August 29, 2016

Just do it! Make your dreams come true! Just! Doooooo it!

bishopric member asleep 

during ward missionary correlation meeting...  

shhhhhhh....

You have no idea how often we tell our investigators that. We'll be like, 'hey did you read the Book of Mormon?' And they'll be like 'no we were busy' and then we're like 'just doooooo it! Make your dreams come true!'

Elder Farnes going home!

Homemade grape juice...

Thanks you for all the updates on how all the kids are doing. I really appreciate that. I may not have time to comment on everything that you said about them, but I really am glad to know about all the things that are going on in their lives. So. I do have a favor to request though. 

They don't always have to do it, but I would love to hear from the kids more often, like in emails and stuff. I can't always promise that I will respond that week, but I will always respond. If they don't want to, they don't have to, but I really do miss those guys. And girls. I hope Reuben got his nametag in the mail. If he did, can you send me a picture when he does get it? Hopefully I'll send Evelyn's today. :)

I can't believe Micah is turning twelve. That is so insane to me! He is growing up so fast! And so is everybody! It is ridiculous. 
Good job to Evelyn for her enthusiasm. And I know what you mean about Reuben. He is just so good hearted. Gideon's pictures are adorable. He is so funny! Leslie told me a little bit about how crazy things are. I hope she gets into BYU so we can party when I get back. You have no idea how excited I am for when we can do that. Of course, I wish I never had to leave the mission, but at the same time, I love you guys. I wish you could just come to Colorado and knock doors with me or something. Maybe that's how we'll do it when we do missionary work in the spirit world or something hahaha

So. Missionary work is awesome. Are you ready for this experience that we had this week? Okay cool. 

SO... About 3 weeks ago we met a woman named Lori. We talked to Lori by first knocking on the door of her friend, Monica. Monica was nice, and invited us back, so we kept coming back. Unfortunately, she just invited us to come back and she wasn't home, so we kept trying. After a few tries, we met Lori, who was babysitting for Monica one day. We talked to her, and she seemed very interested, so we gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and invited her to the temple open house. We also asked her if missionaries could go to her house, because she lives outside of our area. She liked that idea, so we got her address, and sent her records on their merry way over to another ward. The sisters in that ward could not find her house for some reason. The streets in Loveland are weird, and there is a Southeast 4th Street and a 4th St Southeast, which are in different parts of the town. *eyeroll* anyways, the sister missionaries could not find her house, and we were pretty bummed about that. 

Fast forward about 3 weeks. We knock on Monica's door again, and Lori is there again! We were excited to see her and asked her if missionaries had come to her house. She said they had, but they came later than they had expected, and they only talked to her mom who happened to be at her house while Lori was working. The missionaries had just so happened to tract that street, and invite her mom to the temple open house. She told us that her mom went, and that her mom loved it, and wanted to start coming to our church! Well, of course, we thought that was super awesome. Then we asked Lori if she had a chance to read from the Book of Mormon at all. She told us that she had, and that she loved it! She told us that she had been marking verses in it, color coded from verses she liked and verses she felt would apply to her when she became a mother, because she is pregnant. Her husband is in the hospital right now, and she told us the Book of Mormon has comforted her as she has studied. We were fairly jubilant and ecstatic. We got her phone number, and had her point out her address to us on a map, and we sent the sister missionaries over to her house, and they are meeting with her now. It was so cool! The Lord really does work miracles! It was a super cool experience. 

Another cool experience we had was when we were trying to contact a lady who is an investigator who we haven't seen for a while. We knocked on her door and talked to this other lady named Rachel. As we talked to Rachel, we learned that she has recently struggled a lot, and she lost her husband a few weeks ago, and now is left with a couple of kids. When we shared our message, she started crying, and hugged us (!) we couldn't do anything about it haha but she was really touched and asked if we could come back. We are going back tomorrow and we are taking some members from the ward with us. We are so excited for her because this message really will bring her so much hope!

I love that you've been studying that as well. I've been studying that generally, but recently I've been studying specifically about how prayer helps us to come closer to our Heavenly Father. Something that has helped me learn a lot about prayer is the January 1976 ensign, because it is all about prayer. Bruce R. McConkie has an awesome article in that issue about prayer too. It's pretty amazing, the gift that we have to be able to communicate with our Father in Heaven!



Sorry I didn't email last week everyone! I was very caught up. But
it's okay, I'm sure you all enjoyed the break. But I'm back.

So these past couple of weeks have been awesome. Keith entered the
waters of baptism on the 20th, which was super awesome! Amanda and
Spencer are still doing great, they are flying through the Book of
Mormon. I think Amanda passed me in her studies. I was in 3 Nephi and
she's probably in Mormon or ether now or something crazy. Keith and
Spencer are both excited about getting the priesthood soon. It is so
awesome to see them serving and blessing the ward. The Lakeside ward
definitely needed that.

In other news, this week I discovered that prayer is pretty much the
best thing ever. I've really been focusing on it during my scripture
study, and it's changed my whole outlook on prayer for sure. I'm
learning more and more that our Heavenly Father lovingly answers
prayers. Sometimes that means waiting for a while to give us an
answer. Sometimes that means answering right away, but in a way we
don't expect. I can testify that our Heavenly Father loves us so much!
He listens to all of our prayers, and guides us as He knows will
benefit us the most. It is an amazing feeling to turn to my Father in
prayer and know that He will sustain me and those I love.

So yeah. That's one thing I learned this week. Missionary work is
still awesome. The Lord is definitely guiding us to those who need to
hear this message. We have seen probably 3 people this week break down
into tears while we are on their doorsteps because they have been
struggling and rejoiced to hear the message we shared. (Which is
awesome. Not that they cried, but that they were glad to hear the
message we share. You know what I mean.)
Thank you all for your prayers. I can definitely feel their power in my life.


Appropriate love,
Elder Bush