December 27, 2021

 Today's shoutout will be to my dad who made me feel like a good little boy. He said I wasn't the worst missionary ever. He said maybe I was gud. 

Plus guys thanks for reading and all and thanks for the Christmas presents. I appreciate it.

But. 

Guys we have a culprit among us

Anyways so someone has been editing and proof reading and making things sound a lot less wierder than they're supposed to. And I'm not going to name any names but it's Dresden Bush and that's my mom. She has been making them a lot more missionary and churchy. Well that's good and all but we can't know if any of what I'm saying is true or not. Maybe my mom will write my whole email and discard what I have painstakingly written. 

SO

TEST 

IF my mom has been editing this thing 

like last nights news paper she's going to give us a sign. If right at the end of my email there's a little heart after "love elder bush" than she is messing with us,  because I'm not going to put that in my email. And the situation will escalate from there. So we will see what happens I suppose. 

A couple updates from my full time missionary service: 

I have to give a talk today and I’m going to blow the spirit up in that chapel. So if you want a copy of my talk then let me know and I will give it to everyone I like. 

A couple other things, I broke my calc watch today because I was dunking a baksketball and I slammerooni-ed that sucker so hard down into the rim that my arm broke and it hit my watch and I was sad because I thought it was broken, upon further inspection, my watch was totally okay so I jumped for joy and I jumped so high for joy that the momentum was too much for my watch and it fell off my wrist and hit the concrete and i landed on my watch on the way back down and I broke it so yeah that's a fat rip. Now I have to go all the way over to dollar tree to get a sponge to wipe my tears away cause I have no watch. 

Also Bryan is getting baptized tomorrow

But also I saw this man walking down the street and he was black and he was so nice and he was picking up trash downtown and he had a nametag on and it was my companion elder yeardly, and I was with him and I was picking up trash too and it was Christmas eve. And people were very jolly it seemed. 

Yes things are going OK, I'm trying to get used to being comfortable with being uncomfortable. Always changing, always finding a way to "improvise, adapt, overcome" Pretty sure Gordon b. Hinckley said that. He's a good man. I wonder if he's doing a lot of teaching and propheting in heaven. I bet so. 

Guys thank you so much for all you do. You all inspire me. 

Ok watch closely cuz here it comes, 

LOVE elder Bush 

Pctrs

1 dog

2 dog

3 dog

4 dawg 

5 Santa came to zone conference and accidently gave me a present for a sister so I got some gloves and a girly scarf and some pink razors. Unbeknownst to me in this picture 

6 chocolate milk 

7 last p day we played pool 

8 elder yeardly 

December 20, 2021

 

Subject: The moon is a noob 

December 13, 2021

This is pretty embarrassing but I don't know how to tie my shoes that one way where you hold the one loop and then wrap it around and under. I just never took the time to learn it. Whenever someone watches me tie my shoe I feel judged. Just let a man tie his shoes in peace. Please. I wish I could wrap my arms around all of yall. That way I could put you in a warm embrace and then whisper in your ear: "I threw up in your pillowcase" it's the little things ✨ On another note, this is my last day of training which is grand but also sand. I'm driving all the way up to Raleigh tomorrow, (pronounced too-maw-roe) To get a random boy, and drive him allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllthewaydown here to Smithfield where I will teach him the tricks and the trades of the land. Also I make it sound like Raleigh and Smithfield are super far apart but it's like a 30 minute drive. So this guy that I'm kidnapping better be cool or else this next transfer is going to be 🚮 [man throwing away something in the waste basket] Can you guys send be a buttload of letters so that I can hab them. I might like that I think. If you send me a letter I might even think about sending one back. Luckily elder Low has been really good for me because he makes me do everything by myself even getting dressed and making my bed and stuff. He said it's what "normal people do" but he's just being dramatic. This week I have done a very much amount of thing. I COULD be a sausage and tell you every single thing that I did this week but it sufficeth me to say that we did make haste to do the work of the Lord. Friends I want to let every soul who reads this to know that I really like my mission. So far it has been very fulfilling. Rattling even. The book of mormon is a true book. I say a lot of dumb stuff but that's one thing I will never deny. The divinity, of the book of Mormon. No evil man could write such a book, And no good man would write it, for the purpose of deceit. -close quote I don't know whose going to sit down and read this far into this clownish email, but whoever does, needs to hear what I have to say next: God loves you no matter what, no strings attached, no fine print, no action needed; He loves you no matter how bad or terrible you are, but He loves you too much... To keep you that way. Do. Not. Get. Comfortable. Get up, and suit up. These are the days where every soldier in God's army is needed. If you are not for Him you are against Him. Don't sit around and get moldy. Go help someone. Ok, sury about that, just had an eruption of zeal and emotion towards God's word. A special thanks to all those who love and support me Peace 1&2 golfy boy 3 making calls 4 a cool thing 5 Bryan 6 7 Tom 8 elder Gong and the mission. Oh yeah elder Gong came to the mission 9 blanket

December 6, 2021

umop ap!sdn 

I worked too hard on this subject line for you to not turn your phone around to see it. 

Anyways as promised this is an email giving you a rundown of some of my favorite people. 

I'm going to try to paint a picture of all my people because they are who I'm here for and want you to know about them. 

Sorry if this is a lame and wordy email but if you've made it this far grow up and read the rest because I promise you'll start loving the people just as I do. 

Okey so before I talk about anyone were teaching I just want to mention Anna and Janice,  who we baptized and they're both still super active and amazing. 

