August 31, 2010

Olá!

Yeah we for sure will have to come back here when you come pick me up! I have to tell you about Saturday and you probably can Google it but on Saturday was Noite Branca...HOLY SMOKES!!! It is the BIGGEST party in all of southern Portugal. It translates to the white night and EVERYONE comes from nearby cities and places to this party. The whole city turns into a concert...and everyone wears white! We joked around that they were all ready for baptism and we were going to baptize in the fountain in the middle of the city! It was nuts! We didn’t get to see very much of it but when we were walking home at like 9:00 we saw parts of it! Then we went on the roof and we listened and took pictures and stuff! I have some cool pictures that i will figure out how to send home soon! But the party was so loud no one slept very well and church the next day was funny because all the members were so tired!! We tried to knock doors after church and it was so dead!! there was no one on the streets and no one answered doors...except a lady with the biggest dog I have ever seen!! It was no joke like 4 feet at the shoulders!! It was HUGE!!!!

I can understand English accents really well still and I am starting to understand Portuguese accents a little more but it is still super hard to understand and I just don’t know enough words really. But you are right it will come!! Except for every time that it’s my turn to do a door contact the people don’t answer...i did a whole 5 story building and NO ONE answered!! I am like bad luck!!

Umm I still haven´t found anything i really hate...umm I had bacalhão which is a weird fish that is hard to say in Portuguese and it was not bad at all...it just tasted like normal fish. I got offered snails but she was joking cause she didn’t really have any...I said I would try them!!

Yeah there are a few things that would gross you out really bad but really it isn’t bad at all!! I don’t use a pillow most the time anyways because it is really hot!

Our mission president is really cool and he is super loving! I think he is coming down this next weekend so we will see what he says about our area...I love it!! We haven´t for sure decided where we are going to go but possibly to a castle or something cause beaches are scary in the summer cause....yeah no one likes clothes here...we get some weird looks when we walk around!

I bought a sick new tie for .50 euros. I will sent pictures or maybe send it home cause i want to save it for when i get back cause it really is so awesome and hideous at the same time!!

Well we have a problem....a good problem but a problem still. EVERYONE IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!! I had my first one on Saturday!!! We have another one planned for Wednesday!! But then we don´t have progressing investigators...we are getting them all baptized! My first baptism was cool though we had not been able to get a hold of this lady (Andreia) very often so we went to her parent’s house. she is like 28 and has one child but she lives out in the middle of nowhere so we couldn’t go to her house to teach her but we were talking with her cousin in her parents’ house and she came in and said basically I want to get baptized this weekend....it was on FRIDAY! so we were like uhh okay do you know all this.......and gave her the questions.....she answered them all correct and so we called the District Leader (Elder Rich) who lives with us and he came over and interviewed her and she passed again and so we got it all planned out and she was baptized on Saturday and given the holy ghost yesterday!! It was super fast and we didn’t really even do anything!!

The baptism we have planned is another one similar to that one. We taught Karla once and she said she had problems with modestly and with keeping the Sabbath day holy but wanted to be baptized...we didn’t know how to help her with modestly so we told her to pray about it and that the Lord will answer her. The Lord did answer her prayers and yesterday at church she came up to us and was like I want to be baptized this next week. so we took her into a room and talked to her about which day...she didn’t know so we all said a prayer about it and we said "Do you want it Saturday or Sunday?" then she asked "does it have to be a weekend? I want to be baptized on Wednesday" so we were like nope it doesn´t we will get it all set up! So we have another one planned for Wednesday because we have to go back over the lessons and make sure she knows everything and have the interview but she is ready!!

Our only prospective investigator that will be left after Wednesday...and she isn’t really progressing. we were knocking doors and we knocked one and this 17 year old girl answered and she talked to us for a little and said we could come back...well we have gone back twice and taught her but we still are so confused...she seems like she has everything going for her...she can get whatever she wants, she lives in a pretty nice house, she has lots of friends, she has everything and we can´t figure out why she is letting us...2 missionaries talk to her...I wouldn´t let two random people teach me that knocked on my door if I was her...so every time Elder Braithwaite and I have some extra time waiting for someone or something one of us says "WHY?" and we both laugh and think about it...we can´t figure it out...we hope to talk to her tomorrow and sort of ask her why but we will see.

