May 16, 2022

 Hi friends this is Elder Bush here

I'm just emailing you to tell you that I finally hit my first lat spread this week. My personal goal is too look like an upside-down dorito with veins. If you don't know what a lat spread is then I'll tell you.

It's pretty much like a bodybuilding pose where you make yourself look as big as possible, it is the human equivalent of that weird lizard that has its frills out in like a mane thing. 

Anyways I'm not trying to be a bodybuilder but I just think it's fun. I think Chris bumstead said it best when he said, "yeah.... pretty good,  pretty good..yeah nice"

I would attach a picture of me flexing but I can't really capture my full body even with a wide angled lense, so you'll just have to imagine it. Or you can look up on Google, "cbum lat spread" and its about the same. 

Also sorry that my only personality trait is that I like lifting weights. 

But, I digress, 

Lots of things have happened in the eventful town of Roanoke rapids NC, we finally hit a population of triple digits when a family moved in, now there's like 108 of us. It was definitely the lewis' that pushed us over the edge. 

 

Also we have been working with that young lady named Megan, and she is really sweet but she needs to learn a lot more about the gospel. And it will just factory reset my brain and I will no words to say. She definitely had some interesting ideas. 

But hey she has been coming to church and she is on the road towards swan diving into the font like a professional investigator. 

We are doing a boatload of member work and less active work. Which is arguably more challenging then nonmember work. Cuz some of these boys are silly silly. 

Well not too much of else of note, 

I met a bunch more dogs and we got to 222222 on the odometer. So yeah pretty beasted

 

Yeah so bye I guess

E. Bush 

April 25, 2022

 

Subject: Don't bully me pls  Hey how are you guys doing? I apologize that I am not writing every week, but at least I gave you a warning. You know this reminds me of the time that I would read all the missionary emails that got sent to me, and I've got to be honest, its not always pancakes, sometimes it's waffles.  or as my piano teacher used to say " you suck at piano" K so pretty much elder farley and I have been doing a lot of member work and less active work. Sometimes I think missionaries can forget that were not just here to baptize, we're here to help people keep their baptismal covenants and come to church and be involved and become oil rig miners.  Ok maybe not that last part I just think maybe that would be a grand old time I reckon.  Alright so speaking of reckon I'm really already a full fledged southern man all of these things that I am about to say are 100% true and I am not lying:  I genuinely enjoy chicken gizzards and chicken hearts. (With a spackling of hot sauce of course)  And I also talk so southern I pounounce fancy restaurants like this: "McDonald's" And I pronounce car like "truck" And it takes me 8 full minutes to walk out the door after I say goodbye for the first time.  I feel like I'm really blending in here.  Yeah so what's great about the bible belt is that everyone here already knows everything about the bible  And what's bad about the bible belt is that everyone here already knows everything about the bible.  I guess my job isn't to judge its just to help them be happy so I'm glad I do what I can.  Elder farley and I have been doing so much service that we basically have touched every lawnmower in Roanoke Rapids.  We've mowed probably I would say in the ballpark of 5 to 6 BAJILLIOM FRICKING LAWNS HERE. and we've also cleaned out a shop for bert, chopped trees down next to a cemetery and moved all the couches ever to exist. If there's a couch out there I have moved it at least 18 inches.  Anyways I have also broken a buttload of things. My dad used to call me breakyMcbunklefunky and for good reason too. I really fidget with crap and usually end up taking it apart or throwing it really high to juggle it or like see how many times I can spin it or whatever. Yesh my brain at times is like a treadmill, rolling a million miles an hour and going absolutely nowhere.  Anyways yes we have lots to talk about and I will try to keep you all updated but I probably won't. A poem  Elder Bush has a candy  And then he eats it And it was SOO-O Good It's like a reverse haiku 7 then 5 then 7. Yeah I call it  "Elder Bush has a candy and then he eats it"  Owen  Ok here's a few pictures so you can look at them  1. pose 2 pose 3 pose 4 chicken gizzards  5 pose  6 not the most dangerous gas station in my area  7 dog 8 a burnout in South weldon  9 me and Judd  10 sign of Luke St.  11 pose 12 temple with Sean and e. Farley.

