January 24, 2011 Pictures

Here are some cool photo´s from my last pday so here ya go!!! Love you all!!!

1.24.11

Hey!

Well the last week was an adventure but also it was good! The biggest stresses were just working with people and having lessons fall through so we didn't have a lot to do and when a missionary isn't teaching he gets grumpy...its weird but Roundy and I are getting along great and we are staying positive! The next transfers are on the first and second so next week! So hold off on sending anything until you know if I am staying or not...most likely I will stay but Roundy will go...but no one knows! We are going to Lisbon this week to listen to somebody from the area presidency which will be fun! I like long bus rides...not...we do get to watch a movie during it though! :)

Our investigators are progressing very well! Alpha speaks Creole which is a weird mix of Portuguese and some African dialect. He understands VERY little so its hard to teach him! We have 2 ladies that are progressing super well! Dora has a lot of JW (?) friends but is deciding between our church and the Jehovah´s witnesses...she doesn't like some of the things they have but she also doesn't know any of our commandments yet so we will see! We meet with them on Wednesday! The branch here is pretty good at feeding us...we get fed a couple times a week normally. i am not eating as good this transfer as last but still eating good! :) Lots more grilled cheese sandwiches! :)

I am glad Ellie likes that shirt! I hope you guys like the silly fish thing...can you buy codfish in the US? I hope Lexi will still be around when i get home...we have a small barbecue and a bag of coal outside our sliding glass door in our house and sometimes i double take cause its a big black/brown thing right outside the window!

I did hear that our ward got all mixed up! Its so weird! I don´t know if i like it yet! I liked RR2!! But i guess this way makes a lot more sense!

Glad to hear Wade was able to get another good job!

It has been really cold here as well..starting Saturday night its been cold and raining so i finally had to bust out the big jacket for the first time this transfer.

Thanks mommy!! Love you TONS!!

Elder Bushnell

January 17, 2011

Hey!! That castle was huge and it really was super duper fun! I am glad you guys are out of the cold for a little while! I am in shorts and short sleeve shirt getting ready to go walk along a cool beach thing! h

As far as our contacts go they are moving along pretty well! We had one guy come to church whose name is Alpha and he is from Africa so does´t speak Portuguese great, but he speaks it. He came to church twice without really us talking to him in between and only inviting him on the road one time. We are meeting him tonight, but he is Muslim so it will be interesting to see how that all works out! We also have some other families that have been to church a few times that we are hoping will choose our church over the TJ´s. Its super fun competing with the Jehovah´s Witness people for baptisms. Sometimes we pass them in the road and we try to be all nice but they don´t say anything and just keep on walking...its super funny! We are really working with our investigators and they are getting pretty close! Hopefully we should baptize here pretty soon!!

January 2011 Pictures

I thought I would send you guys some cool pictures of this castle that I stormed last Monday in Lisbon! It is on a huge hill right above Lisbon so in the picture with the cannon that is Lisbon and the big bridge and the Cristo Rei which is Christ King statue on the hill in the back (which is hard to see in this picture I will send others later!!) It was a cool castle with an INCREDIBLE view of all of Lisbon and everything it was awesome! I have like the whole castle recorded so you can see it all and won´t need to go to it. haha jk.

This week was absolutely crazy!! I was in Lisbon until Tuesday night we worked Wednesday, Thursday and then we went to Faro for Zone Conference then an AP came back with us till Sunday and I think he thought he would come down here use his experience and baptize our progressing investigators but he basically murdered a lesson with one of them and wasn´t able to convice anyone better than us, so it made me feel a lot better about myself! :) We had 5 people in church and 3 are super new investigators that will be baptised here in a little bit if everything works according to the plan!

Love you all-
Elder Bushnell

January 3, 2011

Hey! Happy New Year!!

My first full week in Portimão was super duper fast but it was super good! Our investigators are all out of town for the holidays and stuff so it was super hard to find anything to do! It was super duper hard week! We taught some good lessons to Mario is an older guy who is super close to baptism but he is really struggling getting over the fact that his catholic baptism isn´t valid! It is super weird! We had to teach Gospel Principles but normally we dont have to do anything at all! They are in the middle of calling a new person to teach it. I haven´t had to and probably won´t ever have to give one in this branch!

It will for sure be a super exciting year! The new year celebrations in Portimão were supposedly super huge but no one told us that we could actually stay up until 12:30 so we went to bed on time! Apparently they had super huge fireworks and stuff thought... I am upset I didn´t get to see it! We went to bed on time and slept through it all!! New years is probably bigger than Christmas here in Portugal!

We didn´t have any investigators in church but we taught some good lessons this week but they are all sort of struggling with their own problems! We do have a lot of members that are willing to feed us! We have an appointment to eat American pancakes and buttermilk I am super excited! We got a new fridge and its super cool! Its way fancy and works super well!

Good to hear that everything is going along great! I wondered if Barb would be coming down because she normally does! How was New Year’s for you guys? I’ve got a funny story… Elder Roundy and I were trying to learn new words and he wanted to know how to say winter so I told him inverno and he was like "wait what is the difference in hell and winter?" I was like uh....good question..they both are really retarded...one is hot and one is cold? I sincerely was confused and not thinking he was asking about the word in Portuguese...which is inferno. It was super funny!

My new comp and i are going to absolutely rock Portimao we are a lot alike so we get along super well!!

I am in Lisbon right now renewing my Visa it’s pretty exciting!

Thanks for the support and I hope you guys all have a fantastic week!! :)

Love you-

Elder Bushnell

p.s. My scripture I found this week is Hebrews 13:1