Our faults are opportunities to become like our Heavenly Father, purposely made that way. We are give the challenges that we are give for a reason. 

It really put things in perspective for me and calmed a lot of my unrealistic fears I had been having. The biggest thing I had been struggling with was how I interpreted events. She wrote out a little equation that really helped, A+B=C. What I was struggling with was the + sign. Let me explain, A stands for Event, the plus sign stands for what we think or how we interpret the event in what it means aboutus. And B stands for Behavior and C stands for the Result or consequence from behavior. 

So A (Event) + (Interpretation about ourselves from the event) B (Behavior as a result from our interpretation) = C (Consequences or results). It was great to go over different things in my life with Sister Tilley and finding a healthier way to interpret things from my past and how I saw myself, and to stop blaming myself for things out of my control. To stop taking on so much responsibility for others actions or decisions and to just answer for myself rather then others. Loved it. Another thing that was really nice was she asked what was my biggest stress was and I said the stress of being or trying to be a "perfect" missionary and really wanting to please our Heavenly Parents and making it back to the Celestial Kingdom. I was SO stressed out from this. She was awesome in again helping me see a better perspective and calming me down that I was the type of person to least worry about making back to our Heavenly Parents. It was nice to hear her talk to me about my empathy that I have and how huge that was. Anywho, sorry not to go off about "Me," bah ha ha even though the majority of this email is but I really want this to hopefully be a benefit to anyone else :D Soooo "Back to Me," as the old spice guy would say. 

Sister Tilley shared a really awesome scripture that one of the 3 mission presidents she works with shared with her. This women drives around between 3 different missions counseling missionaries, she awesome right? Crazy busy, 62 and just great! Anywho, We turned to D&C 138:25-26, I was stunned, it says, " I marveled, for I understood that the Savior spent about three years in his ministry among the Jews and those of the house of Israel, endeavoring to teach them the everlasting gospel and call them unto repentance;

And yet, notwithstanding his mighty works, and miracles, and proclamation of the truth, in great power and authority, there were but few who hearkened to his voice, and rejoiced in his presence, and received salvation at his hands. "

We discussed how even when the Savior was here there were but few who listened. I wept as I expressed to her how stunning that was to me because that's my Savior and I love Him so much, how could there only be but few? I love Him and our Heavenly Parents from all that I am, I only am because of them. It was something that moved me to feeling at peace that just because things are so different from the start of my mission doesn't mean I'm a bad missionary or that I'm not working hard enough. Timing is huge and people that are ready will be here read to move forward and those who aren't, well we're just helping them step up on another step of their faith ladder that is preparing and helping them climb to a place where they will be prepared for more. Every effort counts. So she asked an even better question after we discussed and read that verse, what kept the Savior going? I answered with He had a deep relationship with God and had an Eternal perspective, He knew the bigger picture. And that is key in life, we need to Remember God's love and that He knows us and remember the bigger picture!!!! 

I could go on and on, to the point, I'm so much happier. Yes, companions have been frustrating in the past but I can't blame them for if I'm happy or not. I have to be responsible one and one with God and how I interpret myself and events. It's broaden the whole circle of influence thing for me and I'm finally feeling confident, love it! I'm just ready for change and I feel it in me and yeeha it's great! 

Oh and on the way drive down it was great, Sister Godwin had a talk/ fireside thing on cd called, "Seeing Ourselves as God sees Us," by Michael Wilcox, the title might be wrong I can't remember how exactly it was phrased but I highly recommend it, has a lot of really good thoughts!!! It was helpful in not only calming me down for the counseling session but also in preparing me and giving me more insights into a healthier perspective of myself and God. Love! 

Sooooo pretty much Counseling is the best and awesome when they are LDS because then you can talk about spiritual things and scriptures and it= powerful :) I love that Dad is a psychologist! And I just hope that everyone takes time for it more often. Taking time to talk and make sense about your life and life in general is just healthy, "Go talk to a counselor make the world a better place." If ever I go into politics that'll be my slogan ha ha good thing I'm never going into politics. But seriously if we all took time to get out Crum together life would be so much better and we'd stopped blaming each other for why we're not happy :p EVEN better if everyone had the GOSPEL that would solve things too. Speaking of gospel you all need to watch or read this broadcast, it's great...  http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/article/ces-devotionals/2014/01/what-is-the-blueprint-of-christs-church?lang=eng&query=ces+fireside+broadcast+blueprint

Muah ha ha this is such a long email! HA! And I'm not done yet :D I'm so happy, good grief, I really hope you are all happy because I love you all very much. That was another thing I told Sister Tilley, I just told her I could brag about my family for hours and I just said you were all amazing and awesome. And it was really sweet because then she later had mention that I said that and she said you need to say and see that You are Awesome too just like your family. So, family guess what? I AM AWESOME :D but in all sincerity a big part of why I am Awesome is because YOU ARE AWESOME, ha ha ha speaking of awesome I bought this Journal of Awesome that in different pages it describes something awesome, woot you rock target! And yes, yikes I bought it from target but this was weeks after all the scariness that went down at target, so we should be good. lol! Oh I crack myself up. 

