12.13.11

Hey Mommy!

I am glad that there is nothing really big to report to me today...my comp was starting to feel bad for me with all the bad news week after week. But ya know actually i never even got down at all because of the news...i got worried but i know that truly the Lord knows what he is doing and why it has to happen that way. I didn´t think i was being chastened for disobedience so it just had to be part of the trial of life. It got me really worried though so lets try to avoid other big news like those things. Don´t be worried about me though mom...really i am doing great. I have been a little sick just like a cold with a runny nose and sore throat but i am good now really no need to worry. Good to hear that dad finally made it out of the hospital...i bet he is so happy to get out of there! Good to hear that your ankle is doing better....what do you mean you are not liking driving the truck? I miss my truck super bad! I was thinking and what dad and i should do is....when i get back he should buy that TransAm he has always wanted and we will just switch off whenever he wants! :) I think that is a ingenious idea! As for you finding a car....there are some cool littler Mitubishi 4wheel drive cars and Nissan also has some i think the QashQai or something like that...it is all over the place here...they might be too small though...i feel like a giant here in Portugal compared to all the cars. I really really like the BMW X series..like the X6 or X8. Super nice! ;)

Wow she is 26 already? Holy smokes....she is old...hehe jk sister i love you! I hope you had a GREAT birthday! I thought about you when i was eating cake and lots of other desserts! :) Remember that one time when you tried to make that rum cake stuff....hehe super funny looking with the brown bag and everything. ;)

This week I had a lot of crazy miracles happen. We were super blessed and were able to find 18 new investigators...and a magic house..everytime we go there are more and new people there. We count new investigators as people with whom we say a prayer and mark a return appointment. we are always trying to get at least 14 in a week...but that isn´t very easy...we found 14 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We were super blessed and i think that some of them actually have a lot of potential. We had the mission christmas party yesterday which was super awesome! We all went to Lisbon which was fun. We almost got lost in the crazy metro system! It is cool though we will ride it..maybe...it is kinda confusing. But we got there with no real problems. Then President Torgan made me sit on the stand with the other leaders...which was cool to look out and see all of the missionaries of our mission....except those on the islands. We had Elder Teixeira of the 70 talk to us...who basically just talked about how our mission is the example to all of Europe and how he used our stories in all the other conferences. Then we heard from President Oliveira who is the mission president of Cape Verde. And he shared something really cool. He talked about the book of Omni which is not quoted often. And he explained how in that book over 100 years passed with very little record...why? Because the people were not living to magnify their callings...they were probably living in righteousness but they didn´t make anything out of themselves...they didn´t WRITE their history...they let history write for them. Because if you look after Omni and Words of Mormon (recap of Omni with a little extra) All the other books are big...because the people stood up, took charge, and made a difference, they truly saw the hand of God working in their days. so we need to be like them....WRITE our own history a history more like the second part of the Book of Mormon when millions of people were baptized and when truly God worked miracles. It was cool. Then we had a HUGE lunch...with pork, beef, potatoes, codfish(of course) and rice and lots of stuff. Then we played games and did funny musical presentations then we did a white elephant exchange...i got a chess board....i suck at chess. But then we went back and heard president Torgan who is absolutely incredible...he talks with SOOO MUCH power! The whole chapel was DEAD silent...no one moved....those close to sleeping were wide awake....he is a crazy powerful man. It is amazing to hear him speak and use TONS of scriptures!

Thanks for everything mommy! I am super excited to talk to you guys as well! I don´t know how long we will get to talk i think an hour or so. We are still working on figuring out where but i will let you know what is going to happen.

I love you tons!!

Elder Bushnell

12.5.11

Hey mommy dear,

I am doing just dandy. I don´t really have any big complaints. Our week was okay we had 2 in church and had like 9 new investigators in the week. The other elders had 2 baptisms which we got to help out a lot in. I got to do an interview in Romanian which was pretty crazy. Our baptism fell through randomly...she had to suddenly go to Spain. The comp is really cool. He is really nice and a really hard worker. I think we are really close to getting in some really good success. The other elders are great...one is dying this transfer (going home) The house is actually pretty dirty...the bathroom is super gross but i think i might attack it this week.

You guys really did have a crazy week. That is cool you have his cell phone number...he is super nice. I do know that if something happens president finds out super fast and then he sends the AP´s or he makes a visit to that elder to tell them what is going on. yeah that sounds like dad not wanting to go to the Hospital. that doctor is super cool. I never met him but i met his wife and his daughter. we watched some super cheesy movie and his house. It is good to hear that the ward is really putting forth a great effort to help you all out. We are having issues with that here. We have a blind guy that no one picks up for church....it is just a ride but they wont give it to him...he is a member from a while ago and had an accident. But he listens to talks all the time he is cool. But anyways i am glad to hear that everything is going okay! And if i am not mistaken someones bday is like today! i hope you have a happy one! how old are you now?! Are you doing anything cool for your bday!!?

