May 29, 2017

This week I found out that I'm being transferred. Sadness. I am being transferred to Windsor, and my new companion is Elder Fraser. It will be good, but I'm sad to go.

I will definitely miss the Union and Ute Creek wards so much! There are so many wonderful people there, and I really learned a lot from them and enjoyed serving with them. I'm going to miss everybody so much 

I will be mindful of them always in my prayers. 

This week was pretty awesome. We have really continued our efforts in working with members and helping them to use PMG. It has been awesome to continue to develop those relationships with the awesome members in this mission, and it has been cool to see many of them get excited about missionary work! 

The success is always in the invitation. 

We also spent a lot of time helping people move this week. It is helpful to have a truck, because then everyone calls you to have you help them. We probably spent about 7 hours total helping people move this week. Fun times. 

Also. I finally learned how to work those ratchet strap thingys! You know those things that everyone uses to move but nobody knows how to use? Yeah those. I finally learned how to use them. Greatest accomplishment this week for sure 

In my studies this week, I've been trying to catch up with our mission's Book of Mormon challenge. We are planning to finish the Book of Mormon by September. We read about 4 pages per day. Currently I am in Mosiah chapter 3, which is pretty behind, but it's okay. I will catch up someday. 

I was reading in Mosiah chapter 2 verse 34. King Benjamin is summarizing what he has taught in the chapter and he says this:

 "Ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father, to render to him all that you have and are." 

I love that. All that you have and are. 

Are we willing to do this? To give to our Heavenly Father all that we own and all that we are is a big thing. It can be seen in terms of consecration, but it can also be seen in terms of humility. God has given us everything, and He has even created us, so we are eternally indebted to him to give him everything. We are blessed even more when we do. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father. 

Sorry that this email has been fairly boring. I promise that mission life is seriously the best. This week has been one with a lot of learning and a lot of repenting for me. (Good things) 

I am grateful for all of you and the influence you have had on my life! 

I love you all very appropriately.

Elder Bush

(More pictures next week, I have to be boring this week. Sorry. Just imagine me having a good time with some other missionaries, and a bunch of pictures of the homies from Longmont) 

To Mom:

I also loved Alma 26. It teaches me a lot about humility and about how
to rely on God. I think often we think that humility is tearing
ourselves down, but it really is just giving God the glory for what is
accomplished.

Everything that I am, I owe to God. That is something I need to
remember constantly so that I can not be lifted up in pride.

It is the same for salvation! Sometimes we think we are saved because
of ourselves, but it is solely because of Jesus Christ that we are
saved. It is through His merits and mercy and grace that we are saved.
When we live the gospel, we aren't saving ourselves. We are allowing
Jesus Christ to save us, and we are applying His mercy and grace to
help us become better people. I love the Plan of Salvation, and I love
how the proud cannot understand it. We must be humble in order to see
the truth.

I was really sad to leave Longmont. It was rough for me to say
goodbye. There were even a few people who cried when I left. I am
going to super duper miss those people. I love them so much.

Also, I love the parable of the Lord's vineyard in Jacob 5. We are
called to labor with Him, to bring His children home!

Another thought that I have tried to live by: the crowning
characteristic of love is always loyalty. Do we really love Jesus
Christ, or do we just automatically say we do? In John chapter 21,
Peter seems to automatically respond that he loves the Lord, and I
think I do that too. I've been learning a lot so I can really learn to
love the Savior.
Everything we experience in this life is designed to help us live the
first and greatest commandment, to love God. When we love God,
everything else falls into place. It's awesome. I am learning to do
that a little bit more.

I'm sorry that my emails this week haven't had a lot of updates about
investigators or about the work very much. Nothing too exciting
happened this week. Mostly just finding and working with members. This
week has honestly been a blur.

I love you! Sorry it wasn't longer, it took us 4 hours to drive to
martins cove and we spent 4 hours there. We are stopping for dinner,
so we will have wifi then, so I've typed this up while we are driving.
Plus, it's a whole bunch of missionaries in one van, and we are all
really good friends, so I can't really email lol I've tried. Hahaha

May 22, 2017

Group e-mail:
"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world"

That scripture is 2 Nephi 26:24, and it is my new favorite. Jesus
Christ loves us so much, we cannot comprehend it. I testify that this
scripture is true.