Oh I also forgot to tell Dad that I found a hunting store!!! my comp who is in his 6th transfer and elder rich who is in like 12-13 both were super surprised cause they don’t have hunting stores here. It is the first one either of them have ever heard of! We were contacting and knocking an area and we came around a corner and saw deer and pigs stuffed on the wall of this place and immediately my comp and i look at each other and my comp says "we have 3 minutes" so we sprint inside and looked at all their stuff and it looks like hog hunting is the main hunting they do here. Hog and bird like pheasant, grouse, dove. They had a pretty wide selection of guns as well...I was impressed! They had a Beretta px4 storm!!! I was back at home and in heaven for those three minutes as we walked around the store!! It was great! (We are going to buy nerf guns today for our apartment)

Tell Kelsey congrats! Let me know where Victor goes!! Tell Aaron to get his butt in gear!!!

Besides sending the pills....send lots of good American candy! Like stuff 4 elders can eat. Most things we can just buy here so i don´t know what to tell you to send me yet exactly...oh a family picture that has EVERYONE in it and yeah just more pictures! That is about all for now!!

I love you tons and tons!! Thank you!!

Elder Bushnell

PS. As far as letters go I get them like every 3 weeks at zone conferences and interviews if you send them to the mission home so try sending one to the address I gave you and we will see if it gets to me sooner!! I should get some on September 11 if you get them sent quickly because president is coming down on that day!

Here it is again:

Rua Ramalho Ortigao
BL B2 Dto
Loulé
8100-618 Loulé

Here is my scripture for you: Jacob 6:12 :)

August 23, 2010

Ola!!

I am in Portugal!! All my flights went fantastic and Elder Roundy and I placed a BoM in the Paris airport in all portuguese to a lady in all portuguese...it was super hard cause anytime she talked we had to make her repeat it like 3 times but she took the book and we saw her reading it 2 other times! My trainer is Elder Braithwaite he is from some tiny town in northern utah but he lived in Brazil with his family for like 3 years before his mission. He is super nice and super cool!!

I am in Loule which is in the very south of portugal. It is a little bit west of Faro. I am living with Elder Christiansen from my district in the MTC and with his trainer Elder Rich from California. We are sharing the city of Loule and we have the city of quartiera while they have albufeira which are both like a 30-40 minute bus ride each way.

Umm we are teaching a couple people but since we completely white washed this area we didn´t know anyone and we are still getting to know people. We have one lady Karlla who didn´t come to church but when we called her she asked us to get her ready for baptism. Then we had Adriana who is super ready for baptism but there is something that she is scared that we donºt know about yet so we will see! We have a couple others that we haven´t gotten in contact with yet so we will see how that plays out.

I am able to understand when any american speaks portuguese but it takes me a long time to understand what a portuguese person is saying. Yesterday was sunday and holy smokes it was absolutely crazy! This branch is absolutely amazing! They have the fire for missionary work SO MUCH! There were about 70 people at church. The branch president is amazing! Everytime he talks about his branch he says "our branch which will soon be a ward" he also stresses the importance of coming to church regularly and inviting your friends! He made each of us get up and talk for a little but about ourselfs and stuff which was scary!! I did great according to the old man i was sitting by. I just said i was Elder Bushnell and that i was from the utah in the US which is funny cause they call utah the fabrique which is "Factory". They sorta struggle with my name mostly because it is kinda long so i get called ELDER BUSH a lot and lots of people ask if i am related to president bush. They are all so nice!! The Branch President had my comp and i over for lunch on sunday and they are awesome!! They speak english really well so we would talk as much as possible in portuguese but when i looked super confused they would speak slower in portuguese then if i still didn´t understand they would tell me in english. Most people know english they just don´t speak it very much.

I am sure you are all dying to hear what i ate for my first meal with members or native portuguese people....unfortunately you will all be dissapointed. It was noodle stroganoff wth beef and hot dogs and olives. It was super yummy. They have the weirdest milk here...i will send you some. (be excited) umm also i ate some wierd pastry things which were yummy and a weird chocolate flavor...i ate a fig which is now possibly my favorite fruit...its like a dr suess fruit inside but they are super yummy!!