So speaking of focusing, I've been focusing more on Christ and trying to pray in my heart more through out my day and God's love is really sweet. Daily love reminders, keep your eyes open for them ok? Like in church yesterday one of the handouts said, "Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, taught: "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if He lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until He find it?..." That's a huge part of how I got my answer to serve a mission was it's not just about the one but the 99 and Amen to that. Anywho, this handout was a sweet reminder to me of how grateful I am for serving a mission and how happy God is too.  

Ok, I gotta run but I love you all so much And will write next week about sweet Laurel Murray this women is an inspiration and needs to have a mormon.org video on her, she's so inspiring!!!! 

Here's some random great scriptures, 1 Peter; Helaman 3:27-30,35; Moroni 7:12-19; D&C 121:41; 123:17; 138:25-26 oh and D&C 6. Just great! 

Oh and luckily the music thing hasn't been as hard, I thought it would be really painful and it is better then I expected and oops I didn't mean to make President Cusick sound like such a punk even though a lot of the time he is but there were missionaries who had been sent home and apparently it had started with music and so that's why he just x'd it out for everyone. But for now that is how it is hopefully we'll be able to have that privilege again. 

MUCH MUCH MUCHO Much LOVEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Love, 

Sister Bush 

Happy 10 Month Mark!

Dear Familia and Friends,

Holy Guacamole, today is my 10 month mark and I'm just shocked by how time is flying!!! Speaking of flying I am so sorry if I've missed anyone's Birthdays and I know I've always been terrible at writing people cards and what not but I did want to wish Ellen a Happy Belated Birthday, I hope it was a blast and went great! Yeeha! Oh and Dan, Happy happy Birthday!!!!! :D Speaking of calenders is April still making those by any chance or??? 

So, today is one of those days where I'm not quite sure what I want to share :) It's been a week with a lot of tender mercies and some challenges but I'm grateful as usual by the end of the day. Let's see we've had a couple of good lessons including with Monica and her niece Jessi who apparently Jessi's grandparents are mormon. Unfortunately Monica won't be baptized this Sunday, there's still a lot to teach and she's still praying but the last lesson we had with her went really well, the spirit was super strong and it was awesome to bear sincere testimony to her and Jessi. Jessi had asked Sister Godwin and I if we missed our families and I answered very honestly that yes it was really hard. But I followed with my testimony of how amazing this mission has been for my life and how grateful I am to be humbled and lucky to be serving God. I wouldn't trade anything for the beautiful the moments of being able to testify to people of God's love for them. I tried not to but I couldn't help but start to tear up as I then testified of that love for them. It was so nice to hear Monica after that say how strong she had been feeling the spirit from our visit, for the last 30 minutes she said she could feel it and it was cool too as her 15 year old daughter sitting next to her said she could feel it too. They are all making such progress. No matter the time they have been prepared and Sister Godwin and I are hoping to help them to the waters of baptism by the end of the month. 

That same day we ended the night nicely with a lesson with Matt who his comments were awesome and he had gone off on how disappointed he was with TV these days and how they never have a normal family. He talked about how it was always broken homes or single parents and where was the support for values. And later on in the lesson he talked about how frustrated how no one kept the Sabbath day holy and that there is no reason for stores to be open on Sunday and what not. It was so cool, I was shocked because he was right on and tee hee those moments are so rare sometimes when teaching people but he really gets it, he really knows his bible and it's one of the best feelings when people connect to the spirit and just seeing how they've been prepared. Love it! Oh I don't know if I've ever written about Matt or not but he was a former investigator of Sister Kitchen and Sister Anderson (who had trained Sister Kitchen) and he had a baptism date but gave up because of coffee and tea. Anywho before Sister Kitchen had been transferred he had sent us a reply to our scripture of the day text saying that he thought we were good people and wanted to meet up again and was in need of a prayer. He's married and has 3 or 4 kids, can't remember at the moment but he just has a sincere desire to be a better person and improve his home life. So, we're starting the lessons with him again and he said he was going to come to church without us asking but he didn't come yesterday :( But I know he'll come he is prepared and I think he knows it's true, he's got a good heart. 