I strongly encourage everyone to devote themselves to an in-depth
study of the Book of Mormon. You will grow in your love for the
Savior, and there are few things that invite the Spirit into your life
like prayerful study of the Book of Mormon!

Not much time today. As always. But I will give a brief report on the week.

We had a baptism in the Ute Creek ward on Saturday! Lilly got
baptized. She was very well prepared by previous missionaries , and
she understood the doctrine well, so it was super awesome teaching
her. She is a sweet spirit for sure, and she was beaming the whole
time. She has taught me more about what it means to be a little child.

Also, today we spent some time in FOCO shopping and having a good
time. We hung out with the assistants for a bit and even got soaking
wet by playing on one of the splash pad thingys that shoot spouts of
water. It was a party. We also got to teach someone about the gospel
after that, which was cool.

Also, it snowed. Weird. People looked at us like we were crazy when we
were tracting this week haha We tried to tell them it was because we
were offering salvation but not very many of them believed us. A few
did, though, and that is what makes it all worth it.

I love you all appropriately, and I hope you have a great week.
Elder Bush

Pictures

1) Lilly's baptism!
2) mormons....
3) snow

To Mom:

i love getting your emails! I love the counsel and advice you give me, and plus i just love hearing about how everything is going back home. Thank you for all of the updates on all of the kids. I really really appreciate it. 

Not a whole lot of time today, we spent most of the day shopping, trying to find some white shirts. I found some good deals on white shirts (15 bucks) so I got 3. Thank you very very much. I super appreciate that, and i hope you dont feel like im being that needy spoiled kid hahaha I never ever want to give off that impression so yeah.  also, funny story, and you may have seen it on Facebook, but i ran into somebody who knows the Isoms in FOCO today! It was pretty fun. Turns out, Mike reactivated his dad, which led to his baptism! It was cool for me to see how highly he speaks of the Isoms. Funny happenings and a cool experience. 

This week has been great, on Saturday Lilly was baptized! Quite a few non-members showed up, so that was really cool. Several of them were very touched by the service, so that was really neat. We also got to confer the aaronic priesthood on a recent convert this week, so that was awesome. We are always feeling motivated and pumped to keep serving and working harder and harder! I love the people here so much, and i get the feeling that I am going to be transferred in 3 weeks here, so I have decided that the best gift I can give is to just work my tail off and help build the church in this area. 

I love hearing about the progress of all the kids, and i look forward to hoeing able ot spend time with them all. Exciting stuff. 

This week in gospel doctrine, our lesson was also on the plan of Salvation. I learned a lot, and i will share that in a bit. First I want to comment on that first question. I think it is hard for us to make a definitive statement about Jesus Christ's knowledge before this life, but I feel like He definitely did have all knowledge and understanding. He was, after all, a god before he even came to earth. All He had left to do was to receive a body. Then when He came to earth, the veil passed over Him just as it would for anyone else, and he was required to learn all of these things again. At least, thats how i understand it, im not 100% sure. I think Jesus the Christ talks about this. Anyways, I learned about perdition on sunday. Yay. Lol but the gospel doctrine teacher did discuss perdition and I was doing my personal study later on, the Spirit taught me something cool. The root words of perdition mean "complete destruction". Satan's is called perdition because this is what he does, and this is what will happen to him. But also, i learned something cool as i was studying in Jacob. In chapter 2, verse 16 i think, he says "let not the pride of your hearts destroy your souls". Instantly the Spirit connected the two, and I realized that Satan is called perdition because 1) he is completely prideful and 2) complete pride leads to complete destruction. It was a cool thing for me to connect there and to realize that. Also, ive really been thinking a lot about what it means to take upon us the name of Christ. The followers of Satan are called the sons of perdition, and they are called after him. On the righteous spectrum, the people who loved and admired and wanted to follow Nephi called themselves after him. Should we not then be glad to take upon ourselves the name of Christ? What does it really mean to take upon ourselves His name? Are we living up to that? Idk, just some cool stuff to think about. 