● Janice was first but I don't exactly give myself a ton of credit for her baptism, I did teach her but not as much as the elders before me. She's kind of a freebie. She has two dogs named Liam and Goldie and her husband's name is Jeff. She was just diagnosed with and autoimmune disease that has something to do with her thyroid but she's still super energetic and loving. She's always down to make someone a casserole or talk with the relief society for 6 hours. 

● Anna is the first person that I taught all the lessons too and she is married to one of the guys in our ward. It's weird because she's like 20 and that's only 1 year older than me. She was the first person I recited Joseph smith's vision to and it was absolutely phenomenal. We love Anna so much and she has a bunch of pets one of then is a cat that will scream at you to pet it. One time her husband Craigan threw a sandal at it when it was on the couch. It was incredible 

☆☆☆☆☆ now we have all the people I'm teaching and hopefully can change their life!!☆☆☆☆☆☆

● Bryan. This man is also 19 and like me he's a short king. I mean I'm short, like 5'10" ish but this dood is like 5'5" so he's definitely  really good at basketball. So the way we met Bryan was he came in with his gf Aimee to church and she was like " yeah this is Bryan, he's looking to get baptized" Elder Low and I looked at each other and them we did a little dance in our heads. Then we went home and did a little dance in real life. Bryan is super amazing and he loves learning. We've given him all the lessons and he especially liked the plan of salvation. That one we drew it out on the chalkboard and then had him teach us. Twas pretty legendary if I do say so myself. 

So Bryan's baptismal date is suppose do be this Saturday but there's this ward Christmas brunch, which was scheduled WAY after but apparently takes priority. No matter. The important thing is that it's happening. 

Cool fact about bryan: one time he drove a car straight through his house and into his living room. His parents were not thrilled. 

● joe!!!!! I can't forget to mention the king himself. Joe is someone that the sisters found phone tracting and he said call him every night. Joe lives in a trailer home with no drivers license but that doesn't stop him from coming to church. We've taught him pretty much everything and we're working on him quitting smoking. Guess what fools I promised this man that if he came to church he would be able to quit smoking and then the next day he said he would come to church and when he went to smoke a cigarette he started coughing and he got a headache! That happened every time he went to smoke. Then he came to church and wore a dope red shirt. He really loves the sisters because they're always so nice to him. Yesterday I gave him a blessing and it was great. He reads out of the book of mormon stories kids book because he can't see the fine print in the bom. *oof*. He calls us every night or we go over every night to read with him and he's coming along really well. He says he want to be a missionary like us someday. Hehe. Cool story about Joe is that he has a cat named catface and he has a bunch of bugs and roaches that come into his apartment and before we come over he cleans up and gets rid of all his "little friends". Sometimes he takes off his slipper during a lesson and goes and hits a bug. And then he's like....continue. and then we all laugh. It's a grand old time. We're hoping to put Joe on date to be baptized very soon! He's a kingggggg

●Johnny is a great man. He lives pretty much out in the middle of nowhere with a buttload of cats. He has some sever back and leg problems which he uses as an excuse to not come to church. This is kind of a fun thing but me and Elder Low went over there this week and pretty much called him to repentance because he's being a little bum. He always complains about his pain and obviously it must be really hard but bro you got this. Anyways we pretty much said we want you to Chang, and the Lord loves you too much for you to stay this way. So you HAVE  to come to church. We also had this man on date to be dunked but we took him off because he doesn't come to church. Sad sad. Cool stuff about Johnny is that he kind of lives in a pretty old shed more or less. Like the kind of thing you would see Shrek living in. The cool part about him is that he cleans it quite a bit so it's always nice and tidy. Weird but okay. Please pray for him!!

● Tom. 

TomTomTomTom. Tomtom Tom.

I pray for this man every night. To put it short he has a tooon of questions and for every answer you have, he has two more questions to ask you about your answer. 

He's absolutely a blast to teach which is not exactly what I expected but it's great. He does really well feeling the spirit but he always doubts himself. Missionaries have been teaching this man for like 5 years. I want to be the one to baptize him but I know I have to be patient. We're making slow progress with him but he really had a hard time with the whole "why do bad things happen to good people" A LOT. Which makes sense he's a really really cool guy but he just needs to take a leap of faith and realize he can't understand everything. Pray for Tom too. Fun stuff about Tom is that he has an absolutely HUGE comic book collection and action figures and all that in his basement. He's a big nerd but he's our nerd. 

● stuart is a 66 year old man that were definitely gonna put in the water.(He's the guy with the sword) He's a Baptist minister that has a huge testimony of the book of mormon and he's a super great cook and he feeds us pretty  much once a week. We're really good friends with him. He's come to church twice and believes everything about 90% so we just need to talk to him a little more. When I mean he's really our friend and I love him I mean it. Haha him and Joe are THE best. 

● roxanna is an old black lady we're teaching that comes to church every week she has a cat named midnight and she lives by herself. She gets a call from her niece every day and talks to her for like 3 hours every time. Roxanna is soooo sweet and loves talking to us. She always talks about the same stuff whenever we try to teach her a lesson. She's not exactly the best listener but she's definitely working on it bless her heart. Fun fact about roxanna is that she keeps it like 85° in her house so that's a grand old time too. 

Ok so that's a small part of the people we're teaching we have tons more for example:

Joseph

Caleb

Troy

Avery

Karla

Annie

Annie

Elizabeth

Kelly 

Saquaundra

Zion 

Tiera

Anitra

Harry

Pearl 

James 

Allen

Adriana.....

And much much more! The people that I've named is probably about 25% of the people we're talking too. It's so amazing to see the Lord work in people's lives. If you guys could pray for these people it would be sahweeet. 

Also sorry it's been a longy long email so maybe it will take a while to send but hopefully you'll all get it. 

Love you all exceptnoah

Elder bush