1.30.12

Hey mommy!!

This week went by super fast...i got to go to Lisbon on Wednesday to renue my visa for the last time...i now have a resident card for the next 2 years so i could extend...? jk mommy i know you would not be able to handle it. This week we had Filipe in church and he is still progressing really well towards being baptized this weekend. We need to organize with him a little better to see exactly when it will happen but it is very likely to happen on Sunday night. I was thinking about time and how crazy fast it is going.I was thinking and I will be 21 in like 75 days, I feel like I turned 20 yesterday. It is so crazy how fast it has gone by! Good to hear that you guys are doing some good exercises...when i get home maybe you can try to keep up with some AB ripper X....basically dad would end up with like Spartan status abs by the end. It is super crazy.

I am scared that when i get home i will get fat though...i got super fat when i had 6 months in the mission but now it is all gone again and i am afraid that when i get home i won´t be able to control myself and just swell up like a balloon.

Wow i can´t believe how close Hudson is to getting home...that will be super weird...i can´t believe how fast time has gone by...is his family stoked to see him?

Thanks for checking with UVU for me...it probably would be best to meet with an advisor to see exactly what i need and how is the best way to do it. Thanks for doing that for me mommy! I know that i shouldn´t take a semester off but it would be so awesome! It is like the only time when i really could just focus on being a goof ball before growing up but i guess that time doesn´t allow that...life is not fair then you die! As for the meeting girls part...i know it is possible to find them while hunting and shooting...and they probably would encourage me to do it...maybe even come with me...ask dad about when we went to parkview drive in after sighting in his muzzleloader and the girl asked for my number...i was wearing a super dirty white tshirt, gray camo shorts, and a green bandana tied around my head like rambo! ;) super funny memories!

Wow well super wierd thing happened...actually a few nights ago i had a dream i was walking down the road and a car drove by and honked and when we looked over it was Mckenzie Russell in the passenger seat and she just waved and kept going...it was super random cause i hadn´t even thought about her forever. that is a weird coincidence! Sounds like they are having some super crazy days ahead of them...those are the days i am NOT excited for..that just sounds super stressful...i don´t know how badly i want to come home and get married and have to deal with all that stuff. :( it is super scary.

I have kinda started a list but this week i am going to call Pres. to see if i can call down to some recent converts to kinda get things planed out. I found out that Carlos one of my RCs in Setubal baptized his neighbor last weekend and that he should be getting the Melq. preisthood this week!! I am super stoked about that! I want to visit Setúbal and Gaia for sure! I will have to see how it ends up here in Santarém..so far not my favorite.

They actually have a big Holiday Inn in Gaia...i know in the Algarve they have a Best Western in Faro...i can talk to some members as well and see what the deal is cause they know hotels better than me.

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

Elder Bushnell

p.s. is the picture on pg. 91 of the ensign Wade and Carter? I swear it looks a lot like them.

Hey daddio!

The interviews are always super awesome! Yeah i am working on being bolder but it is hard cause lots of people don´t respond super well to it so i am still trying to figure out the happy middle!

haha no i didn´t eat both packages of jerky...i still haven´t even opened the other one...i am like 1/2 way done with one...we don´t have a lot of time..even to eat i feel like.

Filipe is still doing well...he came to church yesterday and i think he liked it. we are going to talk to him tonight to teach tithing, follow the prophet, and finalize plans for baptism. It will be super awesome he is super cool! We are having struggling with getting people to church but they just split our branch so now for us in São Domingos we will be having sacrament last.  Thanks for praying for us...we really need it a lot of the time.

Oh yeah you had already told me that Tony is going to Taiwan. Isn´t that where alex johnson served? I hope they don't call me to teach mission prep...i want to be like assistant scout leader or something awesome....well maybe mission prep would be better...i don´t know.

As for coming to see me i will think this week really hard about where we want to go but the cool thing is that Portugal is so small you can see the whole place in just a few days! I want to visit Setúbal and Gaia i think for sure! I will think about it and let ya know next week!  There are no restrictions to seeing those i baptize...i think they encourage it actually.

Thanks for everything dad!!

Love you

Elder Bushnell

1.22.12

Hey Mommy!!