April 11, 2022

 

Subject: Week 1 million and 1     Well good news friends and family, I'm staying in Roanoke Rapids for another transfer!    Lately things have been very busy. Frankly speaking there have definitely been what feels like a lot more lows then highs out here in the field. I don't want to scare anyone who's planning on going on a mission, in fact I encourage it, but I'm having a rough spell here.     I also don't want to make anyone think that I'm dying or losing it, this is fairly normal especially for a missionary, but it doesn't make it any less painful.    For one I just feel grossly unqualified for the tasks ahead and I definitely feel like less and less of a good missionary every day. It's of course hard but I won't give up. I have also heard some things from family and friends from home that worry me very much and I miss people. I feel very lonely here. I know I have the support I need but I really don't have any friends haha. It's for sure a challenge to be out here right now. For this reason I'm going to be trying to limit my contact with home and friends.  Friends if you want to email me please do but I will only respond on Mondays. I think the harder I work the better I feel, so I'm going to try to be all in with what I do.    Also guys please don't worry too much about my emotional and mental state. I'm going to be fine I promise. I just wanted to throw a little bit of realism into your week here. I hope to be a better missionary because of it.  Here's a scripture that I opened up to when I looked for comfort when I was stressed:    Mormon 8:22 "For the eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on, until all his promises shall be fulfilled."  It's really just God saying to me, "The work is going on with or without you Elder Bush, so you might as well help." I very much like this scripture and I encourage you to maybe memorize it or something.     Also I know you guys are busy I don't feel lonely because you don't check on me it's because I'm so far away. I know you all have your own personal lives so I don't mind that yall don't call me every day and ask me what I ate for breakfast.  Well thanks for reading my sob story  Pictures next week, sorry kids  Love,       Owen

April 4, 2022

 

Subject: green kia seoul  It definitely seems like the weeks go by like days and the days go by like weeks. Let me tell you I had some long days friends.  Boys let me tell ya something that's cool (to o mo imasu) We have an automated car wash that scans our license plate when we go through and it's like a monthly payment thing that the mission does, so pretty much you can go through whenever you want and however many times you want. So we go through like once a day.  Here's the cool part, whenever you go through, they give you an airfreshener that you can hang from your rear view. It smells all citrusy and we have like just under a billion hanging up there. In fact, we have so many that the rearview is angled down and all elder farely can see is the cup holders in the mirror.  We also were able to watch/listen to general conference, which was a fantastic time. We also got a couple shoutouts from the celebrities of the church. Because they talked about missionary work.  SUPA.            HOT.  Another wild experience was when we cut the grass of this elderly person and there were mice on the porch. I almost caught one.  Anyways So the deal was,  I would:  A: sit on the porch with the elderly person...  and B: teach them some gopsel.  And elder farley would  A: mow the lawn,  B: be loud as he could while I try to teach the lesson In result because the subject I was spitting bars too was old, they had big trouble hearing what i had to say because of my wild companion cutting grass like a lunatic.  Just kidding it all went well. And because the spirit was able to squeeze in the last second of the lesson, she accepted a baptismal date. So now we have Dana and Della on date for this Saturday.  and then we have vicky on date for the 30th of this month. So milágros happen much timo here in Roanoke Rapids.  Maybe I'll be transfered, maybe not. Who knows. I have been in Roanoke Rapids for a long while. But I really want to stay with Elder farley. He is a man. K so let me know if you have any questions and stuff and I will get back to you  Ttynw, Bush Camera roll Not a lot of pictures, because I don't feel the need to document everything I see.  1 good looking man 2 ....Sister castle   3 conference at bro. Stromans in rocky Mount.  4 exchange with Elder yuen 5 i got a haircut, and great clips done me dirty

March 28, 2022

 

