The Last Melon

Well this is it friends. This is my last week here as a missionary in Liberia. It has been a great run with a lot of laughs, trials, triumphs, challenges, lows, highs, frustrations, successes, and most of all, fulfillment. I think that is what I feel most as I reflect back on my mission. I haven't been the greatest, most obedient, smartest, most well spoken or intelligent missionary, but I have felt fulfillment in my missionary work. I have felt that it has changed me and also it has changed others and I am so grateful for that. I don't mean to excuse myself of my imperfections or to say that I wasn't obedient, but I know and acknowledge that I was not perfect. Despite my imperfections and shortcomings however, I have felt the Lord's hand in my work,  and in my life, because I am continually striving to improve. The Lord constantly helped me to make myself better and was always willing to forgive me for whatever mistakes I had made. That is why I feel that I was successful. I believe it is when we fall short and determine to remain buried in our shortcomings that we fail. I know that what I have done here is what I was asked to do, and who I was asked to become. I hope to continue to carry on these things as I now prepare to go home. 

I am grateful for the service that I was able to provide. I don't know if I can really say that I loved my mission the entire time like other missionaries say because it was really hard and there were many times that I hated it. However, I am so grateful for all the things that I have learned and how I have been able to grow from my experiences. There will never be anything I do in my life that will be as good and true as what I have done for the past 2 years. This is the Lord's work. 

I know that the church is true. I know that the gospel is true and that the plan of salvation is the Lord's plan for us. My testimony has grown each and every day and I invite you to strengthen your own or gain your own if need be. I know the Savior lives. 

Much love!!

Elder Bush

See you soon!!

Countdown Continues

I golfed in Africa today. What did you do today? I bet you didn't golf in Africa. Take that one my people.

Everything is pretty alright here. I'm fighting each day to stay focused and work hard until my time is over. Things have been getting pretty difficult lately but I'm grateful for the work that I am doing. I just hope I'm doing enough.

We had a difficult time meeting with people this week to teach them. We're trying to figure out how we should spend our time in the area because it is very big and sometimes it is difficult to cover the parts that we want to and see the people at the times they are available. But it is nothing too challenging. Just trying to manage our time well that's all!

Not much else is really going on. We should be having a baptism soon... Bishop gave us a ton of food on Sunday I almost died. Not really but it was a lot. Great guy.

Love you all, can't wait to see you soon.



Elder Bush

Stay Strong

Hello my people,

This week was great. Not small tired. I can be tired though, but we fighting it each day. My new companion Elder Cook is really cool and we're getting along very well. The only thing was that this week we were very busy! We kept getting back to our apartment super late and I just wanted to get to bed early but I never could. I think we were really blessed in the area however.

On Wednesday we had MLC (Missionary Leadership Council). By God's grace my name got on the whiteboard. The whiteboard is where they write the names of all the missionaries that are going home... Well, I am going home and my name was on the board. You don't know how long I have been waiting for my name to be on that board. Sweet hallelujah. MLC was cool, I only have one left though! We just talked about how we can improve the mission and stuff. A lot of missionaries are really tired because they are going home. Just trying to find a way to encourage them and help them to keep going! I can't stop now I've been doing this for like 34 years now so I need to finish strong.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Elder Cook and I teach really well together. We have nice unity and he is a really good teacher. We had an amazing lesson with a man named Emmanuel and his wife Patience. They were a referral from Brother Tweh in our ward who we haven't been able to meet for a long time because the man has been kind of busy. They have been having some issues with their church and haven't been going recently and the man is having some free time now. It was the perfect opportunity! So we went to his house and brought Brother Tweh's wife to teach them. Brother Tweh and his wife are both returned missionaries so that is nice. We taught Brother Emmanuel and his wife about How Christ's church was built, fell and was restored on the earth today. It went so well and we told them we would come back and teach them this week. I love when members give us referrals and even more when they give us good referrals! They're legally married so that is a bonus.;)

Today we went to a breakfast buffet and played basketball again. So much fun. Probably my last time playing basketball in Liberia. Thank heavens... The courts here are so bad I fall every time because the ground is slick. 

I love you all and can't wait to see you soon!!

Elder Bush

Views From the 6

Well, I still haven't listened to Drake's album Views from the 6 (yes that's how long I've been gone), but I do have 6 weeks left and that's the point of view I'm looking from now. Starting to feel a little bit weird, but I'm really excited for this last transfer!

Transfer news came and mine is pretty sweet, I can't complain! I am going to stay in Banjor and end my mission as an eternal zone leader. That part is kind of a bummer, but I'm not too upset with it. I kind of thought this might happen from the time I was called, so oh well. I get a cool companion though! Elder Cook is my new companion and he is from Washington. We just barely got together today so I honestly don't know too much else about him. He's going to be my last companion though so that is exciting. I think he's a cool guy. He goes home in August so he doesn't have too much time left. 

This week was great! We had a lot of people come to church on Sunday. Everyone wants to start the New Year right by coming to church so tons of people came. It was really great. I hope that we will be able to work hard this week to keep up the retention! 

Not too much else though, I'm a little short on time. But I love you all and I can't wait to see you soon. I think this last 6 weeks is going to fly by. The area is doing alright, my companion is good and the apartment is great! Couldn't ask for more! 