I did get the package with he pills also i got the Ward's package and it was a super good one. They sent lots of good candy and stuff. What is the purpose of that pool? Did you just go swimming for fun or was it more like for your ankle? I am sorta confused. Magelby´s french toast sounds amazing right now...wow there are a lot of things i can not wait to eat again when i get home...i think now all Portuguese food kinda has the same flavor.

haha i would not move it up if i were you...i would leave it down there cause if you move it up it will make so much noise and there is not a pull up bar in that room! ;) Do we know when i need to sign up for my classes and everything? I am not excited at all to go back to school...i am already planning some awesome hunts and stuff ;) are ya sure i can´t take that semester off as well? ;)

haha well that transfer was because i looked into my back account and knew that the suit was going to cost that much so i put some of my own money into it but what happened was for some reason it scanned for 130 and gave me like 40 euros back so it was like 90...it was a dumb deal but i am good for a long time with 40 euros so i shouldn´t have to take any more money out for a while. :)

I know it isn´t cheap for you guys to come out here and if you go to spain it is cheaper...or maybe even 2 flights one to france then to lisbon but we should probably fly out of Lisbon cause the church pays for that....they probably pay for it from where ever we are actually so whatever. I was thinking you guys fly a week early to spain and stay there then come over to get me and we will stay a week and fly home...or we put that chunk of money in the bank and keep adding to it to fly over for the temple dedication in like 5 years. however ya want to do it.

So the story for this week is about BAPTISM! On sunday night the other Elders in my district told me they probably needed an interview and it was super weird cause the lady didn´t really want to make the decision to be baptised on sunday. She was trying to run from that day...and hadn´t ever been taught tithing. But i went into the interview and we started talking and she was like a firm NO when i asked if she wanted to be baptized...but as we started talking she told me she didn´t want to be baptized cause she was very much connected with some programms that the Catholic church does, we went through the questions and she answering them all correct. She believe in Joseph Smith and in all of the things the church does i asked if she knew what tithing was and i guess she had read the pamphlet on it so she just had a couple basic quesitons and in the end i told her she was ready and she was like "no i don´t think today is the day" so i told her we would pray...we did and in the end she said................still no.......which was NOT what is supposed to happen after you pray. I told her i felt it and the other elders had felt it and that she had felt it earlier in the week and right then something told me to tell her i knew she felt it...well i said "i know i felt it right now...i know the elders felt it several times this week...i know you felt it earlier....(paused)....and i know that right now you KNOW you should say yes to being baptized." well with that statement she exploded into a story about how she used to not believe in God and how 2 catholic fathers helped her gain her faith and put her walking down the road again and how she couldn´t leave all that behind. Again i heard something say "tell her the story of the Christ´s baptism" so i started talking about how Christ walked for a really long time to get baptised and passed lots of apostles and people of faith on his way to John the Baptist...and how in the end he didn´t leave them behind...he went back and helped them receive the blessing of the Gospel. I told her she was Christ in this story that the 35 years of being catholic just helped her get to John the Baptist...the only one who had authority from God the Father. She sat quiet for a really long time thinking and said "vamos para o batismo" (lets go to the baptism). She was baptised and it was super awesome! After the other elders basically wanted to kiss me and i couldn´t say anything cause i know i didn´t do anything...just followed what i heard and felt. The other elders said it counted as my solo baptism cause they also didn´t teach her very much. It was a crazy miracle!!

My problem with cleaning out is exactly that...i just move them from one suitcase to the other and say i did a great job. Just like dad...just from being out on the shelve to into a bin!!

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

Elder Bushnell

p.s. you and dad need to make sure to share stories! :)

 

Hey!!

It is funny that you brought up the tie thing...normally i just put it one once and take it off at the end of the day...i am not getting too sick of them yet. It is weirder to go outside in normal clothes. In the summer when we came home for lunch or dinner i would loosen the tie up and undo the top 2 buttons and slip my whole white shirt off over my head cause there are no air conditioning and no ceiling fans or anyhting it was always super hot....now i just take my sweater off and fold my tie into my shirt pocket to keep it from getting dirty. My ties are holding up really well actually. I had some that got rough but most ties work really well if you just put a little bit of super glue on the back where they are falling apart...also if you bleed or drop anything that will stain on them if you put a little bit of dish soap and rub it really well the degreaser stuff in dish soap takes it right out..super awesome trick i learned from a german elder!

As for hunting that sounds super awesome. I want to shoot the older one...i don´t like that crazy finger hole in the stalk thing...i like the one i got that deer with...

Good to hear that the other youth in the ward are getting things rolling with their papers. I really hope aaron gets his game figured out cause if not him and i are going to have a little talking to do when i get home. I can´t believe those kids are old enough for missions already. wow super crazy! 