Subject: If someone could tell me Obama's last name that would be great  I just realized that I've been wearing the same tie every day for like 7 months straight.  I know it may sound like I'm a psychopath and it's because I am, and to prove it I'll bite right into a kit Kat without breaking you off a piece first. And I'll bite into both pieces at the same time.  Anyways ya I wash my tie maybe like twice a month, I just have to make sure it lasts the two years it's out here. I'm also having all my companions sign the back of it. So when I get home it will be a real relic.  Speaking of relics we went to go help bert out the other day. Elder Farley and I moved  his furniture because he just had his floors replaced. We put those little fur pads on the bottom of all his couches so it wouldn't scratch the floors. And then we proceeded to scratch the paint of his wall while moving them. And to add insult to injury I called him a relic. Dang sorry man. You're not a relic you're cool.  It reminds me of the time Elder Low and I were helping this brother in Smithfield move,  and I broke like 3 glass ornaments.  I could tell that guy really wanted to whoop me, but we skedaddled out of there before he could catch us.  Those were good times.  Here's another random activity that we did. Hopefully I haven't talked about this before but we went over to this older couples home that live in a lakehouse and one way or another their basement had flooded.  Seriously, people who have basements know what I'm talking about because basements just flood all the time, it's true they do. If you have a basement that hasn't flooded go downstairs right now and make sure your carpet is dry, and if it is go buy a powerball ticket. Because you're one lucky son of a gun. Ok back to the story their basement was flooded and of course it was carpet so bert being the old relic *ahem* I mean good elders quorum president that he is, he brought a shop vac to come suckety suck up all the water juice out of the rugs.  It wasn't really an ideal situation because the under carpet padding was also wet so we would have to wait for the water to soak back into the carpet from the padding. We also realized it would go faster if we walked on the carpet and soaked up all the water after we sucked it up. So the process went like so Suck suck suck then we would walk on the carpet to soak it up  squish squish squish  Then suck suck suck  Rinse and repeat you get the idea.  Anyways, it was a bumpin time.  Yeah so other than that the regoolar ol' missionary work is on the agenda.  I really think you're all cool Elder Bush 1 vacuuming the water   2 eating frosties   3 farley was on the rowing machine for a whole hour and made me take a picture  4 slep  5 farley looking like the protagonist from the karate kid 4

March 21, 2022

 This is officially the beginning of the end of my emails. 

When a missionary hits 6 months on the mission it is customary for him to stop caring about sending emails home.

What can I say things are just too exciting here to care about all your lame lives at home. 

For example just the other day I watched a guy put two things of chapstick up his nose. 

Life us riveting out here friends, there is so much to do here in the small town of Roanoke rapids. In fact there is SO much to do in this town that everybody gets so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of activities going on that they all decide to just go to Walmart or go fishing. 

Needles to say we spend a lot of time at Walmart throwing pamphlets at people. 

The Walmart people don't seem to like that. 

Here's another cool thing that happening to me and not you, 

We are teaching this lady and this man and they are both cooks. One of them used to work in the white house and cooked for Bill Clinton, and the other works at bojangles as a cook and can get us free steak biscuits whenever we want. Pretty obvious who the better cook is in that household. 

I'll give you a hint and not the answer  (it's the guy that works at bojangles)

Yeahs so they're both really cool and have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon which is a big boy step.

 

Speaking of big boy steps.....

I am now officially in the 1000lb club. This week I deadlifted 460 to bring my 940 to an even 1000 lbs. Cuz my bench is still a clean 205 and my squat is a repped out 335 so boom that adds up to 1000. Can't tell you how happy I am about that. I have been working for a long time to get that. 

I also texted a buttload of people that I did it right after I was done.

Yeah it's been a trip. Here's another little piece of information that you don't need to hear: I had to go to the hospital with Elder faussett. He had an ingrown toenail and I was on exchanges with him. It took us forever to finally get into the nurses office so we pretty much did no missionary work that day cuz we also had to drive back to Roanoke rapids to exchange back. 

Whenever I don't do the best job that I can I really feel like a worthless nut so pray for my work ethic that it won't suffer while I'm trying to stay productive. I've definitely had companions that are willing to get out of work and stuff so that's a struggle sometimes.  Don't worry were doing a lot of work I just feel like we never do enough. 

My current partner elder farley is a lot like me and wants to get stuff done so that's very good for me. 

Well sorry about not updating you guys last week but I'm sure you all suffered and care so much. 

I painted a bench too. It sits in my front room now. Pictures will follow. Not of the bench 

Love from the south, elder Bush 

1 farley in slides 

2 farley in car

3 the only canes in a 50 mile radius 

4 bert 

5 dokter 

6 I've always loved fishing 

7 fishing with the district ( i loved it) 

8 a pretty field