Our apartment is pretty awesome...its kinda small but i really like it! i will send pictures sometime of our view...its not great but we live behind a castle which is awesome we are going to visit it today i believe! Oh i almost forgot umm i think you should only write to the mission home cause i don´t really understand everything but basically it can get lost easier to the apartment. umm i will give you both and we can see what happens...you can decide.

Apartment:

Rua Ramalho Ortigao

BL B2 DTO

Loule´(accent on the e)

8100-618 Loule' (accent on the e)

Mission Home:

Apartado 40045

1500 Lisbon

Portugal

Now you can all write me lots! :)

My mission president is awesome! We flew in, got our bags, walked out past security and there he was...as we came down a ramp thing he gave each one of us a big huge and then we put our bags in a moving truck and got our passports stamped. we got to sleep in the Mission Home which is way cool! I got to sleep in the General Authority bed because i picked the lucky number out of the hat! It is the only american matress in the house and when general authorities come they sleep in it. It was fantastic! We woke up had eggs and cereal...their cereal is weird also. then went to the office and met our companions and got our areas and took off. We had to ride the bus for like 4 hours...i slept most of it. Our apartment here is super close to the bus station and the church (the church does have a ping pong table :) ) we are close to lots of stores and close to the castle. it is awesome!

Okay to talk about portugual in general...it is a lot bigger than i thought! Flying into lisbon is crazy!! The city is HUGE and there are random castles on the hills! I am scared to talk about how they drive cause mom will flip...basically the roads are super skinny and have tons of cars and everyone goes like double the speed limit. when we went to the presidents house (he lives north of loule a little ways) the road is small, very curvy, and has drops or buildings on the sides and the speed limits say like 50kmh or 80kmh and he would go like 100 or 130 it is absolutely insane/ kinda fun at the same time! Umm it isn´t really illegal to graffiti here so there are some crazy tags and stuff! the people are all very different...some are super nice, some take a couple minutes to become nice, not very many are flat our mean. It is hard to describe here because each section of the city is completely different...one section is super tight roads and very old, another is all super high buildings with bigger streets, some are a mix, some are just shops...the middle is like all tourist area i have talked to a ton of people that just speak english.

I am suprised how dry everything looks...apparently it hasn´t rained in a super long time so everything is kinda yellow looking...next Pday is the first of the month so we get to go out of our area. we just have to call president and tell him where we are going and we are going to go to logos i think...they have an awesome beach thing that has a circle rock tunnel arch thing like the one we saw on our cruise in...whatever city that was i am having a brain fart. Today i think we are going to castles, going shopping, just kinda messing around. They have these stores which are chinese stores and they sell everything you can possibly imagine and i am super excited to go to one today cause i want a new pillow...the one i have now is gross...and my comps has mold in it. Don´t worry mom mine is just like a bunchy funny it looks just fine and there isnºt mold in it.

I don´t really know what else to tell you guys...umm my portuguese is rough and i get called a greenie/newbie a lot. I sweat constantly...its hot here! It is constantly about 84 in our apartment...very few people have air conditioners. we sleep with the window open...which is weird cause there are tons of lights and the city is never quiet so it is weird to go to sleep.

The water here is super full of minerals and stuff so we don´t drink it cause we don´t want kidney stones. we still use it for most things we just don´t drink it! all the members houses they offer us juice which is yummy!

umm that is about all i have to tell you for now!! I look forward to hearing from you soon!! I love you all and hope everything is going well!! Don´t worry about me i have an awesome trainer and live with another super old elder and one of my district buddies!! I am really liking it here!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Bushnell

August 6, 2010

The thunder and lighting was awesome! I didn't wake up because of it but I went on a walk around campus when it was pouring. We went just for fun! My comp is hilarious. He has only seen 3 lighting storms in his entire life so he is freaking out! We are so dead at the end of the day we don't wake up for anything! On Monday i guess some elders pounded on our door at like 3:30 and I didn't wake up until the second time they did it.

I did hear about Morgan, it is very, very sad! Something amazing about being a missionary that just struck me as i was writing. I had heard that as a missionary your prayers are answered faster and i can testify of that! I prayed while in the temple for like 20 minutes for everyone I love and care about and who needs help. Answers do come from praying so fast. I learned that every time something awful happens an amazing experience/miracle is just around the corner!

