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!

11.6.11

Hey mommy!!!

I am doing just dandy how are you doing? Really this week was pretty good. We marked Iracema to be baptized on the 13th...so Sunday! We learned some crazy things about her...she smokes a little bit which is a problem...cause she only smokes after 11 at night...she doesn´t go to bed until like 4 in the morning. She is a little crazy and says she can´t go to bed earlier cause then she lays there and she gets lots of body pains...excuses...we are working really hard with her to get her ready for Sunday! It should be great! You don´t need to worry to much about me really all is going just great...i am eating TONS and probably getting fat cause like you said its hard to get back into working out...i do a bunch of pull ups every day but that is basically it now. Rosana hasn´t answered her phone or her door in a while so we don´t know what to do with her...just keep trying. The church is about a 7 minute walk from our house...missionary walk...like 10-13 normal people.

Yeah we switched our clocks 2 weeks ago. It is always 2 weeks different...i don´t know why...some holidays are different as well...like mothers day...it is 2 weeks earlier here than at home...weird! Wow I can´t believe that kyle and Victor have so much time between them...i can´t believe how few fast Sundays I have left...wow! I still am not a huge fan of the having to grow up idea...oh well! I bet Scottland is pretty weirded out with kyle leaving...he and kyle were good buds in everything. like my daddio and i.

It will be super weird when i get back and Carter doesn´t recognize me and to see how big he has gotten...he looks super big! When i left he was TINY! haha that is funny that he is saying one syllable words. He is a cute little munchkin..

Umm i hope the book is not the miracle of forgiveness i read that one already...it is good but not my fav. other than that...i don´t think i need anything else for now...maybe more toothbrush heads...the good floss action ones? I can buy them here but they are like 6 euros each. Are they that expensive in America? that is like 8 dollars? umm as far as Christmas...i really don´t need a lot...i have SO much stuff! I don´t know what to do with all the stuff i have...it barely fits in my suitcases! I have lots of books i have read and marked that are good study books like that new testament study manual...but i don´t know what to do now with them...any ideas? I can´t just throw them away...i don´t know what i will do. umm really i don't know what i want for Christmas...i don´t need anything really.

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

Elder Bushnell

p.s. i sent the photos last week so you should get them soon!