This week was pretty boring until Friday..we had interviews with President Torgan which always are like my favorite things ever. He started the conference off talking about how the mission is the most intense college for Gods. He said the mission is the intensive class to learn how to be a God. He said that everyday we need to figure out what the greatest Professor in the universe is going to teach us. Every time we leave the house we have the private tutor (holy ghost) to help us learn the lessons that will apply not only to this life but also to our eternal progress. It was awesome. So in the interview thinking it was a good question i asked President how i can make sure i am sitting in the front of the class and paying 100 percent attention to what God wanted to teach me....well my answer was very simple and kinda awesome. He said "Elder Bushnell I have no doubt you are learning what God needs you to learn everyday he just needs you to do what he asks a little more bodly", he went on to explain that the natural man is what causes us to fear and doubt which leads to the spirit withdrawing so we can´t be 100% focused on what God wants us to learn...he started laughing and said "i will tell you the worst thing about earth life and conquering the natural man...it is a day to day battle...one day we will do really well and get the natural man pushed out but the next day we have to wake up and do the same fight over again. VERY SLOWLY the spiritual man will start to take over and it will get easier to push back against the natural man but we will still have to battle." It was an interesting way to look at that scripture and it really is true. It was a good interview and President told me he knows good things are super close to happening for me in the mission which scared me a little but we will see! :)

Thanks for everything I got the jerky and everything and it is soo much better than i remembered...also elder tanner and i are trying to see how much protein we can eat in one day and how many pullups, pushups, and situps we can do. :)

Our investigator Filipe is marked for the fouth so we will see if we are able to get that through...i don´t see any real problems coming up for right now so i will for sure keep you updated with him!!

Thanks for everything and for all the love and support!! I love you tons!

Elder Bushnell

1.15.12

Hey mommy dear!!!

I am doing just great! This week was super cool! We had a super awesome meeting this Sunday cause President Torgan came and spoke and just full on laid it down about how if members aren´t doing missionary work they aren´t helping the work progress in some way everyday they aren´t celestial members...to go to the terestrial you don´t need to do anything. Don´t even go to church cause it won´t help if you just want to go there.The telestial is for those who start doing bad so the only way to go to the celestial is to DO good everyday. He talked about a hospital and how every time you take a kid tot he hospital you expect the doctor to see what is wrong maybe do some tests and stuff...and not just have him sit in a chair and then give him some random pill and send him home...God is the same way...He sends His children to the hospital (church) and expects the people there to receive him in a very nice way and to take care of him and help him get better and leave a different person. So if the members aren+t doing that they are failing at life and they need to step it up or they are only going to the terestrial kingdom. it was a very needed talk here in our branch and it was super awesome!! We had a new investigator there named Filipe he is has as super bad studder and is hard to understand sometimes but way cool and progressing really well...he was very nicely welcomed and everything.

Elder Searle is super cool. also Elder Washburn from Springville is in this house and he is super funny...he was kinda a punk before the mission and i would not have liked him but one thing is we all get put on the same level. I haven´t gotten the package yet but i am thinking it will come tomorrow or during this week...maybe came today i still haven´t gotten to check yet...cause sometimes they go to the owner of the house who has a café underneath our house.

haha so about the cleaning out the storage room yeah i am sorta excited...do we have a pull up bar in there? i want to maybe turn it into an area where i can work out...where i can do the P90X stuff. Oh another question when does UVU semester start?

Wow sounds like you do have some super exciting times coming up at work! I am glad that missionary work is kinda always the same...obviously it is super crazy but like everyday has the same schedule and about the same amount of stress...the purpose of every day is the same...i don´t have to worry about getting different things done on different days...it is always the same goal for the day..new investigators and marking people for baptism! 

I have been thinking about you coming to get me and i still haven´t decided...i think it is a decision that has a lot to do with $. I think i would like you to come get me but also i don´t want that to be a financial burden. I think it is more up to you guys! Part of me wants to come home and get released and become normal again then come back for the temple but it might take like 5 years...so i don´t know.

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

Elder Bushnell

p.s. i ended up buying a super sweet greenish suit...it can count as a Christmas thing if ya want :)

Hey Daddio!!

 

How is the weather down there in SG? I like that course, but i like the back way better than the front! Wow good work with the golf game. I am not going be able to golf at all when i get home.But i am getting ripped i do a lot of stomach exercises! I will have a lot more goose behind my drives! Haha funny..that driver was MY present...also i believe i still have a picture of a wedge to turn into you guys to get the real one. ;)

 

I bet a bike ride would be super good for you cause it stretches lots of things without killing the abs area really.

 

Elder Searle and i are getting along great! We are starting to get things picked up in this area we had a cool investigator at church this week...along with Pres. Torgan...who laid it down on our members for not being very helpful! But it was super good this week. We are looking towards a super big change here in São Domingos...about time!! :)

 

So quick question if i want to go on the Muzzle loader Elk hunt, is that any bull or spike only? How do we do that? Is it just over the counter first come first serve or do i need to put in and everything?

 

So is there any more exciting news from the ward? Who are the next kids to go out on missions? Are you still the old fart leader...sorry high priest group leader? ;) How are the home teaching numbers? Also how are all our HT families doing?

 

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