Picture update

With the photo share we have with Elder Bush it takes a few more steps for me to put the photos on the blog!  Sorry for the lack of photos lately, but here's about 25 to make up for it!  I'm still trying to figure out how to move videos from the photo share to the computer...



A trip to Martin's Cove:

Elder Bush, Elder Coleman, and Elder Fraser





Elder Coleman:

"So much good food, I passed out and Elder Burrell had to keep feeding me..."

Elder Fraser and some sister missionaries got ahold of Elder Bush's ipad... this is picture number 3,476 out of 4,500!




Missionary Yoga:







Elder Tippetts and Elder Bush




Mission tour with Elder DeFeo:







Spencer and Amanda did baptisms at the temple:





A letter to the Elders in their new ward:







Elder Fraser did the "Bear hot challenge" at Wing Shack.
Wings with ghost pepper sauce.  He ate 10 in 3:57 and won a hat.







Elder Fonotisatele, Elder Tippetts, and Elder Bush:






"We scared Elder Coleman really good right before he went home.
He seriously is a very good sport about it.
He is always so scared but laughs about it afterwards."












Exchanges with Cheyenne zone leaders:






A hilarious stolen bike sign:






Elder Bush caught Elder Fraser taking a mini-nap!





Workout leg day:







Breakfast with the McMurrays and Jan Ross from Cheyenne:

February 6, 2017

What a crazy week its been! On Saturday night I found out that I'm
being transferred back to the Longmont Zone! I will be in the Union
and Ute Creek wards. (Covering two again)
After this transfer I will have served in 4 different wards in the
Longmont Stake, which is pretty cool. My new companion will be Elder
Prescott, who I don't know super well, but seems like a pretty cool
guy, so that'll be awesome.

I am sad to leave Cheyenne. I honestly didn't think I would ever say
that when I first arrived here, but Cheyenne has a place in my heart
now. (As cheesy as that may sound)
I love the people here, I have loved serving here, and I have grown so
much in the short time that I have been here. I'll miss Elder Callahan
and his hard work, and I'll miss all of the missionaries here in the
Cheyenne Zone. They are all so awesome. I've also heard that
missionaries who serve in Cheyenne tend to come back after a while, so
I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can come back.

In other news, the work here has been going really well. We are really
starting to be able to touch some of the hearts of the people here
with the Spirit. Something that I have learned here is the truth
behind this simple phrase: "Charity never faileth".

A lot of times we feel like we have to label missionary opportunities.
For example, a missionary opportunity is a chance we have to give
someone a copy of Book of Mormon, or a chance we have to invite
someone to church. But really, an opportunity to show love to someone,
or to bring their garbage cans in, or even to simply just listen to
someone is a missionary opportunity. This truly is a labor of love. I
think our Savior would have it no other way.

Appropriate love to you all!
Have a great week :)

Elder Bush





Personal email to mom...

 I love you guys! Gideon is so cute. And you all are such great examples to me! Every day I think of you guys and how I want to be like my siblings or my parents when I grow up :)

Those are some cool lessons learned this week! I have learned a lot that can't really be put into words, but I will attempt:

- I have learned the importance of staying in tune with the Spirit. I have also learned how to recognize the Spirit more. It was something j heard in gospel doctrine at church: (not quoted exactly because I can't remember it exactly)

"The Spirit is described as a burning in the bosom, but is it really a caloric burning that we think of when we think of fire? If so, I've never felt the Spirit. The burning in the bosom is more of a burning of desire. It is more like light being shed upon our souls. It is peace and serenity. It cannot be described, only experienced" 

That was kinda the gist of the thought, but I thought it was super cool

- I have also learned the importance of love. Love is really spelled T-I-M-E, not just in family relationships but even out here in the mission field. We have really been striving to have contact with all of our investigators and less actives every day. Every single day! It's hard, but when we take the time to invite the Spirit into their lives and spend time with them, they progress so much faster and our relationships with them grow so much faster. It is truly amazing. 

- I've also learned the importance of self evaluation, but more importantly than that, I've learned the importance of Divine evaluation. Asking Heavenly Father what He thinks of me has impacted my week a lot. Also, evaluating where I'm at is really an essential step in daily repentance. 

- Something that stood out to me in my scripture study this week-- 1 Nephi 6:4

"For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved."

