4.23.12

Hey Mommy!!

This week was super awesome! We had some crazy stuff happen! We had some amazing miracles with Theber, the Brazilian kid. We prayed on Tuesday and felt that he needed to be baptized as fast as possible and still don´t know why but we felt it. So we went and talked to him, he said he would pray to find out if that was what God wanted for him. He wanted to take his Book of Mormon and Bible and stick them together and then pray and tell God, "If you want me to be baptized move the bookmark from its place in the book." Obviously that doesn't work really well!! But that night he had a dream and in the dream he saw his Bible and Book of Mormon and he saw the bookmark slowly come out and sit on top of them. God really did answer his prayer, but not the way he thought. He also prayed a different time and couldn't stop smiling and crying at the same time. It was super awesome. Then on Saturday he still was doubting and so we left him alone in the room to pray and search a little. He said he opened his scriptures and his bookmark was on a page he had NEVER been to. It was not where he left it. It was in the topical guide on the page "baptize, to baptism." God did move his bookmark in reality as well. It was super awesome!! The sad part of this story is that he was not baptized because his mom says he has to learn more about he gospel. Basically he will be baptized as soon as his mom lets him, so we have planned some stuff to talk to her about. If not he turns 18 in August when he will be baptized then for sure!!

The branch here has about 30 people, there are lots of less actives that just need to come back. We are working on moving the chapel, which will help. 

 My birthday was great, we had dinner planned with some member who did a big surprise party!! They had a big cake for us with our names in the shape of a Book of Mormon it was great. We ate dinner and I got a tie and it was great! I will include a picture of the cake I made that you sent, it was super yummy!! I attached a picture of it!

Sounds like you have had a busy week!! That is scary about Nana, I am so glad she is doing better! It sounds like you guys are having some super exciting times there!! Just think a few more weeks and it will all be calmer...you get to come here and visit the beach and the castles and everything!! :) That is a bummer that Dad can´t get all his hernias fixed up before you come get me! I will do the lifting and stuff but he get to do the driving!

I can´t believe another year has past already since the last Sport Challenge.That is crazy! I also can´t believe I am going to miss it again!! oh well!!

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

Elder Bushnell

4.15.12

Hey Mommy!!

This week went really well. We had interviews with Pres. Torgan on Friday. It was great i really love  him and I am excited to be going home right when he does. He will leave on the 30th, so we leave 3 days before him! Interviews went really great he said that I have a lot of work to do here. He said I have to train Elder Faias, teach the Elders of Guimarães to love and teach the Irmãs to have faith. All while turning Ermesinde into a ward not just a branch. He also spoke last night to the stake about sanctification and how that isn´t just a word for apostles and prophets, but for everyone because it goes hand in hand with the atonement. It was great and we had an investigator named Theber who cried a ton during the first song and when we asked what it was he said "I want to return to live with God again." It was super awesome! He has a lot of questions so tonight we have family night with him at the branch presidents house!

We didn't find our phone...basically what happened is we forgot it on the bench for maybe 20 seconds and only walked about 10 feet and someone stole it. We were in the train station so there were kinda a lot of people and it was just not really awesome. We have a new one now but we lost a lot of contacts. Luckily most are written down in the area book! I got the birthday package today. Thank you a bunch for sending all that stuff to me! I really needed the socks, I ripped a pair in half today trying to get it on because it already had so many holes...oops. ;)

I can´t believe how old Ellie is either! It is super crazy she is 6...6 years...years are long...that is crazy! haha I can only imagine a party with a whole bunch of 6 year old girls!

Zac will make a great missionary! i am super excited for him! it will be awesome to talk to him in Portuguese. When I get home  I will write him letters in Portuguese. I know how to spell most things cause it is exactly how you sound it out. not like English that has some funny tricks every so often. But  Portuguese  always follows the rule of the noise...just learning the rules and the letters takes a while, but I think I have most of it down.

Well mom I am super excited that here soon I get to talk to you guys. I don´t know if we will have to talk about cause you will be here to pick me up super soon!! It is super crazy!! I love you tons!!!

Elder Bushnell

4.9.12

Hey Mommy!!

I am doing just great! I am still trying to get all the way over this stuffy nose that I have, but other than that everything is going great!

I have some super crazy stories to tell you this week. First it all started on Tuesday when we went to talk to Laurentino and Maria. We had prayed and felt they needed to be baptized this weekend, so Tuesday we went to mark them for baptism. We invited them to be baptized and Maria said she really wanted to.  Laurentino came up with the excuses, he works for the bus company and since it was Easter he didn´t know when he would have to work.  It got all confusing. Basically he told us he would know on Thursday. So we went by on Thursday and he told us it wasn't going to be possible. He had to work at 4 til midnight. As we were trying to figure out some solutions his daughter called, who was baptized in Gaia almost a year ago. She was so excited and wanted to go to their baptism really bad. Well, he stepped out and answered the phone and came back and said, "Can we do it in the Saturday morning?" Of course we said yes and planned everything. 

