Out of the Teens

What's up everyone? yes I am no longer in my teenage youth and am now a big adult with lots of responsibilities and wisdom. I don't feel old, I feel the same. In fact, I still feel really young like I'm 17 or 18. 

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! it means a lot to me that you all sent your love from so far away. I bless Gah for ya'll-o.

This week was cool. I didn't do much for my birthday because I don't make too much of a deal out of it. We just went out and proselyted like any other Saturday. Today we did go in town to a nice little restaurant though to get some food which was pretty sweet. But I got a wonderful package from my beautiful mother that made me very much happy. Amazingly enough, she sent it on Tuesday and I got a call from the office saying that they had it on Friday! Only 3 days is insane. 

The really good news from this week though was from Sunday. We had 27 of the people that we are teaching come to church. Even 4 came late that we didn't technically consider to count because they were so late but still. Chi, Liberia is sweet! We're hoping for several baptisms in the next month or two. 

We had one baptism on my birthday which was sweet. Sister Janet is 9 years old and both of her parents are members. The reason she wasn't baptized when she was 8 was because apparently she was living with her grandma or something. She had a really hard time going in the water though because she was deathly afraid of going backwards. It was really sad but also kind of funny and she finally went and I was happy. Yeah. 

Short letter this week so I can try to respond to you all. Love you guys Liberia is cool sometimes.

Elder Bush

Photos

 The more exciting way to cut your lawn...

 This is a keke. Six Elders are crammed in this one.

What A Ride

Oh what a life here in Liberia. Things have gone up and down and all around this week it really was quite a roller coaster. 

I'm still doing well and everything is great in the life of this missionary so here is a little about my week. 

My companion and I had a little rough spot at the beginning of this week that we eventually figured out and everything is cool now. Kind of makes me want to never get married because I like my independence and doing what I want to do... But I guess maybe one day I will do that who knows. We had another service project where we use machetes and other stuff to cut down weeds and grass. Yes, we just use machetes! it's super tight and I'll probably bring some home. It was fun and ants here really suck.

I was feeling a little discouraged because I was thinking that this transfer (6 weeks) we will probably only have one baptism but then something happened... WE FINALLY FOUND A LEGALLY MARRIED COUPLE. I don't think you understand how difficult it is to find someone who is married legally here. I'm so excited to teach this family and hopefully see them progress. Bro Emmanuel and Martha are very kind and they have two children. One is 8 and the other is 6 and they are very willing to listen to us. They told us that next week they will visit us at the church and I really hope that is true it would make me so happy. Another blessing that came was another woman and her 3 children that came to church on Sunday and are ready for the gospel. She's not married, but she isn't living with a man. We taught all of them and are hoping they will be ready by November 19th. Even the ma of these small children that we were teaching came to church again and we weren't even able to see her this week because she wasn't home. Yesterday we had 21 investigators come to church and I couldn't be happier. I can really feel the blessings coming in and we're very hopeful for some upcoming baptisms. I love this work that we are doing so much. I look forward to helping others know the truth each and every day. 

After church we went and saw a less active woman who has been coming back to church and she had a bunch of food for us. Very nice plantains and chicken and all kind of stuff to make me fat but it was very sweet. 

The only other bad news was when my companion almost killed a keke driver because he wanted to charge us more than what the drive cost us... I held him back and he's doing okay now. We all learn from our mistakes so it's all good. Hopefully it won't happen again, I'm just glad I was there because that dude would be in the hospital right now if I wasn't. He said he was sorry and drove away nervously hahaha. 

No running water right now but hopefully that gets fixed soon. I'm happy right now and my stomach hurts a little bit but no wahala. I love you all. Keep me in touch and updated. 

Elder Bush

Wha Good Wit Da Fam

What's up my people. Aye I speakin the real coloqua now-o. I tellin you if I talk to you now now you would get me at alll. Just wait for two years to come I will speak it good good!

It's so weird to be on mission and actually love to study. This week I was going through Mosiah and read about Abinadi again. That man absolutely destroyed everyone that he spoke to. He spoke with power and authority and confounded people in their words. As I study I feel like I want to do the same. I feel that the more that I know, the more I can call upon the spirit to help me to bring people to a better understanding and testimony of the scriptures, including the Book of Mormon. I don't mean that I want to argue, but there is something really powerful about being able to defend yourself and your beliefs with both the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Sometimes I wonder if Pastors here actually read the Bible because they don't understand it.

We had a great week and we taught a lot of people. We began to visit some different people and had a bunch of people give us others to teach. We received one woman who when we met with her had like 9 other people (all women) sit down with us as well. They all listened and understood and said they would come to church. Unfortunately it rained so I'm sure that was their excuse. I love how Liberians are so ready and happy to share the gospel. They want their friends to know and tell people they should meet with the missionaries when they are saying false things about the church. It makes getting referrals and new investigators so much easier because usually we don't even have to ask.