I thought about what my purpose is as a missionary: "Invite others to come unto Christ, by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." 

Is this the fullness of my intent? 

How cool is it the Nephi and I have the same purpose? 😎

What would it look like if this was the fullness of my intent? 

Well, for Nephi, it looked like this:

 " Wherefore, the things which are pleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.

 Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men."

Nephi did only what God commanded him to. He didn't bend to pressures from the world. He shared his testimony through the Book of Mormon. He taught the doctrine of Christ. And he invited everyone to come unto Christ, even his brothers, who wanted to kill him. 

These are things that I hope someday I can do. I want the fullness of my intent to be  to teach repentance and baptize converts. I know that as I consecrate myself day by day I can get there. 

So those are my thoughts for the week.

In other news, I might start a photo share today. I think they are actually approved. I will be able to upload pictures for you guys to see throughout the week and you can comment on them and stuff. I'm pretty sure they are okay but I'm going to double check with President McMurray and then let you know! 

Love you so much!

Elder Bush

January 30, 2017

So it's been a couple of weeks. I've slacked at my weekly emails, but
repentance is real, and I am going to attempt to write a good one
today.

It's been a great couple of weeks- like I said earlier, we got to go
to the temple, which was super awesome! My new companion, Elder
Callahan and I get along great. We work hard and strive to be faithful
in keeping the rules. A lot of good things are happening in the two
wards we cover. We have been teaching a lot of awesome people
recently, but sadly, they all moved away this week. Except for one. So
that was awesome, but we are still excited because the wards are
really trying to work with us and do missionary work.

Something else that was cool this week was the missionary broadcast.
They announced changes to the missionary schedule and to the key
indicators. I am really excited about that because it is already
changing the way I view missionary work. Sometimes I would get trapped
in thinking that just because we taught lessons, we were a success.
Now, I'm focused on what happens in the lessons we teach. I'm more
focused on the people, which has really helped me a lot. I seriously
love missionary work. Inviting and helping people to come unto Christ
is the most joyful work in the whole entire universe. True story.

This week as I have studied the Book of Mormon I have learned about
how important it is to strive to be faithful in keeping the
commandments. But what does that even mean? As I have studied 1 Nephi
3-4, I have learned that being faithful in keeping the commandments
doesn't mean that you are always perfect. Nephi and his brothers had
to try 3 times to get the plates. Each time they failed, Nephi
exhorted his brothers to "be faithful in keeping the commandments".  A
large part of being faithful in keeping the commandments is trying
over and over and over again, through repentance and the sacrament.

So this week, I want to encourage everyone to be faithful in keeping
the commandments! Let's keep trying! As Elder Bednar said in the
missionary broadcast, "You just have to be as good as you can be!"

You all are awesome. Thank you for your prayers and your support. 
I  pray that you are all blessed for that.

Appropriate love to you all,Elder Bush
Pictures!

January 23, 2017

This week we have seen some cool miracles. Right now we are teaching a girl named Terra. She's like 20. She is engaged to a less active member and she wants to get baptized, which is awesome. Part of the reason I don't have time today is because we taught her a lesson and also taught a skype lesson to one of our other investigators. I also had a dentists appointment. My teeth are clean. So. Yeah. Also we played volleyball. It was a busy day, so now is really the first chance I've had to email you guys. Frustrating, but it's okay. 

I'll include a picture of the skype lesson- it's something that we are trying to do better at- using the technology we have to share the gospel. It's pretty sweet. 

Other miracles this week included my experience during the Sacrament. I'll include it here, because I typed it up. 

As I was pondering the covenants that we make during the Sacrament, 

the phrase "And witness unto thee...that they are willing...to keep his commandments which he has given them" stuck out to me, especially after having gone to the temple recently. I was struck by the fact that we covenant to keep the commandments every single week! (Including the WHB because it was written by prophets and apostles)

I asked myself this question:

How much do your covenants mean to you? 

Am I striving to keep His commandments (all of them) every week? Do I intend to keep all of my Father's commandments? 

I covenant with God every week to keep His commandments- am I striving to keep that covenant? Remember that spiritual power doesn't come through making covenants- it comes through keeping them. 

I love you so much!  (Mom and Dad) and I am grateful for the insights you share and the memories! 