Also, giving it 100% is hard, but i also think its important to remember that our 100% is wayyyyyy different than Jesus Christ's 100%. Also, we cant let perfect be the enemy of good. That's what President McMurray tells me anyways. If we are doing lots and lots of good, we cant beat ourselves up for not being perfect, because there was only one person who did that. 

Ive got to go, but i love you so much mom. You are truly amazing and i am grateful every day for your influence in my life. You have helped me to love God and have a desire to follow Jesus Christ, and I cant think of anything that is more important than that. 

Love, 

Elder Bush

May 15, 2017

That's what I learned this week. My mom is amazing.

Everyone, I apologize because last week I totally forgot to Bcc you
all into my weekly and so you didn't get one. Sorry... I'm totally a
doofus.

We have a had a great couple of weeks and I will send my last weekly
out this week because I feel like it was pretty alright. This week has
been pretty busy, which is always good as a missionary. Something that
was cool this week was the fact that we were able to follow up with
the youth in one of our wards about them extending invitations to
people. We were able to sit down in their classes and take a few
minutes on Sunday and follow up with them. We were able to use PMG to
help address their concerns and recommit them to extend those
invitations! It was really cool.

Also, Happy Mothers Day to all you amazing mothers out there. You have
blessed my life, whether you realize it or not. You are the most
Christlike people I know. You give up so much for your children, it is
amazing. I am always inspired by your examples of service and
sacrifice. My mom is so amazing and I am so grateful to her. I would
be a total bum if it wasn't for her. She is the best.

We also got to go on exchanges this week with some studly
missionaries. They are super awesome and they always call me to
repentance. (Which is a good thing, because repentance is a joyful
choice!)

Okay, last piece of news! We have a baptism this week for a young girl
named Lilly! She is really excited about it, and so are we :) pictures
coming up next week!

I love you all very much. I hope you have a good week and seriously,
read Preach My Gospel and apply it, it will bless you a whole lot.
Like today. Read just one paragraph and try to apply it. Miracles will
happen for you! ❤❤❤

Appropriately yours,
Elder Bush

Pictures!

1. Exchanges. Pretty awkward photo. But it's cool.
2. Our Ward mission leader and his family. They are super awesome.
3. Face timing my beautiful family! Not everyone could fit into the picture 😆









Email to Mom:


I'm so glad I was able to see you too. It always motivates me and help
me keep going. It's pretty nuts that there's only one more FaceTime
call before I get back! And one more General Conference! Ahhhhhh!

I love PMG. Here is my list of favorite books right now. In order.

1. The Book of Mormon
2. Preach My Gospel
3. The New Testament
4. The Book of Mormon

The work is all the same! Missionary work, families, genealogy, and
anything else you do in the church is all part of the work of
Salvation, and it's the most joyful work ever.

Today I was reading a written devotional by a pastor of sorts. I was
more skimming than anything, but something caught my eye that I wanted
to talk about. He says this:
"Gods work is not the work of Salvation. It is the work of glorifying
Himself. In order to glorify Himself, He created a world and created
us to worship Him. We sometimes think that His plan is about us, but
it's really not. It's all about Him and His glory. We are just along
for the ride" (not an exact quote, but he did say those things)

I am so glad this is not true! God's whole work is about us! He loves
us so much! His purpose is not to make Himself look good or bring
Himself glory! His whole thought and focus is about us and about how
to bring us home to Him. Yes, God has glory, but it is already
infinite and eternal. He adds to His glory by bringing us home, yes
this is true, but God cares far more about our eternal welfare than
His own. I am so glad for the restored gospel that teaches us that it
really is all about God, but not because He is seeking His glory, to
raise Himself higher. It is because He is seeking to help us. I love
the gospel.

Lol we definitely still use the word trunky. I will never let that
happen. There is too much to do.