Now to tell you about my week...Where so I even start. First, i realize I haven't told you much about Sundays here. Every week the Branch President gives you a new topic. The topic is always a Christ-like attribute found in Preach my Gospel. So you get a topic and have to write a 3-5 minute talk about it in your mission language. I don't know if i told you this but I had to give one on July 18th about faith. I did super and it wasn't a big deal, but i was scary since it was in Portuguese!

Now I am just going to start today and go back through the week. Today is the best day of the week...P-day! We woke up, did laundry then we got to go to the temple! I saw brother Eggett in the temple! I love the temple. We get to eat in the temple and the food is amazing compared to the food in the cafeteria. I would absolutely love a burger from 5 guys, everything in here starts tasting the same! Oh the most exciting news: we got our travel plans!!

I leave the MTC and like 6 a.m. I fly from SLC at 8:46 yo Chicago at 1:00. i have a 4 hour lay over in Chicago in which I can call whoever I want so have your phone on cause depending on what others do and what the travel people say i may call you! I fly out of Chicago at 5:10 p.m. and arrive in Paris at 8:20 a.m. on the 18th. Then I have 5 hours until 1:20 p.m. when I fly to Lisbon. I will arrive at 2:50 p.m. on the 18th. I am super scared/super excited! That was my exciting news.

Yesterday was pretty cool then boring. We had TRC so we teach in Portuguese. i still don't say a ton but when i do everyone says i get my point across. We taught a volunteer who was super easy...Once we told him he could live with his family forever he wanted to be baptized!

Wednesday was one of my favorite days here. We got to be the hosts for the families dropping off new missionaries! We got to talk to the families and take the newbies to get their tag and their residence, then to get books and to class. It was so fun to talk to real people!

Tuesday was boring but segunda feira (Monday) was good and bad. My favorite teacher Irma Permann left! :( She went home. But it was good because we got her actor prog. investigator agree to be baptized. Then Sunday was fast Sunday which are long and boring!

Love Elder Bushnell

P.S. "Faith makes molehills out of mountains."

July 23, 2010

I am not going to lie turning in my papers and everything I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into all of this. And the first 3 weeks were awful because it was so not what I expected. I want Tyler to know what to expect so he can be more prepared and can really get the most out of his MTC experience no matter where he gets called to go. I have finally figured it out and I wish someone had prepped me for it. Don’t get me wrong I absolutely love it now that I got my head around it!! There is nothing better than being here in the MTC and getting pumped to go out and baptize a whole nation! Tell Tyler that I want to make him a life changing promise. Have him write me.

Guess what is super sad!? Next week (so when you get this) I will be the only one left here. Tim is gone; Chris and Brett leave on Monday and Tuesday. Brody is the Peru MTC! So I will know Brandon Lowe but he leaves the next week I think. But then I leave a week after him which is super weird! I don’t know enough Portuguese to leave! We taught out first full lesson in Portuguese on Thursday and I struggled through it. I got to say hi to Brother Huber though!!

My dad sent me a picture of my truck today. I am upset with him. He just put new tires/rocker panels and he put a leveling kit on it! I wanted him to do that stuff before I left and he said he was just gonna sell it so he wouldn’t do it!

Now I’ll tell you about the days here. Today is P-day, the absolute best day of the week. We wake up do nothing ‘til breakfast then we eat and do laundry. After laundry we start writing letters. This week I don’t have very many letters. Because no one loves me or something. Jk ;) After some letters we eat lunch. It’s only 12 now so I haven’t gone that far yet today. Then we have more whatever time. I actually just took a time out from writing you and got my haircut. It looks like when I left. Normally we would get to go to the temple but it’s closed so we just sit around and write or take naps! After dinner we have Irmao nelson for 2 hours. Then we plan with our companions for tomorrow, which is pointless cause it is already all set. They just want to build habits. Saturday is an interesting day! We wake up, get ready, go to the classroom for MDT (missionary directed time) in which we study! Then go to breakfast, and then have Nelson after lunch. Then we have Sister Permann ‘til dinner. After we eat we have more MDT for personal, language and companion study until 9:00 when we plan. Basically everyday is just like that. The teachers change when they come but pretty much that is all we do here! On Tuesdays and Sundays we have devotionals which are always so awesome! I won’t go through everyday cause that would take you so so long to read and it would take me years to write!