One woman was near us as we were teaching a man named Emmanuel this week who said she was interested and would come to church. To our surprise, both her, her husband, and brother Emmanuel who had only come one time were all to the church on Sunday! Not yet sure if they're legally married but it was still wonderful to see. Also, the parents of these children that we have been seeing also came to church on Sunday! One of them had a concern because we don't "shake body" at our church, but hopefully we can work that out.

Oh Liberia is sweet. On Saturday I think, we were about to go out and all of the sudden HEAVY RAIN came. Chi, not small thing my man. It rained all day pretty much but the rain around 10 am was extreme. To be honest with you, I'm actually getting a little tired of the rain. I love it, but to have to walk in it and carry my umbrella everywhere is getting to be a pain. Plus, I get cold a lot even though it's like 80 degrees outside. I will die when I go home.

Everything here is very good. Our apartment is very nice and the people are great. No wahala from me :) Hope all is well at home and everyone appreciates the little things! I can never take constant power for granted again... Oh America.

Love you all!

Elder Bush

What's Up

Hello Everyone!

Sorry I feel like my letter last week was weird but hopefully the one for this week will be better.

So first off, we had conference this week and I met a white family here from Salt Lake that are all members and they, more specifically the father, are the coolest people in the world. He started an orphanage here and is living like a real Liberian honestly. They treat missionaries very well. These people have limited power, no running water and are constantly taking care of little children with no parents. They say they also share the gospel and have baptized some people. They are not in my area but I wish they were. We have gas stoves but until last week they were just using coal. But now they have one gas stove thing I guess. Crazy. I talked to them at the Conference. Their children also go to school here which I think is nuts. Apparently they just got a big donation which should help them. They're really cool people.

This week we finally got to meet with the parents of some of the children we were teaching and that was super cool. They seem somewhat interested and I'm really happy and ready to start teaching them. This Monday was also transfer day and nothing happened. My companion and I are still in the same area and are going to continue to work hard.

There is one woman in our branch who was recently baptized that we saw this week with some major issues. We saw her when it was getting dark so I couldn't see her face too well, but I could tell something was wrong. So I asked her what was wrong right away. She kind of looked to her friend sitting by her and said, "This boy smart!" I feel like I've developed a talent for knowing when something is wrong with a person. But anyways, she turned her face and said something like, "Ain't you seen the bruise the returned missionary gave me?" Her husband served a mission in Nigeria and is a police officer. Sadly, he now often gets drunk and then beats her. She's taken him to the police, but they are all his friends so they don't do anything about it. So yeah, Africa is sweet sometimes. Doesn't mean all returned missionaries are like that obviously, but it's just sad to hear about because that just sucks. We talked to Mission President so hopefully he can help to do something about it.

Today we went back to my old area to visit few people. It was good to see those few but I also need to stay focused on my area. Things are good here in this area and we are trying our best. I think our companionship is improving and everything is okay. The only problem is the snoring that my companion can do. I don't get too much sleep but maybe when I get home I can rest small. Sweet is the work, hot is the sun.

Love you all,

Elder Bush

These are some questions from my mom, and answers from me:

Your last couple of letters have not been very informative. Even though your day seems ordinary to you, we would love to hear how it goes. What do you eat for breakfast lunch and dinner? Who are you teaching? What are you studying and learning about? What do you have a testimony of? How do you get to the mission office? These are the things we wonder about because we want to know every little detail about your crazy life or your ordinary life in Liberia. Do you have running water and flushing toilets in your new area? No well? I wish I could just be a fly on the wall and see everything! How did you get to Conference and how many sessions did you see?


Okay so this area really is really making my last look a lot worse, at least the apartment. Like I can't complain about anything. We have current in the apartment every night from about 7 at night to 6 in the morning. There is always running water so we haven't had to draw from a well at all. There is a local supermarket that has expensive cereal that I buy and eat for breakfast. There is this like sterilized and very processed milk called Uht milk that I drink that isn't that bad. My companion often tells me that he is feeling hot and I tell him that I'm feeling cold, or at least not sweating super bad. Dry season is coming again soon and I'm actually kind of excited. We're teaching a lot of people who are not married but this week we got some great new investigators that we're excited about. A lot of times smaller children want to be taught, but if you teach them and ask for their parents then usually you can teach families which is cool. We get to the mission office by these small three wheeled vehicles called keke which are sweet and then also by being packed into a car which isn't that fun but not hard to find. Right now I'm studying the Old Testament and the Bible. Why am I studying the Old Testament you might ask? Well, come to Africa and you will see. Basically it is to have more knowledge of the Bible, have a good knowledge when I take the class at BYU and to confound more pastors in their extremely flawed view of the Bible and religion. But I'm learning a lot and I really enjoy studying now. I've read the New Testament and the Book of Mormon so that's what I'm doing now. We watched conference this week, just the Saturday afternoon session and it was really great. I listened really intently to the messages and loved every minute of it. We also got to watch the Priesthood session. Apparently some other chapels had a hard time viewing it, but I really enjoyed it.