I love the hymns of the church as well. They bring an amazing spirit.
That is always good for us to remember as missionaries because
sometimes we get bored of the hymns and pursue music that is still
really edifying, but has less spirit. For example, I listen to some
music by Matthew Mole, some by Josh Garrels, and stuff like that. It
is definitely about Jesus Christ, and it helps me think about Him, but
it doesn't have that same spirit. I've been realizing that recently
and I've been making sure my music uplifts me in a special way instead
of just entertaining me. You can look up those artists if you want. I
promise I only listen to the Jesus- centered songs lol

In other news, we have moved because the people we were living with
before have their daughter coming home from a mission so we can't stay
there anymore. 

Also, we went on exchanges this week. That was really good. We spent a
lot of time finding in the hot sun. I love spending time with Elder
Chan. He is a stud. He is super hard working and inspires me to be
continually finding new people to teach. He is a great missionary and
I consider it a privilege to serve around him.

That brings me to my next point. I have only long-sleeved shirts and
it's getting a lot hotter. I was wondering if you could send me some
short-sleeved shirts. H&M is a good place to buy some. Or if you want,
it might be easier to just put money on my card and I can get some
that for sure fit me. Or I can just roll up my sleeves. That's totally
fine too. Whatever is easiest. :)
Sorry I don't mean to be needy. Lol

Mom, I want to let you know that I love you so much. I am embarrassed
that I cried like that over FaceTime, but it's whatever lol you are so
amazing and I consider myself blessed to have you as a mother. I
consider it the highest of blessings to be able to say that I am your
son and that you are my mom. I love you. ❤

I also want to bear my testimony because I didn't really get to do
that yesterday.

I know that Jesus is the Christ. The Atonement He completed is
sufficient to cleanse us and raise us to a higher level if we will
keep His commandments and repent. I know that through faith on His
name and being baptized unto repentance we can receive the Gift of the
Holy Ghost and we can experience a mighty change of heart. I know that
the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it is given to us to
help us repent. I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that
Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's living prophet today. I know that as we
live the gospel, we can be a family forever. I know that all of these
things have come to pass and are possible because of Jesus Christ,
whom I love dearly.
 In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Again, I love you.
Elder Bush

May 8, 2017

Dear friends and family,

This week has been great. My apologies for not emailing last week. We
learned that Elder Tippetts and I are going to be together for another
transfer (we're going to get totally massive... maybe)

We have been able to teach some cool people recently, and we are
hopefully goi to be having a baptism in a couple of weeks for a young
girl named Lilly! She understands the gospel really well and is
excited to be baptized.

We are continually searching for the people who are being prepared to
receive the gospel here in Longmont, CO, and we are seeing some
blessings. The greatest blessing we are seeing is the relationship we
are establishing with the members here. They are trusting us more and
more and they are getting excited about doing missionary work! It is
very cool to see.

I'm trying to think of any crazy experiences we have had this week...
other than quite a few nutty people, our week has been average.
For example, we got a text from one of our potential investigators the
other night that said this: "OH MY GOODNESS! I BLOW IT! LOCHLYN NEEFED
OUT!"

Elder Tippetts and I spent a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what
"neefed" means. Needless to say, we didn't figure it out. If any of
you have any ideas, we appreciate the help.

As far as a spiritual thought this week, there is a verse in 2 Nephi 5
that has always stood out to me. It says this: " And we lived after
the manner of happiness".
I love how Nephi describes their lives! Laman and Lemuel are sitting
over in their loincloths saying " Yea, we might have been happy" but
Nephi is serving God and living the gospel and therefore has a
positive attitude about the whole thing!

I know that the gospel is the manner of happiness. When we live the
gospel, we are happy. That is my simple testimony. I love Jesus
Christ!

Also, Satan is dumb. Don't listen to that guy.


I love you all so much!
Have a great week!

 Elder Bush

P.S.
Obviously I love you appropriately. I'm trying to be consecrated over here. 😇


We had a meeting with President McMurray this week! It was great!







To Mom:

I mentioned a little bit about the baptism preparations in my email to dad- Lilly is doing well, but Ashley is struggling a little bit. She hasn't been able to make it to church since the first time she came and she isn't getting support from her parents but she has prayed and she says she believes it is true. We just want to make sure that she isn't just saying yes because she think elder Tippetts is cute. 

We are continually searching for people who can be ready for baptism, and we are trying to work through the members but we are finding it to be difficult to get He ball rolling with that. Hopefully soon we find some more people. I feel like we are always thinking about who will be prepared next. 