Love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Bush

Merry Liberian Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. My companion and I got fed a lot! There was a lot of rice and chicken and potato salad and soft drink. I could hardly walk by the end of the day. I also got to talk with my family which made me so happy! Next year hopefully we will have a Christmas with everyone at home! I was really happy and I'm excited to be going back pretty soon... I'll be coming back in February. Still not sure on the date! I'll let you know. I'm excited, but I still love serving here and being around the people. But my time is definitely coming!!

We had our Christmas party yesterday and it was really nice. We played some games, had some Christmas songs and presentations and whatnot. We ate a lot of food there as well! I don't need to eat for a few days now. The mission gave us these really cool gifts as well! A mission key chain and pen and little flash light thing (could be useful for when the power goes out). They did a really good job I think everyone had a lot of fun. 

That's my short letter for this week! Yesterday they also had the runoff election so we should finally find out who the president of the country will be soon! Just so happy for this thing to be over. I'm tired of hearing about all this political stuff going on. 

Much love,

Elder Bush

Party!

Hey everyone how's the body? My body is doing alrigh o. 

So this week was pretty good. I always feel like there is so much stuff going on and then when it comes time to email nothing really happened. We had some fun this week though. We had two different parties that we attended. The first was on Saturday where the stake put on a whole Christmas devotional thing that was fun. Probably not as spiritual as the one at home might be, but definitely a cool experience. They did a lot of cultural dances and stuff as well which I loved! Took some pics and videos. 

Our landlady who we rent the apartment from had her graduation party Sunday after church. She just got her master's in something I don't remember. But they had their party in our compound (they also live there) and it was no small thing. The woman talked for probably over an hour about all her life's accomplishments and whatnot. It was her day though so no problem. They had tons of food and drinks and everyone in the community came to be a part of it. They did a really nice job and spent a ton of money. This is one of the nicer apartments that I've been in. 

Well, aside from that I don't recall too much stuff happening. Love you all!

Elder Bush

Me and the grad party

Grad party

Me and my companion

The capitol building (our apartment)

Walking about in my area

Exchange with Elder Stitcher

Small Kona! 

Small Kona again

Human baby stroller Amaka

Felix house! (we eat there every Thursday)

Me and my companion :) Elder Udo

The first three are myself and Elder Edemenang

This was my last district before 3 elders got transferred

Myself and Elder Jensen

Men in the Apartment

Men in the Kitchen

The bush near our apartment

Elder Beinbein!

Basketball near mission office

Royal Grand with my companion!

Monrovia!!

Oh, Hey Neighbor

Hey fam!

Just wanted to let you know that I love all of you very much. THe time continues to run down and I'm just amazed each day that I've been on my mission for this long. Can't say it has gone super fast, but it is still moving. Next week will mark 2 months till I go back, but who's counting?

This week was alright, a little stressful like it always seems to be, but not a bad thing. Helps me to focus on the work. I was blessed this week again to be able to meet with another Area Seventy personally. Elder Vinson came to Liberia to create the Paynesville and Caldwell stakes and I got to be in our MLC meeting with him. It was really cool. He read the dedicatory prayer of Liberia with us and it was incredible. The church is true o!  It was quite a spiritual experience. At the end he said well we have gone long and I haven't eaten all day so I think we should end here. I got to talk to him afterwards a little bit too and he is just a really normal person. He told me of a time when Elder Stevenson came to this mission last year. He was sick so Elder Vinson gave him a blessing. He said he was nervous blessing an apostle because he had never done that before. I think I would be nervous too.

So after the meeting we went to the assistants apartment to sleep because it was too late to go back to our apartments (Elder Vinson could only meet with us in the afternoon, we usually have MLC in the morning). So while we were there we were all just talking and Elder Weber started asking me some questions about BYU. He went there around the same time that I was going there. So he asked me where I lived in the fall and I told him I lived in Heritage Halls. Him: Which building? Me: 15. Him: Hm, I think I was in building 15... Which floor? Me: Third floor. Him: Woah! (moves backward a little bit) I was on the third floor! Turns out that not only were we in the same ward, but we were basically neighbors, were on the same side of the building and everything. We never even knew each other! He knew all of my roommates because the following semester one of my roommates became his home teaching companion. Never knew me though. It's funny too because we both kind of had the same philosophy in the ward. Show up, don't say anything, avoid giving talks or lessons, eat the food at activities and leave. Probably why we didn't know each other. Could have been really good friends though sadly. Just wanted to share that with you.

The rest of the week was fine. Trying my best to keep moving forward with strength. The area is not very easy but it will continue to progress. This woman named Kona that we are teaching is still giving us a hard time on Sunday. We went there to teach her from the Book of Mormon. In my opinion her problem is that she is not willing to be baptized again because she was baptized in her church. So even though she is praying, she is not praying with real intent because she doesn't intend to act upon that answer and accept the invitation to be baptized. Moroni tells us that a prayer without that real intent profit a man nothing and God answers none such. Just trying to encourage her to read and pray, but I don't believe she can reach that answer until she is willing to act upon it.

Aside from that everything is good. My stomach is doing alright... We still here.

Love you all!

Elder Bush