Alright, moving on...um…I feel like all I do is eat, go to class, sleep. We have been attempting to have English fasts and only speak Portuguese. They are super hard and we never make it all the way through them. Our favorite word is esquelo which means squirrel. We use it all the time!

So I have to tell you about this! Right now in my room there are 12 elders and they are all talking about Pokemon. It is so ridiculous! They have been talking for like 30 minutes about this. They are all completely insane! I am sure we have all lost our minds completely!!

Oh something else exciting that happened! Since I was the first one in my room I got to pick which bed I wanted so I switched my comp. I picked the furthest from the door and the bottom bunk. So this week I switched and now I am on the top and it is actually kinda scary and fun at the same time! I have never had a bunk bed and have never been so cold at night but they increased the heater so I have started sleeping a lot better!

July 19, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Ola!! It is true I only have 3 weeks left in the MTC and it is super super scary!! I leave on the 17th!

Thanks Mom for the cinnamon rolls, they are all gone but they were yummy! I have some exciting things going on here. I weighed myself and I am now 151, so I have gained 7 pounds!! Also we have been having English fast days where all we speak is Portuguese. They were really silent at first, but now we just spout random words. Most of which are made up!We have gotten to where we really have lots or Portuguese in class. It's overwhelming but it will come.

As far as health and home sickness feel I am doing a lot better. I am not really very homesick anymore! I was sorta for a long time but we had a speaker come to us and talk to us about how at home we don't have a life and how no one wants us at home right now anyways. It was really good and really got me pumped for missionary work!!

I hope all is going well! Remind Dad to put me in for hunts and to be REALLY careful with my clubs! Keep me updated on sports and stuff!!

Love ya-
Elder Bushnell

Friends for Life!

June-July 2010 MTC

Teachers at the MTC

This is going to seem to start kind of abrupt but Bronson was talking about some of the stuff I'd written him about what I had been doing. They'd be boring. haha :)

"I see Brett almost everyday. Chris is a floor above me in class. I also see Brody a lot but he is going to the Peru MTC pretty soon! Tim is gone now. He left on Tuesday. It is so crazy!
Alright as far as my week. Um the language is really hard. I am trying and really working hard so I know the Lord will help me. The MTC is actually really good. I am being honest. I still have struggles throughout the day but really it is not bad. I have gained 8 pounds. I fell like the weeks have gone so fast. I can't believe that I have been here a month already! I am 1/24 done with the most amazing 2 years of my life. The elders in my district are super cool and are so nice! We are all so tight. I can already tell I have 13 friends for the rest of my life. my MTC life is mostly boring. We have gym which is at the field because they are redoing the bleachers in the actual gym. We then spend like 20 minutes eating then we shower and go to class for like 4 hours until lunch. Then more class then dinner and more class! The order of the day depends on which day of the week. I will tell you about my teachers now for a little. We have 3 instead of 1 or 2 and i am not exactly sure why. I think just cause we are awesome or something! We have Irmao Nelson, Irma early and Irma Permann. (Allison insert. I looked it up and Irma is sister and Irmao is brother). Irmao Nelson or Irma Permann are my favorite. Nelson served his mission in Lisbon so he has cool stories and things that really relate to what we are going to do. he is like 5'4" and looks just like Dash from The Incredibles!


He is way chill and really explains Portuguese well! Irma Early is scary. She served in the Porto mission but she doesn't explain very well and is always very serious and not fun! Actually yesterday she laughed at our joke and it was super weird. We were talking about getting invited to her wedding and meeting her kids once we got back and Elder Thredgold (who is just like Austin Anderson) said "I wanna nab your kids." And she laughed. We thought she was going to freak out and kill him. He also was proud of her at one point and said "That's my girl" and she laughed so hard and we were all nervous and thought she had lost her mind. I think it is because she a a date last night. Sister Permann doesn't speak any Portuguese but she still is way awesome.She is just way nice and really seems like a very normal person. She really just seems to really care for each and every one of us. She teaches us mostly about the actual lessons and stuff.

I have a challenge for you! Starting on Wednesday the 21st I challenge you to read the entire Book of Mormon in 63 days! I don't know what day that is but I promise you that if you really do it and pray before you start reading everyday you will become so much closer to our Savior. You will be directed and guided more in your life than ever before. The world and its loudness won't affect how close you can become to your Savior Jesus Christ. It is so amazing to feel his love and guidance all day here!