Did I tell you that Elder Tippetts and I are drinking 6 raw eggs every morning in order to get huge? It's pretty gross, and honestly I have no idea how he convinced me to do it, but it's working. I can already tell a difference after 4 weeks. I'm still eating healthier so that's good too. I'm definitely dropping some of the fat I gained at the beginning of my mission. 

This week I have learned some cool things. Mostly as I have continued to learn about the doctrine of Christ I have been continually amazed by the simplicity and the profound nature of the doctrine of Christ. 

This week I learned about the reason we are baptized. We are baptized with the view of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Baptism completes our repentance process so we can then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost to purify our hearts. When we are baptized unto repentance we can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost because we will be continually striving to purify our hearts and actions before God. This is why the sacrament is so important, and this is why we can't just be baptized or partake of the sacrament without preparing. This is also why Joseph Smith said that baptism without receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost is but half a baptism and that you had just as well baptize a bag of sand instead of a man without receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. It's pretty amazing. I'm still learning more and more, but this insight made me really grateful for the sacrament and how we can't just be Sunday Mormons. If you only live the gospel on Sunday then you are entirely missing the point. I love the gospel so much. 

Well I wouldn't say that you should try to be like me as far as setting goals haha but this week I also learned that goal setting and planning actually should be you seeking personal revelation. I think we set a bunch of goals for ourselves and then get frustrated when we don't reach them. We wonder why God wouldn't help us reach our goals! I think the answer to that may be because those goals are our goals, not His goals. We should always be seeking for His goals for us. So recently my planning has changed from looking for activities to fill time to seeking to know what the Lord wants me to do in that day. It makes a big difference because we ca then ask the Lord for help knowing that the goals we have set for ourselves are His goals for us too. 

So I would say read PMG chapter 8 and go from there. That's the chapter where it talks about goals and plans and how to achieve them. The principle of daily accountability is super key too. 

I think we will probably call right after we get out of church, around 4 PM. I hope to be able to talk to everyone and oh my goodness I just miss you guys so much. I listened to the songs that you guys recorded yesterday and I just can't wait to sing with you all again. 

I love you!

Elder Bush

May 1, 2017

I type this email from the car as Elder Tippetts and I are driving around all day again. :/ 

The shopping trip with sister roylance was fun, she confessed that she didn't really think I needed a style makeover, she just enjoys shopping for other people (especially missionaries for some reason lol) it was fun. 

We have had some cool miracles with members, and helping them to be better missionaries. Not everyone is open to it, but most of them are, which is cool. We have had a few of them schedule appointments for us this week. They are actually working to help us find people to teach, which is really neat. The ward is getting excited about missionary work.

This week we also taught another girl in the Ute creek Ward! She is 11 or 12 but she wants to be baptized too! We set her with a date for may 20th as well. Exciting stuff! I am really learning about how my purpose is to help prepare people for baptism. My success isn't measured by the number of baptisms, but my purpose is all about baptism. And it's not for the numbers! Repentance can't be complete without a covenant to follow Jesus Christ, which is baptism. The mercy available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ can only be given when we repent, so the blessings available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ (peace, happiness, forgiveness, salvation, exaltation) are not available unless someone is baptized. Amazing. 

I'll also share real quick one of my insights about grace. We really are saved by grace. And sometimes in the church we think that the phrase "after all we can do" means "because of all we can do" but it totally doesn't. 

The story of Nephi building the boat totally helped me understand, and I would encourage you to read it again after I share this insight, because I don't have time to paste all the key verses here. 

But think of this. 

Who built the boat? Nephi did. But there is no way he could've built it without the direction of the Lord. This is how the church was established, through revelation to the children of God. The church can be compared to "the old ship Zion". It is the vehicle by which we can reach the promised land. 

But. By whose power did the ship reach the promised land? Not Nephi. Certainly not Laman or Lemuel. Not even Lehi! The power that brought them to the promised land was entirely the power of God. He directed them and put the wind in their sails. But does that mean that Nephi didn't have to do anything to reach the promised land (or Salvation)? No. 