So, ha ha we've had a lot of rules these last few transfers from President, including no mass texts (which is sad because scripture of the day was a great way to get people's phone numbers and it worked a lot in people eventually warming up to wanting missionary visits), we have one day a week that we have to just walk or bike so we can do street contacting which is good just a little difficult for Brooksville because it's a big area but it's good, and with most rules I'm ok but this has been the hardest rule recently when they said No music at all, not even mormon tabernacle choir. That has been hard for me because that is how I distress, I love music and I feel like every way that I use to distress before my mission has been taken away from me. It's really hard. Luckily President just said for now but our Training Leaders said that we need to mail home our cds so I will be mailing those home but at the same time our mission President didn't say to do that. He said no music for now so I'm debating what to do. I've been obedient and haven't listened to anything but it is a crack up to me how missionaries are constantly making up their own rules that aren't official rules from the white handbook or preach my gospel. It can get really annoying and old especially when they are saying that President said so, they use it as a cope out and again it gets old real fast when people act like the rules they make up obtain to my personal salvation and my purpose as a missionary. Argggg. Anywho, sorry trying not to complain. 

Let's see some nice scriptures I like recently include D&C 121:41, 123:17 and I'm looking forward to reading the CES broadcast that Pappy wrote about recently. Oh and next time I need to write about this sweet sweet woman in our relief society, her name is Laurel Murray and good grief they need to make a mormon.org video about her, she inspires me so much. Every Sunday she says the most tender comments and a sincere, Christlike joy just radiates off of her. She talks a lot about seeing the Christ in others and goodness, she's a very choice daughter of God that's for sure. I've learned a ton on my mission how anger is not of God and it was tough for me recently but God is very merciful. I prayed and prayed and prayed really hard in church yesterday to not be angry about some things and I just wanted to cry because in my heart I really wanted to not be angry and I really wanted to please God and I just super super stressed. It was really cool because in Sunday school we were learning about the freedom to choose and I just had the thought hit me really hard of not judging and it just impacted me really hard. I prayed and prayed in my heart to not judge because that's something I struggle with and I felt a huge burden lift from me and felt God's love. It was nice and I keep finding new ways that I'm learning about the Atonement then I'd ever expect. 

I'd like a thought one of our Elders had shared at our ward correlation meeting on Saturday around the Links camp fire. He had mentioned that Charity and love are the only Christlike attributes that it specifically says you have to pray for to acquire. It hit me strong and I realized I really needed to do that, not just for others but for myself. Oh and that same night was neat, Sister Link's mother, Hope, had asked us what a testimony was and then after we explained it to her she asked to hear all of ours. Sister Links parents have been visiting the past month and aren't members and her father asked for a preach my gospel and has been studying it. Her mother is pretty strict Catholic but I think she's been really impressed by the missionaries. I loved having a testimony meeting around the fire, it reminded me of home and when our family has our testimony meetings when we go camping. It was cool to because I asked Hope and Wally what their testimonies were because I wanted them to know they were included too and it was cool to hear them open up. Unfortunately it was a little tense between Sister Link and her mom after her mother had expressed how she had hope her children would of all stayed true to the Catholic church but she was positive towards us and she loves us. But yeah, besides the little tense moment, I was grateful for Sister Link in her honesty, I love that she's not afraid to be open and to just say how she feels about things and spoke up about God's and Christ's love. Overall it was a really good meeting and yessum. 

Ok, I better go and wrap this up, ha ha my emails will be shorter eventually. Just last quick awkward thing, tomorrow I will be meeting with Sister Tilley to evaluate my stress levels. Last week after a zone conference meeting President asked to see me and basically he had Elder Young (our mission nurse) send me a stress questionnaire. He said that I needed more joy, I have been stressed and ever since that last interview I had had with him it has been up and down for me. As we talked I cried because I was scared that meant me getting sent home, he told me I wasn't going home just needed to help balance out my stress levels. So, yup, I took the questionnaire and the good news is that it's not severe but I did score a 78 which qualifies to go talk to the lds social service counselor person...yeah. Ha ha after the interview with President on the car drive home with Sister Godwin I just cried and then she started crying to because she has been super stressed out too. Ha ha, we had a good laugh at ourselves and joked a lot about it all, ha ha Sister Godwin put it best when she said, "Well I guess missions are also good to find out if there's anything wrong with you." Missions serve a lot of purposes eh? :) And cool thing to is she took the quiz and talked to Elder Young to, ha ha she scored a 83. Woot woot we both will be talking to Sister Tilley and look forward to working through my insecurities, yay! Oh boy :p 

Oh and one last funny thing, today as we've been checking our emails, I looked over to tell Sister Godwin something and saw a picture of this man in a bike race and I said "ooo who is that!," bah ha ha she replied with, "Umm that's my dad." AWKWARD! In my defense he had sun glasses on and how can you really tell what a person looks like with a bike helmet on and what not, age can totally look deceiving. YAy, good thing I'm seeing a counselor tomorrow. :)

Much Much LOVe, I love you all, Love your stories and updates it's always a joy and the church is true! 

LOVE,

Sister Tasha C. Bush

P.S. You're all in my prayers and thank you so much for your prayers, I can feel them!

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