I hope you accept my challenge and I hope to hear from you very soon!

-Elder Bushnell"

July 9, 2010 Thanks Allison for sharing

This weekend has been so cool. I had to write and tell you about it. My companion is sick again so I am waiting in the medical clinic. Anyways where do I start…Tuesday the 22^nd we had a devotional and my great uncle spoke! He gave an awesome talk on the Holy Ghost and conversion. My favorite quote was something about how the purpose of a missionary isn’t to unite people with the Church but to convert them to the Lord. While I am talking about devotionals, on Fiday night we got to hear from Elder Oaks. In this meeting 8 of the 12 apostles were there, Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Nelson, Elder Scott, Elder Holland, Elder Cook, Elder Anderson, and Elder Christopherson, and a bunch of other cool people.

Elder Oaks talked about how this is the ONLY true living church in the world. He gave three points on why we are the only true church. We have the fullness of the doctrine of Cristo; we know the purpose of life, the full atonement, the resurrections, the pre and post life. (Sorry about writing Christ in Portuguese). He also told us how we need to “quit worrying about learning the language or about knowing what is and isn’t the spirit. Press forward with faith and keep the commandments and you will get blessed with it.

We watched a cool video from Elder Bednar which had a ton of cool things. My favorite thing he said was, “profound spiritual feelings are small, simple feelings; when we are DOING not sitting.” He also said and promised that if we are good boys and girls remember and honor covenants and keep the commandments. We are promised that our steps will be guided, our words inspired and we cannot go amiss. What an amazing promise. I have by struggling teaching by the spirit. I never know what is me and what is the spirit.

He said one last thing that I loved. “Our temples are concerned with the reality of our belief in immortality.” One more… “The miracles of the atonement are INCOMPREHENSABLE.” For some reason when he said that I felt the spirit so strong. It was amazing.

Now Sunday...holy smokes!! Because the General Authorities were here we had a combined meeting and it was so cool. I walked into the gym and there were five long tables and 16 elders ready to break and bless the sacrament. There were 20 elders passing and each one had 2 trays. I go the feeling for when Christ fed the multitudes bread and fish. It was awesome.

-Elder Bushnell

July 9, 2010

Dear Family and Friends-

This week has been going pretty good! I am doing great! I am struggling with the Portuguese and stuff. It’s crazy that Austin is already home!! He doesn't seem much older than I am!! I can already say it goes fast on Wednesday I only have 100 weeks! I have heard you learn concepts in the MTC about language but really don’t learn it till the first couple months.

I have seen Chris and Brett and Tim and we are all going to try to get picture but Tim leaves super soon because he is only here for 3 weeks so we need to do it soon!!

Ha ha…Mom I bet you are really sore from wakeboarding, wakeboarding uses totally different muscles that are weird at first. When I get home we will have to have a big family reunion at the lake with all of us.

Tell Barb I am sorry that her car broke and it cost her so much to fix it! That is awful! She definitely needs to get a new one now!! I think she would like the Nissan Xterra! It is a lot like her jeep but cooler!

I can't really think of anything else that I need. I will figure out the best way to send the belt and the backpack home to you I heard it maybe free for me to send it to the Postmart place then you can pick it up from there for free. Along with the stationary I need envelopes that have my MTC address and apparently instead of leaving on the 18th we are leaving the 17th just so you know.

I know that this will go fast and it already is starting to fly I am like halfway done with the MTC! I am already like a month in and months at home took SOOOO long but here they fly!! How are you and dad holding up? How about sisters? How is Allison doing? She is writing me and sent me a package today but I think she would tell me she is good even if she wasn't really.

We have some Portuguese everyday but we are just learning rules we aren’t doing like vocabulary so it is hard cause we have to do vocabulary by ourselves. We have PE daily we usually have 2 classes with teachers and then one class that is Missionary Directed Time where we do companion and personal study!

I am taking some pictures here and I can print them or load them on the computer and email them home or I can send my little card in a letter I haven't filled one up yet so I haven't needed to send any but I will pretty soon. All is going well and I am really starting to enjoy it here...it’s hard being so close to home I think though cause I sit in class and look at the temple and know Allison’s grandparents live right behind it. Or I sit in my study place and look at the Y and where I shot my deer this last year.