So from what i have heard we can Skype. so if you want to set up an account for me that would be great. We are going to talk to some members and find someone that will let us use their computers. Thanks for everything mommy! Oh by the way i don´t know how email will work next Monday it might be on Tuesday cause we are having our Mission Christmas Party. Which will be crazy to see ALL the missionaries in our mission together...well without the açores. Thanks for everything mommy! I love you!!

Elder Bushnell

Hey Daddio!!

My new companion and I are doing really great! We are getting along really well...we are learning really fast to trust in the Lord to know exactly where to go. This has been his 4th transfer so he will have served almost 1/4th of his mission here in this area....basically he has already knocked like the whole city. It is cool to see that really the Lord knows exactly what he does and how he does it. He knows exactly when his son will leave his house and be on a certain street right when we need to pass by. The Lord has everything really well planned out but it falls on us to do what he says....i feel like a secret agent sometimes because God will reveal to us where we need to be at a certain time and if we are not there...his battle plan against the grasp of Satan gets destroyed and we will have to try again another day. The area here is really cool. It has a lot of really big buildings which is nice because in Gaia it was really just houses which are always weirder to knock. This week was kinda a bummer...we had the Brazilian family marked for baptism for Saturday the 3rd. But on Wednesday we got a text that said "I had to go to Spain i will be back on Sunday." we tried calling and tried calling but she never answered then when she got out of the country the phone stops working. It came back on Sunday night but she didn´t answer...we are going to try to talk to them today to see what is going on and see why she had to go and what exactly happened. But it was a sad week after that.

Something cool/crazy that happened...the zone leaders that live with us had 2 baptisms and since i am the district leader i get to do the interviews...well they are teaching a lot of Romanians....who don´t speak a lot of Portuguese and no English. One lady spoke Portuguese well enough that i did the interview in Portuguese but the guy...wow what an adventure. I had to do the interview with a translator. It was a crazy interview and i actually was able to ask a whole question in Romanian...we have started studying it a lot more in our house cause there are a lot of them here. Elder Deffense actually speaks it kinda well...he can say like whole prayers in Romanian. Umm so the second interview i did the guy is named Cristiano and he has lots of health problems...he can´t stand up at all....he can walk once someone helps him up and our chapel here is really weird but had stairs into the basement were the font is and also were the gospel principles classes are. So we had to carry him down stairs and had to lift him up into the weird font...it is like a little swimming pool and has like a ladder thing to get into it. We had to have 2 people in the water and then have 2 other to help lift him. He isn´t a very heavy person because he has like no muscle. He was super happy when he came out of the water though....it was super amazing to see the feelings he felt inside shown on his face.

Anyways, wow sounds like you are just having all sorts of fun hanging out in the hospital! I am sorry that you have had all these super crazy issues. I am praying for you constantly. One cool thing...that Dr. Cook that did your surgery has the COOLEST room in his house i have ever seen. I think i told you but i hung out one day at his house with some of my friends that are friends with his daughter and he has on the side of his house a room that is circular and goes up at least 2 stories maybe 3 but it has a spiral staircase around the outside and the walls are painted like a sage green and he has TONS of animals...deer, antelope, moose, basically everything you can think of...on the walls as you go up...it is super cool! Maybe you can make friends with him and we can go visit sometime...it is like one of the coolest rooms ever.

I hope you get feeling better and know that i love you tons and am always praying for you!!

Love,

Elder Bushnell

11.27.11

Hey Mommy Dear!!

I am in the city of Santarém. Which is a pretty big city that is like an hour from Lisbon. It is a cool place....there are lots of people and lots of buildings. It will be sort of a rough transfer because my companion has been here for 3 transfers and basically knocked all the buildings already. it will be good though he is super cool! His name is Elder Boone Hansen from Richmond utah...up north. He is super awesome. We are also living with the zone leaders who are Elder Deffense from California and Elder Tanner from Ogden area as well...i think hanksville? The house got cleaned up really nice today...it is a really big house but just needs a DEEP cleaning. The address here is:

Elder Bronson Bushnell
Avenida Bernardo Santareno
Lote 4    5º Direito
Santarém 2005-117
Portugal

As for the Christmas package i really don´t need anything mom...i have WAY more stuff than i need and more stuff than i can carry around....my bags at transfers were STUFFED and one handle is kinda starting to fall off cause it was super heavy. It is all good though...i will end up staying here for a while i think. I have tons of candy from that package and i have all the clothes i need.