Nephi steered the boat. He had to make sure his choices directed him to the promised land. It wasn't his power that got them there, but he did direct them. If he didn't follow the liahona, he lost the power of God helping them get to the promised land. So he has to repent and get back on track so that grace can apply in his life. 

It is the same way with grace. The grace of Jesus Christ is our power. We must make sure we are keeping the commandments of God to access it. We aren't perfect, but as we keep repenting and trying to stay on track, we will be able to make it the promised land. 

That's it for today! I love that insight. 

Love you so much mom. I loved your insight that you  shared as well, and thanks for the POS diagrams, I loved the Calvin and Hobbes ones hahaha

Love you so much! 

Elder Bush

April 24, 2017

This week has been great, and I have approximately 7 minutes to type
this up. I apologize to everyone that I was unable to respond to.
Thanks for your prayers and support!

This week we have been trying to work more with the members here. I
have realized that tracting makes me feel like a missionary, but
working with the members here will help everybody so much more! We
have seen some cool miracles from this!

But first, I want to explain the title. We were having lunch with our
WML and his family and he began to interrogate 6 of his kids over
lunch. Someone had stolen his snack from the pantry and they weren't
admitting to it, so he finally broke down and taught them some
powerful doctrine:

"2 Nephi 9:34 says the liar shall be thrust down to hell. So fess up or burn!"
His children immediately fessed up because no one wants to burn.

Elder Tippetts and I thought this was super hilarious.
Not a real good spiritual thought, but be honest people. Also, use PMG
to do missionary work! It will work miracles.


Appropriate love,
Elder Bush

(To mom)

This week has been good. We have spent a lot of time trying to work with members, which has been good. 

The biggest news of the week is the fact that Ashley is on date for baptism now! She is on date for May 20th! We are excited for her. We also have quite a few people who are also close to baptism, namely Danielle, and Dilaila. The members have been doing a lot more missionary work, which is super awesome! 

This week we had a cool miracle as far as church attendance. But first I have to backtrack a little bit. 

I've told you about the Roylance family, right? If not, here is a little backstory. 

Bro. Roylance is our Ward mission leader. Their family has 7 kids and reminds me a lot of our family. Bro. Roylance is also a doctor, and funnily enough, they got married on the same day as you and dad! Their oldest son is about 6 months younger than me, and he left on a mission about 2 months ago. So there are a lot of similarities, so we enjoy going to their house for dinner and even just stopping by to say hi when we are in the neighborhood. 

Anyways, sister roylance was going on a late night Walmart trip because she doesn't like taking all the kids with her, and her husband doesn't get back from work until about 9 PM every night. (!) I am so glad that dads work hours aren't that crazy. Anyways, she was on a late night walmart trip and ran into this really nice guy who saw her two carts full of groceries (sound familiar?) and talked to her. Eventually she ended up inviting him to come to church and she gave him the address. Then, on Sunday, he totally showed up! He just walked in about 30 minutes late, but he caught some of the talks and then stayed for the full 3 hour block! It was super cool! He now has a Book of Mormon and hopefully we will be meeting with him this week. I will keep you updated. His name is Andy. Super cool. 

Miracles totally happen when we invite others to come unto Christ. 

Elder Tippetts and I have been doing well. We are really trying to dive into PMG. Preach My Gospel is so amazing! I thought it was cool that you talked a lot about being all in to the gospel because that is what I'm really trying to do. I need to be all in to the gospel, and if I can't do it the way I'm walking now, then maybe I need to run, and just go all in. 

As a result, my time management skills are getting better. On Sunday we didn't waste a second, we were always rushing from meeting to meeting, which was cool. Then we spent all of our time trying to contact families that the Ward council gave us. 

Also, another thing I've learned this week is that missionary work, raising a family, family history work, and church service are all the same work. It is all about bringing others closer to Christ and helping them return to our Heavenly Father. 

Also, Sister Roylance is fixing me meaning she is trying to help me be fashionable. So yeah. I'll let you know how it goes hahaha 

I love you mom. Thank you for everything, and I will let you know if I need stuff :)

Love, Elder Bush