*Mom's note: the home computer is giving me problems downloading and uploading pictures and movies.  I will update these posts as soon as this technical difficulty is solved!

January 16, 2017

I have been thinking a lot about prayer too. I think it's cool when I think about the fact that prayer is given to us to align our will with God's not to align His will with ours. I've noticed recently that my prayers have been somewhat slacking recently, and I haven't been as sincere as I need to be. So something I started trying is writing down my prayer in my notes app as I go along. It's been awesome! It helps me be more focused and sincere with my prayers, which is great because I get so tired I don't put much energy into my prayers sometimes, but it is great to write them down because then I'm super focused and putting energy and effort into my prayers. It has really helped me feel the Spirit more in my life. 

In other news, I shoveled horse poop for a couple of hours on Saturday. It was fun. We helped muck out the horse stalls for some members who live in our ward. It was pretty fun actually. We got to spend some time with the horses, which was cool. We also got to shovel poop. Always fun. We smelled fairly terrible afterwards but it was okay lol 

You know, I actually love it here in Cheyenne. It took me a little while, but I absolutely love it here.  The people are super nice, and i actually don't mind the small town feel as much as I thought I would. Of course, Cheyenne has like 60,000 people, but compared to El Paso, it's super small. I love the wards we serve in, and I love the work. It is awesome. 

Last night we were able to work with some member families to help the, do missionary work. It was really cool. We stopped by and started talking to them about some part member families they know and talked with them for a while about what they can do to share the gospel with them. It was way cool because they started to get super excited about it. 

Also, being in a tripan is frustrating. The Elder we are with is pretty disobedient, but he's also somewhat of a slob. Okay, lots of a slob. He just leaves food out and doesn't eat it. He just dumps all of his clothes everywhere. It is so frustrating because we refuse to clean up after him, so we are constantly trying to get him to clean up after his mess. It is frustrating and tiring. So we are looking forward to the end of the transfer when he's not with us anymore. 3 more weeks! Crazy that the end of the transfer is in 3 weeks already. At the beginning of next transfer I will hit my year mark!!!!!!!!! So crazy!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I've been out almost a full year now! Insane. 

Love you,
Elder Bush

January 10, 2017

Just to start off, the temple was amazing. I think I spent about an
hour in the celestial room. It was so awesome.
I just love going to the temple. It is always uplifting and
spiritually edifying. I learned so much. It was really cool to be able
to talk to President McMurray after the session and learn some things
from him. The endowment is super missionary centered, and I had never
realized it before.
I'm also super grateful for fasting and prayer. The temple trip was
amazing. I absolutely love the temple. Sooooo much! The Spirit was
super powerful in the celestial room. I could've stayed there forever.
And I wanted to. But I learned that much like Adam and Eve learned,
there is no other way to learn and grow unless we leave the presence
of the Father for a time. Which is kind of counter intuitive but it's
true. After going to the temple, I am starting to realize just how
much I miss being with our Heavenly Father and Savior. Every time we
go to the temple, and very time we go through an endowment session
especially, it seems to awaken a longing inside my soul. I don't know
how else to describe that.





This week was good. I was finally able to overcome that sickness,
which was nice.  We now have another missionary with us. His name is
Elder Alexandre. His companion went home on Friday so he will be with
us until the end of the transfer.

So this week we discovered that both of the investigators we have that
are progressing are moving at the end of the month. Which is pretty
depressing. But they are still progressing, which is awesome. Danielle
 is doing really well, she is definitely warming up to us now and she
is reading from the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Jason is
another investigator we have that is doing really well but he is
moving to Rock Springs at the beginning of next month. Which is tough.
But we are just glad that they are both becoming converted, but we are
still sad that they are leaving.




On exchanges:


                                                                                                    Texas Roadhouse with Elder Callahan

January 2, 2017

I definitely have had had a wonderful year. What is really bizarre to me is to think of what I was doing just one year ago! So much has happened and the time has really flown by. 

Right now I am still working on formulating my goals. I have a couple right now- one is more of a mantra and the other more of a goal I guess. The first one is "Rest later" because a lot of missionaries tend to lose steam after being in the field for a while and I've noticed that in myself a little bit. The second goal is simply to journal every day. So far, I've done it. 

I started that one on December 31st.

