5.30.11

This is Carlos...he has a super awesome story...remind me next week to tell you about it!!




Hey!!

This week was a battle! We had to full on battle with Carlos and Susanna...we won the battle with Carlos and he was baptized on Saturday and confirmed Sunday...unfortunatly we lost the battle with Susana and she was not baptized. She isn't ready to sacrifice anything to be baptized. She need to stop smoking. She will be baptized here in a little cause she knows its true she just needs a little more encouragement.

I have been wearing the retainer every night for the first few hours...then i wake up and take it off. I might start wearing it just during studies in the morning from 830 till 11 then after it feels better move towards the night time...idk.

Thanks for picking up a shirt for me. Next week is transfers so hang on to anything you are going send.There is a fairly good chance i am leaving this transfer!

Haha this week has been SUPER HOT!!! with rain as well. That is super crazy that the ski resorts have snow sufficient to stay open till July! That is ridiculous! I kinda miss the snow...cause its super hot and we can´t go swimming like everyone else here.

That is super great news that my cousins are going to the temple. I am super duper happy for them all! Especially for Jackson and Talia. I haven´t ever met her, kinda weird. That is super cool about Lacy having a baby and also that they are going to Florida...just thinking about Florida reminds me of that trip when we went. That was awesome! The trip to Cleveland was super fun as well, I want to go to back to the Sacred Grove now that it is so much more real to me. It was real before obviously but like now i have a whole different perspective on what really happened there.

Thanks a bunch for everything mommy!! Love you tons!!

Elder Bushnell

5.23.11

Hi Mom-

We had another baptism this weekend!! Telmo was baptized who is from Brazil and he is 18 and super cool! Ana´s parents had a fight last night so it is kinda a tipsy situation right now but we are going to work with them all week long and they will be baptized on Saturday!! :) Her dad told us last night he can´t believe something he can´t see. But he knows its true. We just gotta talk to him some more. I got the package today and the retainer actually does go on...it kinda hurts but for the first time in a year i am impressed how well it fits. I will start wearing it a lot more and when I get home they will be perfectly straight! Thanks for the treats also! Umm...my comp has lots of peanut butter so probably candy...umm i like fruity candy! :)

Love ya-
Elder Bushnell

Photos 5.16.11

5.16.11

Hey Family!! Whats up!!!?

This week was super duper good!! We worked super hard and we saw some crazy miracles...for example on Tuesday was a crazy day!! We had been teaching a family of 3 people and we passed by them to mark their 16 year old daughter for baptism cause she was the only one from the family in church..her name is Ana. But so we went to talk to her about baptism and before we even got to a lesson with her we started talking about smoking with her parents and her dad said " I will go to church on Sunday then after we can talk about baptism. Luckily my comp and I had already prayed and felt they needed to be baptized on the 28th so we told them about that and they accepted. It was super great! We set up plans with them to stop smoking and everything. But so then we had to go cause we didn't have much time before our next lesson with a kid named Telmo...he is 18. So we ran to the other side of town to give him the lesson to talk with him. Well that lesson was awesome cause we talked about baptism and my comp and i had already prayed to know when it was that he needed to be baptized and we felt Saturday the 21st. So he was like "yeah i haven´t ever been baptized i think i need to be." So he accepted...then we ran back across the city to talk to Ana again. We started talking to her and we were getting through the 3rd lesson and got to baptism and she started laughing. She knew what was coming...she was like "now your going to ask me if i want to be baptized. Yes I do want to be" it was awesome!! We were like "GREAT!!! cause it will be this Sunday!!!" That made her a little nervous but she is super cool and was just like "okay" So we passed by them everyday and we are really helping her parents stop smoking and everything so they can be baptized. So in one day we marked 4 people for baptism...but the miracles keep coming.

The Sister missionaries had some baptisms as well...hehe....they baptized 4 people and we baptized 1...so our ward had 5 baptisms...the whole mission only had 9 this week....so we baptized more in our ward than the rest of the mission combined! :) I was picked to do the baptisms of 3 of the Sisters...so yesterday was a great day!! I got to baptize 4 people one after another!! It was super awesome! I have attached some pictures for you!! :) I baptized the 3 youngest girls and the black lady as well...the bishop baptized the lady with the red on her face. (its some skin disease fairly common here...not contagious no worries)

That is the most exciting thing that happened this week! We had a ton of cool things happen!! We are now gearing up for Telmo to be baptized on Saturday and then Ana´s parents (Carlos and Susana) the week after that!! :)

I am glad I am not there to work in the yard!! It is super hot here and it is killing me! I think I would be better if you sent me white shirts cause here they are all crappy quality and expensive. Also....I remember that somehow we are related to Pocahontas... do you know how that works? How is it again?

Well that is basically it for this week! I l love you!!!

Elder Bushnell

5.2.11

Hey mommy!!

My week wasn't too bad actually! It is moving on nicely...we have been a lot more focused on finding people and that makes the work easier when we are both focused on the same thing. We are getting better but it will still be a little bit of a challenge this transfer!

So about mothers day...first yesterday was mothers day here...that was super hard cause it was testimony meeting and mothers day so everyone was talking about their moms. So as far as talking...i believe we got it figured out that we can skype next week we talked to a member and we decided that around 5:530 for my companion who will take an hour and hour and a half and so i would be starting at like 6:30-7 which is like noon for you. I know that is in the middle of church and a really crappy time for you guys but we can´t fit it in with the members at another time...so i hope it will work out. If not you can call 918-103-559 on Sunday whenever to work it out.

Ellie is a pill for sure. Haha are you saying ellie is all talk...sounds like daddio...just barks! ;)

It is may that is super weird I cant believe how fast time is going! It goes fast yet slow at the same time...its hard to explain! Things with the companion are fine we are going to survive i think...i just really hope that we don´t have another transfer again! It is for sure teaching me patience. I learned this transfer that if 6 weeks can feel like an eternity with someone it is going to be super important for me to find the RIGHT person cause eternity is an awful long time! Thanks for the prayers and support though!

I heard it is super wet there! I can´t believe i am missing all the rain and snow...it is rainy here also actually.

This week we just found new investigators and we will see which progress and which ones don´t...its hard to explain them right now because they are all super new so we can´t see how willing they are to move things.

This week we have taught some new people but its hard to tell you about all of them. We found 20 new investigators. I think the coolest is a family that we found that is looking for a church and they don't like the catholic church and the dad told a story of a friend that was into drugs when they were littler and all his friends tried to get him to stop but the only people that could were the Mormon elders. And now that guys has a family a nice job and is super happy...and still active! It was cool to hear that testimony of him.

We have big areas that include city and country but we mainly work in the cities. This ward isn't great with referrals but they are great at integrating the investigator...we bring someone to church and they swallowed up by members its great! They are making our mission one on the first of July so still a little time and i hope that i get to serve in Madeira or up north as soon as they come together! It would be super awesome!

I didn''t hear that they got Osama Bin Laden..that is super great news...i think...hopefully it makes the war easier or something! I haven´t heard anything about it yet! Unfortunately someone sold my truck...sad day! I get the new one when I get back though right? sweet good plan!! :)

Love you guys!!

Elder Bushnell