We don´t have a font here in Ermesinde we have to go to the Stake Center in Maia. We called those elders a few days before and they said everything was gong to be great.  We went to the chapel at 8 in the morning to start filling up the font. It turns out that the other elders were already there dumping buckets from the bathroom, so it would get warm. The actual heater wasn´t working.  So we decided okay we can deal with mildly chilly water, it won´t be cold so we are good. Then we realized the gate outside was shut and that no cars could drive into the parking lot. My companion went on the search for the button to open it. He ended up thinking it would be a good idea to push the fire alarm button. It doesn't look like a fire alarm and is next to one that looks like a fire alarm! I am not sure what he was thinking  but the alarms went off and all the electricity was cut. When the electricity goes out the font starts to drain because it is all electric. So now we are frantically looking how to turn off the alarm and get electricity!  While all this is going on the buckets in the bathrooms are filling and overflowing and the font is draining. So finally after a prayer or two I was able to figure out how to get the electricity back on. But we now had water in the bathrooms, gate still locked, and less water than when we started. So we tried our best to fill it up with warm water, but in the end it didn't go over really well!! They were baptized in about 2.5 feet of freezing cold water...rough gig. But they received  the Holy Ghost. They were good sports about it luckily.

We unfortunately don´t have any really far along progressing but we have gotten a LOT of new investigators. The branch is really cool, the president is super amazing he does everything! He was actually just there in Utah he went to the conference. My companion is super great...he is correcting my Portuguese which is going to be great!

I hope Pres. Togan comes to Utah every so often, He will be area 70 over São Paulo Brazil.

I have always wanted to go to the Masters!! I want to go super duper bad! Maybe when I get back I will see if I can pull some strings from Mike Stanger and see if he can hook us up with some! I was at a members yesterday and I saw like 5 seconds of it and Tiger didn´t look happy at all. He was kicking clubs and everything...made me laugh. I saw Phil...his wife is a member cool huh!!

Thanks for everything mommy!! I love you tons!

PS. How does one make maple syrup? Can you send me a recipe? :)

4.2.12

Hey Daddio,

It is great up here in Ermesinde it is a really awesome place. My new companion is funny. He doesn´t speak a lot of English and he has kinda had some health problems but he has a lot of fire to work hard! 

My rash is weird it doesn't itch or anything I just have funny red bumps on my back. I don´t know what they are. It is like a bunch of mosquito bites in 2 small patches right on my shoulder blade. I have had a bad sore throat and stuffy nose this week, but it is already getting better. 

We are the only elders here in Ermesinde I am the district leader of the elders of Guimarães and Braga sisters. Guimarães is probably one of the coolest places here in Portugal we should probably pass through a little bit of one day when we come up to Porto. It just won 2012 Cultural Capital of Europe. We have a guy named Laurentino and his wife Maria Jesus who are super close and will probably get baptized this week if things go as planned. Also a lady named Vera who just had a surgery and will be ready to be baptized as soon as the stitches heal. 

I really like conference. Did you hear my mission presidents name? He will be in the area 70 somewhere now.  We didn´t get to hear the last session on Sunday though which was a bummer we are going to download it here at the chapel and listen to it on an mp3 player later or my ipod or something! 

You aren´t really stealing my driver...maybe you can if we buy me a new one...also what about my irons? i should still have my blue one from the golf team.

Thanks daddio!! I love you tons!!

Elder Bushnell

 

Hey Mommy!!

I am in the Chapel in Ermesinde. It is a super cool area only about 30 minutes from Porto. It is a really populated place and so far the work is going good. The trip went very smoothly...my comp is a little goofy but funny and has a desire really strong to work. There are not other elders in this apartment just us 2. I don´t know very many ward members cause of conference but I will know them this next week. I know the branch pres. and some of the other priesthood leaders.They are all super awesome. We have been working really hard on getting new investigators cause it seems like they worked all last transfer with the same ones. So we are going to move on and find those more prepared. We have 2 that should be baptized this week. We are going to use a lot of buses here which is cool. The chapel is weird, it is the bottom floor of our house. Our house is big but not really nice or clean. It is on the 4th floor without elevator. Its not really awesome. I got to watch the most of conference. We just downloaded the last session of conference which we will listen to later. Did they not announce new temples? That is sad if they didn´t. I did see Tony Buckwalter and that is cool about Paxton. It got me super excited to come back watching conference. I want to go to the next one okay!?

I can imagine you and Barb both stumbling around with your boots, but still not really slowing down for anything! Ellie still sounds like the same little goof ball! I am exited to see her pretty soon! I can´t believe she is going to be turning 6 super soon that is crazy!

Oh man i don´t really want to go back to school. What classes am I taking? I hope that they are some fun ones to slowly get back into things. Don´t forget that I have a lot of things that I am going to want to do when I get back and school/work aren´t really on the top of the list for now.

I won´t pull a Hudson and get married that fast. I am super scared of that. I really am hoping to make it like a year before even getting engaged. No hurry in buying me a car, I would like a little bit of this decision. :)  Tell dad that really right now is the best time for him to buy a Trans-am. He can just take whichever one he wants everyday I will drive the other without complaining! :)

As for taking Portuguese 3050, I am living with a native so I am sure that I will be okay...especially if i serve 2 transfers with him, which as of right now I hope I do!!

My new address is the branch presidents office and it is:

Elder Bronson Bushnell

Largo da Estação

Loja 8

4445-276 Ermesinde

Something super funny is that Elder Faias and i have the same birthday cool huh? What a super weird coincidence!! It will be a fun day!

Love you tons!!!

Elder Bushnell