I'm so happy that you guys are doing mission preppy things every Sunday! I'm excited to hopefully continue that with you guys when I get home. 

 We'll work on some more memories later I guess lol 

Some of the best memories I have are of us doing dumb things and laughing hysterically late into the night lol so I love the scripture charades thing because it helps me know that that is still going. I love it xD

So my new companion is Elder Callahan. He is from Casa Grande, (pronounced Casa Grand) Arizona. He is a total cowboy. He wants to be a rancher when he goes home and loves to rodeo, so he fits right in here in Wyoming. We get along very well.  I absolutely loved being with Elder Coleman. He is awesome and we are really really good friends. I'm excited for this new transfer with Elder Callahan too. We are working together well and already have a good friendship. 

So today I don't have the most time to email because I'm helping take care of Elder Turner, who I will include a picture of below. He is deathly sick today with a cough and with some sort of stomach flu. 

He hasn't even felt well enough to email his family today, and his companion wanted to get a haircut today so we did a mini switch and I'm taking care of Elder Turner and Elder Callahan is going with his companion. 

This week has been good, although I have also been pretty sick. The mornings have been the roughest part, because I wake up feeling absolutely horrible and so I sleep in to get a little bit more rest so I can work for the rest of the day... which makes me frustrated, because I don't feel guilty for sleeping in because I'm sick and I need the rest, but it's frustrating because I want to be up and moving. But fortunately my sickness is wearing off so I can start exercising again. I think I may have passed it on to elder Callahan though....... 

I also have a talk in church on Sunday. It was a very cool experience. Usually I am super nervous and worried about speaking in front of a large group of people, but I wasn't nervous at all, I was actually super comfortable up there. I could've stood up there for 30 or 40 minutes and talked without a problem. Maybe that's not a good thing, I don't know lol but it was very cool to be comfortable and feel directed by the Spirit as I gave my talk. I gave it on setting goals for the new year, and specifically setting missionary goals. So I know that you all have already set some goals for missionary work and stuff, but I invited them and I think I will invite you guys to hold a family council and set some goals to do missionary work as a family. As we have been following up with the members here we are seeing some cool things happening in these families: one family set a goal to be instrumental in bringing one non member to baptism. Each child set goals, and two of them are getting baptized this year and so they set goals to invite 10 non members to their baptism! Which is way cool. The dad set a goal to invite someone to church every month and to hand out a copy of the Book of Mormon every month. It is really cool to realize that as missionaries, we aren't here to do all the work. One of our main purposes is to help the members do their missionary work. 

It's so crazy that Gideon is 5! Happy Birthday to him! I love that kiddo. He is so cute. 

I think I say this every email, but give all the kids a big hug for me. I love them so much and I love you. You are such an awesome example. I love reading these quotes and spiritual thoughts that you have throughout the week. It really uplifts me spiritually. 

I love you! 

Elder Bush

Elder Turner eating oatmeal on New Years Eve

Elder Callahan and a snake

Unknown "food" in the fridge from the last elders... 

the yellow stuff is mold

Elder Coleman and Elder Bush on transfer day

Elder Coleman and soon to be President and Sis. Brown 

from Prairie View Ward

Elder Coleman and Elder Bush at IHOP

December 26, 2016

It was so awesome to see you! I am so grateful for modern technology that allows us to see each other and talk to each other. That really made my day -- Christmas was awesome because of that. 

It was so good to hear your voices and to see you! I think on both skype calls we just spent the first couple of minutes smiling and staring at each other hahaha

Christmas is a little bit easier to be a missionary, but not a whole lot-- the really cool thing is specifically being able to be a representative of Jesus Christ at Christmastime. I hope that makes sense. It is very very cool. Just being a missionary is awesome in general though. 

Did you get my Christmas card? I kinda piggybacked off of the cards that the Cheyenne East Stake was sending out-- it was the picture of the temple and the copy of the dedicatory prayer. I thought it was super cool. 

There are a lot of things I am also grateful for this Christmas. It includes my family and friends, other missionaries, the restored gospel, and sleep. (We can take long naps today because it's Pday woohoo!) 

But the thing I am most grateful for is the gift of Jesus Christ. His life, His ministry, His example, His teachings, His doctrine, and most of all, His Atonement. He is what I am most grateful for. 