I don´t really even know what to say about your week....i am super glad that all of you guys are okay!! I was thinking my week was kinda rough...lots of walking and not a lot of success....but you guys win for sure! I am super grateful to hear that everyone will survive and that all are recuperating very nicely. Man that is super scary...you guys did have a super fun thanksgiving. We didn´t do anything special here...it was basically as if it didn´t happen. I really don´t even know what to say but i am super grateful that everyone is doing okay and i am constantly praying for you all!! i guess this puts a dent in dads duck hunt this season...bummer!!

Thanks for everything you guys do for me and i know that you are praying for me because i have been in a lot of situations where you all pop into my head and give me great confort and releif knowning that here in a little bit i will get to see you all again and that we will make lots of good memories hopefully without car crashes! 

Love you-
Elder Bushnell

Hey Daddio!

Man it sounds like you really did have a rough Thanksgiving. I am super glad to hear that everything is okay and that you are recuperating pretty fast from what mom said....i guess it was probably the thanksgiving that made you the most grateful for the small things you have right? It is crazy to see how fast things can change...from one second to another God can humble us in amazing ways! It is sad cause last week i was super sad i was not with you all on the beach but i guess now i am not so sad and kinda glad...not really cause it is sad that you guys had to experience that. Wow that is super crazy story...i am glad that everyone is okay and that you are all healing nicely! It is true the only real thing that matters is that you have about 6 months to get all better before i get home and want to go on more adventures with my daddio!! :)

Transfers was super boring compared to your week. I got the package and really like this book! I already have like 5 pages of notes and onlly have gotten to page 47. It is really good! I caught a train for like 2 hours and then jumped off in an area i had never been too! It was super awesome. My companion is Elder Boone Hansen from Richmond area in northern utah. He is in his 6th transfer. He is cool, i really like him. We have some good investigators. We marked a brazilian family of mom and 2 kids for this upcoming saturday...which will be cool! We also have some others but will need to find...which will be the hard part. He has already been here for 3 transfers going on 4. It is a really cool area with lots of buildings and lots of people. We live in the same house as the Zoneys...who are Surfer bum Elder Deffense from Cali. and Elder Tanner from Huntsville utah...also up north. They are super cool and it will be a really fun transfer.

Thanks for everything you do for me dad and get feeling better soon! I am praying for you a lot!! (i have bald spots/calases on my knees) I love you tons!!!

Elder Bushnell

11.14.11

Hey daddio!!

Everything went just great this week...it was was everyday but we came out on top! We really saw miracles this week from God and were able to give Iracema the "key" to the celestial kingdom! She was baptized on Sunday and Elder Carpenter got to do the baptism for his first time! It was great! It was a war with her every night this week...she always had something that was wrong...she smoked, drank wine, drank coffee...couldn´t read, was super stubborn. She was able to stop smoking with a lot of effort on our part but an amazing strength by her. So we moved to wine...she was told to drink it because it didn´t have a ton of sugar..oh she is diabetic...so she was drinking it to help her get the food down. We were able to cure that with some light fruit juice and a lot of promised blessings and strong testimonies. So we moved to the Coffee which the doctor told her to take to higher her blood pressure..i think? It was confusing. So then we had to call Pres. Torgan who is a super amazingly smart man...he told her to do a cinnamon tea thing or to put just a little bit of salt on her tongue which would do the exact same thing as the coffee...so problem solved. As for not being able to read we called the bishop who was able to download the Book of Mormon and put it on CD for us to give her to hear but since she is almost blind she struggled to start it but she figured it out. As far as being super stubborn...we are super persistent so we were able to beat her stubbornness! She was baptized and everything went super well! 

I realized i forgot another key...we went on saturday to do the interview with the Zone Leaders and she wasn´t home so we went to Jumbo (grocery store) and looked for her...she is almost blind so just goes there and sits at home...and we found for the second time in our entire lives her son..who was supposed to be gone to Lisbon but was delayed and had to grab something from there first. It was our second time ever seeing him so i ran up to him and he told us when his mom would be home. I know that God put him there to tell us that everything will work out and when we needed to be there! It was cool!

Poor Melissa and Wade having 2 sick goobers. I hope they get feeling better soon! haha of course Ellie always has seemed like 3 going on 13 or 5 going on 15...that is funny. She kinda sounds like a handful!

I also haven´t gotten your package yet....i hope it comes soon! I hope my card gets there pretty soon...there are some super funny pictures on it...lots of dumb ones though cause my comp forgot his camera one time so he got to use mine to take some pics but i forgot to erase them. Yeah i guess i could always reread books and stuff huh? I will see how the up coming transfers go and see how much i can take. Probably I will want to leave most American things here anyways and just bring back cool Portuguese stuff to show my grand kids one day.

Thanks for everything mommy!! I love you tons!!

Elder Bushnell

 PS.

Something cool though...Craig's business partner down in St. George is serving here in Porto in the Young Single Adult Center!