I am glad to hear no one lost fingers during the 4th of July and that everything is going well!

Thank you!! I love you TONS!!!!! Thank you for all your support on this big adventure I am going on!!!

Elder Bushnell

P.S. Tell Todd and Eric if they are still teaching Mission Prep that they should focus on teaching with good QUESTIONS!!! It is so important!!

If you could tell whichever friends you see that my P-day is Friday and that I need the letters they are sending by then so I can write back it would be great.

Family I know I have been here for a couple weeks but I am going to extend the same challenge my district is doing...READ the WHOLE Book of Mormon by the time I leave. I know that I have a head start but I think you guys can all do it!!! It is amazing! I have never enjoyed the book as much as I do here in the MTC!!

One Week Down!

Hello family and friends!!!

I have officially made it a full week which is super exciting!! I do like the packages but i have A TON of food to eat its going to get all stale and everything!! Most moms are sending DR Pepper and stuff so you were fine!

It is getting a little easier but mainly now i am just swamped with the language! They make us start talking to people like pretend investigators and we have only had 3 lessons so it was way rough!!! The elder that i had is still here i think......he is waiting for visas.. its hard to know because there are 110 people in our branch now.. we are almost ready to be split up! I think i have like 3 things of hair gel so i wont need one for a while but yeah it was the read one that said spiked up look. The 12 apostles are here this week, i haven't seen any of them yet but tonight we get to go to a devotional that is Elder Oaks i think. We haven't had anyone leave yet and we are all going to the Lisbon mission and we all should leave the same time which will be awesome! we are gunna take up like the whole airplane!

I am eating a ton its ridiculous! i thought it was bad when we were in palmyra and all we would do is eat......here is worse we eat ALL THE TIME!!! I am eating really well and really liking the juice! I really am starting to like it here! I have gotten into a groove and figured out everything! The only scary thing i have to do figure out is the whole dry cleaning thing but that is alright cause its just like the lady in the room that i have to talk to and see how much it is and stuff.

We have started to really hammer the language and it is so rough right now.. we are supposed to be able to pray and introduce ourselves and no one in my district can do either really.. we have only had 3 language lessons though so i dont feel too bad! I hate this computer by the way it does two periods every time i push the button and the enter button doesn't work so i apologize!!

I want to know more about the whole BYU and UTAH going to different conferences and stuff we dont know anything about what is going on!! We have an elder getting World Cup updates which is cool. Well i am basically out of time and the timer on these computers are scary cause they aren't way accurate and it randomly kicks you off! So to be safe i am going to err on the safe side!!

I want all of you to know that I love you!! I owe you all a ton! Without you i wouldn't be here preparing to bless people that don't even know they can be blessed. I really love you all and just think only 103 more weeks till i am home! We basically are done! ;)

P.S. SEND LETTERS! i believe dear elder is free so just when you are bored at work or something type me up a quick message!!! I love getting mail......it really is everything here.. i don't want it just so i can brag but it really is everything district leaders that have been here for a while get to were they check it like 6-7 times a day because they really are EVERYTHING!!!

LOVE YOU!

-Elder BB

The Waiting Is Killing Me!!

I lost track of days left because school and friends was really going very well for a while, I was enjoying it a TON!! But as most good things do it ended and school was back to the same old boring stuff that I have no desire to do. Since the good things seem to have stopped for a little bit, I decided to pull back out the calendar and continue marking the days till I leave...86 more days....well I guess 85 because its almost the next day seeing as its almost midnight! I really wish that the days would come 2 at a time or something. I know I am going to miss a lot of people though which is why I am very glad I still have this much time! Hopefully I won't fight with them very much between now and then...I hate fighting with people! Well until my next post continue praying for the missionaries out in the field and the ones preparing to go!!

Beginning my blog

Hey! I am still 112 days away from going into the MTC but I thought I would just get a post going so that everyone can read about the miracles that I experience in Portugal! 112 days feels like an eternity away but i know that when the day comes I will look back and feel like it flew by! Thanks to all of my friends and family, without you I wouldn't be as close to serving the Savior as I am. Thank you!