You know, I think on my mission I am learning the formula for having true joy all the time. I think I am learning how to be truly happy. Of course, it is living the gospel. But two big things that bring so much joy are repentance and gratitude. I remember in one of my blog posts a while back I shared a quote from Joseph F. Smith about how gratitude brings us joy. And I have also learned, like Elder Renlund taught in his talk last Conference, repentance is a joyful choice and a joyful process. 

It is hard for me to hear about how difficult it has been for you recently. I know that Heavenly Father weeps when we do. I know He cares about all of the things that bring us sadness. Lucy came into our lives (and our family) and brought us a lot of joy and love. She showed us that maybe sometimes it's okay to be hyper and crazy, because you're happy. 

You know what? All things testify of Christ. This is a true statement. I think that Lucy also testified of our Savior by showing us unconditional love, and by showing us a little bit more of how to enjoy life. 

It is hard to see these things as they occur. It is hard for me to miss you guys and to know when I come home that a part of my family will be missing. But when we choose to focus on the good things in life, we choose to have joy, even in hard times. Our Heavenly Father and Savior can be joyful not because lots of good things happen in their lives, but because of their love for us. I honestly think that God can be as joyful as He is because He fully experiences the pain and sadness. There really is opposition in all things. It is a hard principle to bear, but I know that God will consecrate our afflictions for our gain when we turn to Him. (2 Nephi 2:1-3 I think) 

Thanks for being an example to me of faithfulness and love. It is definitely hard to be apart but I know that any and all sadness that comes from the separation will make the reunion even more sweet and joyful when it happens. 

️ (because there's nothing else to say) ️
Elder Bush

Video is of the elders eating chili with cinnamon rolls, apparently a thing in Cheyenne...

December 19, 2016

I love the Christmas singing  videos, even if they do come late. I love listening to them. I also super loved those videos of the kids, especially that awesome catch! I showed it to all the missionaries because we were having a Zone lunch at the stake presidents house. They all loved it. They were super impressed. 

I was definitely thinking about you a lot over the past couple of days. I am so grateful for the gospel which gives me the knowledge that our family will be together eternally. It makes me so grateful. Kinda referring back to the blog post that I posted- the Atonement of Jesus Christ gives me so much hope. It is so amazing. 

So, cool story this week-- let me start from the beginning. 

We have an investigator named Dwayne. He is in his 60s, and he is on oxygen, and he smokes approximately a pack a day. 

But anyways, he is super nice. And he loves us. So on Thursday, we got a call from him, asking us to come over for a party that night. So we went over, but we went on exchanges so we could cover two appointments. When we showed up, he was upset because Elder Coleman wasn't with me. So we determined to come back another day. We went there on Saturday night to see him. We show up, and he has Christmas tree up and stuff. He gives us this small box from underneath the Christmas tree, but before we open it, he says this. 

"I was watching TV the other day and saw this. Jesus told me to buy it for you guys"

So we open it. 

Elder Coleman is the one who is holding the box, so he opens it. 

"Ohhhhh wooooowww......"

I'm like "what is it???????????"

Elder Coleman pulls out 2 KINDLE FIRES. 2 tablets. With cases. Sum cost probably close to $300. 

Needless to say, we were absolutely shocked. We didn't know what to say. After much stumbling and fumbling, we thanked him profusely, and then he asked us if we would use him. We said totally. (After the mission) lol he was so happy and glad to give those to us. It like made his day. It was pretty intense, because it would have hurt his feelings and probably made him stop meeting with the elders if we hadn't accepted the gift.

But don't worry, I'm not apostate. There is a Kindle Fire coming your way in the mail in a little tiny Priority Mail box. 

Also, this week, we helped somebody move in -5 weather. It was super cold and super funny lol 

Also, can you send me the recipe for that really good Chex mix? Thanks hahaha 

*************************************************************************************************************************

Group Email:

In 3 Nephi 1:13 Jesus Christ says this to His prophet Nephi. 

"Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets."

The main reason Jesus Christ came into the world was to redeem us all. But one of the other reasons was to show us all that we can trust His prophets. 

We will always be safe when we follow the prophet. They will always guide us to the Savior, just like the star did for the wise men. 

Another short one this week. But seriously, I love you all. Have a Merry Christmas please. :)


Appropriate love,

Elder Bush